Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Biliteracy

Question: What is “bilitereary” and why is it important?

Answer/Quote: “The study of Biliteracy has recently been gaining more attention because of the increased visibility of diverse communities where children are growing up bilingual and in some cases, biliterate. Research on biliteracy has also risen sharply in the last two decades because of a desire to improve the learning experiences of school children from diverse linguistic backgrounds in the United States and around the world. Further, globalization has brought increased interest in understanding multinational communities that are developing, and in maintaining linguistic communities where all children—both those who are part of the dominant linguistic community and newcomers—are ready to compete in a globalized world by drawing from the existing linguistic, multilingual, and multiliterate societal resources.” P. 307.

Quote: “The sparse extant research on biliteracy invites a reexamination of the contexts where biliteracy occurs and an ongoing consideration of ways to design biliteracy studies that draw on several theoretical perspectives. One set of contexts that needs to be explored is communities in which adults and children value and make use of various languages and multiple literacies. Relatedly, contexts need to be studied where spontaneous biliteracy makes its way into children’s and families’ interactions and exchanges of knowledge…. As such, research on biliteracy has supported what might be called a normalization of bilingualism and  multilingualism for everyone (not just immigrants) as part of national educational language agendas and initiatives.” P. 324.

Comment: The study of language is inevitably moving in the direction of their intermixing with a “bi-“ in the terminology. RayS.

Title: “Review of Research: Biliteracy Among Children and Youths.” Iliana Reyes. Reading Research Quarterly (July/ August/ September 2012), 307-327.

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