Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T07:18:51.291Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Cross-cultural differences in mother-preschooler book sharing practices in the United States and Thailand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2020

Sirada ROCHANAVIBHATA*
Affiliation:
Northwestern University, USA
Viorica MARIAN
Affiliation:
Northwestern University, USA
*
Corresponding author: Sirada Rochanavibhata, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive Evanston, IL60208-3540, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Cross-cultural differences in book sharing practices of American and Thai mother-preschooler dyads were examined. Twenty-one Thai monolingual and 21 American-English monolingual mothers and their four-year-olds completed a book sharing task. Results revealed narrative style differences between the American and Thai groups: American mothers adopted a high-elaborative story-builder style and used affirmations, descriptions, extensions, and recasting more than Thai mothers. Thai mothers adopted a low-elaborative story-teller style and used more attention directives and expansions than American mothers. American children produced longer narratives than their Thai peers, whereas Thai children repeated their mothers’ utterances more than their American counterparts. Maternal and child narrative styles were associated. These results suggest that maternal scaffolding styles differ across cultures and influence children's developing narrative skills.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, S., Kuebli, J., Boyle, P. A., & Fivush, R. (1995). Gender differences in parent-child conversations about past emotions: A longitudinal investigation. Sex Roles, 33(5–6), 309323. doi:10.1007/BF01954572CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, J., Anderson, A., Lynch, J., & Shapiro, J. (2004). Examining the effects of gender and genre on interactions in shared book reading. Literacy Research and Instruction, 43(4), 120. doi:10.1080/19388070409558414Google Scholar
Bates, E., Bretherton, I., & Snyder, L. (1988). From first words to grammar: Individual differences and dissociable mechanisms. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Caspe, M. (2009). Low-income Latino mothers’ booksharing styles and children's emergent literacy development. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 24(3), 306324. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2009.03.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, C. J. (2003). Talking about the past: How do Chinese mothers elicit narratives from their young children across time. Narrative Inquiry, 13(1), 99126. doi:10.1075/ni.13.1.04chaCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crain-Thoreson, C., & Dale, P. S. (1999). Enhancing linguistic performance: Parents and teachers as book reading partners for children with language delays. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 19(1), 2839. doi:10.1177/027112149901900103CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curenton, S. M., & Craig, M. J. (2011). Shared-reading versus oral storytelling: associations with preschoolers’ prosocial skills and problem behaviours. Early Child Development and Care, 181(1), 123146. doi:10.1080/03004430903292208CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doan, S. N., & Wang, Q. (2010). Maternal discussions of mental states and behaviors: Relations to emotion situation knowledge in European American and immigrant Chinese children. Child Development, 81(5), 14901503. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01487.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1997). PPVT-III: Peabody picture vocabulary test. American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Fivush, R., & Fromhoff, F. A. (1988). Style and structure in mother-child conversations about the past. Discourse Processes, 11(3), 337355. doi:10.1080/01638538809544707CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fivush, R., Haden, C. A., & Reese, E. (2006). Elaborating on elaborations: Role of maternal reminiscing style in cognitive and socioemotional development. Child Development, 77(6), 15681588. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00960.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fletcher, K. L., & Reese, E. (2005). Picture book reading with young children: A conceptual framework. Developmental Review, 25(1), 64103. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2004.08.009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gudykunst, W. B., & Kim, Y. Y. (1984). Communicating with strangers: An approach to intercultural communication. Addison Wesley Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez-Clellen, V. F. (2002). Narratives in two languages: Assessing performance of bilingual children. Linguistics and Education, 13(2), 175197. doi:10.1016/S0898-5898(01)00061-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haden, C. A., Haine, R. A., & Fivush, R. (1997). Developing narrative structure in parent-child reminiscing across the preschool years. Developmental Psychology, 33(2), 295307. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.33.2.295CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haden, C. A., Reese, E., & Fivush, R. (1996). Mothers' extratextual comments during storybook reading: Stylistic differences over time and across texts. Discourse Processes, 21(2), 135169. doi:10.1080/01638539609544953CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harkins, D. A., & Ray, S. (2004). An exploratory study of mother-child storytelling in East India and Northeast United States. Narrative Inquiry, 14(2), 347367. doi:10.1075/ni.14.2.09harCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, S. B. (1982). What no bedtime story means: Narrative skills at home and school. Language in Society, 11(1), 4976. doi:10.1017/S0047404500009039CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with words: Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoff-Ginsberg, E. (1991). Mother-child conversation in different social classes and communicative settings. Child Development, 62(4), 782796. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1991.tb01569.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kang, J. Y., Kim, Y. S., & Pan, B. A. (2009). Five-year-olds' book talk and story retelling: Contributions of mother—child joint bookreading. First Language, 29(3), 243265. doi:10.1177/0142723708101680CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuchirko, Y., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Luo, R., & Liang, E. (2016). 'What happened next?': Developmental changes in mothers’ questions to children. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 124. doi:10.1177/1468798415598822Google Scholar
