Kenner, Charmian; Al-Azami, Salman; Gregory, Eve E. and Ruby, Mahera. 2008. Bilingual poetry: expanding the cognitive and cultural dimensions of children’s learning. Literacy, 42(2), pp. 92-100. ISSN 1741-4350 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

Stories and poetry have long been considered a resource for the language and literacy development of bilingual children, particularly if they can work with texts in both mother tongue and English. This paper demonstrates that bilingual learning is also beneficial for second and third generation children whose English is often stronger than their mother tongue. Presenting data from an action research project in East London primary schools, we show how children investigated metaphor and cultural content in a Bengali lullaby, clarifying concepts through dialogue with their parents. Comparison with a lullaby in English from North America generated additional ideas concerning different cultural values. The learning process enabled children to use their bilingual skills and draw on different aspects of their bicultural identities. Finally, we explain how bilingual poetry can be used to stimulate learning in a multilingual classroom context, through the example of a whole-class lesson based around Bengali and English lullabies.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	bilingualism, biculturalism, poetry, metaphor, Bengali, learner identities
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Educational Studies > Centre for Language, Culture and Learning
Dates:	Date Event July 2008 Published
Funders:	Funding body Funder ID Grant Number ESRC UNSPECIFIED
Item ID:	4531
Date Deposited:	23 Nov 2010 14:35
Last Modified:	29 Apr 2020 15:49
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/4531

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