Mediating digital screens with very young emerging bilinguals

Abstract

© 2020, © 2020 the National Association for Bilingual Education. There is vast potential for digital screens to support early bilingualism. For the most part, however, young children require human mediation with what is generated by screens in order for language and pre-literacy learning to occur. What does that mediation look like when multimodal elements are designed to support children’s language and culture learning? This study examines instructional interactions around Digital Fairytales, multimedia language, and culture material designed for teaching and learning the Russian language and culture. Bilingual classroom integrations of Digital Fairytales were recorded and teachers interviewed. Analyses point to specific mediation tactics that teachers employed that capitalized on the producerly pleasures inherent in shared digital screen experiences. Through these analyses, we see the potential of digital screens to support mediated bilingual learning.