Dual Language Books Research Articles

Biliteracy in Bilingual Programs: Understanding how Children Read Dual‐Language Books

AbstractBecause dual‐language books (DLBs) print the entire text in two languages nearby on the page, they have great potential for supporting children's biliteracy development by providing contexts to compare/contrast languages. However, little is known about how children read DLBs independently and how they may/may not use such characteristics to support learning. This article reports on a study of the think‐alouds/verbal protocols of 63 Spanish‐English bilingual third and fifth graders and the strategies they used to translate words and retell pages as they read DLBs. Children often took up their identities as language learners and chose to read the language with which they were less familiar. They were also strategic readers, but their strategies were not always accurate. Findings indicate that children would benefit from using DLBs in bi‐/multilingual classrooms and participating in activities such as strategic, analytic translation to build their linguistic knowledge and their biliteracy skills.

Dual-Language Books’ Potential Affordances for Biliteracy Development: Measuring Oral Reading Fluency and Comprehension

Dual-language books’ (DLBs) two-language format could support biliteracy development, but little is known about how children read them. Fifty-four third and fifth graders read aloud DLBs with English or Spanish first on each page to determine DLBs’ potential affordances. Although there were no significant differences in oral reading fluency or reading comprehension measures by the language printed first, there was some evidence of holistic bilingual processing. Students’ English fluency scores were also significantly higher than their Spanish scores. Findings indicate needs for more research about DLBs and potentially for increased attention to Spanish literacy skills in U.S. dual-language programs.

Latinx bilinguals using dual-language books to develop biliteracy

ABSTRACT With much focus on English development in United States schools and research, less is known about how bilinguals develop literacy in their home languages without sustained formal instruction. This qualitative study of reading strategies addressed that gap. It examined how young bilinguals used English literacy knowledge gained through formal instruction to develop biliteracy, specifically literacy skills in their home language of Spanish. Five third- and fifth-grade Spanish-English bilinguals read three dual-language books and engaged in two verbal protocols. Analysis of student interviews, running records, verbal protocols, and video recordings of reading sessions found that students used English phonological knowledge to support decoding. To read the Spanish text, they also relied on memory of and direct references to the book’s English text along with their Spanish oral language knowledge. Findings provide evidence of students leveraging oral and written linguistic knowledge across the Continua of Biliteracy to support their biliteracy development. Implications are discussed for bilingual reading development and instruction.

Making Space for Young Children's Embodied Cultural Literacies and Heritage Languages with Dual Language Books

AbstractThe Pasifika Early Literacy Project supports teachers to make space for the languages and cultures of Pacific children and families in early childhood settings in Aotearoa New Zealand. Dual‐language books in five Pacific languages and English validate Pacific children's languages, literacies, and identities. We highlight teacher practices following professional learning and development workshops. Teachers are invited to challenge dominant monocultural notions of language and literacy that perpetuate educational inequities. Illustrations of early childhood teachers' innovations with Pacific children (aged 2–6 years) demonstrate how dual‐language texts can be connected to families' embodied cultural literacies. Understandings of “literacy” and “reading” were expanded to include children's expressive modalities through oral and visual texts in heritage languages and English. This work highlights the role of teachers to connect, rather than replace, the worldviews, languages, and literacies of families with the pedagogical practices of early childhood settings.

Children Translating When Reading Dual-Language Books

This mixed-methods study analyzed how elementary-school children translated while reading Spanish-English dual-language books (DLBs). Specifically, it investigated the types of strategies students used to translate words in DLBs, strategies’ success, and differences in strategy use based on grade, home language(s), and oral reading accuracy. Sixty-three Spanish-English biliterate third and fifth graders participated in the study. Verbal protocols/think-alouds explaining their translation strategies were analyzed qualitatively using discourse analysis and quantitatively to establish trends. Findings suggest that strategies used most frequently by third graders and/or students with lower oral reading accuracies focused on textual features, whereas strategies used most frequently by fifth graders and/or students with higher accuracies were informed by linguistic knowledge. Results discuss how strategies reflect developing metalinguistic knowledge, linguistic assumptions, and ways that participants drew upon their linguistic repertoires to translate and engage in translanguaging. Also discussed are instructional implications for supporting biliteracy development and for dual-language programs.

