Biliteracy Among Children and Youths

Abstract

The dual purposes of this review are, first, to synthesize the extant research on biliteracy, focusing particularly on children and youths and, second, to clarify key terms and phenomena in this developing field. The review is organized into three areas of research: (1) individual biliteracy development, (2) biliteracy in family and community contexts, and (3) biliteracy in the classroom context. Contributions from these various areas offer multiple possibilities for describing children's −development and maintenance of biliteracy while taking into consideration the interdisciplinary and multifaceted nature of research in this area.

A Teacher's Inquiry into Bringing in Biliteracy in a Fifth-Grade English-Only Classroom

“…However, I knew that more than decoding letters was at play in becoming a biliterate person, and I knew that I needed to address the sociocultural and political factors that were at work in language learning (Reyes, 2012). For instance, I knew that English was marked as the language of instruction in my school and classroom, giving it power, but Spanish was reserved for areas like the hallway, cafeteria, and playground, and it was not viewed as appropriate for instruction.…”

Revisiting Dual Language, Six Years Later: A Study on Educators’ Perceptions of Dual Language Effectiveness from Pre-Kinder through Third Grade in Spain

“…As some schools are in varying geographic and economic areas of the city, teacher assignments are based on highly selective exam results. This practice is enhanced by research conducted by Reyes, Kenner, Moll, and Orellana (2012), as they examined the environmental and ecological factors that influence young bilinguals emerging biliteracy, which include family and community input. The influence of their cultural community on the development of the skills in literacy in both languages was found to be significant and was interrelated.…”

Centros de Biliteracidad basados en el Uso de la Tecnología para el Estudiante del Siglo XXI

“…In other words, the relationship between Spanish and English literacy occurs simultaneously and builds from each other when appropriate exposure and instruction occurs. Other researchers in the field (García, 2009;Grosjean, 2010;Reyes, 2012) explain that the development of biliteracy is different from the development of literacy of monolingual students. The common monolingual perspective we found in most bilingual education research does not clearly articulate the development of biliteracy of emergent bilingual students as dynamic (García, Kleifgen and Falchi, 2008).…”

“…More recently, Kabuto (2011) articulates the complexity of biliteracy development by making a distinction between the written form and the structures of the two languages that emergent bilinguals need to be able to manipulate, and the complex social and cultural factors that speakers of one or more languages need to understand as users of the language based on context and audience. Furthermore, Reyes (2012) discusses biliteracy processes in the classroom and more in particular the concept of interliteracy (Gort, 2006) as the application of rules of the language individuals know to the language they are learning as part of their writing process. This creative use of both languages by emergent bilinguals allows them to effectively develop 200 high levels of metalinguistic awareness, which in return supports biliteracy development (Fránquiz, 2012;Gort, 2012;Martínez, 2010).…”

“…Lastly, the analysis of Poster with Gloster showed that the students were able to demonstrate high levels of bilingualism and biliteracy by using their linguistic skills in both languages (Reyes, 2012). Glogster allows students to develop their reading and writing skills as if they were part of a cycle.…”