There were also substantial differences in the quality of the shared-book
reading. Examples can be found in my chapter "Preschool literacy-related
activities and success in school" in D.Olson et al. (Eds.) *Literacy,
Language, and Learning* (Cambridge University Press, 1985). And the
differences in both frequency and quality of such experiences were quite
strongly related to the children's family background (calculated in terms
of a weighted index of both parents' occupation and education). In that
respect, I imagine there was not a major difference between the two studies.
However, what does interest me is the following observation by Geoff:
> I suspect that interaction in some "middle-class" families is
> increasingly legislated by pedagogic handbooks, which make home interaction
> during j b-r more like school interaction, which itself was largely modelled
> on a particular, selective version of "desirable" home practices. A complex
> relation of amplification. In trying to understand these relations I've found
> Bernstein's model of the pedagogic device very useful.
I had the same impression when reading Shirley Brice Heath's description
(in *Ways with Words*) of the way in which the townspeople interacted
with their children and quizzed them about the stories they read and
their activities at Sunday School. The parents seemed to be behaving
just like teachers, with frequent IRF sequences to test the children's
ability to give the known answer. This was much common in the Bristol
data, particularly in the middle class homes.
Gordon Wells, gwells who-is-at oise.on.ca
OISE, Toronto.