ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of the early literacy development of young dual-language learners (DLLs) – children whose home language differs from the societal language and who represent a large and growing segment of the school-aged population in industrialized nations. It focuses on the sociopolitical context of the United States where educational practices and policies have been largely designed with monolingual English-speaking children in mind, but where schools are increasingly serving multilingual children. While speaking two or more languages has been shown to facilitate heightened development in some cognitive and early literacy skills, especially phonemic and metalinguistic awareness, at scale, there is a paradox to be addressed. While some DLLs develop their literacy skills to the same levels as their majority-culture, monolingual peers, on average, achievement data suggest that these readers struggle to attain English literacy skills to age-appropriate levels even after many years of schooling.
