Becoming Biliterate: Identity, Ideology, and Learning to Read and Write in Two Languages

Through the real-life example of Emma, one child learning to be bilingual and biliterate, this book raises questions and provides a theoretical foundation and a context for understanding and reflecting on the complexity by which young children learn to read and write in multiple languages as they actively construct meaning and work through tensions resulting from their everyday life circumstances. Highlighting the social and cognitive advantages of biliteracy, and opening a space to explore and discuss issues of language rights, Becoming Biliterate :addresses the complexity of writing across writing systemsexamines the writing and drawing forms that result from one child's active discovery when she was allowed to explore written forms of English and Japanesesituates written language as a cultural tool to raise the larger connection between writing and identitylooks at the relationships between learning to reading and identity through a code-switching lensdescribes what happened when Emma met the English-dominant world of schoolPerspectives regarding identity and language ideologies are presented to help teachers refine their own pedagogical approaches to teaching linguistically diverse children. Reaction Questions and Suggested Activities in each chapter engage readers in articulating and questioning their own assumptions and beliefs and in connecting what they are reading to their own experiences with multilingual children and/or classrooms.