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

---

What Does an Interpreter Do?

Many people get confused as to the difference between an... Read More

Mexican Living: Todays Obsession

I would like to talk about one of my many... Read More

English Has Come A Long, Long Way...

I often wonder what would happen if Shakespeare were to... Read More

Show Me the Bunny: Language Acquisition

Some children are really funny about experimenting with speech. Nonetheless,... Read More

Japanese Kanji Learning: Short-Cuts to Rapid Mastery (Part 2)

In Japanese Kanji Learning: Short-Cuts to Rapid Mastery Part 1,... Read More

Learn Italian in Your Hometown

Are you interested in learning the Italian language right in... Read More

How To Learn Spanish Quickly and Easily

Spanish is a very useful language to learn as it... Read More

Learning a Foreign Language: Learn from the Blind

In a previous article, you read that to establih your... Read More

Teaching Reading to English Language Learners

There is an increasing amount of English language learners represented... Read More

Learn to Speak Basic Chinese (Mandarin) Words and Phrases

The Chinese Language and dialectsEach province, each city and even... Read More

How Ronzoni Italian Foods Helped My Dad Learn English

My dad likes to say, he was made in Italy,... Read More

7 Words Americans Should Stop Using Until Further Investigation

Relationship: Here is a word that is used to qualify,... Read More

Learning a Foreign Language: Why Should you Learn Words You Never Use in Your Mother Tongue?

Imagine a child sitting in front of a desk, his... Read More

Bridging the Language Gap Using Bilingual Picture Books

There are more than 39 million Hispanics live in the... Read More

Learn Italian in Italy

You can combine your love of the Italian language with... Read More

Uncommon Facts / Rules of English Language

English is an international language. It has so many grammar... Read More

Second Language Competence Beneficial but often Misunderstood

Second language learning has associated with it many types of... Read More

Preschool Spanish

Why an EarlyAGE 2nd Language?Research indicates that from ages 1... Read More

Learning a Foreign Language: the Ventriloquists Lesson

The main feature you have to master, in order to... Read More

Japanese Kanji Learning: Short-Cuts to Rapid Mastery (Part 1)

What? Kanji can be learned quickly? This seems an impossible... Read More

Learn Korean: Part 1 - Asian Languages and Language Families

So, you have always been fascinated by Asian culture have... Read More

English Language Sputtering Online Like an Old Ford!

Sad, but true. Just about everywhere you look online, the... Read More

Don?t Take The Romaji Short-Cut When Learning Japanese

This is an issue many Japanese learners come up against,... Read More

Teaching English in Greece - What Do You Need to Know?

The employment situation can be quite uncertain for newcomers to... Read More

Can You Understand English?

There is a lot of talk about making English the... Read More

Chinese Pinyin or Hanyu Pinyin Overview

Chinese Pinyin is the romanization of the Chinese "written sound".... Read More

English Slang For Perplexed Tourists

I watched the British version of 'Big Brother' recently. That's... Read More

Whats In A Word? More Than You Realize

What's in a word? Apparently more than we might want.For... Read More

Learn Italian for Free

Italian is one of the most widespread languages in the... Read More

Online IELTS Preparation - Why Does It Make Sense?

Because IELTS is a difficult test. While most agree that... Read More

Learn Korean: Part 2 - Social Status in Culture

Part 1 of this series covered the language and language... Read More

GROUSE ... GROUSE ... GROUSE!!!

I realize that we here in the United States consider... Read More

Learning French in Paris

Nothing can be more frustrating than to be in France... Read More