Source: The Conversation – UK
The UK’s National Year of Reading is asking people across the country to “go all in” on reading. But this invitation raises questions for many families: reading what, in which language and in what form?
These questions matter because nearly one in four pupils in English primary schools (23.8%) is recorded as having a first language other than English. This does not mean they are not fluent in English. But it does mean multilingualism is an everyday feature of today’s classrooms.
These same questions came up at a recent festival at the University of Reading devoted to translation and linguistic diversity in children’s books. Delegates from academia, publishing and education explored bilingual poetry, tactile books and translation activities in Arabic and French.
The message was clear: books in different languages do more than support language learning. They connect families, amplify diverse voices and perspectives, and make reading more inclusive. Linguistic diversity should be central to reading for pleasure initiatives and to children’s publishing.
Reading in a home language
Public debate around children’s reading often assumes an English-language book and a parent who can read it confidently in English. This can leave some parents worrying that reading in another language will benefit their child less. But book sharing goes beyond reading a story aloud. Much of its value comes from interaction around the book: explaining unfamiliar vocabulary, asking questions and connecting the story to the child’s experiences.
Parents can often do this more fluently and responsively in a language they know well. In one recent study, bilingual books prompted Latine parents to use more Spanish, and a wider variety of Spanish words, than English-only books during book sharing.
Reading in a heritage language can support children’s vocabulary and literacy skills, while providing a nurturing space in which families sustain their home language and culture.
A recent National Literacy Trust survey found that multilingual respondents were more likely to enjoy reading than those who used only English at home (77% compared with 49%) and to read daily (50% compared with 29%).
Almost two in five said they read in their home language to stay connected to their culture or family. Sometimes the barrier may therefore be the language or material offered, rather than the child’s relationship with reading.
Bilingual books and multilingual story times can enable families to use their full linguistic repertoires while introducing all children to unfamiliar languages. Teachers don’t need to know every language: in one project presented at our festival, a year 4 class and their teacher worked together to produce a creative translation of a Portuguese picture book, although none of them spoke Portuguese.
Which books get translated?
Stories from other languages, translation and bilingual editions are a comparatively small part of the publishing industry, and a handful of genres and languages dominate. Graphic novels and picture books lead the translation market for the young, and the two most translated languages into English in the UK are French and Japanese.
Data on translations collected by World Kid Lit and Outside in World reveals the long tail of languages that are barely translated at all, including the multitude of heritage languages spoken in the UK.
Translation is often championed as a tool for diversifying children’s publishing. Although a translated book is not inherently more accessible or inclusive than one written in English – particularly given the dominance of just a small number of source languages among the books currently translated into English for young readers – the willingness and ability to look beyond English is an important tool for publishers wishing to diversify their catalogues.
Translation can also enrich young people’s engagement with reading. At the festival, two workshops used creative translation methods, designed to make literary translation engaging and accessible to school pupils with varied linguistic backgrounds and abilities.
By exploring the nuances of the source-language book through studying the emotion and atmosphere evoked in the text and images, young people were able to immerse themselves in the joys of reading multilingually, and bring their ideas to the production of a translated text.
Accessibility is more than language
Language is not the only way children are excluded from books. Language intersects with race, ethnicity, migration, social and economic circumstances, gender and disability. Seeing yourself reflected in a book is not only about encountering a character who looks like you. It also means recognising how people like you speak, communicate, live and belong.
The recently published Reflecting Disability report examined UK children’s books published in 2024. Less than 10% included any representation of disability; in 42% of those, disabled characters appeared only in the background.
Access also concerns the form of books. Festival attendees discussed braille and tactile books, audiobooks, wordless picture books and communication aids. We saw demonstrations of how shared reading can be adapted so that children with complex communication needs participate through shared attention, anticipation, choice and turn-taking. All children have a right to learn and participate in literacy, and provision should be designed to make that possible.
Inclusion by design
UNESCO describes literacy as an intrinsic part of the right to education. A rights-based approach cannot rely on families repeatedly requesting special provision. Linguistic diversity, disability and different forms of communication must instead be considered from the beginning.
Publishers should translate and promote books from a wider range of languages, with better support for small presses. Schools, libraries and book-gifting programmes should examine whose languages, lives and forms of communication their collections represent. Family reading campaigns should encourage parents to read or tell stories in the languages in which they feel most confident, while multilingual story times should be offered as experiences for everyone.
Going “all in” can only mean everyone if the books, and the ways in which we share them, make space for every language and every way of communicating.
Sophie Heywood receives funding from the University of Reading’s Arts and Humanities Research Council Impact Accelerator Account.
Emma Page and Holly Joseph do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/10/02/national-year-of-reading-linguistic-diversity-should-be-central-to-reading-for-pleasure-intiatives/