The Learning Experiences of Youth Online Information Brokers

Abstract

In the U.S., there is a large proportion of families where one or both parents are English language learners (ELL). Children in these families often serve important roles as brokers, by engaging their linguistic capabilities, cultural familiarity, and technological skills to bridge their families’ access to information resources. Despite the central role that child brokers play, scholars know little about how they search for, interpret, and translate online information. Using data from an exploratory study with Latino youth (ages 11-14) that involved interviews, online search tasks, and group discussions, we investigate the learning processes, challenges, and strategies that youth employ as they broker online information for their ELL parents.