“Is This in English or Spanish?” What Bilingual Learning Looks Like

At Escuela Bilingüe Internacional, we understand bilingualism is much more than the ability to speak two languages. It is a way of thinking, learning, connecting with others, and engaging with the world from multiple perspectives. We see Spanish and English as equally valuable in supporting students as they make meaning, develop ideas, and build relationships. Becoming bilingual, and later biliterate, is a journey that unfolds over time, and each student brings their own strengths, experiences, and developing abilities into this journey. Our responsibility as educators is to create the conditions for both languages to grow, allowing students to see their linguistic identities as assets and to build confidence in using both languages as tools for learning.

Our library program plays a particularly important role in this work. It is where students can follow their curiosity, discover stories and ideas across languages, and experience the freedom to read, think, discuss, and make connections without always separating English from Spanish. Here, bilingualism is something students do, not something they learn about. They draw on both languages to explore ideas, share their thinking, and make sense of the world around them. In this article, our librarian offers a window into what this looks like in practice and reminds us that when we create spaces where both languages are welcomed and valued, we create opportunities for bilingualism to flourish. 

“Is This in English or Spanish?” What Bilingual Learning Looks Like

By David Gales

There’s a question I hear a lot in the library that has nothing to do with whether a book is hard: “Is this in English or Spanish?” Kindergartners approaching with a picture book in hand, grade 1 students with an early reader, grade 2 students with a chapter book. Sometimes when I tell them, they’ll check it out happily. Sometimes they’ll groan and put it back on the shelf, wandering off in search of the language they were hoping for. It’s the same kind of thinking that pushes a student toward a graphic novel one day and a humor book the next.

What dual-language and immersion mean

Kids don’t get to that ease by happenstance. It comes out of a school day built around two languages, and schools build that day in a few different ways. In an immersion program, students learn math, science, and social studies through Spanish, not just about it, while English gets its own time. In a dual-language program, both languages carry academic work throughout a student’s schooling, and the balance often shifts by grade: more time in Spanish in the early years, closer to an even split later on. The names vary from school to school, but the idea is the same. Students use the language to learn, instead of studying it as a subject.

Speaking two languages, reading two languages

Speaking two languages and reading in two languages are different skills, and they have to be taught differently. A student can chat comfortably in Spanish and English at home and still need years of instruction to read and write well in both.

The good news is that students don’t start from zero in their second language. Once a child understands that letters stand for sounds, that print carries meaning, and that good readers predict, reread, and ask questions, those ideas travel. Researchers call this transfer. What doesn’t travel are the specifics: English spelling follows patterns Spanish doesn’t, and Spanish has its own sounds and accents, so each language needs its own teaching.

In the library, pairs of students will often settle onto the rug with an English picture book, one reading aloud while the other follows along. When the last page turns, I ask what they thought, in Spanish, and most of them follow my lead, talking about the characters, what happened in the story, which colors they liked in the pictures, all in Spanish. The students don’t usually translate the book. They don't need to: the story is already in their heads. All they need to do is unpack the content in whichever language their current conversation is in.

That’s why, where I work, formal phonics and reading instruction in both languages begins in kindergarten. English isn’t put off until the Spanish is finished. Some student’s English reading looks slower than their peers’ in the early grades, and studies of dual-language programs generally find the gap closes by upper elementary, with some finding English reading ahead by middle school.

What two languages give a child

The most immediate benefit of bilingualism is also the plainest one: a student who can talk with a grandparent, a neighbor, or a new friend in a language they would otherwise have missed is a student who is more open to the world around them. Less visible, but supported by research, is what happens to a student’s ear for language itself. Bilingual students practice noticing how words and grammar work, because they’re constantly comparing two systems. A student who learns that a biblioteca is where you borrow books and a librería is where you buy them has learned where languages overlap and where they don’t. They also have more to read: two sets of shelves, and exposure to ideas and stories that never made it into translation.

For students who speak Spanish at home, a classroom that uses their language also communicates to them that their language counts as knowledge. For students who speak English at home, a second language shows how the same idea sounds, and sometimes looks, from somewhere else.

