Reading dual language books: Improving early literacy skills in linguistically diverse classrooms

Abstract

Research has determined that dual language books have a positive effect on literacy achievement, motivation, and family involvement in children’s schooling. In this study we used quantitative methods to complement the largely qualitative extant research. We analyzed the early literacy skills of 105 kindergarten children (45 comparison, 60 treatment) with diverse language backgrounds (35% English, 31% Punjabi, 16% Urdu, 18% other languages) from eight kindergarten classes in four suburban Canadian schools. Statistical analyses indicated that children who were read to using dual language books, written in French, Punjabi, and Urdu, demonstrated significantly greater gains in graphophonemic knowledge than children who were read to in English only. This gain occurred specifically in children who spoke the targeted languages at home; children who did not speak the targeted languages were not negatively affected. Findings are discussed in terms of developing metalinguistic awareness and directions for practice and research are discussed.

The African Storybook and Language Teacher Identity in Digital Times

“…Similarly, stories can inspire students to write, and make their own stories, as one girl in Grade 4 did. Making stories can take many forms, combining text, drawing, drama, and other modes in the target language and the students’ first language (Naqvi et al., ). This helps them to create their own “identity texts” (Cummins & Early, ) to bridge language and literacy barriers that might otherwise prove too challenging.…”

Trois modalités de réseaux littéraires pour enseigner la grammaire en contexte plurilingue

“…La recherche commence à s'intéresser aux effets de l'utilisation des livres plurilingues (des oeuvres dans lesquelles on trouve plusieurs langues) sur l'apprentissage des langues qui y sont représentées. En sus de normaliser la diversité linguistique dans un médium qui est souvent associé à une tradition régie par des normes monolingues -la littérature (Moore et Sabatier, 2014)ces livres faciliteraient notamment l'apprentissage de l'association graphèmesphonèmes (Naqvi, Thorne, Pfitscher, Nordstokke et McKeough, 2012) et le développement lexical dans les langues de l'ouvrage (Gosselin-Lavoie, 2016). D'après Sneddon (2009), en effet, la lecture de livres plurilingues « enables children to hypothesise about language and reveals what they understand about the relationship between their languages » (p. 148).…”

The African Storybook and Storybooks Canada: Digital Stories for Linguistically Diverse Children

“…Apart from these online resources, several research projects have used students' home languages to support multilingual education through the use of dual language books or student-created, dual-language materials, with great benefits to students (Cummins & Early, 2011;Naqvi, Thorne, Pfitscher, Nordstokke, & McKeough, 2013;Stille & Cummins, 2013). In this digital age, however, having such resources online and openly accessible allows for adaptation, flexibility, and the possibility of reaching virtually all the students in the country.…”