Other words, other worlds : bilingual identities and literacy

The factors involved in language and literacy learning highlight a range of linguistic and social processes, which combine to significantly affect children's retention or loss of the home language. Being bilingual involves the negotiation of broader sociocultural and linguistic contexts within which languages and literacies are used. In this chapter, we highlight contemporary theoretical approaches to issues associated with bilingualism and biliteracy. We argue that critical frameworks for understanding interconnections between bilingualism, identity and literacy are necessary to investigate children's experiences of languages and literacies in everyday social practices. Also, we explore questions of identity and language retention in young children's uptake of cultural and linguistic capital so that early childhood and primary educators can draw on children's social and linguistic capital to extend their literacy learning.