How and When Did You Learn Your Languages? Bilingual Students’ Linguistic Experiences and Literacy Instruction

Educators are expected to take into account students’ linguistic experiences when designing literacy instruction. However, official school records traditionally provide limited information about students’ linguistic histories. This article presents educators with a linguistic survey that can help bridge this gap. The survey is an easy‐to‐use classroom resource through which educators can gather information about their students’ linguistic experiences. Notably, it is based on ideas about and research on bilingualism that are not traditionally discussed in mainstream literacy education. To illustrate the survey's potential for instruction, the article includes a case study of a 10th‐grade student and discusses the implications of the type of information garnered by the survey for literacy pedagogy. As a whole, this article supports educators in making more linguistically informed decisions about literacy instruction.