Reading to bilingual preschoolers: An experimental study of two book formats

Abstract

AbstractReading stories to children provides opportunities for word learning. Bilingual children, however, encounter new words in each of their languages during shared storybook reading, and the way in which these words are presented can vary. We compared learning from two types of bilingual book materials: single‐language books and bilingual books. Five‐year‐old English‐French bilinguals (n = 67) were randomly assigned to hear an original story from a balanced bilingual experimenter in one of the two book formats. Children's learning of English and French labels for five novel objects embedded in the story was assessed via a pointing task. Children were successful at learning words in both languages, and performance was not affected by book format nor children's language proficiency. These results suggest that children are flexible word learners and that shared book reading – regardless of book format – is an effective way to teach bilingual children new words in two languages.Highlights In a shared storybook reading task, bilingual 5‐year‐olds encountered new words in two languages via single‐language or bilingual books. Word learning from the two book formats was compared. Both formats supported word learning, regardless of children's language proficiency. Bilingual children are flexible word learners, and shared book reading – regardless of book format – supports bilingual literacy development.