Audiovisual Translation and Bilingualism: Tracking the Origins of Child Language Brokering

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical pilot study conducted from July through September 2019 in a public bilingual English/Spanish Primary Education center, César Chávez Elementary School, in the city of San Francisco (California). The research is based on the hypothesis that children who enroll in this type of bilingual educational programs are exposed to linguistic and cultural contents in English and Spanish on a regular basis, so they differentiate by language and culture the linguistic and cultural contents of the bilingual audiovisual products they consume. Thus, the study aims to assess the impact that the use of bilingual audiovisual products can have on the acquisition of linguistic and cultural competences of child language brokers in the bilingual educational system of the USA, a country with more than forty years’ experience in bilingual educational programs. The research methods used to collect and analyze the data are as follows: two personal interviews conducted with the principal and a 1st grade teacher in César Chávez Elementary School, and two experimental tests consisting of a series of directed viewings of audiovisual products for children and the corresponding questionnaires about such videos. The experimental group was composed of a total of 22 1st grade female and male Latin American students aged 5-7. There was no control group. The conclusions may allow us, firstly, to determine whether audiovisual products are effectively used as a teaching tool at the school, identify the contents of the curricular program in which such products are used, and reckon the modalities of audiovisual translation utilized for this purpose; and, secondly, to assess the use of audiovisual products as a methodological instrument in US Primary Education Bilingual Programs. These reflections may serve us to track the very origins of child language brokering in a bilingual context.