The Effects of Picture-Book Shared Reading Training for Immigrant Mothers of Young An Exploratory Study

The Effects of Picture-Book Shared Reading Training for Immigrant Mothers of Young An Exploratory Study

This study examined the effects of picture book shared reading training for marriage-immigrant Korean mothers of young children with poor to moderate levels of Korean language skill. The training course offered opportunities for mothers to learn to read Korean picture storybooks and to share these with their children. The course instructor conducted interviews with the mothers, both before the course started and at its end. Observations were made in the Philippine Center in Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul, South Korea. The type of book, the purpose of reading, and desire for child responding required different story reading strategies: Word-by-word reading, adopting voices for characters, adding the reader’s interpretation or asking questions of the listener, adapting the story by changing parts of sentences, and reading some parts of the picture book, while omitting others. The course benefited the mothers’ story-sharing skills and their parental efficacy beliefs. Korean language teaching materials and their use are discussed, along with implications for governmental inclusion policies for people whose backgrounds are not in Korean culture.