Dual Language Books Go Digital: Storybooks Canada in French Immersion Schools and Homes

In response to Canada’s growing ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity, educators in French immersion classrooms are increasingly responding with enhanced cross-linguistic initiatives, and dual language books are promising resources in the promotion of multilingualism (Zaidi, 2020; Zaidi & Dooley, 2021). This paper details a research project we completed in a 2019 classroom-based qualitative case study in a French immersion school experiencing an increasing enrollment of linguistically diverse students. The researchers sought to determine if Storybooks Canada, a free digital platform with 40 dual language books in multiple languages, could help promote literacy engagement and strengthen home-school connections. Five teacher participants identified a range of features that make the platform a useful resource for promoting literacy engagement, text comprehension, learner autonomy, meaning-making, and instructional differentiation. These included (i) the multilingual features, (ii) the ability to project stories on a large screen, (iii) the audio component, (iv) the illustrations, and (v) the different levels of text difficulty. While teachers made almost exclusive use of the French language features of the site, for classroom purposes, they supported cross-linguistic uses of the platform in the home context, with a view of strengthening home-school connections.

How do Elementary Students Perceive the Utility of Dual-Language Children’s Books? An Exploratory Study in French Immersion

Dual-language children’s books—books in which two languages cohabit—are currently gaining traction in the field of language education. Though some studies have zeroed in on the benefits of using them in classrooms, less is known about how learners perceive this tool’s utility for reading and language development. In this paper, we thus aim to explore how elementary students in French immersion perceive the utility of two types of dual-language books: translated, where all passages in French also appear in English, and integrated, where the story is told using an embedded discourse composed of both English and French.

Dual-language Books

This article focuses on dual-language children’s books and their role as multicultural documents which establish a fruitful dialogic relationship between the cultural identities they represent. By means of a theoretic framework based on Translation Studies, and of a descriptive approach, the analytical part of the article takes into account the main characteristics of a text corpus selected from three different collections by Sinnos, one of the most important Italian publishing houses specialising in multicultural books.

Engaging in Interactive Book Reading: Experiences of Refugee Mother–Child Dyads

Interactive book reading is an active practice that aims to stimulate children’s language and literacy development. The interactions that take place during book reading are essential to understand; however, there is limited research on the practice of interactive book reading within refugee families. This qualitative study utilized observation and focus group data to capture the interactions taking place between six refugee mothers and their preschool aged children (3–5 years). The two broad aims of the study were first, to explore interactive book reading experiences of refugee mother–child dyads with the goal of understanding the strategies mothers used during book reading. The second aim was to identify how dual language books benefited families during and beyond interactive book reading. Results demonstrated that mothers incorporated multiple interactive reading strategies while navigating interesting language dynamics. Findings further highlighted the need for continued research on the reading practices of refugee families with preschool-aged children to develop culturally relevant literacy programming and support for these families.

Eukuan Nin Matshi-Manitu Innushkueu / I Am A Damn Savage And Tanite Nene Etutamin Nitassi? / What Have You Done To My Country? by Antane Kapesh

