Examining meaning making from reading wordless picture books in Chinese and English by three bilingual children

Abstract

This qualitative study examined three bilingual children’s (aged 2, 3 and 4) meaning making and storytelling in relation to five wordless picture books over a period of 10 weeks. Guided by the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model the children were asked to read each book through four stages in both English and Chinese: I Read You Listen, I Read You help, You Read I help and You Read I Listen. The results suggested that the children applied a variety of techniques in their meaning-making process and that there were commonalities among the strategies they used as well as differences due to age, personal experiences and language ability. The children interacted with these books by making different connections and prompts from adults were also useful in facilitating their storytelling. Finally, the children’s preferences for language use and their unique characteristics in storytelling were also discussed.