Shared reading of wordless picturebooks for children’s multilingual and multimodal learning

Shared reading, the practice of an adult reading a picturebook with one or more children, holds value for supporting young children’s multilingual learning and multimodal literacy, that is, their capacity to interpret and use different linguistic and non-linguistic modes. However, very few studies have examined the potential of the shared reading of wordless picturebooks (WPBs), in which meanings are constructed through visual resources (e.g. images). Drawing on the concept of translanguaging and social semiotic theory, the present study examined how 15 Chinese-English bilingual parents and their 4-to-5-year-old children interacted with two award-winning WPBs–Sunshine [Ormerod 1981. Penguin Books Ltd] and Wave [Lee 2008. Chronicle Books]. We then interviewed the parents about their language use during these shared reading interactions. The analysis reveals that WPBs provide a translanguaging space where parents and children flexibly employ various linguistic and non-linguistic resources. It also demonstrates that WPBs vary in their potential to promote multilingual children’s basic interpersonal communication skills and academic language proficiency, while providing opportunities to extend children’s multimodal literacy. The findings have implications for efforts to promote multilingualism and multimodal literacy in early childhood.