Bilingual books: Promoting literacy and biliteracy in the second-language and mainstream classroom

This article discusses the benefits of and strategies for using bilingual books in mainstream classrooms and in classrooms where English is taught as a second language. The article begins with a brief discussion about literacy and biliteracy that underscores the importance of supporting and nurturing literacy in the first language as a vehicle to developing literacy in English. Following a cursory description of the different kinds of bilingual books available, the remainder of the article illustrates ways of using bilingual books to foster literacy development for second-language learners. It is argued that the presence of books in other languages in the classroom library sends a clear message about the value of languages, scripts, and cultures in that classroom.