Books, in all their forms, allow us to learn and to keep ourselves informed. They also entertain us and help us to understand the world, while offering a window into otherness. For books to be able to unleash their full potential, it is essential that they reflect the linguistic diversity of our world.
AUDREY AZOULAY, DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNESCO, ON THE OCCASION OF WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY 2024
My grandfather was the one who introduced me to the magical world of reading. Recognising that learning to read for pleasure is a fundamental life skill, like biking or swimming, he made it a priority to instil in me a love for books from a very early age. Those moments spent with him, immersed in stories and adventures in both Bulgarian and Russian, remain the fondest memories of my childhood. He took time for me, turning pages together, and it meant the world. Inspired by his example, I have always wanted to give the same gift to my children – not just in terms of literacy, but also as a gateway to a richer language, imagination, memories and a sanctuary of knowledge. A world of opportunity, joy and a safe space to explore. That is why we all need to encourage reading in every form.
The „What“
But how about bilingual readers? Are they different from their monolingual peers? Do they get confused and overwhelmed with the various languages and writing systems they face? The short answer is – No, they don’t. Contrary to what a lot of people might believe, building a solid foundation in the home language(s), including reading and writing, serves as an excellent starting point for a child’s bilingual journey. Acquiring and cultivating abilities in two languages during the early years, particularly through reading, allows for language transfer and promotes language awareness. As I’ve written before, languages in the brain rely on each other for support in pursuit of their primary objective – communication. Therefore, focusing on the home language and home-language literacy will not take precious time away from mastering the school language. Just the opposite – it will enhance it! And reading to your child from an early age (as early as the final trimester of pregnancy!), is one of the best gifts you can give them.
One excellent way to enhance and enrich your home reading routines is by incorporating multimodal strategies. These strategies involve engaging children through various senses, abilities and modes of communication, seamlessly blending sound, gestures, speech, images and text. This approach is highly effective for developing both the mechanical skills for reading (decoding) and comprehension. Not only does it accommodate different learning styles (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic or tactile), but it also helps them discover new ways of engaging with texts and motivates them by leveraging their strengths. This way, your child can encounter text in varied contexts, reinforcing vocabulary, comprehension and language acquisition. This dynamic approach makes reading more interesting, interactive, engaging and enjoyable for your child by accommodating their unique learning styles and needs along with catering to children who have different needs.
The „Why“
Multimodal approaches have the power to boost motivation, optimise information processing and retention. By using such approaches, your child will have an opportunity to perceive and interpret information from their environment in ways that work best for them and their learning style(s), which leads to an opportunity to engage with the the reading materials in ways that match their individual strengths and preferences, leading to deeper understanding and much more meaningful learning experiences. Additionally, these approaches also encourage active participation. Once you start experimenting with various ways to engage your child with reading practices, they will feel encouraged to explore and experiment. That will offer them a more immersive experience, ultimately boosting their learning outcomes.
Multimodal strategies can work wonders in grabbing your child’s attention and motivation by providing engaging multisensory experiences tailored to their preferences. And, as we all know well, convincing children to read, especially in a language that is not part of their school curriculum, can be quite a challenge. While the benefits of reading are undeniably solid, logical arguments may fall flat when competing with outdoor play, video games or TV. That’s where multimodal strategies shine – they offer a great opportunity to inspire your child to read (a bit) more in your native language and ultimately – in any language.
Multimodal Approaches: 1
Traditional Reading: 0
Understanding Multilingual Reading Development
Reading skills are essential for all children for their academic success, language proficiency and cognitive development. Reading helps children learn how to navigate diverse linguistic and cultural contexts. It serves as a powerful tool for preserving and promoting your home languages and cultures. It allows children to connect with their heritage, identity and community, fostering a sense of pride and belonging. By engaging with literature in their native languages, your child will gain valuable insights into diverse cultural perspectives, traditions and values, enriching their linguistic and cultural repertoire holistically.
