Perspectives on Emergent Literacy in Bilingual Children

Abstract

The term literacy is quite fascinating to speech-language pathologists and audiologists as the roots of literacy emerge from listening and speaking, i.e., communication skills. The complex and intricate connections between literacy and communication warrants a close examination of the skills that facilitate development of literacy related skills in young children. The development, however, is often subtle as children abstract the prerequisites by way of use of language for communication. Given the nature of association between language and literacy, it becomes necessary to understand the various dimensions and components of language that support a child to learn literacy skills. While there is fairly satisfactory information in respect of the above on children from monolingual popu- lation, very little information is available to date on bilingual children from linguistically diverse countries. This perspective article on emergent literacy in bilingual children has drawn information from many sources to reflect on the current status of emergent literacy in bilingual children in contrast to monolingual children. The article also reflects the author’s perspective on pertinent issues of advocacy, policy making, and language of instruction along with promotion and facilitation of emergent literacy skills in bilingual children to meet the vision of Literacy by 2020.