How Bilingual/Biliterate Children Make Meaning Across Languages When Reading Dual-Language Books

• In Event: 79.051 - MTCC Roundtable Session 37
  In Roundtable Session: 79.051-3 - Explorations of Biliteracy

Abstract

With growing numbers of emergent bilinguals, there are recommendations for teachers’ classrooms to have dual-language books (DLBs) with the entire text in two languages on the same page/two-page spread. However, little is known about whether and how children make cross-linguistic connections when reading DLBs. Sixty-eight Spanish-English bilingual third and fifth graders responded to questions while reading related to translation and retelling as part of verbal protocol analysis. Students’ verbal responses, their actions, and text characteristics were analyzed through discourse analysis. Preliminary findings indicate that students rely heavily on text position to translate languages and on the English text to retell stories. These findings are important to inform instructional recommendations supporting children’s biliteracy and bilingual development when using DLBs.

Author

• Lisa Domke, Michigan State University