Promoting and Maintaining Bilingualism and Biliteracy: Cognitive and Biliteracy Benefits & Strategies for Monolingual Teachers

Abstract

Many school personnel pursue the goal of developing English language learners' English-language and literacy skills efficiently and this is most often implemented to the exclusion of supporting, developing, and maintaining students' heritage language skills. However, there is significant evidence that promoting bilingualism and biliteracy can significantly contribute to the effect that many school personnel want, that of efficiently developed English language and literacy skills, with the added benefit of students who can function and thrive in multilingual environments. In this article, we present research-based evidence in support of developing and maintaining bilingualism and biliteracy, and we submit that the empirical research support for the benefits of bilingualism and biliteracy should change language and literacy instruction. Strategies for teachers, especially teachers who do not speak the heritage language of their students, are provided and can be implemented to promote bilingual reading, writing, and language skill development.

Expanding EAL expertise: Taking a multilingual stance

“…Through the eyes of a mainstream classroom teacher, Schwarzer, Haywood, and Lorenzen (2003) describe how she used multilingual teaching strategies, including posting multilingual labels and inviting community members to share their languages and cultures. Pappamihiel and Lynn (2014) and Giambo and Szecsi (2015) present additional strategies around text (using cognates, dialogue journals, bilingual note taking) and using technology as a resource for accessing students' various home languages.…”

Linguistic imperialism in English assessment: The case of an historically black university in South Africa

“…These terms have been used as a framework in which to assess and understand how bilingual learners acquire English and English language literacy, notably in reading (Hopewell & Escamilla, 2014;Hornberger, 2004;Reyes, 2006). Thus, there is a strong interrelationship between bilingualism and biliteracy as bilingual learners are able to develop literacy skills in both languages (Giambo & Szecsi, 2015).…”

“…But bilingual competence is not synonymous with biliteracy (Giambo & Szecsi, 2015). Biliteracy refers to any type of communication that occurs in two or more languages in or around writing for meaning making (Hornberger, 2004).…”

“…Research shows that reading and using materials in the language that is stronger for the student increases the students' literacy performance (Giambo & Szecsi, 2015). One of the strategies for promoting biliteracy is to allow students to read in both languages, which implies that access be made available to materials in both languages (Giambo & Szecsi, 2015). In other words, the literacy skills possessed in one language will advance the literacy skills in the other language.…”

“…Such skills include reading strategies, decoding, phonological awareness, writing, and so forth. This is especially likely if the two languages have similar writing systems (Giambo & Szecsi, 2015). In this way, bilingual children become biliterate rather than literate in the dominant language only, and they develop abilities to rely on the two languages as linguistic and cognitive resources (Reyes, 2006).…”