A Multimodal Exploration of Non-Fiction Read-Aloud Performances in English as an Additional Language

This book explores how children and adults co-construct meaning during non-fiction picturebook read-aloud performances in English as an Additional Language context. At a time when non-fiction picturebooks are receiving growing attention for their potential to communicate knowledge in creative and engaging ways, this volume takes a closer look at how these books can be mediated for children’s language education. The book draws on the TALES (Telling and Listening to Eco-sustainable Stories) initiative organized by the Teacher education Department of the University of Udine (Italy) in collaboration with the local Natural History Museum. Focusing on mediation as a dynamic, multimodal process, the book examines how storytellers use spoken language, gesture, gaze, voice, facial expressions and props to scaffold children’s comprehension and invite active participation. While the findings are context-specific, they may inform educators, researchers, and teacher educators interested in multimodal mediation for communicating knowledge and information through non-fiction picturebooks in contexts where English as an additional language is used.