Understanding Spontaneous Biliteracy

• In Event: Biliteracy Development in Young Emergent Bilingual Learners

Abstract

This paper explores how bilingual Latina/o children in an English as Second Language program became spontaneously biliterate (Reyes, 2014). Drawing on ethnographic data from a year-long study in a first grade classroom and using a methodology that combines ethnography and discourse analysis, the paper describes the mechanisms by which children were able to create Spanish texts even in the absence of formal literacy instruction. These findings have implications for understanding how teachers in linguistically diverse classrooms can support their students’ language and literacy development.

Author

• Leah Durán, The University of Arizona