Emergent Biliteracy: The Development of Reading and Writing Conceptualizations by Young Spanish-English Bilingual Children

• In Event: 66.057 - Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: 66.057-16 - Literacy and Biliteracy for Bilingual Students

Abstract

This two-year descriptive study examines the development and relationship of emergent conceptualizations of reading and writing in young emerging bilingual students. Children participated in writing and environmental print reading tasks at the beginning and end of preschool and kindergarten. Findings suggest that from an early age, children construct their own conceptualizations about the nature of biliteracy in specific contexts; these understandings develop in a continuum that is recursive rather than following a linear progression. Findings also show that writing conceptualizations involving letter-sound analysis preceded the application of those concepts to reading. Finally, children with more advanced levels of writing conceptualizations consistently relied on their meaningful experiences with print, rather than their print awareness, to make sense of environmental print.

Authors

• Lucinda A. Soltero-Gonzalez, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Sandra Adriana Butvilofsky, University of Colorado Boulder

• Adriana Alvarez, University of Colorado - Boulder