ABSTRACT

Spanish language diversity has been a reality in the United States. The Spanish language has been featured in children’s books since the late 1960s and early 1970s, with much of it carelessly represented, with translation mistakes and stereotypical portrayals of English language learners. With the increase of Latinos/as authors, representations of Spanish became more varied and nuanced in fictional texts. The representation of Spanish varieties, or Spanishes, in children’s literature can offer panoramic views of English language learners as main characters using their cultural and linguistic resources as they participate in families, classrooms, and neighborhoods. Nevertheless, how children are guided to read these texts largely shapes how they interpret authors’ and characters’ language use. Besides complete translations Spanishes are represented through the genres of dual-language texts, books with bilingual text, and translanguage texts, books laced with Spanish words. This article documents our critical collaborative inquiry of our teaching experiences and insights with these two genres. Critical questions for analysis of language diversity in children’s literature are proposed.

摘要

西班牙语的多样性在美国已成为现实。自 20 世纪 60 年代末和 70 年代初以来，西班牙语一直出现在儿童读物中，其中大部分内容被粗心地呈现，存在翻译错误和对英语学习者的刻板印象。随着拉丁裔/作为作者的增加，西班牙语的表现在虚构文本中变得更加多样化和微妙。儿童文学中西班牙语变体或西班牙人的代表可以提供英语学习者作为主要角色的全景视图，他们在参与家庭、课堂和社区时使用他们的文化和语言资源。然而，如何引导儿童阅读这些文本在很大程度上决定了他们如何理解作者和角色的语言使用。除了完整的翻译外，西班牙语还通过双语文本、双语文本书籍和跨语言文本、带有西班牙语单词的书籍等类型来代表。本文记录了我们对这两种类型的教学经验和见解的批判性合作调查。提出了分析儿童文学语言多样性的关键问题。