Bilingual literacy refers to the ability to read and write proficiently in two languages, a skill increasingly vital in our globalized, multilingual world. As more children grow up speaking a language at home that differs from the one used in school, developing strong bilingual literacy becomes essential not only for academic success but also for maintaining cultural identity, fostering cognitive development, and enhancing future career opportunities.

In the context of bilingualism and education, schools across the U.S. and beyond are seeing rapid growth in the number of bilingual and multilingual students. According to the U.S. Department of Education, over 5 million English Language Learners (ELLs) are currently enrolled in U.S. public schools, making up roughly 10% of the total student population and this number continues to rise each year. Yet, despite this growth, significant gaps in reading achievement persist. Research shows that only 14% of ELLs reach reading proficiency by fourth grade, compared to much higher rates for their monolingual peers.

These disparities underscore a pressing need for instructional practices and tools that explicitly support the development of bilingual literacy. Traditional reading programs often overlook the unique needs of bilingual learners, failing to provide adequate support in pronunciation, vocabulary, and comprehension across both languages.

Understanding Bilingualism in Education

In educational contexts, bilingualism refers to the ability to understand and speak two languages with fluency. When supported through evidence-based instruction, bilingualism and education can go hand-in-hand to produce measurable cognitive, academic, and social benefits. Research consistently shows that bilingual students often demonstrate enhanced executive functioning skills such as improved attention control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility compared to their monolingual peers. These skills directly contribute to academic achievement across all subjects, not just language arts.

Beyond cognitive advantages, bilingualism also fosters deeper cultural competence and identity formation. Students who maintain and develop both their home language and English tend to experience stronger family connections, greater self-esteem, and increased engagement in school. This dual-language development affirms their cultural heritage while equipping them to thrive in a world that is increasingly globalized and values multilingual communication.

While bilingualism typically emphasizes oral fluency, the ability to speak and understand two languages, biliteracy extends this concept to include the written domain. According to the biliteracy definition, it is the capacity to read and write proficiently in two languages, which involves a more complex set of skills, including decoding, vocabulary knowledge, grammar, and comprehension in both languages. Achieving biliteracy requires intentional instruction that nurtures both oral and written language development over time.

It’s important to distinguish between bilingualism and biliteracy. A student may speak Spanish and English fluently at home and in social settings, yet struggle to read or write in either language at an academic level. This gap can emerge when instructional support focuses only on oral language or is limited to one language, rather than developing both literacy systems in parallel. To truly support bilingualism in education, schools must provide structured opportunities for biliteracy development, not simply expect it to emerge naturally from spoken language proficiency.

By recognizing these distinctions and planning accordingly, educators can create more inclusive and effective learning environments. With the right supports in place, including targeted digital tools and culturally responsive instruction, bilingual students can become confident, capable biliterate learners prepared for success in school and beyond.

Challenges Faced by Bilingual Learners

While bilingual learners bring a wealth of linguistic and cultural knowledge to the classroom, they often face distinct challenges that can hinder their language and literacy development. These challenges are not due to a lack of ability, but rather reflect systemic gaps in instructional practices, materials, and assessments that fail to account for the complex experiences of bilingual students. Understanding these barriers is essential to designing equitable and effective literacy instruction.

Code-Switching: Navigating Multiple Linguistic Systems

One common behavior among bilingual learners is code-switching, the practice of alternating between two languages within a conversation or sentence. While linguistically natural and cognitively sophisticated, code-switching is sometimes misunderstood by educators as a sign of confusion or deficiency. In reality, it often reflects a student’s strategic use of all their language resources to make meaning. However, without guidance, excessive code-switching may interfere with reading fluency and vocabulary development in the target language, especially in formal academic contexts.

Limited Vocabulary in Each Language

Bilingual students may have a broad total vocabulary across both languages, but they often possess limited academic vocabulary in each language individually. This can create challenges in both decoding and comprehension. For example, a student may understand a concept in their home language but lack the English terminology to articulate or apply it in a classroom setting. This vocabulary gap can become a significant barrier to achieving grade-level reading expectations and limits access to content across subjects.