The „How“
Bilingual children often face various unique challenges in their reading development, including, but not limited to, limited vocabulary in certain contexts, decoding difficulties or comprehension challenges, especially when navigating multiple languages. Some of these challenges can manifest both in the home language and in the language of instruction at school. One effective strategy to address and deal with some of these challenges is to utilise translanguaging when reading at home. By making use of a child’s full (linguistic) repertoire to facilitate communication and comprehension, parents can provide contextual support, clarify meanings and enrich vocabulary and comprehension skills, ultimately fostering a more robust reading experience. Here is one example of a father reading to his daughter, building her English language skills:
The parent (Ian) combines English and Korean in a variety of ways to make sure the child (Jessie) understands the story and the conversation they are having around it. For example, he repeats the Korean words that Jessie says and then asks a question using the same word “friend”, but this time in English. Ian often accommodates the multimodal structures he uses while reading with his daughter to accomodate her preferences.
Implementing Multimodal Strategies at Home
It might not always be easy to come up with ideas for multimodal strategies to support your child’s reading skills. I am going to simplify the process for you and offer you ten effective and easy-to-implement strategies that can help you encourage, develop and support your child’s reading skills in the home / target language. Here’s to creativity, lots of patience, persistance and a sense of humour. Let’s dive in!
1.Interactive storytelling
Interactive storytelling brings reading to life by incorporating actions during reading time. This means using, visual aids, gestures and props to enhance comprehension and encourage active participation. By incorporating such visual and kinesthetic elements into storytelling sessions, your child is more likely to stay engaged and remember key information along the way.
2. Bilingual books
Bilingual books will expose your child to their languages in a fun and engaging way, helping them to draw parallels between them, thus promoting language development. Reading bilingual books allows children to make connections between languages, enhancing their linguistic flexibility and expanding their vocabulary.
3. Audio books
Audio books support reading comprehension and language acquisition, particularly for auditory learners or children with visual impairments. By listening to narrated stories, children develop listening skills, language fluency and phonemic awareness (the ability to recognise and manipulate individual sounds in spoken language), while also expanding their vocabulary. Additionally, audio books provide a great way for children to engage with books independently, promoting self-directed learning and fostering a love for reading. By embracing audio books, children can access a wider range of literature in their home language, enriching their reading experience and broadening their literary horizons.
4. “Talking” books
Also known as interactive books or sound books, they are an excellent resource for early literacy and are particularly suitable for little ones, yet equally beneficial for language development and vocabulary expansion for the early years. These books often feature buttons or tabs that children can press to hear sounds, music or voices that go with the story or illustrations. They engage children’s senses, spark curiosity and capture their attention, making the reading experience interactive and enjoyable. By linking sounds with words and images, talking books help young readers develop phonemic awareness, vocabulary and comprehension skills in a playful and engaging manner.
5. Making letters out of playdough or similar materials
Using playdough or similar materials to create letters provides a hands-on and tactile approach to learning. A lot of children learn better by touching and physically working the material. By making letters themselves, they can manipulate the dough to form each letter, reinforcing letter recognition and promoting fine motor skills development. Arranging the letters to form words can be the next step. This multisensory activity engages both visual and tactile learners.
6. Using plastic / magnetic letters
Plastic or magnetic letters offer a hands-on tool for practicing letter recognition, spelling and word formation. Children can arrange the letters to form words, sentences or even very short stories, fostering literacy skills development in a playful and interactive way. Additionally, the feedback provided by touching and working with the letters reinforces kinesthetic learning and can be helpful with memory retention.
7. Writing in sand
Writing in sand engages both visual and tactile learners. Children can use their fingers or small tools to trace letters in the sand, promoting kinesthetic learning, practising letter and word formation, while also encouraging experimentation and creativity.
