Breaking Language Barriers

I found a website called the International Children’s Digital Library. Their mission is to “support the world’s children in becoming effective members of the global community” (ICDL, year). They are going about this by compiling the cream of the crop in children’s literature around the world, and making it available online. The website is very user-friendly; menu choices are ever-present on a horizontal bar across the top of the page. You can make such choices as “Read Books,” “About Library,” and “How to Contribute.”

If you chose the “Read Books” menu choice, you can search for books by language, by location, by recently added, by award winning, and numerous other search methods. The ICDL isn’t lacking for visitors either. According to them, they have had more than 3 million “unique visitors” since the birth of their site in November of 2002 (ICDL, year). The ICDL contains 4,456 books in over 50 different languages. It’s no surprise, when you take our society’s diversity into consideration, that over half of the ICDL’s visitors are from the U.S.

This website would be a great tool to use if you have students who are struggling to find books in their native language, or who are having difficulty learning English. This site could also be used to promote cultural awareness within the classroom. Teachers could choose a book from a completely different culture, and do an entire unit on it. Literature is a great way to get a glimpse of a cultures customs, values, and more. The ICDL has made a huge impact so far, and there’s no stopping them.