Bilingualism and Literacy Development (P00778)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : EDU-P-P00778

This module will provide a theoretical insight into the development of biliteracy and into the acquisition of reading and writing skills in English as an additional language in a multilingual and socially inclusive context. It will begin with a consideration of multilingual literacies and literacy practices in different cultures. Current approaches to baseline assessment and early intervention in the literacy development of developing bilingual learners will be reviewed critically together with the interpretation of a bilingual learner's reading performance. The development of strategies for reading and writing in an additional language, and in particular the development of critical literacy and family literacy support, will be addressed in relation to the literacy demands of the mainstream curriculum. This analysis will provide the basis for developing, across the school, appropriate support strategies for bilingual learners and their teachers/support assistants, and for evaluating the effectiveness of these strategies.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Education, (The Moray House School of Education, Schedule C)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 12 weeks

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this module, students are required to demonstrate that they are able to:
- Complete a literacy profile of a bilingual learner which takes account of literacy practices at home, in the community and at school
- Use critically a variety of approaches for the informal and formal assessment of reading and writing, and interpret their results
- Analyse a range of texts used within the mainstream curriculum in terms of the content, linguistic, cultural and learning demands they make upon individual bilingual learners
- Develop strategies, with other professionals, to enable the learner to understand, critique and apply the content of texts to meet personal requirements or the demands of the curriculum and evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies
- Develop strategies, with other professionals, to enable learners to meet the writing demands of the mainstream curriculum in the additional language and evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies
Describe and evaluate approaches to literacy support at home through family literacy programmes.

Assessment Information

Students will identify and interpret features which will comprise a profile of the literacy development of an individual bilingual learner
Using this profile (or a briefer profile constructed for another bilingual learner), they will undertake an analysis of curricular or task demands to construct (with either a support teacher/mainstream colleague, as appropriate) an appropriate reading or writing task for a bilingual learner, analyse and evaluate both the learner's performance in terms of linguistic, social and cognitive development and the effectiveness of the task, and use the analysis as a basis for the development of an individual education plan (IEP) related to literacy development.