Storybooks as a Scaffolding Tool in Teacher–Child Interaction: The Mediating Role of Vocabulary and Receptive Language in the Investigation of the Relationship Between Teacher Attitude and Children's Language Skills

StorybooksStorybooks and shared readingShared reading activities in classrooms are pivotal for children's linguistic and communicative development. Leveraging VygotskyVygotsky's sociocultural theorySociocultural theory, which posits language as a context-specific cognitive toolCognitive tool, this study explored the influence of preschool teachersPreschool teachers’ attitudes towards storybooksStorybooks on Turkish-speaking children's vocabularyVocabulary and receptive languageReceptive language skills. Our research encompassed 360 children (60–72 months) and 72 teachers from Afyonkarahisar and Kars in Turkey. Instruments employed included the Preschool TeachersPreschool teachers’ Attitudes Towards StorybooksStorybooks (SPTATS) scale and the Kaufman Survey of Early Academic and Language SkillsLanguage skills (K-SEALS)K-SEALS. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), results indicated a significant correlation between teachers’ attitudes towards storybooksStorybooks and children's vocabularyVocabulary and receptive languageReceptive language proficiency. Notably, vocabularyVocabulary emerged as a partial mediator in the link between storybookStorybooks usage and receptive languageReceptive language skills, underscoring its critical role in shaping language abilities in educational contexts.