How can picturebooks and stories transform the way children learn languages and navigate digital spaces in the primary classroom?

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Macleroy, Vicky; Sahmland, Susi and Hackney, Claire. 2024. How can picturebooks and stories transform the way children learn languages and navigate digital spaces in the primary classroom? In: Grit Bergner and Charlott Falkenhagen, eds. Storytelling in Primary CLIL. Herne, Germany: Gabriele Schafer Verlag. ISBN 9783910594043 [Book Section]

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Abstract or Description

The research presented in this chapter demonstrates how picturebooks and stories can open up possibilities for more sustainable, creative and multimodal approaches to learning new languages in the primary classroom. We look at the importance of children’s literature, stories and CLIL in creating welcoming learning environments for languages and how multilingual literacy can be developed using digital technology, including multilingual digital storytelling. Fostering teacher agency is key to this story-based approach and developing deeper motivation to teach primary languages. We describe the context for teaching primary languages in England and show how a new story-based pedagogical approach is vital to enhance the confidence of primary teachers. We adopt a critical ethnographic approach towards language planning and policy and the research focuses on action research carried out in a London primary school. The new whole-school primary languages curriculum analysed in this chapter has been developed from the ongoing collaborative research between the teacher educator/researcher, Sahmland, and lead German teacher/researcher, Hackney, and the school is part of the Critical Connections Project co-directed by Macleroy. We conclude with research findings from a year-long study using a picturebook to teach German that reveal the impact of using stories in the primary languages classroom.

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