Reviewed by: Eukuan Nin Matshi-Manitu Innushkueu / I Am A Damn Savage And Tanite Nene Etutamin Nitassi? / What Have You Done To My Country? by Antane Kapesh Valerie Henitiuk EUKUAN NIN MATSHI-MANITU INNUSHKUEU / I AM A DAMN SAVAGE and TANITE NENE ETUTAMIN NITASSI? / WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY COUNTRY?, by An Antane Kapesh. Translated from French by Sarah Henzi. Indigenous Studies. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2020. 316 pp. $22.99 paperback. Astoundingly, foundational Innu writer An Antane Kapesh has never before appeared in English, and Sarah Henzi is thus to be commended for bringing her to a wider readership with the translations I Am a Damn Savage and What Have You Done to My Country? Originally published respectively in 1976 and 1979—bilingually in Innu-aimun and in French translations done collaboratively with the author by Innu linguist José Mailhot—these two classic texts contribute meaningfully to many of today's pressing issues such as Indigenous language revitalization, land protection, and anti-racism. Rather than a bilingual edition exactly, this is a dual language book, in that Henzi translated both works from French—source texts that appear nowhere in the volume. Instead her renditions are found alongside Kapesh's Innu-language originals (a language Henzi neither speaks nor reads). Relay or indirect translation can be a necessary crutch, especially with languages of lesser diffusion, a pragmatic choice without which the circulation of a text composed in an Indigenous language may remain limited. But it is a choice that must be made consciously, with real humility. [End Page 414] Where the challenges of working at one remove from an author's original conception are not fully grasped, there is a real risk of doing a disservice to readers, to literary history, as well as to the reputation of an Indigenous author.1 Henzi's approach here is for the most part quite sensitive. Unable to interview An Antane Kapesh (who died in 2004), Henzi did benefit from discussions with both Mailhot and Jérémie Ambroise, Innu Language Advisor with the Tshakapesh Institute (previously the Institut culturel et éducatif montagnais). Henzi takes steps to ensure the Indigenous perspective takes precedence over the "White voice" (p. 7); the original text comes before the English, and the facing pages' format keeps "the Innu language present throughout the reading," making it less likely that unilingual readers will simply ignore it (p. 292). Henzi's own commentary is provided at the back of the book rather than in a preface. The publication history of Kapesh's work is complex, revealing a range of motivations as well as impacts. The 1976 publication of Eukuan nin matshi-manitu innushkueu / Je suis une maudite sauvagesse (I Am a Damn Savage) signaled "the (re)beginnings of Indigenous writing in Quebec" and "radically changed literature and politics in Québec" (p. 278, back cover). Its appearance as an Innu-aimun/French bilingual publication was remarkable—such prominence was simply not accorded Indigenous languages in the 1970s. The initial appearance of Tanite nene etutamin nitassi? / Qu'as-tu fait de mon pays? (What Have You Done to My Country?) also involved both the original Innu-aimun and Mailhot's French renditions, albeit in separate volumes. In 1982, a French-only edition of Je suis une maudite sauvagesse was brought out in Paris; Kapesh and Mailhot also adapted it into a play (performed in Montreal in 1981). Both books have recently been brought back into public view; newly revised bilingual versions were published in 2015 by the Saguenay Native Friendship Centre (prompted by activist movements such as Idle No More), and Eukuan nin matshi-manitu innushkueu / Je suis une maudite sauvagesse again in 2019. One reason sometimes proposed for why an important text like Eukuan nin matshi-manitu innushkueu had remained so long out of print was negative response, although Henzi provides evidence that contemporary reviews had tended to be positive (for example, it was called "a true and hard book," p. 285). Importantly, despite its many brutally honest passages dealing with violence and overt racism, Eukuan nin matshi-manitu innushkueu was never censored (Henzi contrasts this with the treatment given Métis author Maria Campbell's 1973...

Digitizing Dual‐Language Book Pedagogies in Uncertain Times

Global volatility shifts the everyday realities of school life. In the culturally and linguistically diverse schools of Canada, Australia and Europe with which we work, educators and parents have sought to renew established pedagogies in response to transnational integration and disintegration, immigration and refugee resettlement, and the cultural flux and flows of globalisation. As cultural practices and traditions are disrupted, families, communities and school create new ways of being and becoming literate. Dual-language book (DLB) reading has been one of these; with the global COVID-19 pandemic, this practice itself is ripe for digital re-imagination. This paper provides links to an abundance of online dual-book resources, describes developments in dual-language pedagogies for digitized worlds of literacy, and suggests some practical ways of re-imagining dual-language pedagogies.

Dual-Language Books: Enhancing Engagement and Language Awareness

This collaborative action research project in Alberta, Canada, explored how dual-language books (DLBs) can foster literacy instruction and learner engagement through language awareness. Canada’s changing demographics have resulted in mother tongue diversity and many urban schools identifying at least 25% of students as being English language learners, making it crucial to include a mix of languages in classroom interactions to engage all learners. The case study combined prereading linguistic prompts with a reading of 10 DLBs, one each week, by guest readers in Urdu, Tagalog, and Spanish, alongside the teacher reading in English. Video recordings and surveys collected data on the teacher’s, guest readers’, and learners’ reflections on the experience. Findings indicate that regardless of the learners’ linguistic heritage or English language competence, the DLBs offered a unique support for literacy engagement while fostering a focus on language awareness, reading strategies, and higher order engagement with text.

