The Use of Persona Dolls in Second Language Education: Literacy Skills Development among Preschool Children in Greece.

This article examines the effectiveness of using persona dolls as pedagogical tools to enhance Greek language literacy, motivation, and cultural awareness among 20 preschool children aged 4 who speak Greek as a second language in an urban Greek setting. Employing a mixed-methods approach—including pre- and post-intervention literacy assessments via the Logometro tool, systematic observations, and semistructured interviews—the study found significant improvements in vocabulary, grammar, listening comprehension, and oral communication skills, alongside increased cultural understanding and positive attitudes toward language learning. The intervention integrated persona dolls with detailed cultural biographies into interactive activities such as storytelling, role-playing, and cultural exploration, fostering inclusive, experiential learning and supporting translanguaging practices. These findings suggest that persona dolls can be valuable multifunctional instruments in early childhood education to promote linguistic development, socioemotional skills, and intercultural dialogue, particularly in second language acquisition contexts.