Impact on Assessments and Confidence

Standardized reading assessments are typically designed for monolingual English speakers and often fail to accurately reflect the capabilities of bilingual students. These assessments may penalize students for slower reading rates or unfamiliar vocabulary, even when comprehension is strong. As a result, bilingual learners are frequently under-identified for gifted programs and over-identified for remedial services. The cumulative effect of these challenges is a decline in reading confidence, which leads many bilingual students to internalize negative beliefs about their reading abilities and learning capabilities.

Instructional Strategies to Foster Bilingual Literacy

Fostering bilingual literacy requires more than simply offering reading materials in multiple languages. It demands an intentional, research-based approach that addresses the specific needs of bilingual learners with skills, while honoring their linguistic and cultural identities. Effective instructional strategies must bridge both oral and written language development, promote engagement, and provide tools that support personalized, ongoing growth and development.

Explicit Instruction in Both Languages

Whenever possible, students should receive explicit literacy instruction in both their first and second languages. Research shows that strong literacy skills in a student’s home language can accelerate the acquisition of literacy in a second language. This is known as cross-linguistic transfer. For example, phonemic awareness and comprehension strategies developed in Spanish can support English reading development.

Bilingual programs that include direct instruction in vocabulary, phonics, and comprehension in both languages are especially beneficial. Teachers should model reading strategies clearly, provide sentence frames for academic writing, and guide discussions that develop oral and written fluency in both languages.

Use of Dual-Language Books

Dual-language texts are powerful tools for promoting biliteracy. These books present the same content in two languages, often side by side, allowing students to compare vocabulary, syntax, and meaning. For early readers, they reinforce decoding and comprehension by making connections between the familiar (home language) and the new (target language).

Using dual-language books in the classroom also:

• Builds reading confidence by leveraging students’ strengths
• Expands vocabulary in both languages
• Promotes cultural pride and inclusivity
• Supports families who want to read with their children at home

When dual-language materials are consistently incorporated, they enrich both language and literacy development, affirming the importance of students’ bilingual identities.

Leveraging the First Language as an Asset

Rather than viewing a student’s first language as an obstacle, effective educators treat it as a valuable asset. Allowing students to brainstorm, draft, or discuss in their home language before producing final work in English can reduce cognitive overload and increase comprehension. Encouraging code-meshing, where students integrate their full linguistic repertoire, can also support creativity and deepen their understanding of complex texts.

Bilingual learners who are affirmed in their first language are more likely to feel confident, engaged, and capable in academic tasks. Classroom environments that support translanguaging practices (using multiple languages flexibly and strategically) foster a deeper connection between spoken and written language development.

Real-Time Feedback and Speech Recognition Technology

Pronunciation is a critical but often overlooked element of biliteracy. Many bilingual learners hesitate to read aloud because they fear mispronouncing words in English. This can lead to lower reading fluency and a tendency to avoid oral reading activities.

Speech recognition tools are game-changers for this challenge. By listening to students read aloud, these tools:

• Provide instant corrective feedback on mispronounced words
• Track oral fluency metrics over time
• Reinforce accurate pronunciation through repeated modeling
• Act as a virtual tutor, supporting independent reading

This kind of real-time support is especially helpful for bilingual students who are still developing auditory discrimination in English or whose first language has different phonological rules. It also builds self-monitoring skills and reduces anxiety associated with oral reading.

Teaching Biliteracy Pronunciation in Younger Learners

Developing biliteracy pronunciation in early learners requires a multisensory and phonologically rich approach. Young children learning to read and speak in two languages benefit from:

• Explicit modeling of sounds unique to each language
• Contrastive analysis, where teachers draw attention to how the same letter may represent different sounds (e.g., “j” in English vs. Spanish)
• Echo reading and choral reading to build rhythm, intonation, and confidence
• Interactive repetition, using apps or games that let children listen, repeat, and correct pronunciation in a non-judgmental environment

For example, a child reading an English story on Readability might be prompted to repeat a challenging word aloud. The app recognizes their attempt, provides feedback, and reinforces correct articulation. This method enables biliteracy pronunciation skills to develop gradually and confidently, particularly in younger learners who are still navigating the sound systems of two languages.