Creating identity texts with young children across culturally and linguistically diverse contexts

This article addresses the ways young children in culturally and linguistically diverse settings were involved in the meaningful development of identity texts in the form of personalized books. In the study, Canadian and Tanzanian children aged 4 to 6 shared their favorite learning experiences and spaces at school through their use of multiple modes. A multimodal approach to data sharing was then implemented through the co-creation of three dual-language books in English and Kiswahili. The books featured the research participants’ images, drawings, paintings, and photographs, and included verbal descriptions of their multimodal texts in their distinct geographical and cultural contexts. The children in both settings were involved in the book-making process by sharing their views on what images and descriptions they wanted to include in the identity texts that were then shared with both groups of children, their teachers, and their families. This approach to research and data dissemination with children draws on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which views children as strong, capable, and knowledgeable. This perspective also recognizes the rights of children to participate in decision-making processes in research in which they are involved, and to be empowered to communicate their own views.

Translation and Word-Picture Relationships in Chih-Yuan Chen's Picturebooks

Chih-Yuan Chen is one of Taiwan's most successful picturebook author–illustrators, having won international recognition for his books, which have been translated into many languages. In Taiwan, several of Chen's works have been repackaged as bilingual books, highlighting the way publishers' marketing strategies are attuned to the desire of Taiwanese parents to help their children learn English from a young age. Even for distinguished creators such as Chen, however, this process is not straightforward. Using a combination of comparative analysis and picturebook theory, this article examines how the relationship between words and pictures has been changed in English translations of two of Chen's picturebooks. Such changes are inconsistent and problematic: bilingual editions contain omissions that raise questions about attitudes toward the function and purpose of dual language books, and the formatting and packaging of bilingual editions privilege verbal text over visual text.

Selecting and using dual language books in classrooms and beyond

ABSTRACT This article, drawing on the relevant literature on dual language books, proposes a four-step process to select high quality dual language books. Each step is explained and supported with examples. A checklist is developed based on the four-step process as a practical guide for teachers and librarians to build high quality dual language book resources. The article also uses research evidence to elaborate on ways of using dual language books in classrooms and beyond.

Computerized Electronic Features Direct Children’s Attention to Print in Single- and Dual-Language e-Books

There has been a rapid proliferation of electronic books in recent years. Given that dual-language books may impose extra cognitive load on children’s information processing capacity, we investigated whether multimedia features in e-books (i.e., audio narration and tracking animation) were effective in directing preschoolers’ attention to print in the target language. Seventy-one English-and-Mandarin speaking 4- to 6-year-olds were presented with single-language and dual-language e-books (with and without enhancing features) on a computer fitted with an eye tracker to read independently. Children attended more to their dominant language text than the other when reading dual-language texts silently but comparably in single-language texts. Most importantly, enhancing electronic features with synchronized dual-channel (visual and audio) inputs and attention-guiding cues effectively directed children’s attention to print in both their dominant and nondominant languages. These findings provide important implications on how computerized electronic books affect children’s attention to print and in turn support the development of children’s emergent literacy.

Designing Dual Language Books for Children in the United Kingdom Schools

Scientifically designed dual language books are the premise and basis for ensuring smooth bilingual teaching. To design dual language books for children in Britain, it is necessary to fully consider the practicality of their books and meet the actual needs of schools. The dual language books should be easy to learn and teach, practical and interesting, so as to meet the bilingual learning needs of British children. This essay will cut into the resources of the UK’s major language communities and discuss the various factors that influence the design of dual language books, and related issues identified by the research project.

Evidence-based literacy interventions for East/Southeast Asian English language learners

