Abstract: Children's visual attention to print serves as an important proximal process through which children internalize knowledge about print forms and functions (print awareness). So what kind of reading can promote the extent to which children pay attention to print? To answer this question, the eye movements of 54 younger children ranging in age from 2 to 3 were recorded by eye tracker as they read the picture book through three kinds of reading styles: independent reading(IR), reading with the narrator(RR) and pointing to and tracking the print with the narrator(PTR). The results were as follows: (1) Under IR and RR conditions, children had the same eye-movement patterns, that is children rarely looked at print, with about 5.7% of fixation time and 5.4% of fixation count allocated to print areas. (2) PTR could significantly increase the frequency of print fixation, and also increased the probability of time spent in print areas and speed getting into print areas in PTR group, namely, about 12.4% of fixation time and 11.3% of fixation count respectively. (3) The global analysis in picture areas yielded no difference on eye movement patterns between the PTR group and IR/RR group, furthermore, the local analysis on the objects in picture areas suggested that PTR did not disturb the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of children's fixation on picture areas. To conclude, the results of this study indicated that PTR could increase children's contact with print to some extent, moreover, the gestures in the reading of pointed to and tracked the print with the narrator did not overly tax the child's cognitive resources that are focused on the objects in pictures during picture book reading.

Key words: preschool children, reading style, print, eye movements