Biliteracy Development Research Articles

我抓在手里捏成棉花糖，什么烦恼不能忘: Learning Mandopop lyrics to promote bilingualism and biliteracy development

ABSTRACT Guided by heritage language and translanguaging theory, this ethnographic case study explores how a young second-generation Chinese American student used Mandopop lyrics to enhance her heritage language learning at home. Over six months, the mother, also the researcher collected 61 audio recordings of the student’s readings and singing of Mandopop, as well as translingual conversations between them. Supplemented with the researcher’s field notes, the analysis revealed significant improvements in the student’s pronunciation, Mandarin word recognition, oral language skills, and vocabulary. These improvements subsequently increased her oral translingual practices. Additionally, discussions about Mandopop lyrics enhanced the student’s higher-level thinking and understanding of her heritage culture. Overall, Mandopop lyrics effectively promote the student’s bilingual and biliteracy development. This study underscores the role of Mandopop lyrics in incorporating deep cultural elements, fostering bilingualism, and enhancing biliteracy. By engaging with Mandopop, the student connects with her heritage culture and improves her linguistic abilities in a meaningful and enjoyable way, highlighting the potential of music as a valuable tool in heritage language education.

Integrating Research-Based Indicators of Emergent Biliteracy Teaching Practices for Emerging Bilingual Learners

This research explored how bilingual teachers of young Dual Language Leaners ages 0-3 integrated Reyes and Azuara’s (2008) Ecological Model of Emergent Biliteracy in their classrooms to foster bilingualism, biliteracy, and academic success. Dual Language Learners are the fastest-growing population of young children in the country that speak a language other than English. As so, the early childhood workforce must integrate the Ecological Model of Emergent Biliteracy for emergent biliteracy development and equitable emergent biliteracy teaching practices to support the natural biliteracy development of young Spanish-English Dual Language Learners. Qualitative data was collected through interviews and observations and were analyzed using the grounded theory stages of coding. The findings recommend immersing Dual Language Learners in equitable learning opportunities that incorporate their cultural knowledge, languages, experiences, and learning to support the precursors for emerging biliteracy development.

An urgent call to center AsianCrit in Chinese/English dual language bilingual education programs

ABSTRACT In recent years, neoliberal interests in U.S. Chinese/English dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs have emphasized white, English-speakers’ use of Mandarin for economic and political gains. Such interests reify white supremacy and contribute to the erasure of Chinese and Chinese American voices, histories, and cultures in curriculum and instruction. While early literature on Chinese DLBE contexts examined program success based on students’ academic achievement and biliteracy development, there has been limited attention to cultivating critical consciousness to resist the commodification of language and multiculturalism for capitalist enterprise. Therefore, we propose a cohesive programmatic framework informed by Asian Critical Race Theory (AsianCrit) for Chinese DLBE programs to cultivate critical consciousness as a foundational educational goal. In this conceptual paper, we apply the seven tenets of AsianCrit to U.S. Chinese DLBE contexts to reimagine a community-based, historically-situated, and equity-oriented educational space. We hope this proposal will inform efforts toward just and innovative Chinese DLBE pedagogies and inspire new lines of critical research in the field of bilingual education.

The Influence of Literature on Chinese-English Biliteracy Development in Classroom Settings

English is an important subject matter in China. For Chinese children, it is a necessary process to gain English literacy in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. Through the process, how their biliteracy develops remains unclear. To investigate the issue, this study mainly focused on the influence of literature applied in EFL classrooms on Chinese students L2 English development. Results show that literature is beneficial for students biliteracy development in terms of improving reading ability. Literature contain vivid context suitable for L2 language practices, thus may unconsciously improve students linguistic competency and fluency through the reading process. Identity formation is also important in bilingual reading developments. Through classroom literature practice, students could form proper ideologies of bilingualism and become confident in perceiving themselves as bilingual readers. Results also indicate that literature facilitates students biliteracy development through promoting their cultural understanding. Since literacy is the product of sociocultural backgrounds, biliteracy development could not be separate from altering cultural concepts and enriching cultural understandings. Literature reading not only acquaint students to diverse cultural backgrounds but also encourages constant negotiation of meaning, from where students cultural awareness become mature. This study will shed inspiration for literature practices in EFL classrooms and policymaking of EFL literature curriculum.