Supporting Bilingual Growth Through Strategic Instruction

Instructional strategies that support bilingual literacy must be intentional, inclusive, and responsive to the needs of all learners. By integrating:

• Dual-language materials
• Explicit instruction in both languages
• Home language as a foundation
• Real-time pronunciation feedback

With age-appropriate biliteracy pronunciation strategies, educators can help bilingual learners thrive. With the right tools, like AI-driven platforms that offer dynamic individualized support, students are not just learning to read in English or another language. They are becoming empowered, biliterate thinkers equipped for lifelong learning across languages and cultures.

How Technology Can Bridge the Gap

As the number of bilingual learners continues to grow, so does the demand for scalable, inclusive, and effective literacy tools. Traditional instructional models often struggle to provide the real-time, personalized support needed to close reading gaps, particularly for skills that bilingual students must navigate in both oral and written language development across multiple languages. This is where educational technology can serve as a transformative force in promoting bilingual literacy.

Readability: A Bilingual-Friendly Platform

Readability is an AI-powered reading platform uniquely positioned to support language and literacy development for bilingual learners. Built on the Science of Reading and grounded in evidence-based instruction, Readability uses real-time data, adaptive feedback, and voice interaction to guide students through their reading journey. What makes Readability particularly powerful for bilingual students is its ability to respond to the learner’s spoken word, pronunciation patterns, and comprehension levels just like a one-on-one reading tutor.

Readability isn’t just a passive digital bookshelf. It actively listens, evaluates, and adjusts to the needs of each reader, creating a highly personalized experience that builds confidence and proficiency.

Real-Time AI Speech Feedback

One of the most impactful features for bilingual learners is real-time speech recognition and feedback. As students read aloud, Readability listens for pronunciation accuracy, pacing, and fluency. If a student mispronounces a word or reads it incorrectly, the app gently corrects them at the moment offering the kind of immediate support that’s often unavailable in large classrooms.

For bilingual learners who may struggle with the phonological differences between their home language and English, this kind of feedback is critical. It helps them:

• Strengthen phonemic awareness
• Build accurate pronunciation habits
• Improve reading fluency through repeated practice

This supports biliteracy development by reinforcing clear articulation and reducing the anxiety often associated with reading aloud.

Comprehension Questions Read Aloud

In addition to pronunciation, Readability prioritizes comprehension, the ultimate goal of reading. After completing a passage or book, students are asked oral comprehension questions, which they also answer aloud. This verbal interaction supports both listening and speaking skills while reinforcing reading understanding.

This is particularly effective for bilingual learners who may understand content better when allowed to process or respond orally, rather than being limited to written comprehension tests. The platform supports this by:

• Asking questions in a consistent, scaffolded manner
• Evaluating oral responses for relevance and accuracy
• Encouraging verbal reasoning and critical thinking

By using a spoken-response model, Readability helps bridge gaps in language and literacy development, especially for students who may be developing English writing skills more slowly than their oral language skills.

Vocabulary Support in Context

For bilingual learners, limited English vocabulary is a common barrier to comprehension. Readability addresses this by providing in-context vocabulary support as students read. When a student encounters an unfamiliar word, the app offers definitions, synonyms, or rephrasing directly within the story. This approach helps students:

• Expand their academic vocabulary naturally
• Understand nuanced word meanings
• Build stronger semantic networks across languages

Because the support is embedded within real reading experiences, it avoids interrupting the flow of reading and supports deeper, more sustained language and literacy development.

Personalized Learning Paths

Readability’s AI doesn’t deliver a one-size-fits-all experience. It builds a personalized learning path for each student, adjusting the difficulty of texts, pacing, and support levels based on individual performance data. For bilingual learners, this adaptability is essential. Their needs may change frequently depending on the topic, vocabulary complexity, or even emotional comfort with reading.

Personalized pathways allow bilingual students to:

• Progress at their own pace
• Build on strengths while targeting specific challenges
• Engage with reading as a rewarding, confidence-building activity

By supporting each learner’s unique growth trajectory, Readability ensures that bilingual literacy isn’t just about mastering English, it’s about becoming a strong, independent reader in any language.