'Reading the word and the world' - how mind and culture are mediated through the use of dual-language storybooks

This article presents a socio-cultural study of parental involvement in reading by examining the reciprocal mediation between a Chinese mother and her daughter in the reading of a dual-language storybook. The findings reveal a child learning in the 'interplay of her contexts' that reflects dynamics of collaborative involvement in meaning making. With the aid of the dual-language storybook, the mother, not literate in English, is enabled to scaffold her child's learning in ways that enhance both the child's understanding of the English text and her knowledge of their heritage language, while the child herself assists her mother's learning of English. The article provides detailed explanations of ways in which inter-subjectivity (mutual understanding) arises from interpersonal communication, i.e. how 'reading' becomes transformed into a meaning-making activity from what can be a de-contextualised task. The article includes implications for developing approaches that minority-ethnic parents can use when reading with their children, alongside reading strategies that can be adapted for use by monolingual teachers and bilingual assistants in mainstream schools.