Case Studies of Dual Language Teachers: Conceptualizations on the Complexities of Biliteracy for Teacher Preparation

Abstract

In support of growing numbers of dual language programs nationwide, dual language teachers must be prepared to work with dual language learners in achieving additive biliteracy. In this paper, the author/researcher utilized a multiple-case study design to explore six practicing dual language teachers’ conceptualizations of biliteracy development with dual language learners. The study participants, from North Carolina and New Mexico, expressed essential considerations regarding linguistic complexities of additive biliteracy and academic language development in both Spanish and English; study results also include enlightening details regarding the participants’ own linguistic and metalinguistic self-development processes related to biliteracy. In addition, the study’s findings and discussions provide detailed recommendations for new ways to consider preparing dual language teachers for the specialized pedagogies necessary to support dual language learners’ biliteracy and academic language development.