An Exploratory Study of Emergent Storybook Reading:
A Rosenblattian Perspective

Abstract

The act of reading, for conventional readers, has been described as a transaction between reader and text. However, for emergent readers (children who cannot yet read conventionally), their transactions require mediation by a narrator. Little research has been undertaken to explore the nature of the young reader's emergent transactions with text, particularly from the perspective of Rosenblatt's (1978) reader response perspective. The objective of this research project was to investigate the nature of these lived through experiences during emergent storybook reading events - events where a narrator reads to a group of emergent readers.

A day care centre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada was selected as the context for this research study. Seventeen participants were involved in this study; two teachers and fifteen children. The child participants' ages ranged from three years and eleven months up to four years and eleven months.

This research utilized research techniques borrowed from ethnography for collecting and analysing data. In the initial phase of the research, the participants were observed during their daily classroom routines. From these observations, a comprehensive description of the context within which emergent storybook reading took place was created. Then, the focus of the investigation was narrowed. Twenty-five emergent storybook reading events were observed and audio taped. This data was utilised to develop a picture of the emergent storybook reading events in this day care setting, and to uncover the nature of emergent readers' aesthetic response (Iser, 1978) to text during these storybook reading episodes.

The study found that emergent storybook reading events offered children numerous opportunities for literary exploration. The manner in which the events were organised created an environment where literature was encountered as a literary, rather than a literacy, learning experience.

The child participants in this study were found to be active participants in emergent storybook reading events. They asked and answered questions and joined in with the reading. It is reported that they exhibited a variety of response-like behaviour during storybook reading. Some of these responses could be characterised as involving the children in an aesthetic transaction with text (Rosenblatt, 1978).

Teachers were integral to storybook reading episodes. They were found to be instrumental in encouraging children's active participation in storybook reading events. They used a variety of strategies to support the children's forays into responding aesthetically to text.

This study recommends that further research in a variety of early childhood educational settings is required to develop a comprehensive understanding of emergent readers' aesthetic engagement with text. The study also advocates that, to support the development of emergent readers' engagement with text, early childhood educators must be made aware of the key role they play in this process. They should also be informed of strategies and approaches that can be used to encourage and enhance children's exploration of literature.

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