The

Architecture of 

Biliteracy

OVERVIEW

The Architecture of Biliteracy examines how literacy develops across two or more languages. Rather than viewing bilingual literacy as the acquisition of separate language systems, this research domain explores how language, cognition, transfer, orthographic characteristics, executive functions, and instructional design interact to shape biliteracy development. It provides the scientific foundation for understanding how learners become successful readers and writers across languages.

RESEARCH SYNTHESIS

The Architecture of Biliteracy: Understanding Literacy Across Languages

A conceptual synthesis examining biliteracy as the interaction of shared cognitive systems, language-specific characteristics, cross-linguistic transfer, and intentional educational design.

RESEARCH BRIEFS

Bilingualism Is Not Biliteracy

Why speaking two languages does not automatically lead to reading and writing proficiency in both.

Languages Interact

Understanding how vocabulary, syntax, morphology, and conceptual knowledge transfer across languages.

Transfer Is Designed, Not Assumed

Why cross-linguistic transfer depends on instructional opportunities rather than bilingual exposure alone.

Every Writing System Shapes Reading Differently

How orthographic transparency influences decoding, fluency, spelling, and reading development.

One Brain, Multiple Writing Systems

How shared neural architecture adapts to different orthographies without creating separate reading systems.

Biliteracy Is Built Through Connections

Why successful bilingual instruction strengthens relationships between languages rather than treating them as isolated systems.

Language Is the Medium of Learning

How oral language, academic language, and literacy development interact throughout schooling.

Biliteracy Requires Intentional Design

Why curriculum, assessment, and instruction must be deliberately aligned to support literacy across languages.

VISUAL FRAMEWORKS

The Architecture of Biliteracy

A conceptual model illustrating how language, cognition, orthography, transfer, executive functions, and instruction interact to support biliteracy development.

Cross-Linguistic Transfer Framework

A visual representation of how knowledge, vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and metalinguistic awareness transfer across languages.

Shared Reading Architecture

Illustrating the relationship between universal neural systems for reading and language-specific adaptations across writing systems.

The Biliteracy Continuum

A framework describing the development of oral language, decoding, fluency, comprehension, writing, and academic language across multiple languages.

FOUNDATIONAL STUDIES

The following studies represent key contributions from the past decade that shape contemporary understanding of biliteracy and inform LAJAM’s research on The Architecture of Biliteracy.

Kittle, J. M., Amendum, S. J., & Budde, C. M. (2024). What Does Research Say About the Science of Reading for K–5 Multilingual Learners? A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews.

Synthesizes 30 systematic reviews and establishes that multilingual literacy development depends on the interaction of oral language, phonological awareness, decoding, fluency, comprehension, and literacy knowledge across both languages.

Li, H., Zhang, J., & Ding, G. (2021). Reading Across Writing Systems: A Meta-Analysis of the Neural Correlates for First- and Second-Language Reading.

Demonstrates that first- and second-language reading draw on substantially shared neural systems while also adapting to differences between writing systems and language experience.

Oshchepkova, E. S., Kartushina, N. A., & Razmakhnina, K. O. (2023). Bilingualism and Development of Literacy in Children: A Systematic Review.

Reviews the relationship between bilingualism and literacy development and identifies language structure, writing systems, instructional conditions, and learners’ cognitive and linguistic resources as central influences on biliteracy acquisition.

Spencer, M. (2017). The Comprehension Problems for Second-Language Learners With Poor Reading Comprehension Despite Adequate Decoding: A Meta-Analysis.

Clarifies why accurate decoding in a second language does not guarantee comprehension, highlighting the essential role of language proficiency and linguistic knowledge in literacy development.

Van Dijk, C., Van Wonderen, E., Koutamanis, E., Kootstra, G. J., Dijkstra, T., & Unsworth, S. (2022). Cross-Linguistic Influence in Simultaneous and Early Sequential Bilingual Children: A Meta-Analysis.

Shows that bilingual languages influence one another systematically and that transfer varies according to language structures, exposure, proficiency, and developmental conditions.

Zhang, K., Sun, X., Flores-Gaona, Z., Yu, C.-L., Eggleston, R. L., Nickerson, N., Caruso, V. C., Tardif, T., & Kovelman, I. (2025). Cross-Linguistic Transfer in Bilingual Children’s Phonological and Morphological Awareness Skills: A Longitudinal Perspective.

Provides longitudinal evidence that phonological and morphological knowledge interact across languages, while showing that the direction and strength of transfer depend on structural similarities between the languages involved.

Zhang, N., Wu, Z., & Wang, M. (2025). Cross-Language Phonological Activation in Bilingual Visual Word Recognition: A Meta-Analysis.

Synthesizes evidence that both languages remain active during bilingual word recognition and explains how phonology, proficiency, writing-system similarity, and task conditions shape cross-language processing.

Zhao, J., Quiroz, B., Dixon, L. Q., & Joshi, R. M. (2016). Comparing Bilingual to Monolingual Learners on English Spelling: A Meta-Analytic Review.

Demonstrates that bilingual spelling development reflects a complex interaction among linguistic experience, word knowledge, phonological processing, and the characteristics of the writing systems being learned.

SELECTED REFERENCES

  • August, D., & Shanahan, T. (Eds.). (2006). Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth.

  • Baker, C. (2021). Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (7th ed.).

  • Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in Development: Language, Literacy, and Cognition.

  • Bialystok, E. (2007). Acquisition of Literacy in Bilingual Children: A Framework for Research.

  • Bialystok, E., Luk, G., & Kwan, E. (2005). Bilingualism, Biliteracy, and Learning to Read: Interactions Among Languages and Writing Systems.

  • Cummins, J. (1979). Linguistic Interdependence and the Educational Development of Bilingual Children.

  • Cummins, J. (2000). Language, Power, and Pedagogy: Bilingual Children in the Crossfire.

  • Cummins, J. (2001). Negotiating Identities: Education for Empowerment in a Diverse Society.

  • Genesee, F., Lindholm-Leary, K., Saunders, W., & Christian, D. (2005). Educating English Language Learners: A Synthesis of Research Evidence.

  • Grosjean, F. (2010). Bilingual: Life and Reality.

  • Hornberger, N. H. (Ed.). (2003). Continua of Biliteracy: An Ecological Framework for Educational Policy, Research, and Practice in Multilingual Settings.

  • Koda, K. (2007). Reading and Language Learning: Crosslinguistic Constraints on Second Language Reading Development.

  • Koda, K., & Zehler, A. M. (Eds.). (2008). Learning to Read Across Languages.

  • Verhoeven, L. (1994). Transfer in Bilingual Development: The Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis Revisited.

  • Verhoeven, L., & Perfetti, C. A. (Eds.). (2022). The Cambridge Handbook of Literacy.

  • Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading Acquisition, Developmental Dyslexia, and Skilled Reading Across Languages.