ERIC Number: EJ1419491
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1479-0718
EISSN: EISSN-1747-7530
The Benefits of Multilingual Pedagogies for Multilingual Children's Narrative Abilities
International Journal of Multilingualism, v21 n2 p645-669 2024
The present study investigates whether exposure to multilingual pedagogies enhances emergent bilingual children's narrative abilities. These abilities are among the most reliable indicators of children's literacy skills. We compare two groups of emergent bilingual children with migrant background attending the fourth and fifth grade of a public primary school in Italy: 30 children were exposed to multilingual pedagogies, whereas 33 attended a 'traditional' monoglossic program. The results show that children exposed to multilingual pedagogies use more mental state terms in their narratives in both their home language and Italian than children exposed to monoglossic education. Furthermore children exposed to multilingual pedagogies exhibit similar patterns of use of mental state terms across the two languages. By contrast, the production of mental state terms differs across the two languages among the children exposed to monoglossic education. The qualitative analysis of the narratives shows that the home and the school language dynamically interact with each other regarding the construction of the narrative among the children exposed to multilingual pedagogies. The children attending monoglossic programs rely mostly on literal translations. The study shows that multilingual pedagogies boost emergent bilinguals' literacy skills and enable them to access these skills from all languages in their repertoire.
Descriptors: Multilingualism, Teaching Methods, Educational Benefits, Native Language, Second Language Learning, Language Usage, Bilingualism, Comparative Analysis, Grade 4, Grade 5, Elementary School Students, Italian, Bilingual Education, Narration, Language Skills, Foreign Countries, Metacognition, Language Proficiency, Cloze Procedure, Monolingualism
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education; Grade 4; Intermediate Grades; Grade 5; Middle Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Italy
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A