Literacy Squared: Valuing Bilingualism

There are over 10 million children in the U.S. speaking languages other than English, 85% of whom speak Spanish as their other language. These children have enormous potential, but historically have not been well served by U.S. schools. In addition, school programs provided only in English often result in both Spanish language loss and a missed opportunity to foster bilingualism and intercultural understanding among all children. CU professors Kathy Escamilla, Lucinda Soltero-González, & Sue Hopewell will discuss Literacy Squared®—a program designed to accelerate the development of English as well as maintain and develop Spanish in emerging bilingual children—as well as suggest research-based strategies to make the most of the rich multicultural resources of children in the U.S. and encourage bilingual literacy.