Biliteracy in Schools and Communities

Now, more than ever, a large and growing number of children have the potential to develop bilingualism and biliteracy with the support of their families, communities, and teachers. Bilingualism, as they understand it, is the experience and process of engaging a dynamic repertoire of language and literacy practices that are developed over time and are transformed regularly in interaction with others as children who are growing up with two or more languages adapt to changing linguistic landscapes. Indeed, the norm for an increasing number of school-age children whose life experiences and circumstances require that they navigate the world through multiple languages, bilingualism itself does not connote a particular set of skills or level of performance as traditionally measured by language proficiency tests, but rather the multiplicity of varied and dynamic ways in which bilingual children use language on a daily basis. Through participation in multilingual and multicultural social networks, bilinguals enact a wide variety of language practices and transact with literate worlds to create and transform meaning.