Dual Language Education and Academic Growth

Background or Context: Dual language education aims to foster the development of bilingualism, biliteracy, sociocultural competence, and academic skills in all school subjects. Early correlational research suggests that participation in dual language education is associated with higher achievement. Recent studies leveraged more comprehensive sets of baseline characteristics and found that dual language students improved their achievement status more than other students. A major limitation to these studies is their lack of ability to model within-student growth. Thus, we lack evidence on the relationship between dual language education and growth trajectories within and across grades. Purpose: This paper reports academic achievement and growth in grades 2 through 8 for Hispanic participants and nonparticipants of a Spanish–English dual language program. It extends the literature by providing novel evidence on seasonal patterns of learning for multilingual students across the elementary and middle grades. Research Design: Applying a piecewise multilevel model to rich assessment data on a large sample of Hispanic students in a district in the Midwest, I compare the math and English reading growth rates of participants to nonparticipants of a dual language (DL) program. By separately specifying growth terms for each school year and summer, I test whether any differences in growth rates between DL and non-DL students expand, stay the same, or diminish across grade levels. Conclusion: Dual language participants started second grade with lower achievement than nonparticipants. In math, dual language participants grew more than nonparticipants during each year in grades 2 to 5 but lost more learning during summers. In English reading, dual language participants grew more during some school years. These findings suggest summer learning opportunities are crucial for addressing achievement disparities.

Biliteracy in Bilingual Programs: Understanding how Children Read Dual‐Language Books

AbstractBecause dual‐language books (DLBs) print the entire text in two languages nearby on the page, they have great potential for supporting children's biliteracy development by providing contexts to compare/contrast languages. However, little is known about how children read DLBs independently and how they may/may not use such characteristics to support learning. This article reports on a study of the think‐alouds/verbal protocols of 63 Spanish‐English bilingual third and fifth graders and the strategies they used to translate words and retell pages as they read DLBs. Children often took up their identities as language learners and chose to read the language with which they were less familiar. They were also strategic readers, but their strategies were not always accurate. Findings indicate that children would benefit from using DLBs in bi‐/multilingual classrooms and participating in activities such as strategic, analytic translation to build their linguistic knowledge and their biliteracy skills.

Sustaining linguistic heritage: an exploration of early Chinese input and biliteracy acquisition among Chinese heritage language students

Given that input-based language and literacy environments provide socioculturally-enriched contexts for bilingual and biliteracy acquisition, the current study aims to explore the contribution of early input in various sociocultural contexts to later biliteracy development among ­college-level Chinese heritage language (CHL) students. A group of CHL students (N = 195) participated in this study and completed a background survey about their early oral and print experiences in different sociocultural contexts. Biliteracy measurements including Chinese-English bilingual morphological awareness and reading ability were administered to the participants. Drawing on multivariate analyses, the study verified both intralingual and interlingual contributions of input-based experiences to biliteracy development. The study suggests that (1) community and after-school language and literacy support can have a long-term impact on the maintenance of heritage language literacy skills. (2) heritage language input experiences do not create obstacles for dominant language literacy development. (3) heritage language literacy input provides facilitations for the abstraction of bilingual structures and units.

Dual-Language Books’ Potential Affordances for Biliteracy Development: Measuring Oral Reading Fluency and Comprehension

Dual-language books’ (DLBs) two-language format could support biliteracy development, but little is known about how children read them. Fifty-four third and fifth graders read aloud DLBs with English or Spanish first on each page to determine DLBs’ potential affordances. Although there were no significant differences in oral reading fluency or reading comprehension measures by the language printed first, there was some evidence of holistic bilingual processing. Students’ English fluency scores were also significantly higher than their Spanish scores. Findings indicate needs for more research about DLBs and potentially for increased attention to Spanish literacy skills in U.S. dual-language programs.

