Type of Submission
Poster
Keywords
bilingual picture book, education students, monolingual attitudes, undergraduate education, minority languages
Proposal
Given that 22% of Americans do not exclusively speak English at home, it is important for educators to be informed about bilingual resources. Picture books have long been researched by those in the education profession, but little research has been conducted on bilingual picture books and the attitudes toward them. This case study addresses that research gap. To do so, the researcher collected a sample of picture books (half bilingual and half monolingual) from the Curriculum Materials Center (CMC) of a university in the Midwestern US and questionnaire responses from five monolingual undergraduate students to compare the attitudes of education and non-education students toward bilingual picture books. This case study revealed that while education students’ attitudes toward bilingual picture books were more nuanced than non-education students, all students with limited exposure to bilingualism indicated hesitation and a lack of awareness concerning the uses and effects of bilingual books regardless of their major. These findings reflect preexisting literature, suggesting that educators and education students need more exposure to bilingual resources in order to effectively teach the growing number of minority language speakers in their classrooms and that conversely, educators who have seen the benefits of bilingual resources are more prepared to teach in such environments.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Publication Date
2024
Monolingual Attitudes Toward Bilingual Picture Books: A Comparative Case Study of American College Students
Given that 22% of Americans do not exclusively speak English at home, it is important for educators to be informed about bilingual resources. Picture books have long been researched by those in the education profession, but little research has been conducted on bilingual picture books and the attitudes toward them. This case study addresses that research gap. To do so, the researcher collected a sample of picture books (half bilingual and half monolingual) from the Curriculum Materials Center (CMC) of a university in the Midwestern US and questionnaire responses from five monolingual undergraduate students to compare the attitudes of education and non-education students toward bilingual picture books. This case study revealed that while education students’ attitudes toward bilingual picture books were more nuanced than non-education students, all students with limited exposure to bilingualism indicated hesitation and a lack of awareness concerning the uses and effects of bilingual books regardless of their major. These findings reflect preexisting literature, suggesting that educators and education students need more exposure to bilingual resources in order to effectively teach the growing number of minority language speakers in their classrooms and that conversely, educators who have seen the benefits of bilingual resources are more prepared to teach in such environments.
