Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the
effect of oral reading expressiveness on the comprehension
of storybooks by 4- and 5-year-old prekindergarten children.
The possible impact of prosody on listening comprehension
was explored.
Method: Ninety-two prekindergarten children [M age = 57.26
months, SD = 3.89 months) listened to an expressive or
inexpressive recording of 1 of 2 similar stories. Story
comprehension was tested using assessments of both free
recall and cued recall.
Results: Children showed statistically significantly better
cued recall for the expressive readings of stories compared to
the inexpressive readings of stories. This effect generalized
across stories and when story length was controlled across
both expressive and inexpressive versions. The effect of
expressiveness on children's free recall was not significant.
Conclusion: Highly expressive readings resulted in better
comprehension of storybooks by prekindergarten children.
Further, because recordings were used, this effect might be
attributed to the facilitation of language processing rather
than to enhanced social interaction between the reader and
the child.