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

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-63
Author(s):  
Joël Thibeault ◽  
Ian A. Matheson

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.

in education ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-60
Author(s):  
Joël Thibeault ◽  
Ian A. Matheson

Abstract As dual-language children’s books are becoming increasingly popular in language and literacy education, scholars are starting to zero in on how students construct meaning as they read these books. In this paper, in light of the previously mentioned body of literature, we present a qualitative study focusing on the reading strategies that three Grade 3 French immersion pupils schooled in Saskatchewan deployed when they read two types of dual-language books: translated, where the entire text appears in both English and French, and integrated, where passages in French organically complete those in English without providing the exact same information. This multiple case study highlights three distinct reading profiles, and shows how monolingual and cross-linguistic reading strategies can be used by the same student as they read a dual-language book. It also shows that some students were able to adapt their reading strategies as they engaged with different types of dual-language books, whereas others more frequently utilized the same strategies.             Keywords: dual-language children’s books, reading strategies, French immersion Résumé Alors que les livres bilingues deviennent de plus en plus populaires en didactique des langues, la recherche commence à s’intéresser aux comportements cognitifs de l’élève qui s’engage dans la lecture de ces œuvres. Dans cet article, à la lumière de ces études, nous relatons les résultats d’une recherche qualitative visant à décrire les stratégies de lecture que trois élèves de 3e année scolarisés en Saskatchewan en immersion française déploient lorsqu’ils lisent deux types de livres bilingues : le livre traduit, dans lequel tout le texte apparait en français et en anglais, et le livre intégré, dans lequel le texte en français complète celui en anglais, sans toutefois offrir au lecteur la même information. Cette étude de cas multiple relève donc trois profils distincts de lecteur et, par son entremise, nous montrons comment des stratégies de lecture monolingues et translinguistiques peuvent être utilisées par un même élève lorsqu’il lit un livre bilingue. Nous révélons en outre que certains élèves sont à même d’adapter leurs stratégies de lecture selon le type de livre bilingue lu, tandis que d’autres font fréquemment usage des mêmes stratégies. Mots-clés : livres bilingues, stratégies de lecture, immersion française


Author(s):  
Chiara Galletti

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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-185
Author(s):  
Jesse Aberbach

This article considers how the children's books written by two nineteenth-century female writers, Eliza Tabor and Mary Martha Sherwood, when they accompanied their husbands to India, enabled them to navigate this new environment and their position as respectable middle-class women while revealing how India was deemed a place where British childhood was impossible. Just as many women took up botanical study to legitimise their ‘otherwise transgressive presence in imperial spaces’ (McEwan 219), writing for children enabled others to engage with the masculine world of travelling and earning money without compromising their femininity. Addressing their work to children also seems to have helped both writers to deal with the absence of their own children: the Indian climate made it impossibly challenging for most British infants and children. In this way their writing gives expression to what might be termed a crisis of imperial motherhood. Underlying the texts is an anxiety relating to British settlement and an attempt to comprehend and control a place that threatened their maternal roles.


2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Joosen

Compared to the attention that children's literature scholars have paid to the construction of childhood in children's literature and the role of adults as authors, mediators and readers of children's books, few researchers have made a systematic study of adults as characters in children's books. This article analyses the construction of adulthood in a selection of texts by the Dutch author and Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award winner Guus Kuijer and connects them with Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's recent concept of ‘childism’ – a form of prejudice targeted against children. Whereas Kuijer published a severe critique of adulthood in Het geminachte kind [The despised child] (1980), in his literary works he explores a variety of positions that adults can take towards children, with varying degrees of childist features. Such a systematic and comparative analysis of the way grown-ups are characterised in children's texts helps to shed light on a didactic potential that materialises in different adult subject positions. After all, not only literary and artistic aspects of children's literature may be aimed at the adult reader (as well as the child), but also the didactic aspect of children's books can cross over between different age groups.


2014 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-221
Author(s):  
Jane Apostol

Natural scientist Charles Frederick Holder settled in Pasadena in 1885. As a prolific author, lecturer, and editor, Holder was a key promoter of the region, sport fishing, and natural science. He wrote popular children’s books as well. He is also remembered as an influential figure in education and the arts and as a founder of the Tuna Club on Santa Catalina Island and the Valley Hunt Club in Pasadena and its Tournament of Roses.


2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Ramesh Nair

Children's literature serves as a powerful medium through which children construct messages about their roles In society and gender Identity is often central to this construction. Although possessing mental schemas about gender differences is helpful when children organize their ideas of the world around them, problems occur when children are exposed to a constant barrage of uncompromising, gender-schematic sources that lead to stereotyping which in turn represses the full development of the child. This paper focuses on how gender is represented in a selection of Malaysian children's books published in the English language. Relying on the type of content analysis employed by previous feminist social science researchers, I explore this selection of Malaysian children's books for young children and highlight some areas of concern with regard to the construction of maleness and femaleness in these texts. The results reveal Imbalances at various levels Including the distribution of main, supporting and minor characters along gendered lines and the positioning of male and female characters In the visual Illustrations. The stereotyping of these characters In terms of their behavioural traits will be discussed with the aim of drawing attention to the need for us to take concerted measures to provide our children with books that will help them realize their potential to the fullest.


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