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Honoring and Building on the Rich Literacy Practices of Young Bilingual and Multilingual Learners
Author(s) -
SoutoManning Mariana
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the reading teacher
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.642
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1936-2714
pISSN - 0034-0561
DOI - 10.1002/trtr.1518
Subject(s) - honor , multilingualism , literacy , bilingual education , pedagogy , equity (law) , sociology , neuroscience of multilingualism , call to action , dual language , psychology , mathematics education , linguistics , political science , law , philosophy , marketing , neuroscience , computer science , business , operating system
In this article, the author invites teachers of children who are bilingual, multilingual, and at promise for bi‐/multilingualism to honor and build on their rich literacy practices. To do so, she challenges ideas and labels that continuously disempower bilingual and multilingual learners. Souto‐Manning establishes the understanding that education is a human, civil, and legal right and briefly reviews the laws determining the education of bilingual children in the United States. In doing so, she explores issues of access and equity in education, then focuses on Ladson‐Billings's concept of culturally relevant teaching and shares examples of culturally relevant teaching in action. These examples come from dual‐language and ESOL classrooms in the United States. She concludes by inviting readers to consider ways to honor and build on the language and literacy practices of bilingual and multilingual learners.