Informal Book Talk: how casual conversations support enjoyment of reading

Over many decades, the ways in which children engage in talk about books and around books has been studied from different perspectives. Indeed, research has found that ‘book talk’ promotes language development, comprehension, phonological awareness and develops children’s narrative competence. Book talk is also associated with creativity and critical thinking and the development of empathy, and book talk that moves beyond adult led dialogue and agendas has also been associated with promoting a love of reading. Accordingly, book talk that is ‘learner-led, informal and social’ has been shown to be a key element of a Reading for Pleasure pedagogy (Cremin et al., 2014, 2019). These ‘unofficial’ discussions may go unnoticed in the classroom, yet nonetheless, they are legitimate responses to books that are often rich in meaning, emotion and humour. However, such opportunities for informal ‘reader-initiated and reader-directed’ book talk are not always available in schools. Arguably, insufficient attention by researchers and practitioners has been paid to the relaxed interactions in classrooms that can lead to increased engagement and pleasure in reading. This chapter begins with an initial, context setting introduction to seminal work around talk and reading. It then offers a comprehensive synthesis of contemporary research examining the nature of talk in adult-child shared book reading with young children, and classroom-based studies with primary (4 – 11) and secondary (11 – 18) school aged children examining informal talk and social interactions around texts. It also reports findings from the authors’ recent study, which examined how material, sociocultural, personal, pedagogical, and textual factors influence informal book talk in classrooms with 4-7-year-olds. The chapter’s synthesis of research illustrates the ways in which such talk can be empowering and can nurture young children’s sense of self-efficacy as readers, and enhance the enjoyment they find in reading.