Multicultural contexts and comprehension of youth literary texts

Abstract

Based on a comparison between 11 year old students who are monolingual French and bilingual French and Kabyle (one of the Berber languages) our research aims at showing how two specific factors influence understanding narratives: the first is the mode of presentation (oral vs written). It is combined with cultural aspects of the 1st language (from now on L1) in which children have been socialized; the task was a written recall of a Kabyle text. Our results show facilitating effects of the oral mode to access meaning and the positive role played by culture in mediating understanding, hence founding potential solutions to improve literacy in standard French in areas where the cultural diversity in the school population is very often associated with difficulties in learning the school language. Teaching should switch from an ethno-centered model to a multicultural one since to build knowledge requires explaining the symbolic systemic relations languages and cultures have with one another.