Being bilingual, being a reader: Prekindergarten dual language learners’ reading identities

Abstract

This study explores the interplay between early reading, identity and bilingualism. Reading identities, or understandings about what reading is and whom one is as a reader, have been linked to reading achievement and the development of reading skills. Only a small portion of the overall research on reading identities has included dual language learners. This exploratory study provides a description of the reading identities of three dual language learners in prekindergarten. Data include child-centered interviews, child and classroom observations, teacher interviews and a family questionnaire. Methods centered on the use of child-oriented data collection protocols, and the inclusion of children in the interpretation of their own work and language. Through the exploration of three cases, this study documents the ways that reading identities were constructed, taken up and expressed by the participants. This study provides evidence that dual language learners are actively constructing ideas about reading, bilingualism/biliteracy, and whom they are as readers as they learn to read. These findings show that framing early reading in an identity perspective presents opportunities to look more holistically at the language and reading practices of dual language learners as they learn to read and navigate two or more languages at home and school.

Connections Between Reading Identities and Social Status in Early Childhood

“…In the context of school, Stanley is constructed only as a monolingual English reader, though this is not the reality of his broader language and reading practices outside of school as reported by his family. This is consistent with previous reports on the identity experiences of young multilingual children in school (Kabuto, ; Wagner, ). For educators and others concerned with the development and education of multilingual children, the exclusion of non‐English languages and the treatment of multilingual children as monolingual English users in schools reflects a disconcerting reality and a broader social devaluation of multilingualism and multilingual children in the United States.…”

“…Multilingual children are influenced by social messages about multilingualism, make choices about when and which languages to use, and develop beliefs about how multilingualism affects the process of reading. Multilingual children can construct reading identities that draw on multilingual reading practices and that span different home, community, and school contexts for language use (Kabuto, ; Wagner, ). Though multilingual children’s reading identities are overwhelmingly positive at school entry, they are often poorly supported in school contexts in the United States (Flores‐Dueñas ; Kabuto, ).…”

“…These experiences play a critical role in early reading development and shape the ways that children understand who they are as readers (McCarthey & Moje, ). These understandings comprise children’s reading identities, or the ways that a child constructs the self as a reader across contexts and time (Wagner, ). Reading identities appear to be particularly critical to multilingual children, whose cultural and linguistic connections to reading and texts are often overlooked or devalued in school contexts in the United States (Kabuto, ; Wagner, ).…”

Demystifying simultaneous triliteracy development: One child’s emergent writing practices across three scripts focusing on letter recognition, directionality and name writing

“…Adding her name in Japanese to her school assignments gave her the leverage to distinguish herself as a bilingual and biliterate unlike her teachers and classmates, who would not understand the script. Studies have also explored young bilingual children's awareness of audience in their emergent literacy practices (Axelrod and Cole, 2018;Kenner, 2004;Wagner, 2018). For instance, a five-year-old bilingual girl in Kenner's study wrote words in both Mandarin and English on her drawings for her sister and mother-a spontaneous writing practice reflecting both her bilingual identity as well as her sense of bilingual audience.…”

Discursive stance as a pedagogical tool: Negotiating literate identities in writing conferences

“…This relationship between literacy development and identity is particularly evident in early childhood education spaces, where children are socialized into what it means to be a reader and writer in that particular context (Compton-Lilly, 2006; Wohlwend, 2015). Considering literacy practice in early childhood classrooms through a lens of identity can allow researchers and teachers to better understand and ultimately support the varied paths young children follow in becoming literate (Wagner, 2018).…”