LINGUISTIC MINORITY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

While it is clearly important for linguistic minority students to develop proficiency in English literacy, native language proficiency may help contribute to that end by developing skills that transfer from one language to another (See August, Calderón, and Carlo, 2002 (PDF) ; Slavin and Cheung, 2004 (PDF) ).  Moreover, biliteracy itself may enhance the economic and social opportunities for all students.

Other funding agencies have also realized the importance of promoting research on biliteracy development.  In 2000, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Institute of Education of Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education funded a series of longitudinal studies on the Development of English Literacy in Spanish-Speaking Children (DELSS ).

UC LMRI's efforts in the period from 2004-2008 initially focused on five activities:

1. Developing a Statewide Longitudinal Study of English Language Learners

   The first activity was to fund a series of studies on methodological issues related to the development of a statewide longitudinal study of English language learners in California known as the California Study of English Language Learners (CSELL).  This activity was initiated by the UC LMRI Faculty Steering Committee in 2000. A series of projects was proposed for CSELL, some of which were completed, and others were not.

2. Creating a Network of Biliteracy Researchers

   The second activity was to create a community of researchers engaged in longitudinal studies of biliteracy development.  In 2004, UC LMRI initiated this activity with the first Research Forum on Biliteracy Development. UC LMRI has convened a Forum annually in January of each year since then.

3. Developing a Database of Research Literature on Biliteracy Development

   The third activity was to develop and maintain an interactive database of theoretical, conceptual, and empirical research literature on biliteracy development. An annotated bibliography (PDF) is currently available.

4. Creating an Inventory of Instruments for Biliteracy Research

   The fourth activity was to create an inventory of research instruments that can be used to conduct research studies on biliteracy development and to facilitate comparisons among studies.

5. North State Biliteracy Consortium

   Finally, a network of Northern California schools met quarterly under the auspices of the UC LMRI Education Policy Center at UC Davis in order to share information on research, policy, and practice on biliteracy programs.