Picturebooks increase the frequency and diversity of emotion vocabulary in children’s language environments: Modeling potential benefits to emotional literacy, with pedagogical resources

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Type
Article
Citation
Green, C., & Sun, H. (2024). Picturebooks increase the frequency and diversity of emotion vocabulary in children’s language environments: Modeling potential benefits to emotional literacy, with pedagogical resources. Early Education and Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2024.2423259
Author
Green, Clarence
•
Sun, He 
Abstract
Research Findings: This study examines the frequency and diversity of emotion vocabulary in children’s picturebooks, as well as its deviation from typical spoken language environments. We analyzed a corpus of 2146 transcripts of individuals reading picturebooks aloud on social media platforms, using an emotion-specific vocabulary list, and two emotion-related word lists: the Valence Aware Dictionary for Sentiment Reasoning (VADER) List, and the NRC Word-Emotion Lexicon Intensity Lists. Models of daily input assess how regular book reading impacts the diversity and quantity of emotion vocabulary in children’s language environments. The findings reveal that emotion vocabulary in children’s picturebooks is more diverse than found in typical samples of child-directed speech and that regular reading substantially increases exposure to emotion vocabulary in the language environment of children beyond their input from child-directed speech alone. The study underscores the significant role of regular picturebook reading in enriching children’s quantity and quality of emotion vocabulary exposure and the opportunities this may provide for emotional literacy development. Practice or Policy: The findings are supplemented with emotion vocabulary wordlists produced by the study and provided here (https://tinyurl.com/4pvcb8b4). These constitute new resources for supporting children’s emotion vocabulary acquisition during early education and development.
Date Issued
2024
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Journal
Early Education and Development
DOI
10.1080/10409289.2024.2423259
Description
The open access publication is available at https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2024.2423259
Grant ID
MOE-000665-00
Funding Agency
Ministry of Education, Singapore