ABSTRACT
A study of the language style used by adults in telling stories to nursery school children revealed two distinct interactive styles: (a) one-way story telling only, and (b) two-way dialogue based on the different opportunities given to the active involvement of the young child (Barbieri et al., 1987).
We had already studied the comprehension process of preschool-age children with regard to the intrinsic structure of a particular story (Albanese et al., 1985, 1986, 1988), and we considered it important in the light of these other studies to study the role that adult-child interaction plays in the process of comprehension. In particular, we hypothesised that the interactive style of the educator can influence the understanding of the story by the preschool child.
