LC Language Adventures 2024 (A5) - Flipbook - Page 8
School library: authentic and dual/multiple languages resources
Fairytales, nursery rhymes, comic strips and other texts reflect the cultures
wherein they originated. It is important to enable access to original texts,
because these texts also reflect the contexts of the countries where those
languages are spoken and therefore present cultural clues.
Other resources, such as dual language books, help pupils access simple texts,
explore their illustrations, hear and read stories. Pupils and parents/guardians
who are competent in different languages can be asked to read for others. Dual
language texts also offer wonderful opportunities to identify how some
languages use different registers for formal and informal interactions, for
example, the difference between “tú” and “usted” in Spanish (and their
equivalents in other languages), both translating as the English “you”
respectively in informal and formal contexts. In many languages, gender, i.e.,
masculine or feminine is attributed to inanimate objects and things. After
centuries of referring to the sun as masculine (“il sole”) and the moon as
feminine (“la luna”), and with so many references in literature, songs, art and
other linguistic expressions, Italian speakers (and their counterparts in other
languages) might struggle not to think about these nouns in those terms.
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