Children's Literature

Careful thought and consideration needs to be given when choosing literature for English Language Learners. ELL learners often face challenges decoding unfamiliar texts because of the setting, vocabulary, structure, or even cultural differences. If a child has limited background, it is likely to affect their comprehension of the story and can often lead to frustration.

The book, Cendrillon, is one book that I believe would cause frustration. This particular book is a Caribbean Cinderella story. This book would be difficult for an ELL student for several reasons. First of all, the book contains some difficult vocabulary (christening, hollow, gilded) all of which would need to be addressed before reading. Also the book takes place in the Carribean and contains not only English words, but traces of French as well, which could be difficult for students assuming their first language is not French. For example, blanchisseuse, agoutis, and granmaison. An average reader could possibly figure out the meaning of most of these words simply by using the context of the story; however, the use of context clues to infer meaning is not always successful with ELL students. I also have to wonder if the language structures of the story might be challenging. One part of the text reads, “Upon my soul, I promise this.” Beginning a sentence with upon is bound to cause trouble. An ELL student might bring some background knowledge of the Cinderella story; however, I believe this version contains too many cultural differences, of which most students will struggle with.

The second book I believe ELL students will have a difficult time with is Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. This book is difficult for several reasons. The first being that it is written in poetry form and therefore the structure alone might throw them off. In addition, it contains many metaphors. For example it reads, “The trees stood still as giant statues” and “The moon made his face into a silver mask.” These metaphors could be tricky for a second language student, especially if they do not have any background knowledge of how metaphors work.

Choosing the right book may be one of the most difficult, and most important parts of teaching ELL students. When evaluating books there are several things to consider:

• The length and complexity of the story.

• The amount of new or unfamiliar vocabulary.

• Whether or not the illustrations are supportive and can help the student make meaning of the text.

• The structure of the text.

• The student’s background knowledge they might bring to the text.

• Differences in culture, which may cause confusion or misconceptions.