The role of family literacy environments in promoting young children's emerging literacy skills

EDITORS' NOTES (Pia Rebello Britto, Jeanne Brooks--Gunn). 1. Emergent Literacy Is Emerging Knowledge of Written, Not Oral, Language (Victoria Purcell--Gates). Children's knowledge of the development of written, as opposed to oral, language is central to the concept of emergent literacy. 2. Parent--Child Interaction in Three Conversational Contexts: Variations in Style and Strategy (Catherine Crain--Thoreson, Michael P. Dahlin, Terris A. Powell). The associations between parent language complexity and conversational style and child language use are examined across three contexts--storybook reading, free play with toys, and joint remembering of an event. 3. Storybook Reading and Parent Teaching: Links to Language and Literacy Development (Monique Senechal, Jo--Anne LeFevre). In this chapter the strong links between shared book reading and children's vocabulary are demonstrated, and parent's storybook reading is contrasted with their teaching of literacy to determine the respective influence of each activity on children's emerging literacy skills. 4. The Role of Family and Home in the Literacy Development of Children from Low--Income Backgrounds (Stacey A. Storch, Grover J. Whitehurst). The longitudinal effect of home influences on a range of children's emerging literacy skills is examined in a sample of low--income preschool-- and elementary school--age children. 5. Beyond Shared Book Reading: Dimensions of Home Literacy and Low--Income African American Preschoolers' Skills (Pia Rebello Britto, Jeanne Brooks--Gunn). In this chapter family literacy environments and their association with young children's emerging literacy skills are examined from a multi--dimensional perspective. 6. Concluding Comments (Pia Rebello Britto, Jeanne Brooks--Gunn). New directions in the understanding of family literacy environments and children's emerging literacy are discussed. Also presented are implications of these new directions for research and practice. INDEX.