Stories Make Readers: Enhancing the Use of Fictional Literature With Multilingual Students

Introduction

Literature is beneficial for human growth and education: it supports the development of thinking, promotes readers imagination, gives information about life, society, and language, and allows readers to experience various cultures, people, and life situations with empathy (Aerila, 2010; Nussbaum, 2005). It also plays a key role in language acquisition. Using literature in multilingual and second language classes can promote literacy skills and help children adapt to second language instruction. Literature can act as a change-agent because it deals with real-life situations and aspects of humans and can therefore affect children’s development and help establish positive relational and intracultural attitudes (Alverman & Phelps, 1998). In multilingual and multicultural settings, literature can have special value for recognizing cultural roots and affirming identity of individuals. Children’s literature acts as a cultural and linguistic resource for individuals of different ages and gives opportunities for interpretation, reflection, and discussion to children and adults; therefore, it increases the sense of language/cultural community and creates opportunities to be active (Ilyas, 2016; see also Curtin in this volume).

Exposure to fictional books enhances the development of second language skills because reading literature positively affects vocabulary growth, reading rate, the amount of reading, and motivation to read (Lao & Krashen, 2000). Literature can be used in several areas composing second language acquisition (Alisaari, 2016), and it is particularly effective in increasing vocabulary and literacy skills. The connection between literature and word study is an important notion because communication is challenging without sufficient vocabulary (Hulstijn, 2010), and literacy skills are necessary for success in all school subjects (Alisaari, 2016e).

The interest in reading for pleasure has been declining globally over the last decade (Mullis, Martin, Foy, & Hooper, 2017). On the contrary, research has reported that students can perceive reading for pleasure as having a role in improving second language skills, and they believe reading literature can help them in their future studies and support them in becoming active members of society (Lao & Krashen, 2000). Therefore, parents and other adults (teachers) have the important task of developing children´s interest in books and reading. This mostly involves making reading an everyday practice and an enjoyable routine; it can entail, for example, making the readership of others visible and creating meaningful reading experiences for children. The value and meaningfulness of reading can be visualized by access to books, opportunities to share reading experiences, time for reading in comfortable places, and motivational activities to connect literature and reading (Aerila & Kauppinen, 2019; Cremin, Mottram, Collins, Powell & Safford, 2014; Wigfield, Gladstone, & Turci, 2016). Positive reading atmosphere is also important for pleasant reading experiences and creating a community of readers (Bärlund & Kauppinen, 2017). This is the case in both monolingual and multilingual groups (Enz, 2003).