A father, a son, and a storybook: A case study of discourse during storybook reading

Conversations between a father and his four-year-old son during their storybook reading sessions were audiotape recorded by the father. The sessions were recorded in the family home, at the family's convenience, over a six-week time span in 1995. The purpose for this study was to examine the nature of interactions between a father and his son during initial and subsequent readings of different storybook genres. Of interest was the role gender and genre played in storybook reading, the nature of decontextual interaction patterns, and the role adult power played in this situated literacy. Conversation analysis systems by Grice (1989), Halliday (1975), Millar and Rogers (1976), Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson (1974), and Watzlawick, Bavelas, and Jackson (1967) were used. This case study provided evidence that gender, genre, repeated book reading, and adult power were intricately related to this dyads communication patterns in contextual and decontextual literacy experiences.