This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Gregory, E. Articles by Ruby, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Snow White in different guises: Interlingual and intercultural exchanges between grandparents and young children at home in East London

Tahera Arju

John Jessel

Charmian Kenner

Mahera Ruby

University of London Goldsmiths College, UK

Grandparents play a significant role in childcare and one activity that frequently occurs within this context is story-reading. However, relatively little attention has been given to the potential part that grandparents can play in terms of language and literacy development of young children.This article reports on work investigating the interlingual and intercultural exchanges occurring in a home setting in East London. In particular, it focuses on how the traditional heritage pattern of story and rhyme reading by a grandmother of Bengali origin is fused with practices experienced by her six-year old grandchild.The data reveal not only the multiple worlds inhabited by the grandchild during story-reading but also the syncretism of these worlds on a number of levels.This article contributes to the small but growing body of investigation into the reading styles occurring within families from different cultural backgrounds.

Key Words: grandparents • intercultural exchanges • story-reading • syncretism

Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, Vol. 7, No. 1, 5-25 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1468798407074831


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?