This chapter explores the possibilities of exploiting multilingual picturebooks for foreign and additional language learning both at pre-school and the junior cycle level of primary education. The study aims to adapt the pedagogic strategy designed by Louie and Sierschynski to enhance language development through wordless picturebooks by implementing multilingual picturebooks instead. Following a brief contextualisation to evaluate the potential of multilingual picturebooks to facilitate additional language learning, the four-stepped strategy is succinctly outlined; subsequently, a modified version of said strategy is proposed, integrating the linguistic support in two or more languages that may be absent in wordless picturebooks. While underscoring translanguaging practices and spaces as pivotal tools for facilitating meaning negotiation and co-construction, the chapter introduces supplementary practices and techniques to align with the guidelines presented by Louie and Sierschynski in the context of multilingual picturebooks. The chapter concludes by contemplating the possibilities beyond translanguaging practices, such as interacting with visual or tactile pedagogical resources when utilising multilingual picturebooks and recommending their integration into a revised version of the pedagogical strategy.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032655376-13
Publish Year: 2025
