Entry #5: Cultural Comprehension

When asked to choose two children's books that might prove problematic for English language learners to understand, I immediately thought of one book, beloved by many for the exact reason it is confusing for some:  Amelia Bedelia.  It's charming heroine is encumbered with the flaw of being too literate in her understanding of common English expressions.  We in the field of education call them idioms, phrases that, when analyzed literally, make absolutely no sense.  Yet, they are commonly used expressions among English speakers and are used to figuratively describe mundane occurrences. For example, when someone wants to convey the magnitude of a heavy rainstorm, they might say, "It's raining cats and dogs out there!"  Really??  Cats and dogs??  Where did this phrase come from??  Never have I looked out a window and compared the gray, sheeting droplets of water to the furry, colorful bodies of cats and dogs.  But, when someone says it to me, I immediately understand that they are, in essence, telling me, "Boy it sure is raining hard out there!" 

Amelia Bedelia is full of these idiomatic expressions.  When her employer tells her to "please draw the drapes" she does just that.  She draws a lovely picture of the red drapes that adorn the windows; drapes she was supposed to pull closed, yet didn't understand the directive due to her literate understanding of the word "draw".  When she is told to "dust the furniture", she gathers dust from outside and sprinkles it all over the furniture. 

Amelia Bedelia has trouble understanding the meaning of idioms, and she is a native English speaker.  Imagine how a non-native speaker would feel when trying to understand them!  Granted, the book is meant to poke fun at Amelia's literate approach to understanding, but the English language learners aren't in on the joke.  They will still have trouble understanding why the book is so funny.  When introducing this book to ELLspecial care should be taken to pre- address idiomatic language.  Maybe a non-linguistic representation of the idiom's meaning:  i.e., a picture of an actual rainstorm with the idiom "it's raining cats and dogs" to show them what it actually means. 

Nursery rhymes might be difficult for second langugage learners also.  The concept of rhyme might be confusing because some words that rhyme are spelled very differently; therefore, they could not rely on phonetics to decode it.  A way to teach that would be through the use of word families.  Words with different endings, grouped together, could be posted and read through chorally so the learner could see that all sound alike, yet look different. 

Another challenging component could be the vocabulary.  The nursery rhyme that comes to mind when I think of vocabulary is Jack Be Nimble.  Many English speaking students do not know the word "nimble", never mind ELLS.  Because rhymes have unfamiliar, and in some cases archaic, vocabulary, sheltered instruction practices could be adopted when chorally reading them.  For instance, when reading "Jack be Nimble" the kids and teachers could perform simple movements that would instill the word meaning as they chant. 

Nursery rhymes might also have unfamiliar colloquialisms in them.  As in the rhyme "Jack and Jill", whose hero "fell down and broke his crown", many nursery rhymes were written in the distant past and the expressions are not used commonly in modern times.  ELLs won't understand how Jack could break his crown when he isn't wearing one.  A  non-linguistic representation or a sheltered instruction practice, again, could aid in comprehension of these difficult linguistic components. 

Many of the difficult linguistics in children's books not only apply to ELLs, but also to native speakers.  I believe, when teaching children's literature, sheltered instruction practices should be used for all learners to assist their comprehension and vocabulary.