Where I work, by grade 5, all of this comes together in a project called Exhibition, the capstone of the International Baccalaureate’s elementary program (a framework used by schools around the world): a large group research project that ends in an interactive presentation. Students present mostly in Spanish, but they have to answer audience questions in either language, and they gather sources in both. When I help groups find sources, I hear some version of the same sentence: “Either language is fine; we can always translate it.” And they do. I've seen a group doing a project about climate change find an English book in the library about the knock-on effects of greenhouse gases and transform the information into a fully Spanish section of their presentation. In other words, they’re deciding which source best supports which claim, and treating two languages as one library.

What progress looks like

Listening, speaking, reading, and writing don’t move at the same pace, and they don’t move at the same pace for every child. Most students understand a language well before they can speak it, and speak it well before they can write it. Some go quiet for weeks or months when a new language surrounds them, a stretch sometimes called the silent period. A quiet student is usually taking the language in.

Mixing languages is part of the process too. When I ask grade 4 students to explain, in Spanish, how they decide whether a source can be trusted, many of them start strong and hit a gap. The words that most often come out in English are “source,” “credible,” and “trustworthy,” tucked into an otherwise Spanish answer. Their thought process is clear, but their vocabulary is missing. It can lead to answers that sound hesitant, but the ideas are there from the jump.

I don’t step in. I let them work through it, and when they finish, I answer in Spanish, using the words naturally: fuente, creíble, confiable. They hear their own idea come back in the vocabulary they were reaching for, and in my experience it only takes a try or two before the word is theirs. The pull to correct is strong, and it’s understandable; if you let the thought finish first, you'd be surprised at what students can bring to the table.

Developing bilingualism and, over time, biliteracy is a multiyear journey that requires time, intentional instruction, and the right support. Students develop their oral language, reading, and writing skills at different paces, and progress looks different for each student.  

Helping at home

Parents sometimes assume they can only help if they speak the language their student is learning at school. They can actually help a great deal without it.

Reading together is the easiest place to start, in whatever language you have. Stories build vocabulary and comprehension, and as with the students on my library rug, those skills travel between languages. Ask a librarian for picture books in either language, or in the language your family speaks at home. Audiobooks and music are great too, especially for a parent who wants a student to hear a language spoken well.

Talk is just as valuable as print. Ask open questions that can’t be answered with a yes or a no: What was the best part of your day? What would you have done in that character’s place? Then let your student answer in either language, or both at once, without correcting. If you speak the school’s language, repeat the idea back to them in the word they were reaching for, the way I do in the classroom. If you don’t, ask your student to teach you. “How do you say that in Spanish?” puts them in the expert’s chair, and they’ll enjoy it.

Games help too. Rhymes, riddles, word searches, and car-ride songs all give a language a place in a child’s day that has nothing to do with homework.

Families who speak a third language at home are in good shape as well, because a strong home language supports a student’s learning in every other. What matters most is that your student sees you curious about language, and that you treat all of their languages as worth knowing. Fluency isn’t a requirement. Curiosity and enthusiasm will go a long way on their own.

Questions to ask when choosing a program

If you’re weighing a program for your own student, a few questions will tell you more than a brochure will.

Ask how reading is taught. A strong program has a plan for literacy in both languages, with time set aside for each, and doesn’t assume the skills will sort themselves out. You should be able to find out when formal reading instruction begins in each.

Ask what happens when a student struggles, in either language, and who notices. Good programs catch it early and respond, including for students who arrive with little experience in the program’s language.

Ask how progress is reported. You should be able to learn how your student is doing in Spanish and in English, in plain terms, and not just see one grade.

Last, ask how far the program goes. The Exhibition projects I mentioned, where grade 5 students research in both languages, only happen at a school that sees students through the upper grades, not to mention a middle-year program that will take them up to high school. Programs that stop after second or third grade leave most of what the early years built with nowhere to grow.

David is the school librarian at Escuela Bilingüe Internacional, a bilingual independent school in Emeryville. They instruct K-8 in both English and Spanish, and are a firm believer in putting students in the driver's seat to take ownership of their reading journeys. When not nose-deep in a book, they enjoy playing banjo, volunteering at Prisoners Literature Project in Berkeley, and a cup of tea with friends.