Presented By: Department of Psychology
Developmental Psychology Visiting Scholar Talk | Understanding the development of literacy and the processes leading to fluent biliteracy
Ingrid Finger, Ph.D. Professor of Linguistics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; Director of the Bilingualism and Cognition Lab
Hosted by the Lorraine Nadelman Visiting Scholar Fund
Abstract:
Despite the growing number of bilingual children in the world, current literacy models and early reading interventions remain largely monolingual in design, not addressing the developmental stages of biliteracy development. However, the idea that literacy development in two languages may be related for bilingual children learning to read and write is in accordance with the indisputable evidence that the bilingual’s two languages are simultaneously active during language acquisition and use even in situations in which individuals intend to produce or comprehend one language alone (e.g., Kroll et al., 2015). In this talk, I will argue that both the development of literacy and the processes leading to fluent biliteracy can be examined through the Four Levels of Literacy Model (Alves & Finger, 2023), which consists of a continuum of four complementary levels, referred to as Sociometalinguistic Skills, Alphabetic Literacy, Textual Literacy, and Social Literacy. I will also discuss the research that we are currently developing in my lab which investigates the developmental trajectories of phonological awareness and reading and writing skills in bilingual learners, connecting these findings with some of my previous work that suggests the existence of an interrelated development of both receptive and productive skills in contexts of biliteracy instruction (Finger, Lemke, et al., 2024; Finger & Weissheimer 2024; Lemke et al., 2023; Oliveira et al., 2025).
About the Speaker:
Dr. Ingrid Finger is a Full Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and the Graduate Program in Languages and Literature at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil, where she runs the Bilingualism and Cognition Lab – LABICO since 2006. Her research explores the cognitive and linguistic underpinnings of literacy development in monolingual and bilingual children, with a particular focus on how phonological awareness contributes to biliteracy acquisition across distinct bilingual education contexts. Through this work, she addresses the universal, language-specific, and bilingual influences on child reading development and dyslexia She is the author of several books, including Literacy in Monolingual and Bilingual Contexts, co-authored with Ubiratã Kickhöfel Alves (Vozes, 2023) and Literacy and Biliteracy: From Theory to Practice (Pontes, 2025). She is a member of the Brazilian National Science for Education Network.
Abstract:
Despite the growing number of bilingual children in the world, current literacy models and early reading interventions remain largely monolingual in design, not addressing the developmental stages of biliteracy development. However, the idea that literacy development in two languages may be related for bilingual children learning to read and write is in accordance with the indisputable evidence that the bilingual’s two languages are simultaneously active during language acquisition and use even in situations in which individuals intend to produce or comprehend one language alone (e.g., Kroll et al., 2015). In this talk, I will argue that both the development of literacy and the processes leading to fluent biliteracy can be examined through the Four Levels of Literacy Model (Alves & Finger, 2023), which consists of a continuum of four complementary levels, referred to as Sociometalinguistic Skills, Alphabetic Literacy, Textual Literacy, and Social Literacy. I will also discuss the research that we are currently developing in my lab which investigates the developmental trajectories of phonological awareness and reading and writing skills in bilingual learners, connecting these findings with some of my previous work that suggests the existence of an interrelated development of both receptive and productive skills in contexts of biliteracy instruction (Finger, Lemke, et al., 2024; Finger & Weissheimer 2024; Lemke et al., 2023; Oliveira et al., 2025).
About the Speaker:
Dr. Ingrid Finger is a Full Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and the Graduate Program in Languages and Literature at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil, where she runs the Bilingualism and Cognition Lab – LABICO since 2006. Her research explores the cognitive and linguistic underpinnings of literacy development in monolingual and bilingual children, with a particular focus on how phonological awareness contributes to biliteracy acquisition across distinct bilingual education contexts. Through this work, she addresses the universal, language-specific, and bilingual influences on child reading development and dyslexia She is the author of several books, including Literacy in Monolingual and Bilingual Contexts, co-authored with Ubiratã Kickhöfel Alves (Vozes, 2023) and Literacy and Biliteracy: From Theory to Practice (Pontes, 2025). She is a member of the Brazilian National Science for Education Network.
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