Literacy Leadership Brief:

“The Role of Bilingualism in Improving Literacy Achievement”

The article, ​The Role of Bilingualism in Improving Literacy Achievement, p​ ublished in

the Literacy Leadership Brief in 2019, discussed the positive effects dual language schooling has

on all students. The language that is taught through these programs is chosen by the school and

the parent community and usually reflects the language that is spoken by the majority of

multilingual students. Because Spanish is the primary language for most multilingual students,

most dual language programs are Spanish-English. However, the list of dual-language programs

is growing every year and offers a variety of other languages.

Although the article provided reasons that dual language programs are beneficial to all

students, it focused on the gains African American and Latinx students made while enrolled in a

dual language program. The majority of students enrolled in a dual language classroom show

significant academic gains over time when compared to their peers that are not enrolled in

bilingual programs. According to the ​International Literacy Association​,“the two most powerful

outcomes of dual language programs are higher cognitive development as measured by school

tests and higher engagement with learning” (​International Literacy Association, 2​ 019).

This article led me to think of how powerful it is for dual language learners to feel like an

expert in a dual language program. Feeling like an expert in a foregin country with a foreign

language builds up self esteem in an environment where they are often viewed as having deficits

rather than assets. The article left me with questions, the most prominent being why there hasn’t

been more of a push for dual language programs to be implemented in every district if the gains

are so significant. In the five districts I have worked, I have only seen one school that has offered

a dual language program. I would also wonder what classrooms were used for the data that was
collected. Currently, I know that there are dual language programs that begin with 100% of the

foregin language at kindergarten and gradually decrease as they advance from one grade to the

next. There are also programs that operate the opposite way with students gradually increasing

the amounts of instruction they receive in the foreign language. And then there are programs

that are a 50/50 model where half of the instruction is in English and the other half of the day is

taught using the foreign language. A further analysis would be required to decide which

programs are indeed beneficial to a student’s cognitive development.

References

International Literacy Association. (2019). The role of bilingualism in improving literacy

achievement [Literacy leadership brief]. Newark, DE: Author.