READING ENVIRONMENTAL PRINT: WHAT IS THE ROLE OF CONCEPTS ABOUT PRINT IN DISCRIMINATING YOUNG READERS RESPONSES?

For nearly four decades reading educators, educational psychologists, experimental psychologists, applied linguists, and early childhood educators have investigated children s widely acclaimed ability to read print found in the ecology of their everyday environments. This study examined how concepts-about-print knowledge interacted with other traditional measures of print knowledge, to affect children s reading of environmental print in context and out. The participants in this study were 97 children ages 4-7. Eight selected environmental print items were systematically maniupulated across five presentation conditions gradually removing aspects such as logo, color, font, and so on. This study demonstrated the important role that word recognition and concepts-about-print and word recognition were the most reliable discriminators between children who could accurately and consistently read environmental print displays, and those children evidencing lesser levels of development and expertise.