PurposeThere is a notable dearth of interventions that have been specifically designed for Asian English Language Learner (ELL) students, and the existing research on ELL students often lacks population validity and sample diversity. In response to this need, this paper aims to review current research on literacy interventions for East/Southeast Asian ELLs and provide practical recommendations for educators teaching literacy skills to this population.Design/methodology/approachTo identify studies for inclusion in this review, a systematic literature search was conducted of peer-reviewed studies and dissertations were published between 2001 and 2016. Articles were included in the authors’ review, if those described a literacy intervention where the sample was entirely East and/or Southeast Asian ELLs, or, if the sample included other groups, the study provided an analysis of the intervention’s effectiveness specifically for the East or Southeast Asian ELLs in the study. Both quantitative and qualitative studies were included.FindingsThe authors’ search yielded seven studies. The authors found three main contributors to effective literacy instruction for this population: culturally relevant instruction, family involvement and encouraging first language (L1) development to facilitate language and literacy in English. Results indicated that interventions that consider a student’s cultural style (i.e. preference toward a teacher-centered classroom) or included cultural familiar themes/texts were found to be more effective. In addition, strategies that encouraged the development of L1, such as the use of dual-language books, explicitly teaching contrastive analysis and providing the same book to be read at home and a school were all correlated with greater literacy gains. Finally, facilitating home-school communication seemed to contribute to the efficacy of several of the interventions.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper reveals the need to expand the current knowledge base on effective literacy instruction and intervention for East/Southeast Asian ELL students, especially research on population validity, given the specific needs of this growing population. This review is limited by the small number of relevant studies and the fact that not all East/Southeast Asian languages or ethnic groups were represented. There is still a great need for future research to determine what methods or combination of factors are effective with East/Southeast Asian ELLs of various ages and needs.Practical implicationsThe findings from this paper have generated practical recommendations for educators teaching literacy skills to East/Southeast Asian ELL students, such as: tailor literacy instruction to be culturally relevant, design interventions around student’s preferred learning style, encourage parent/family involvement, provide bilingual instruction and bilingual reading materials and provide parents with books and information about the literacy curriculum.Social implicationsThis paper also reveals the need to expand the current knowledge base on effective literacy instruction and intervention for East/Southeast Asian ELL students, especially research on population validity, given the specific needs of this growing population.Originality/valueBased on an extensive literature search, this is the first paper to review and summarize the research on literacy interventions for East/Southeast Asian ELLs over the past 15 years. This paper provides valuable recommendations to educators and calls for more research on English literacy acquisition specific to this population.

Examining the text quality of English/Arabic dual language children’s picture books

ABSTRACT Children’s literature plays an essential role in the development of children’s literacy skills. Dual language learners can particularly benefit from the use of picture books to facilitate comprehension, formulaic language acquisition, and vocabulary acquisition. This paper explores the availability and quality of English/Arabic dual language books in an early years setting in the United Arab Emirates. It is a qualitative study that examines the text quality of 24 English/Arabic dual language picture books available within the setting itself and the affiliated university library. The researchers’ combined experiences with literacy in the context of young children, including experience in choosing appropriate texts for young children, as well as their ontological perspectives as researchers, guide this personal appreciation. The study found issues with availability of book information, translation accuracy, and cultural relevance. In order to have a high quality bilingual picture book, it is crucial that the translation is accurate and reviewed very carefully by experienced authors/editors in both languages to avoid any errors. The major categories generated from this study can serve as a checklist to guide researchers in future studies, educators in various settings and parents in the community, in choosing appropriate dual language books.

The linguistic landscape of English–Spanish dual language picturebooks

ABSTRACTPicturebooks which present stories in two languages are known as dual-language picturebooks (Daly. 2016. “Linguistic Landscapes in Māori-English Parallel Dual Language Picturebooks: Domination and Interaction.” New Zealand English Journal 29 & 30: 11–24), and the use of dual-language picturebooks has been shown to have a positive effect on community engagement with schools (Naqvi, McKeogh, Thorne, & Pfitscher. 2013. “Dual-Language Books as an Emergent-Literacy Resource: Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning.” Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 13 (4): 501–528; Peterson and Heywood. 2007. “Contributions of Families’ Linguistic, Social, and Cultural Capital to Minority-Language Children’s Literacy: Parents’, Teachers’, and Principals’ Perspectives.” Canadian Modern Language Review 63 (4): 517–538). Given the importance of these books in creating relationships between bilingual children and children's literature, it is interesting to analyse the linguistic landscapes present in these books, and what messages they are communicating to readers regarding the relative status of the languages used in the text. In this article, over 200 English–Spanish dual-language picturebooks from the Marantz Picturebook Collection for the Study of Picturebook Art, based at Kent State University, are analysed in terms of the notion of linguistic landscape (Landry and Bourhis. 1997. “Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality. An empirical study.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 16 (1): 23–49). Findings are discussed in terms of the relative status of the two languages and how this is communicated via relative print size and placement. The presentation of languages in the picturebooks analysed is discussed in relation to translanguaging and ethnolinguistic vitality.