Researching the Continua of Biliteracy Nancy H. Hornberger Contents Introduction ....................................................................................... 2 Early Developments .............................................................................. 3 Major Contributions .............................................................................. 6 Global Spread of English ..................................................................... 7 Indigenous Language Revitalization .......................................................... 7 Ethnic, Immigrant, and Heritage Languages ................................................. 8 Diaspora and Linguistic Borderlands ......................................................... 9 Problems and Difficulties ......................................................................... 10 Work in Progress/Future Directions .............................................................. 11 Translanguaging and the Continua of Biliteracy ............................................. 11 Ecology of Language and the Continua of Biliteracy ........................................ 12 Ethnography of LPP and the Continua of Biliteracy ......................................... 13 Implementational and Ideological Spaces and the Continua of Biliteracy .................. 14 Cross-References ................................................................................. 15 Related Articles in the Encyclopedia of Language and Education .............................. 15 References ........................................................................................ 15 Abstract The continua of biliteracy model offers an ecological framework in which to situate research, teaching, and language policy and planning in multilingual settings. Biliteracy is defined here as “any and all instances in which communi- cation occurs in two (or more) languages in or around writing” and the continua depict the complex, fluid, and interrelated dimensions of communicative reper- toires; it is in the dynamic, rapidly changing and sometimes contested spaces along and across the continua that biliteracy use and learning occur. The continua of biliteracy model was formulated in the context of a multi-year, comparative N.H. Hornberger (*) Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA e-mail: nancyh@upenn.edu # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 K. King et al. (eds.), Research Methods in Language and Education, Encyclopedia of Language and Education, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02329-8_42-1 1