Leaper, C., Anderson, K. J., & Sanders, P. (1998). Moderators of gender effects on parents' talk to their children: a meta-analysis. Developmental Psychology, 34(1), 327. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.34.1.3CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luo, Y. H., Snow, C. E., & Chang, C. J. (2012). Mother-child talk during joint book reading in low-income American and Taiwanese families. First Language, 32(4), 494511. doi:10.1177/0142723711422631CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luo, R., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Kuchirko, Y., Ng, F., & Liang, E. (2014). Mother-child book-sharing and children's storytelling skills in ethnically diverse, low-income families. Infant and Child Development, 23(4), 402425. doi:10.1002/icd.1841CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES project (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Marian, V., Blumenfeld, H. K., & Kaushanskaya, M. (2007). The Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q): Assessing language profiles in bilinguals and multilinguals. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research 50(4), 940967. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2007/067)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98(2), 224253. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, M. (1969). Frog, where are you?. New York, NY: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Mayer, M. (1974). Frog goes to dinner. New York, NY: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Meagher, S. M., Arnold, D. H., Doctoroff, G. L., & Baker, C. N. (2008). The relationship between maternal beliefs and behavior during shared reading. Early Education and Development, 19(1), 138-160. doi:10.1080/10409280701839221CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melzi, G., & Caspe, M. (2005). Variations in maternal narrative styles during book reading interactions. Narrative Inquiry, 15(1), 101125. doi:10.1075/ni.15.1.06melCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melzi, G., Schick, A. R., & Kennedy, J. L. (2011). Narrative elaboration and participation: Two dimensions of maternal elicitation style. Child Development, 82(4), 12821296. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01600.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Minami, M., & McCabe, A. (1995). Rice balls and bear hunts: Japanese and North American family narrative patterns. Journal of Child Language, 22(02), 423445. doi:10.1017/s0305000900009867CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mullen, M. K., & Yi, S. (1995). The cultural context of talk about the past: Implications for the development of autobiographical memory. Cognitive Development, 10(3), 407419. doi:10.1016/0885-2014(95)90004-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murase, T., Dale, P. S., Ogura, T., Yamashita, Y., & Mahieu, A. (2005). Mother-child conversation during joint picture book reading in Japan and the USA. First Language, 25(2), 197218. doi:10.1177/0142723705050899CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, K., & Fivush, R. (2004). The emergence of autobiographical memory: A social cultural developmental theory. Psychological Review, 111(2), 486511. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.111.2.486CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ng, S. H., Loong, C. S. F., He, A. P., Liu, J. H., & Weatherall, A. (2000). Communication correlates of individualism and collectivism: Talk directed at one or more addressees in family conversations. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 19(1), 2645. doi:10.1177/0261927X00019001002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pellegrini, A. D., & Galda, L. (2003). Joint reading as a context: Explicating the ways context is created by participants. In van Kleeck, A., Stahl, S. A., & Bauer, E. B. (Eds.), On reading books to children: Parents and teachers (pp. 315). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence ErlbaumGoogle Scholar
Peterson, C., & McCabe, A. (1983). Developmental Psycholinguistics: Three ways of looking at a child's narrative. New York: Plenum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reese, E. (1995). Predicting children's literacy from mother-child conversations. Cognitive Development, 10(3), 381405. doi:10.1016/0885-2014(95)90003-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reese, E., & Fivush, R. (1993). Parental styles of talking about the past. Developmental Psychology, 29(3), 596606. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.29.3.596CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reese, E., Haden, C. A., & Fivush, R. (1993). Mother-child conversations about the past: Relationships of style and memory over time. Cognitive Development, 8(4), 403430. doi:10.1016/S0885-2014(05)80002-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reese, E., Haden, C. A., & Fivush, R. (1996). Mothers, fathers, daughters, sons: Gender differences in autobiographical reminiscing. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 29(1), 2756. doi:10.1207/s15327973rlsi2901_3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reese, E., & Newcombe, R. (2007). Training mothers in elaborative reminiscing enhances children's autobiographical memory and narrative. Child Development, 78(4), 11531170. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01058.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking: Cognitive development in social context. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schick, A., & Melzi, G. (2010). The development of children's oral narratives across contexts. Early Education and Development, 21(3), 293317. doi:10.1080/10409281003680578CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schieffelin, B. B., & Ochs, E. (1986). Language socialization. Annual Review of Anthropology, 15(1), 163191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Baumwell, L., & Cristofaro, T. (2012). Parent-child conversations during play. First Language, 32(4), 413438. doi:10.1177/0142723711419321CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., & Bornstein, M. H. (1994). Specificity in mother-toddler language-play relations across the second year. Developmental Psychology, 30(2), 283292. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.30.2.283CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Way, N., Hughes, D., Yoshikawa, H., Kalman, R. K., & Niwa, E. Y. (2008). Parents' goals for children: The dynamic coexistence of individualism and collectivism in cultures and individuals. Social Development, 17(1), 183209. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00419.xGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M., & Farrar, M. J. (1986). Joint attention and early language. Child Development, 57(6), 14541463. doi:10.2307/1130423CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Triandis, H. C. (1995). New directions in social psychology. Individualism & collectivism. Boulder, CO, US: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Wang, Q. (2001). “Did you have fun?”: American and Chinese mother–child conversations about shared emotional experiences. Cognitive Development, 16(2), 693715. doi:10.1016/S0885-2014(01)00055-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Q., Leichtman, M. D., & Davies, K. I. (2000). Sharing memories and telling stories: American and Chinese mothers and their 3-year-olds. Memory, 8(3), 159177. doi:10.1080/096582100387588CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whitehurst, G. J., Arnold, D. S., Epstein, J. N., Angell, A. L., Smith, M., & Fischel, J. E. (1994). A picture book reading intervention in day care and home for children from low-income families. Developmental Psychology, 30(5), 679689. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.30.5.679CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, K. T. (1997). Expressive Vocabulary Test (EVT). Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Winskel, H. (2010). A comparison of caretaker-child conversations about past personal experiences in Thailand and Australia. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 41(3), 353367. doi:10.1177/0022022109339209CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zevenbergen, A. A., & Whitehurst, G. J. (2003). Dialogic reading: A shared picture book reading intervention for preschoolers. On reading books to children: Parents and teachers, 177200.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Rochanavibhata and Marian supplementary material

Tables 4a-4c

Download Rochanavibhata and Marian supplementary material(File)
File 31.5 KB