Revisiting the Continua of Biliteracy: International and Critical Perspectives

Abstract

The continua model of biliteracy offers a framework in which to situate research, teaching, and language planning in linguistically diverse settings. Arguing from this model, and citing examples of Cambodian and Puerto Rican students in Philadelphia's public schools as illustrative of the challenge facing American educators, Hornberger has suggested that the more their learning contexts allow learners to draw on all points of the continua, the greater are the chances for their full biliterate development. The present paper revisits the continua model from the perspective of several international cases of educational policy and practice in linguistically diverse settings - Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, and from a critical perspective which seeks to make explicit the power relationships which define bi(multi)literacies in these contexts. Building from these perspectives and from continuing research in Philadelphia's Cambodian and Puerto Rican communities, we propose an expanded continua model which takes into account not only biliterate contexts, media, and development, but also, crucially, the content of biliteracy. We conclude with comments on how the insights of the continua model of biliteracy can contribute to our understanding not only of linguistically diverse classrooms, but also of all classrooms.