“Rapunzel, Rapunzel,Lanza Tu Pelo”: Storytelling in a Transcultural, Translanguaging Dialogic Exchange

Abstract

In this study, we examined story circles to understand how the small‐group activity supports and shapes the storytelling of young students in multicultural, multilingual preschool classrooms. Through a representative example, we show how language development unfolds in the context of a transcultural and translanguaging dialogic exchange of stories. We describe features of increasing linguistic complexity present in students’ storytelling as they established affinity‐affirming connections over ideas, shared ways of languaging, and shared ways of storytelling. By examining changes in one student’s storytelling in the context of a mixed‐language story circle group, we offer insights into both language development and features of the language ecology in which such changes are supported.

Dinner at Dinosaurland: Invention, Dialogue, & Solidarity in the Early Childhood Classroom

“…The teachers' primary role is to listen and facilitate turn taking. They refrain from attempting to extend children's stories or asking questions of children, trusting instead that children's stories will get longer, more detailed, and more complex by being told and retold within the circle (Flynn, 2020). Instead, teachers provide primarily positive or neutral comments, intervening in the storytelling as little as possible so that children can more freely nominate and sustain ideas in the circle.…”