ABSTRACT
Reading books to children is a source for the development of listening comprehension as well as for learning about written textual features. This chapter examines distinctions between oral and written language and suggests why written texts contain language structures that could be more difficult to acquire than oral language structures. It shows how story book reading activities enable children to link their listening and speaking skills to text comprehension. The chapter reviews connections between story book reading and later reading achievement by describing studies that relate home literacy activities to later reading. It reviews intervention research that connects story book reading interventions to children's beginning reading achievement. Written language contains many linguistic properties that are unlike those of oral language. Interchanges between speakers and listeners are usually face to face, whereas writers and readers are usually isolated from each other.
