Language Magazine – Angela Sherman, Cornelius Godfrey, Lini Athavale, and David Bong
“Heritage language learners add to the rich variety of the U.S.’s languages, yet all too often those very students are denied the recognition they deserve. The Seal of Biliteracy movement, which recognizes students who demonstrate proficiency in two languages, has swept across the U.S. like wildfire. The movement began in California in 2011, and now 43 states and the District of Columbia offer a State Seal of Biliteracy to qualified high school seniors. The original objective of Californians Together, the group that successfully campaigned for the first Seal, was to value multilingualism and “the high level of academic achievement associated with attaining literacy in multiple languages.” Yet too often these high school heritage learners are being denied access to the Seal of Biliteracy, just as are the thousands of bilingual learners in community-based heritage language schools. The Seal provides the perfect opportunity for educators in bilingual, English language, and world language contexts to come together and collaborate to give recognition to the language accomplishments of all these learners, who are striving to develop the language skills that are so critical to their success in life. ” (more)