Family Talk about Language Diversity and Culture

This article examines urban and bilingual children’s dialogue about children’s literature in the home context as first and second graders talked in literature circles with their families. The article focuses on the issues about language diversity and culture that children and their families discussed about children’s literature. The findings from this research demonstrate that young working class bilingual children and their families do have the resources to construct rich literacy experiences through dialogue related to complex issues of language diversity and culture. Key issues that parents and children discussed in the home included literacy, positionality within society, and resistance to structural inequality. Children used their linguistic resources from the home and ultimately used their first and second languages as a resource.