With the overwhelming "Anglocentric" or "alphabetocentric" science of reading, the current review aimed to add to the science of reading acquisition from the perspective of abugidic writing system, distinct from the well-research alphabetic writing system in multiple dimensions of orthographic complexity, as proposed by Daniels…

In this article we identify ways to scaffold content-specific instruction to support your multilingual learners' academic language development. With the definition that academic language compromises of vocabulary, linguistic functions, and syntax, we share ways to integrate three instructional practices across your instruction. These practices…

Xinjiang has witnessed constant state attempts to reinforce the status of Mandarin Chinese as 'the Common Language' and to make local Turkic languages -- mainly Uyghur and Kazak -- more 'suitable' to the modern world. Official efforts to transform the linguistic landscape of Xinjiang have engaged in a complex interplay with Turkic speakers' own…

This article serves as an introduction to a collection of four articles on multilingual practices in speech and writing, exploring both contemporary and historical sources. It not only introduces the articles but also discusses the scope and definitions of code-switching, attitudes towards multilingual interaction and, most pertinently, the…

Personal narratives can be powerful venues for understanding human experiences. In this paper, we tell the story of Lutanyani, a Black South African multilingual teacher and author of supplemental reading materials in a marginalized South African language. Through various word images, we convey the role of language, in particular written language,…

Language is the essence of humanity and the backbone of early childhood education. Academic content clusters on it. Math, science, and social studies, for instance, are best taught through "content area language." Critical thinking and other key math, listening, and reading comprehension skills are mirrored in language. Not surprisingly, spoken…

From the field of developmental psycholinguistics and from conceptual development theory there is evidence that excessive linguistic "code-switching" in early school education may pose some hazards for the learning of young multilingual children. In this article the author addresses the issue, invoking post-Piagetian and neo-Vygotskian…

In this article we explore the role that the linguistic landscape, in the sense of all the written language in the public space, can have in second language acquisition (SLA). The linguistic landscape has symbolic and informative functions and it is multimodal, because it combines visual and printed texts, and multilingual, because it uses several…

Increased immigration in Europe and worldwide has led to more pre- and primary school students being educated through the medium of a second language, and there is considerable research, much of it coming from Australia, to suggest that in order to cope with this situation, children will need to begin to acquire, from their earliest years in…

This paper provides an account of the ways in which literacy, in different languages, was embedded in the East Timorese struggle against the Indonesian invasion and subsequent occupation, from 1975 to 1999. Our account is primarily historiographical in nature and is based on a corpus of written texts gathered during four phases of the struggle, on…

The author spent four years embedded in a multilingual kindergarten classroom in which children spoke six different languages and several more years observing multilingual Head Start classrooms. She shares numerous examples of young dual language learners actively figuring out the way written language works in their first and second languages.…

The characteristics which were held to define the Chinese language within the Western intellectual tradition placed it for a time at the centre in discussions of the genealogy of mankind. The dominant premodern paradigm for the explanation of human linguistic diversity was Biblical exegesis, as discussed and elaborated within the framework of…

Graffiti constitutes a medium through which the youth express opposition to authorities, as well as desires, dreams, and hopes. Graffiti shows many of the linguistic characteristics of youth language, including playfulness and, first and foremost, polylingual languaging. Graffiti in almost every city, at least in Europe, uses English and one or…

A framework for language planning categorizes 22 language planning goals in terms of the intersections between 3 types (status, corpus, and acquisition) and 2 approaches (policy and cultivation) of language planning. The model helps literacy developers to answer the question of which literacies to develop for what purpose. (Contains 44…

Comments on the use of mother-tongues in written communication and basic education, using literacy programs in multilinguistic contexts as an example of the plurality of literacies. Democracy and citizenship, and the social demand for communication competence in postindustrial societies, are discussed with respect to the continuity dimension of…