Bilingual Picture Books

English and Spanish Language Learning

Sep 2, 2009

A Cat and a Dog, I Went Walking and Colors! are colourful picture books that make second language learning fun and effective for children and adults.

As the world becomes smaller through travel and the Internet, the need for a second language is growing. More and more parents are opting for immersion schools and other second language education for their children and themselves. Adults whose children have graduated and left home are also seeking out ways to learn a second language for professional and personal reasons.

Bilingual picture books are a great second language learning resource. They are often written in simple language and the illustrations can help create word associations and stimulate vocabulary retention. A Cat and a Dog by Claire Masurel and Bob Kolar, I Went Walking by Sue Williams and Julie Vivas and Colors! by Jorge Lujan and Piet Grobler are three great examples of the usefulness of bilingual English-Spanish picture books.

A Cat and a Dog, written by Claire Masurel and illustrated by Bob Kolar, was released as a bilingual board book in 2008 by North-South Books Inc.. It is a light tale with an important message that flows easily out of the narrative without being preachy.

The sentences are short and the illustrations provide clear visuals of the vocabulary. Some of the Spanish words may be a bit challenging (i.e. mordisqueando-chewing and persiguiendo-chasing) on their own, but in the context of the story, they become easier to remember.

I Went Walking is a fun repetitive book written by Sue Williams and brightly illustrated by Julie Vivas. The lines “I went walking. What did you see? / Sali de paseo. Que fue lo que viste?” are repeated six times, which provides readers ample opportunity for language reinforcement.

The narrator of I Went Walking, a child whose gender is difficult to determine from the pictures, goes walking and encounters several animals. Animal vocabulary is therefore introduced in both Spanish and English, as is colour. The text reads: “I saw a black cat / brown horse / red cow / green duck / pink pig / yellow dog looking at me.”

Colors! goes beyond the basic introduction to colours that many children’s books provide. It is a poetic introduction to a rainbow of colours and to a second language. Second language learners will truly impress their friends by learning and reciting Jorge Lujan’s lines: “Into a tiny seed / fits clover, fits a tree, / fits the whole jungle… / fits green.” The illustrations by Piet Grobler are colour-centric representations of the text.

Final Words

A Cat and a Dog, I Went Walking and Colors! are three great examples of English-Spanish bilingual picture books that are useful to second language learners. They use appropriate and effective illustrations that help reinforce vocabulary and concepts, and they have interesting texts that can be enjoyed in either language. Etienne’s cd Educorock Español features several songs that would provide terrific follow-up to the themes featured in all three of the books.

Book Information

The copyright of the article Bilingual Picture Books in Picture Books is owned by Melissa Morelli Lacroix. Permission to republish Bilingual Picture Books in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.