Event information
Lessons from a multilingual library of picturebooks: Implications for teaching and learning
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About the event
Host: Language, Literacies and Education Network (LLEN)
Speakers:
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Dr. Hannah M. King (Senior Lecturer, London Metropolitan University)
Lessons from a multilingual library of picturebooks: Implications for teaching and learning
Given increasing, negative rhetoric around migration and languages in the UK and beyond, it is essential for educators and researchers to consider how inequalities related to multilingualism affect educational and other (public) spaces.
This talk will explore the lessons that can be learned from ongoing research on a multilingual library of picturebooks and the organization of ‘multilingual storytime,’ considering both the iterative process of putting together such a collection and the impact it may have.
In light of recent findings showing engagement with the multilingual library can generate interest in home and heritage languages, impacting students, schools, and wider communities (King & Pérez Andrade, 2026), the talk will function as a starting point for a conversation about multilingual picturebooks in (language) education and beyond as we draw on attendees’ linguistic repertoires and experiences of language learning and teaching to explore implications for our own educational and research contexts.
Dr. Hannah M. King is a sociolinguist, specializing in multilingualism and transnational identities. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from Birkbeck, University of London and works as a Senior Lecturer in English Language at London Metropolitan University. Her main research interests include multilingualism, interactional/discursive identity construction, and transnational language practices. Recently, she has worked on the creation and development of a multilingual library to support linguistic and cultural diversity and to explore questions around inclusion, representation, and identity. She has published on multilingualism within the research process–linguistic reflexivity, labeling practices of highly diverse students in multilingual schools, and multilingual picturebooks.