Effects of teachers' reading-aloud styles on vocabulary acquisition and comprehension of students in the early elementary grades.

Effects of just reading, performance reading, and interactional reading-aloud styles on learning were assessed for 117 1st graders and 129 3rd graders. Preservice teachers, trained and guided by scripted procedures, read 2 informational storybooks to students using 1 of the styles. Multivariate analyses of variance and univariate tests showed that reading-aloud styles produced statistically significant effects on vocabulary acquisition and comprehension and similar results at each grade level. Differences in comprehension means for reading style treatments were statistically significant for 1 book only. Vocabulary acquisition was facilitated more by interactional reading than performance reading. Both verbally mediated styles resulted in greater vocabulary learning than just reading. Results extend previous findings on reading-aloud styles and are congruent with sociolinguistic and transactional theories.