Bilingual Home Literacy Experiences and Early Biliteracy Development among Chinese–Canadian First Graders

This study was designed to examine the role of early bilingual home literacy experiences (HLE) (including parent–child shared reading, parents’ direct teaching in Chinese and English, the availability of books in both languages, and children’s access to digital devices for bilingual learning) in the biliteracy development of 66 Chinese–Canadian first graders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive analyses reveal that overall, parents report higher engagement in English than in Chinese across the four HLE measures. Parent’s engagement in bilingual HLE differs by gender, SES, and immigration status. Pearson correlational analyses of English reading, decoding, and bilingual oral receptive vocabulary reveal that the four dimensions of HLE are not strongly related to English early literacy skills but are positively related to Chinese receptive vocabulary. Finally, hierarchical regression analyses indicate that the availability of books in Chinese and parent–child shared reading in Chinese are key factors associated with Chinese receptive vocabulary score variance; the amount of time using digital devices is found to be significantly related to English reading comprehension, but not Chinese vocabulary; and parents’ direct teaching is not significant with either English early literacy skills or Chinese receptive vocabulary. These findings have important implications for parental engagement in early bilingual home literacy activities and early literacy instruction in school.

“It Makes Me More Aware of What I Should be Looking for”: Using Holistic Assessment to Foster Strength-Based Understanding of Students’ Biliteracy Development

Deficit mindsets of multilingual writers must be upended. Yet, little research has been done to explore how to prepare bilingual teachers with strength-based orientations, especially in approaches to assessment. Using a holistic biliteracy lens, this qualitative case study explored how Transliteracy observation shaped teachers’ understanding of biliterate writing development in K-5 dual language settings. Findings showed that teachers learned that writing is multifaceted and observable, influenced by oral language, and reflective of one linguistic repertoire. Participants gained a deeper understanding of biliteracy development and their students’ capabilities, supporting an asset-based orientation that challenged monolingual norms. Implications for teacher preparation are shared.

Lexical ambiguity resolution & bilingual language experience: Evidence from Albanian-Greek bilingual children of immigrant families

The present study aims at exploring lexical ambiguity resolution in bilingual children employing homonym meaning activation. Specifically, we are examining the processing of Greek homonyms in relation to the language input, verbal ability and cognitive capacity of 10–12 years old bilingual children raised in an immigrant context, in which Albanian is their heritage language and Greek is the majority language. We systematically assessed sentence context effects in homonym meaning activation using a cross-modal priming task. Primes were sentences biasing towards the dominant, subordinate, or neither meaning of a sentence-final homonym while visual targets were related to either meaning of the homonym. To measure the bilingual language experience and address variability issues in the dataset, we administered a background questionnaire that focused on acquisition history, bi-literacy practices and self-reported competence in each language along with a standardized test for verbal ability in Greek. The study's findings show that frequency and context are significant parameters in the examination of ambiguity resolution and underline the contribution of verbal working memory to lexical processing. Additionally, our results highlight the role of the bilingual language experience in the function of the mental lexicon and the potential benefits of bi-literacy development.

Early language and culture development in the social context of an Arab homes: multimodal practices

ABSTRACT This study explores the literacy and social practices of a young Omani emergent bilingual child who is beginning to develop bilingualism and biliteracy in Arabic and English through social interactions. One case study of a four-year-old child and her family living temporarily for her father postgraduate studies in Canada is presented. Framed on socio-cultural understandings of literacy development, the study discusses the role of multimodal home practices in the emergent biliteracy development of the child and generates new understandings about children’s social practices that are embedded in their daily lives. The study also explores the role of these cultural practices in navigating between two systems of language and culture. The findings make visible how children’s engagement with the social context of home, whether physical or through digital media, can enhance their biliteracy development.

