Audiovisual translation: A reception study on Bilingual child language brokers’ linguistic and cultural competences

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical pilot study conducted from July through September 2019 at César Chávez Elementary School, a public, bilingual English/Spanish primary school in the city of San Francisco (California, USA).
 The research was based on the hypothesis that children enrolled in such bilingual educational programs are exposed to linguistic and cultural content in English and Spanish, and will therefore differentiate the contents of the bilingual audiovisual products they consume both linguistically and culturally.
 The aim was to assess the possible impact of bilingual audiovisual products on the acquisition of linguistic and cultural competences by child language brokers in the bilingual educational system of the USA, a country with more than forty years’ experience in this type of education.
 The research tools used to collect and analyze the data were interviews and experimental tests.
 The conclusions allow us firstly to determine whether audiovisual products are effectively used as a teaching tool in school and, secondly, to assess the use of audiovisual products as a methodological instrument in USA primary education bilingual programs. They can also help us track the origins of child language brokering in a bilingual context.