What are cross-linguistic connections, and how can they be used to develop metalinguistic awareness? How can pulling in both English and home languages during instruction actually accelerate learning, among other benefits? How can this holistic approach to language learning lead to biliteracy?

We discuss these questions and much more with Dr. Sandra Mercuri, who we met last fall at the La Cosecha conference in New Mexico. Dr. Mercuri is a nationally recognized Educational Consultant in the area of second language acquisition, dual language education, and curriculum integration for biliteracy development. She has over 28 years of experience in teaching in K-12 schools and at the university level in Argentina and the United States.  She is currently working on research on the development of academic language across the content areas, language transfer, and the effect of long-term professional development on bilingual and ESL teachers’ instructional practices.

For more episode resources and additional free content on supporting multilingual learners, visit our EL Community blog. Download the full episode transcript here.