Educators and researchers consider vocabulary development foundational in young children’s language and literacy learning and for academic achievement; adult-child shared book reading is potentially a rich site for word learning and concept development. In this article, we report on how an immigrant father and his four year old daughter, English Language Learners living in a community identified as “vulnerable”, attended to words and their meanings in two shared reading sessions. Results indicate the father enacted a number of strategies including: verbal explanations; providing verbal explanations and pointing to the relevant illustration; referencing the child’s previous experiences; and using demonstration and gesture. The findings challenge some of the assumptions about immigrant families and families living in “vulnerable” communities, as well as the role of fathers in young children’s language and literacy development.

教育者和研究人员认为，词汇发展是幼儿语言和识字学习以及学术成就的基础；成人和儿童共享的书阅读可能是单词学习和概念发展的丰富站点。在本文中，我们报告了移民父亲和他四岁的女儿（英语学习者）居住在一个被确定为“弱势群体”的社区中如何在两个共享的阅读环节中学习单词及其含义。结果表明父亲制定了许多策略，包括：口头解释；提供口头解释并指出相关插图；参照孩子以前的经历；并使用示范和手势。调查结果挑战了有关移民家庭和生活在“弱势”社区中的家庭的一些假设，