8. Making collages
Collages offer a creative and interactive way to incorporate reading skills and artistic play. Your child can use a variety of materials, such as magazine cutouts, fabric scraps and craft supplies, to create works that incorporate letters, shapes and characters from their favorite stories. A word of caution here – think twice before even starting to entertain the idea of glitter! Make sure to display their signed creations too (although I am quite aware of the space factor, or lack thereof). Your home probably already looks like an art gallery but do it anyway and consider exchanging some of the art that’s hanging already.
9. Language games
Word / Letter games such as Scrabble or looking for rhymes can be a great addition to your repertoire. They will challenge your child to think critically, improve their spelling and reading skills. Some of them can be played anywhere and can be easily incorporated into daily routines, such as during a car ride or while taking a walk.
10. Using technology
In today’s digital world, technology offers an incredible number of resources to support language and literacy development in many different languages. I will not even pretend to know what you should be looking for because I have no idea what is available in each language. Encouraging children to use educational apps, language learning websites or online dictionaries can supplement their reading practice and expose them to new words and concepts. Make sure to turn on the captions / subtitles when viable for any shows, films or videos your child watches. By providing visual reinforcement of spoken words, captions help children make connections between written and spoken language, improve their comprehension skills and reinforce spelling and grammar rules. As a result, they are more likely to identify certain words in a text and remember them at a later point based on the context where they’ve encountered it. An excellent multimodal approach that can be used both at home and on the go.
Overcoming Challenges
It all sounds bougie but how are you supposed to find the time for all of this? You don’t have to do it all at once, start with one or two things you can do to enhance your child’s reading skills. These are all suggestions that you can pick and choose to spice up your reading practice at home whiles supporting your child’s learning style effectively. Try it on the weekend when you have a bit more time. I want to make your life easier, not harder! Reach out to your child’s teacher or to us and have a chat. Your child’s teacher can provide a lot of information, valuable insights and resources. Language professionals like us can offer specialised support and guidance tailored to your child’s language development goals.
This is the longest post I have written but it’s totally worth it. Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end! Well, almost. Let me just say this and close for today – multimodal approaches are important for engagement, motivation and retention. Studies have shown that they have positive effects on literacy skills, including decoding, spelling and comprehension. Multimodal approaches offer a diversified way to support reading development, enrich your child’s storytelling experiences and serve as powerful tools for learning and practising reading skills.
Make sure to try one of the ten ideas. Embrace your role as facilitator of language learning and literacy development. You are the gateway to your child’s heritage and identity development; help them celebrate it and revel in it. Explore, collaborate and share your experiences with other like-minded families and educators, because you are not alone and leaning on your community can be very helpful.
And if you found this post helpful, watch out for my next one on multimodal meaning-making for literacy development by utilising translanguaging at home. There are lots of very helpful ways to do that while building on your child’s language knowledge and literacy skills.
Resources:
- Chumak-Horbatsch, R. (2019) Using linguistically appropriate practice. A guide for teaching in multilingual classrooms. Bristol: Multilingual Matters
- Fälth, L. et al. (2023) ‘The Effects of a Multimodal Intervention on the Reading Skills of Struggling Students: An Exploration Across Countries’, Reading Psychology, 44(3), pp. 225–241. doi: 10.1080/02702711.2022.2141399
- Kiaer, J. (2023) Multimodal communication in young multilingual children. Learning beyond words. Bristol: Multilingual Matters
- Kuhl P. K. (2004) ‘Early language acquisition: cracking the speech code.’ Nat Rev Neurosci., Nov;5(11), pp.831-43. doi: 10.1038/nrn1533. PMID: 15496861.
- Shimek, C. (2023) ’“The Best Thing I Can Do for Readers Is Read!”: How One Teacher Conducts Interactive Multimodal Read-Alouds Using Nonfiction Picture Books‘, The Reading Teacher, 77(4), pp. 495-507.
- https://www.edutopia.org/article/reading-instruction-multimodal-elementary/
- https://www.gse.upenn.edu/news/educators-playbook/literacy-at-home-activities
- https://www.improvingliteracy.org/brief/supporting-your-childs-literacy-development-home/index.html
