Multiple semiotic sources as scaffolding for young children’s emergent reading of picture-story books

The significance of children’s literature in early reading development is supported through linguistic analysis of literary texts for young children and the transcripts of classroom interaction deriving from the reading of these texts. This paper will provide a sample analysis of texts for young readers. It will examine the use of colour coding in illustrations, alignment of textual cues in illustrations with corresponding segments of the main text and the use of speech bubbles to repeat selected dialogic exchanges from the main text. The analysis will show how these features interact with Thematic variation of projecting and projected clauses in dialogic segments of the main text. This interaction provides textual scaffolding which assists beginning readers to actively engage in meaningful shared reading of literary texts for young children.