ABSTRACT
Children’s literature and adults’ reading to children contribute to every aspect of language growth, from vocabulary building to metalinguistic understanding. Reading to young children gives them exposure to new words and practice with grammatical forms and pragmatic conventions. Children’s literature introduces them to the notion that language is a decontextualized symbolic medium – that is, a vehicle for representing concepts and experiences beyond the immediate context. This chapter focuses on how children’s literature and adults’ reading to children (shared reading) helps build children’s vocabularies.
