The Nature of Talk about Three Types of Text during Peer Group Discussions
Open Access
- 12 September 1992
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journal of Reading Behavior
- Vol. 24 (3), 313-338
- https://doi.org/10.1080/10862969209547780
Abstract
This study investigated first-, third-, and fifth-grade children's talk about three types of text during peer group discussions. The researcher read aloud, and children discussed, a storybook, an information book, and an informational storybook to 54 children in groups of 6 students each (18 at each grade level). Children's utterances were then coded for five categories: the source of information used, manner of topic maintenance, acknowledgement given to the preceding utterance, thinking form used, and textual element in focus during the utterance. Results indicated significant grade level and/or text type differences for each category investigated and revealed that older students were more collaborative, drawing more often on peer information, participating in longer group discussions, and making more confirming and challenging responses. When discussing the informational storybook children stayed on topic longer, used speculation twice as often, relied on peer information more often, and were more likely to discuss related extra-textual topics.Keywords
This publication has 9 references indexed in Scilit:
- The development of children's sense of the written story register: An analysis of the texture of kindergarteners' “Pretend reading” textsLinguistics and Education, 1988
- Teaching and Practicing Thinking Skills to Promote Comprehension in the Context of Group Problem SolvingRemedial and Special Education, 1988
- Oral discussion, group-to-individual transfer, and achievement in cooperative learning groups.Journal of Educational Psychology, 1985
- Evaluating children's talk about literature: A theoretical perspectiveChildren's Literature in Education, 1985
- Reciprocal Teaching of Comprehension-Fostering and Comprehension-Monitoring ActivitiesCognition and Instruction, 1984
- Children's developing awareness of text structures in expository materials.Journal of Educational Psychology, 1984
- Logic and ConversationPublished by Brill ,1975
- Coherency in children's discourseJournal of Psycholinguistic Research, 1975
- Developmental Factors in Conversational BehaviorJournal of Communication, 1972