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Bridging the Language Gap Using Bilingual Picture Books
There are more than 39 million Hispanics live in the United
States making it the fifth largest Spanish-speaking nation in the
world. It is estimated that within five years, only Mexico will
have more Spanish-speakers than the U.S. Schools are offering
bilingual courses and fully integrated bilingual curriculum. In
some areas of the country , Spanish even exceeds English as the
first language of the residents. Families are integrating
languages into their neighborhoods regularly.
We propose bridging the language gap with bilingual picture
books that both educate and entertain. The presence of both
English and Spanish in the same book allows cross-cultural access
and language development. Reading is a wonderful family
experience which allows children to explore character
development, expanding imagination and develop problem solving
skills. The addition of another language educates and the
illustrations in a picture book support the learning in an
entertaining way.
Raven Tree Press offer bilingual books in a variety of styles
and choices.
Full text translation-Full text translation means the text of
the story is presented in English and then again in Spanish. Both
texts are generally placed on the page with an icon separating
the two for ease of reading. A different ink color is also
generally used to further offset the two languages.
Embedded text-Take a story in English and sprinkle in a little
Spanish. We call it embedded text. The word that will be embedded
is usually first introduced in English and then reiterated in the
sentence, or at least in the same paragraph in Spanish later.
Once the word is introduced, it can be used again and again in
context of the story. The context of the story and the
illustrations are of utmost importance when using embedded text
as they aid in making the leap from one language to another.
Wordless-Can a wordless book be effective in learning
language? Definitely! Wordless picture books and picture books
with limited words are both beautiful and educational. They help
children develop language, creative thinking and enhance future
reading and writing skills. Using wordless picture books,
children learn that reading follows a left-to-right pattern. They
learn that stories generally have a beginning, a middle section
and an ending. They also learn to identify details, see cause and
effect, make judgements and draw conclusions. We present an
instruction page in both English and Spanish for creative uses of
our books.
Concept Bilingual-In concept bilingual books, we take one
concept of language and focus strictly on that. Counting, for
example. The story is presented in English, but the concept
(numbers in this case) are presented in both English and Spanish.
Keywords are easily learned using this format.
Raven Tree Press includes an English/Spanish vocabulary page
to help readers with keywords in either language.
Raven Tree Press children's bilingual picture books are
available at favorite bookstores, online booksellers and at the
publisher's web site www.raventreepress.com.
Publisher Note: Book excerpts and artwork can be imbedded in
this article easily to clarify points if interested. Please
contact me for further details.
Raven Tree Press is an independent book publisher specializing
in bilingual picture books in English and Spanish.
Contact: Raven Tree Press
Dawn Jeffers, Publisher
www.raventreepress.com
dawn@raventreepress.com
920-438-1605 phone
920-438-1607 fax
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