Languages and literacies: What lessons for theory and policy from practice?

Session Submission Type: Group Panel

Description of Session

A multitude of research and theory investigating how bilingual children acquire basic reading skills has been produced by experts across the Western world. In many cases, quite a lot is now known about how bilingual children in highly developed countries learn. Evidence from many countries, language groups and time periods have shown that reading comprehension is most easily achieved when learning to read is taught in a child’s mother tongue. However, despite this strong theoretical and research base, very little is known about how this component skills of reading in different languages simultaneously apply in practice for children in the developing world. Further, organizations and policy makers often use this body of research to inform programs and investments that assume that factors associated with learning to read in two languages in the developed world function in the same way in developing contexts. This panel will present two country-specific and one cross country analysis to explore these ideas. Each speaker will have 15 minutes so that we can maximize discussion and learning from the audience.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Language Issues

Chair

• Barbara Trudell, SIL Africa

Individual Presentations

• Learning to read in Vietnam - Tuan Doan, Save the Children International, Vietnam

• The multilingual impact of mother tongue programs: Evidence from a randomized control trial in Kenya - Benjamin Piper, RTI International

• Learning to read in two languages: A cross-country investigation of L1↔L2 skills transfer - Amy Jo Dowd, Save the Children

• We Are Because We Speak: Ubuntu and Mapping the First Decade of Language Issues SIG - Desmond Odugu, Lake Forest College; Christopher Shephard, Insider Expeditions