This is one of the most contentious topics in education in general and even more so when we go to bilingual education because not only is there already a cultural framework for literacy in the national language, but (usually) the adoption of literacy practices from the countries where the target language is spoken. These different approaches rarely come from similar educational theories and can quickly become hot topics in the teacher’s room or in professional development courses.
So, as a bilingual school administrator or coordinator, ensuring effective biliteracy instruction across the curriculum can be a complex task. With diverse opinions on literacy, limited resources, and varying teacher preparedness, creating a cohesive strategy may seem impossible. However, overcoming these challenges is crucial for the success of your students. Let’s explore practical strategies to promote a unified approach to biliteracy education. But first, let’s…
Address Differing Perspectives
One of the primary challenges administrators face is navigating differing beliefs about literacy instruction in bilingual settings. Long-time literacy educators from the national language have reasons to believe in how language should be taught and many times their approaches have already been culturally tested throughout the country, target-language educators have the ability to search the world for best literacy practices for their students in the target language, but both of them lack the knowledge and skills of biliteracy and need guidance from you on how to implement appropriate literacy practices for their unique context.
Talk about it first! Get it out of the teacher’s room and individual dialogues and address these differences as a group, organize regular meetings or forums where teachers, literacy specialists, and staff can share their views, practices, and concerns. Create a space where everyone feels valued and respected, encouraging real dialogue. What you will find is a real need for…
Professional Development
Professional development is essential for aligning differing perspectives and equipping teachers with the necessary tools for effective biliteracy instruction. Offer workshops, invite biliteracy experts, and provide access to evidence-based research to promote a shared understanding of best practices. Make sure you are just as involved in this professional development as they are. Remember, this is a contentious and belief-centered topic and your role is not only to understand what researchers are finding out about biliteracy, but you will need to be a mediator between the new information and how it is being received by your staff. That will give you a good idea of what follow-up strategies you’ll need to employ for certain teachers or for the whole group. It will also help you create a…
School-Wide Framework
A school-wide literacy framework can provide clear guidelines for teachers, ensuring consistency and alignment across the curriculum. This framework should outline the school’s goals for biliteracy, how language and concepts are intertwined, define appropriate teacher partnerships within the school routine and promote teachers working together, create biliteracy evaluation tools and approaches, establish best practices for literacy instruction in both languages and clearly state which biliteracy approach you will take, either…
Sequential or Simultaneous Biliteracy Instruction
Deciding between sequential or simultaneous biliteracy is a critical decision for administrators and should be an important part of the school-wide biliteracy framework you implement. And here the keyword is instruction because as literacy practices, like reading books out loud, are happening naturally in both languages, the children are creating literacy concepts in their brains using EVERYTHING they know about all their languages, not depending on a specific language, but as general concepts. Examples of this are understanding that:
- Marks on a page are symbols that represent sounds
- Letters have names and sounds and they combine to form words, phrases, and sentences
- Print carries meaning
So, many skills are transferable and should not be systematically taught twice – that is just a waste of precious instructional time. However, skills that are language-specific need to be taught and systematized, it is a choice of how schools spend their instructional time in each language and these language-dependant skills can either be taught at the same time (simultaneously) or one after the other (sequentially). Let’s break each one down a bit:
Advantages of Sequential Biliteracy:
Builds strong foundation literacy skills in the national language, allows for more orality-building skills in the additional language (a prerequisite for second language literacy), reduces cognitive load and overlap of concepts for younger learners, and facilitates skill transfer across languages.
Advantages of Simultaneous Biliteracy:
Provides early exposure to both languages when both are spoken fluently, promotes balanced biliteracy, and fosters cultural and linguistic equity (important for cultures where both languages are in use).
Which one is best? That depends on the specific needs of your students and the goals of your educational program. You get to decide! However, here at Early Beginnings, we recommend a simultaneous approach for contexts like Canada and the USA in dual-language two-way programs where both languages are in use in the local culture and where there are native speakers of both languages in the classroom. Then a sequential approach for contexts where the additional language is not present in the community and oracy-building requires more time before a systematic reading and writing program is introduced. Another challenge for school biliteracy programs is…
Tackling Resource Shortages
Limited physical literacy resources can be a significant obstacle in biliteracy programs in the additional language. To overcome this challenge schools can think about these helpful ideas:
- Digital resources: Not all contexts can find or afford physical resources for their students, that is when the internet comes in handy! There are plenty of online books, songs, read-alouds, and other ideas.
- Partner with local organizations: How about your local libraries? There might be a small section of books in the target language, can you borrow them? Maybe the librarian can point you to other organizations or cultural centers, even embassies, for additional resources.
- Create a resource-sharing network: Do you have a sister school? Try connecting with other bilingual schools or language centers in the area to exchange materials.
- Encourage in-house material development: Allow teachers to create their own resources, even translating national resources, whenever possible. But, remember, give them time and pay to do this!
Finally, ensuring teachers are adequately trained and confident in their ability to teach literacy in both languages is crucial. Administrators should invest in ongoing professional development programs that equip teachers with the necessary skills and research-based approaches in biliteracy. The more knowledge your team has about this all-important subject in early childhood education, the less in-fighting you’ll have and the more collective teacher efficacy you will have!
Our Biliteracy in Action course offers comprehensive training for educators, covering topics from biliteracy development stages to practical classroom activities. By enrolling your teachers, you’ll empower them to feel confident and capable in their roles as biliteracy instructors. Sign up for our course or get in touch with us for group discounts!