Towards a critical translanguaging biliteracy pedagogy: the ‘aha moment’ stories of two Mandarin Chinese teachers in Canada

AbstractLearning Mandarin Chinese as a heritage or additional language at Chinese complementary schools has long been a tradition for many Asian Canadians. However, research that looks at teachers' experiences and perceptions in Canadian settings, especially the power dynamics embedded in biliteracy development at complementary schools, is scant. Moreover, the COVID‐19 pandemic brought challenges and opportunities to Chinese complementary schools. In this paper, we, as two Mandarin teachers and literacy researchers, used collaborative autobiographical narrative inquiry to tell our stories to unfold (1) how power dynamics regarding biliteracy/multiliteracy were enacted and reflected in a Chinese complementary school during the pandemic and (2) our re‐understanding of Mandarin teaching and learning from critical literacy and translanguaging perspectives. Although the pandemic is over, racial discrimination and social inequity continue to remain in our lives. By analysing our teaching moments and reflections, we hope this study could provide some insights into how critical literacy and translanguaging can be integrated into language and literacy education in multilingual and multimodal settings in the pandemic and post‐pandemic contexts.

Latinx bilinguals using dual-language books to develop biliteracy

ABSTRACT With much focus on English development in United States schools and research, less is known about how bilinguals develop literacy in their home languages without sustained formal instruction. This qualitative study of reading strategies addressed that gap. It examined how young bilinguals used English literacy knowledge gained through formal instruction to develop biliteracy, specifically literacy skills in their home language of Spanish. Five third- and fifth-grade Spanish-English bilinguals read three dual-language books and engaged in two verbal protocols. Analysis of student interviews, running records, verbal protocols, and video recordings of reading sessions found that students used English phonological knowledge to support decoding. To read the Spanish text, they also relied on memory of and direct references to the book’s English text along with their Spanish oral language knowledge. Findings provide evidence of students leveraging oral and written linguistic knowledge across the Continua of Biliteracy to support their biliteracy development. Implications are discussed for bilingual reading development and instruction.

Children Translating When Reading Dual-Language Books

This mixed-methods study analyzed how elementary-school children translated while reading Spanish-English dual-language books (DLBs). Specifically, it investigated the types of strategies students used to translate words in DLBs, strategies’ success, and differences in strategy use based on grade, home language(s), and oral reading accuracy. Sixty-three Spanish-English biliterate third and fifth graders participated in the study. Verbal protocols/think-alouds explaining their translation strategies were analyzed qualitatively using discourse analysis and quantitatively to establish trends. Findings suggest that strategies used most frequently by third graders and/or students with lower oral reading accuracies focused on textual features, whereas strategies used most frequently by fifth graders and/or students with higher accuracies were informed by linguistic knowledge. Results discuss how strategies reflect developing metalinguistic knowledge, linguistic assumptions, and ways that participants drew upon their linguistic repertoires to translate and engage in translanguaging. Also discussed are instructional implications for supporting biliteracy development and for dual-language programs.

Does Early Exposure to Chinese-English Biliteracy Enhance Cognitive Skills?

Clarifying the effects of biliteracy on cognitive development is important to understanding the role of cognitive development in L2 learning. A substantial body of research has shed light on the cognitive factors contributing to biliteracy development. Yet, not much is known about the effect of the degree of exposure to biliteracy on cognitive functions. To fill this research void, we measured three categories of biliteracy skills (language, reading, and cognitive–linguistic skills in both Chinese and English) jointly and investigated the effects of biliteracy skill performance in these three categories on cognitive skills (working memory and attentional control) in Chinese L1 children who were exposed to English as L2 beginning at age 3 (“early”) or in grade 3 (“late”). In this cross-sectional study, 10 parallel Chinese and English language, reading, and cognitive–linguistic measures were administered to emerging Chinese–English bilingual children in grade 3 (n = 178) and grade 6 (n = 176). The results revealed that early exposure to Chinese–English biliteracy enhanced cognitive skills but with a cost of a slight delay in performance on Chinese L1 language skills in grade 3 (but not in grade 6). Importantly, the present findings suggest that, in addition to universal and developmental processes, the cumulative effect of early and sustained bi-scriptal exposure enhances working memory and attention in school children.

