Mother-Child Dialogic Discourse in Shared Reading Sessions: Use of Literal and Inferential Questions

This paper reports on an investigation of mother-child interaction during shared home-reading sessions with specific reference to the mothers’ educational background. The focus of this study was on the complex interplay of interactions between the mother, text, and child and how these may support children's development of language skills. Of particular interest was the type of questions asked, literal and referential question, and how these questions helped the child to participate in conversation at complex, inferential levels. Findings showed that there were differences i n the discourse of mother-child shared reading sessions between mothers of different level of education.