Using Animated Folktales to Teach Cultural Values: A Case Study With Korean-American Bilingual Kindergartners

ABSTRACT

This qualitative case study explores the intersection of multimedia, bilingualism, and culturally responsive practices by examining the responses that children of Korean descent have to animated folktales and the discussions about traditional cultural values that they sparked. Data were collected over 5 months in a classroom for children of kindergarten age in a Korean Language School in the midwestern United States. The focal literacy activity was online storybook reading sessions in which the children watched animated folktales taken from online storybook-reading software programs or YouTube clips. Data were collected from the children, their parents, and the teacher through interviews and observations of classroom literacy activities. The study found that listening to animated folktales and having dual language discussions about them created a supportive literacy environment in which the children were able to be more engaged in the stories they were reading and also gained a deeper understanding of the moral lessons of those stories. Findings suggest the possibilities of incorporating animated folktales as culturally responsive pedagogies to create more technology-enhanced literacy environments in early bilingual classrooms.

KEYWORDS:

• Animated folktales
• bilingual
• Korean
• translanguaging

Notes

1. Although there are certainly tremendous differences in political doctrines and ideologies between present day North and South Korea, much of the origin of Korean folktales, which are grounded in the oral traditions of Korea, remain similar. Korea existed as one undivided country for thousands of years; therefore, the two Koreas of today cannot help but share many aspects of culture and tradition.

2. All names are pseudonyms.

3. A discussion of how these themes were determined will be addressed in the Data Analysis section.