Facilitating critical dialogues with bilingual kindergartners through animated books: a qualitative case study

Abstract

ABSTRACT The main purpose of this article is to investigate the intersection of early-literacy curricula, multiliteracies, and bilingualism by analyzing young bilingual children’s conversations about gender and socio-economic class representations in animated storybooks. As part of a longitudinal study, the study focused on six kindergarten-age children at the Korean Language School (KLS) in a city in the Midwest United States. The study was conducted from a naturalistic stance with a qualitative research design. The data were collected over the course of a semester from participant observations, video and audio recordings, and teacher interviews. The findings of this study suggest the pedagogical potential of animated storybooks and translanguaging practice as means for creating a critical and interactive literacy space in which young bilingual children can explore media representations on gender and social class in age-appropriate, meaningful ways.