R+D Research Project (I+D: EDU2008-02131/EDUC) of the Ministry of Education and Science (Awards for 2008):

“The Literary Interpretation of Picturebooks in the Introductory Process of Immigrant Children”.

Leading Investigator: Teresa Colomer Martínez

Other investigators (the GRETEL Team): Montserrat Correig, Martina Fittipaldi, Mireia Manresa, Ana María Margallo, Esther Martínez, Isabel Olid, Montserrat Pérez, Cecilia Silva-Díaz, and Núria Vilà.

The project has a 3-year duration period (2008-2011) and shares the same theme of the GRETEL project financed by the Catalan Government in the ARIE subsidy awards for the 2007-2008.

Total granted: 82.280€

This project seeks to explore the advantages of using children’s literature in school introductory programmes for immigrant children and young people. It studies how literature can be applied in multi-lingual contexts and explores the suitability of literary works for linguistic learning, as well as their potential for the comprehension of one’s own world in relation to others -elements which are necessary for the conjugation of the cultural identities and for community living and social cohesion. The project also takes on recent research on the interpretation of the reader oral expression, visual reading, and cooperative work –all of which have been recommended for the integration process of immigrant students because their self-expression potential.

The project seeks to establish the response of this population to the recent production of children’s books and to literacy educational practices by carrying out different activities on picturebook interpretation in the classroom.
The results of this research may be useful in order to improve the introductory activities and linguistic education for immigrant children and youngster, as well as for the training of the staff that works with these incomers.