Tensions and potentials of translanguaging in online spaces

While dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programmes in the United States aim at cultivating pedagogical practices that support bilingualism and biliteracy development, they often idealise instructional models that separate languages within instruction and create educational spaces that privilege monolingual English-language proficiency standards. Scholars have called on schools to focus on the learning needs of language-minoritised learners through pedagogies that build upon the bilingual resources from language-minoritised learners and educators. One approach is adopting translanguaging pedagogies that promote flexible, hybrid, fluid languaging practices and advance social justice agendas in classrooms, ensuring that all students are educated deeply and justly. With the transition to and expansion of online teacher education programmes, it is critical to explore how teacher educators support teachers’ beliefs regarding translanguaging in online spaces. This self-study aimed to investigate our efforts as teacher educators to include translanguaging pedagogies as both a way to model practices and a conceptual framework for supporting in-service teachers to understand languages and language learning at a deeper level by exploring the guiding question: How has translanguaging (planned and unplanned) been part of online DLBE teacher education learning spaces? Using a narrative inquiry analysis based on teacher educators’ individual journals and critical friend group discussions, we explored both the tensions and potentials in online teaching and teacher education spaces based on our experiences.

Cross-language transfer: a single case study on the acquisition of argumentative reasoning

ABSTRACT Current research on cross-language transfer has focused primarily on literacy development. The present study extends the scope of existing research by focusing on argumentative reasoning, an important but under-research academic skill. A single-case study with a reversal design was conducted with four Chinese-English elementary students with the well-established Collaborative Reasoning (CR) discussion model. Data included transcripts of the lessons and discussions, surveys, and interviews. Cross- language transfer of argumentative reasoning was observed at the lexical, syntactic, and discourse levels and varied with factors identified in previous research on biliteracy development. Theoretical and methodological contributions of the study are discussed.

Translanguaging Pedagogy as an Enactment of Authentic Cariño and an Antidote to Subtractive Schooling


 
 
 This article explores translanguaging pedagogy through the lens of the politics of caring, subtractive schooling, and authentic cariño (composed of intellectual, familial, and critical cariño). We begin with a broad overview of translanguaging and situate it in the theoretical frameworks of the politics of caring, subtractive schooling, and authentic cariño. We ground our approach in the notion that educators must hold heteroglossic language ideologies. We draw upon examples from literacy instruction in bilingual and ESL fourth grade classrooms to argue that translanguaging pedagogy can be seen as an enactment of intellectual, familial, and critical cariño. We conclude with a call for teacher educators to consider enacting authentic cariño and translanguaging pedagogy in their university classrooms by making space for bi/multilingual pre-service teachers to use their full linguistic repertoires. In this way translanguaging pedagogy, politically aware authentic caring, and authentic cariño can be viewed as part of a broader program of preparing teachers to value authentic ways of bilingual languaging and biliteracy development.
 
 

Evidence for the interdependence hypothesis: a longitudinal study of biliteracy development in a CLIL/bilingual setting

ABSTRACT However influential the interdependence hypothesis has become in bilingual research, it still lacks full empirical support. This longitudinal study explores the parallels in the biliteracy development (L1 Spanish and L2 English) of 20 students in a European immersion programme (i.e. CLIL) over a two-year period. A bilingual learner corpus of history narratives, based on history curriculum content, was collected during ninth and tenth grade. These essays were processed with MultiAzterTest, a state-of-the-art language analysis tool, and a Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to determine if any dimensions evolved in unison in both languages. The results show that some dimensions – length measures, nominalisation, subordination and lexical development – evolve in a similar fashion, thus supporting the interdependence and the common underlying proficiency hypotheses. Additionally, the results of a mixed-model analysis confirm that the fixed effect of time and language on such progress is significant, unlike the random effects introduced by the students.