More Than Words: How Read-Alouds Mediate Latina/o/x Emergent Bilingual Students' Content Knowledge and Vocabulary Development

• In Event: Practices and Policies in Early Childhood Education: Language Identity, Cross-Linguistic Connections, and Biliteracy

Abstract

Bilingual teachers can foster children’s biliteracy during everyday language arts practices such as read-alouds. This study focuses on how Latina/o/x children develop biliteracy and bilingualism while drawing on their linguistic and cultural repertoires during an interactive read-aloud. The research question that guided this discourse analysis was, how do dialogic discourse strategies during a read-aloud mediate students’ acquisition of content knowledge and everyday vocabulary development? Using thematic coding and an exploration of discourse patterns, we drew on the typology of intertextuality analysis (Varelas & Pappas, 2006) that serves as a tool to categorize the linguistic and cultural connections in a dialogic discourse. The intertextual links during a read-aloud promote biliteracy skills that engage children in learning content knowledge and everyday vocabulary.

Authors

• Kenya M. Vargas, University of Texas - San Antonio

• Lucila D. Ek, University of Texas - San Antonio

• Gilberto P. Lara, University of Texas - San Antonio

• María G. Leija, University of Texas - San Antonio

• Melinda Zepeda, University of Texas - San Antonio