Kittens, Blankets and Seaweed: Developing Empathy in Relation to Language Learning via Children’s Picturebooks

Abstract

Children’s literature has an important role to play in developing knowledge of the world, and learning to understand the feelings of others. A growing body of literature explores the role of dual language picturebooks (parallel, interlingual and simultaneous) in drawing on the linguistic capital of multilingual children in classrooms. There is also research examining how dual language picturebooks privilege languages and the impact of this on the ethnolinguistic vitality of minority language communities; however, to date there is little if any literature exploring how dual language picturebooks can support novice readers to develop an understanding of language status and language learning. In this study, five children’s picturebooks are analysed using close analysis of text and illustration to explore what understandings of language learning and multilingualism novice readers might gain from these picturebooks. Findings indicate that these books support understanding of the different status of the languages being learned or spoken as reflected in the stories. They also raise questions concerning who these picturebooks are written for; the extent to which different visual and textual cues are used to support the development of empathy; and the pedagogy of working with visual and textual cues for developing empathy through picturebooks.