How children talk together to make meaning from texts: a dialogic perspective on reading comprehension strategies

Abstract

Abstract This study considers reading comprehension as a dialogic transaction of making meaning from text. The concept of text and reading is taken to include the visual and multimodal as well as written forms. Case studies of children discussing texts are analysed to explore how children engage in inter‐mental and intra‐mental processes of reading, between themselves as readers and between themselves and the text. The findings show that children's use of language, which is open, hypothetical and questioning, enables different interpretations and priorities for discussion. The use of imagination and empathy, to enter the world of the text to understand it, trigger creative responses as the children make meaning together. More than merely promoting the teaching of comprehension skills to children, the paper demonstrates how meaningful and exciting responses can be promoted through children reading together and teachers encouraging creative dialogue.

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