Early Language Education in Instructed Contexts
Chapter: Intercultural and Citizenship Objectives through Picturebooks in Early Language Learning Teacher-made Resources for Taking Action Projects
- Contributors
- Editors
- Publisher
- Year
- ISBN
- Language
- Nayr Ibrahim & Sandie Mourão
- Stefanie Frisch & Karen Glaser
- John Benjamins
- 2025
- 9789027223449
- English
Book Description
This volume presents state-of-the-art research in early foreign language (L2) education in instructed contexts with a special focus on primary school (ages 5-12). Over the past two decades, early language teaching has become an important factor in both academic inquiry and education policy. Studies have attested to the value of early L2 learning but also revealed specific features and challenges, which highlights the need for more high-quality empirical research. This book addresses this need by presenting current international research on early L2 teaching and learning in regular and CLIL contexts in the primary school setting. Uniting insights from 12 countries, the studies shed light on current issues such as teaching and assessment practice, emerging L2 literacy instruction, teaching materials, and teachers’, parents’ and learners’ perspectives. The volume thus contributes significantly to the advancement of early language education and is an essential resource for researchers and educators in the field.
Chapter Description
Intercultural and Citizenship Objectives through Picturebooks in Early Language Learning Teacher-made Resources for Taking Action Projects by Nayr Ibrahim & Sandie Mourão
This chapter describes a continuing professional development course (the ICEPro Course) which aimed to empower teachers and learners to become democratic citizens and proffers a case for intercultural citizenship education through picturebooks. The main pedagogical frameworks and models developed for the ICEPro Course — the Picturebook Selection Guide and a template for the teacher made resources (ICEKits) — are presented to establish whether they support practitioners in developing intercultural and citizenship objectives. Using data from the ICEKits, participant evaluation surveys, recordings of teacher presentations and teacher reflections suggest that the pedagogical frameworks, models and modelling are successful. However, implications for teacher education stress the need to provide additional support in the form of mentoring within a sustained professional development experience.