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Researching the Continua of Biliteracy

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Research Methods in Language and Education

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Language and Education ((ELE))

Abstract

The continua of biliteracy model offers an ecological framework in which to situate research, teaching, and language policy and planning in multilingual settings. Biliteracy is defined here as “any and all instances in which communication occurs in two (or more) languages in or around writing” and the continua depict the complex, fluid, and interrelated dimensions of communicative repertoires; it is in the dynamic, rapidly changing and sometimes contested spaces along and across the continua that biliteracy use and learning occur. The continua of biliteracy model was formulated in the context of a multi-year, comparative ethnography of language policy beginning in 1987 in two Philadelphia public schools and their respective communities. It proved useful in analyzing the data and drawing conclusions from the research and by the same token, the ongoing research informed the evolving framework. In the years since it was first proposed, the continua of biliteracy model has informed research locally, nationally, and internationally in Indigenous, immigrant, refugee, heritage, and diaspora language education contexts. Along the way, it has evolved and adapted to accommodate both a changing world and a changing scholarly terrain. Ongoing and future research on the continua of biliteracy addresses trends embedded in the framework and highlighted in this chapter – translanguaging, ecology of language, ethnography of language policy, and ideological and implementational spaces, as instantiated in language education policy and practice in local contexts of Indigenous and ethnic languages and global contexts of diaspora and language spread.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, 19104-6216, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Nancy H. Hornberger

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  1. Nancy H. Hornberger
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Correspondence to Nancy H. Hornberger .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Kendall A. King

  2. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Yi-Ju Lai

  3. Faculty of Education and Social Work, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Stephen May

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Hornberger, N.H. (2017). Researching the Continua of Biliteracy. In: King, K., Lai, YJ., May, S. (eds) Research Methods in Language and Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02249-9_42

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