Activating diversity: The use of dual language books for critical plurilingual education

This paper presents an action research which aimed at exploring the implementation of multilingual storytelling with the use of dual language picture books among young learners in a pre-school class in order to promote critical multilingual awareness (García, 2017) and intercultural competence for fostering diversity, social equity and linguistic justice (Piller, 2021). Throughout the four research cycles of the action research, the children were actively engaged with multilingual books and plurilingual activities, including and voicing minoritised and ‘invisibilised’ languages in class, thus opening a ‘window’ to the rich linguistic diversity in society beyond the languages validated in school education. The research data was collected through the use of multiple and multimodal research tools which included observation, group discussions with the children, interviews with parents while also, drawing from an arts-based visual methodology, students’ language portraits, concept maps and Dominant Language Constellations (DLCs) (Aronin, 2019). After presenting parts of the action research cycles, we discuss the research findings, with a focus on the children’s DLC models, visualizing their perceptions, feelings and lived experiences with multilingualism through their active engagement with the multilingual books and activities. Implications of the findings are discussed for the multiple potentialities of dual language books in striving for a more inclusive and emancipatory language education, which can develop critical multilingual awareness and promote linguistic justice