Literacy in Multilingual Classrooms

Abstract

AbstractLiteracy instruction that provides opportunities for learners from diverse language backgrounds to access their entire meaning‐making repertoire is essential in multilingual classrooms. This requires shifting conceptions of language/multilingualism and literacy/biliteracy that are prevalent in schools today by considering minoritized and racialized multi/bilingual learners as legitimate meaning makers themselves, with valid linguistic knowledge rather than as inadequate or incomplete language users. This discussion redefines conceptions of language and literacy in multilingual classrooms by situating them in more expansive sociocultural and critical perspectives. It then outlines five principles for literacy instruction in multilingual classrooms that leverage students' entire meaning‐making repertoire to enact social and cognitive justice for multi/bilingual learners.