ut the evidence is also clear that children need to learn the sound-symbol spelling system in order to be successful readers, "binding letters and sounds to meaning," as Pugh says. (In the world of reading instruction, this is known as "orthographic mapping.")

One difference is that students learning to read in a new language need additional oral language support so that they will understand the words and text being used to teach them to read.

one approach to teaching reading is right, and another is wrong. Whether it’s whole language vs. phonics, balanced literacy vs. science of reading, or bilingual brain vs. monolingual brain, with too few exceptions, lines get drawn and cleavages remain deep. Mixing in and perpetuating misinformation complicate things further — and needlessly.

(In the world of reading instruction, this is known as "orthographic mapping.") But the evidence does not support stopping there. As students learn the sound-symbol spelling system, they must also have oral and experiential exposure to develop their language much further — particularly, but not exclusively, vocabulary — and knowledge. As literacy skills develop, that exposure will include reading (and writing).

But the evidence is also clear that children need to learn the sound-symbol spelling system in order to be successful readers, "binding letters and sounds to meaning," as Pugh says.

No, it does not. I contacted Dr. Kenneth Pugh (Yale University and Haskins Lab), an internationally-recognized cognitive neuroscientist specializing in the neuroscience of reading in first and second languages and who chaired a recent conference session on this very topic.

However, cross-language brain research confirms that learning to read is based on cognitive universals, specifically, that phonological development makes possible binding letters and sounds to meaning, which is foundational for learning to read in any language. Our understanding might change as the research evolves, but at the moment, in my opinion, there is nothing about ‘bilingual brain’ differences that suggests distinct or alternative pathways to literacy learning and best practice.

This research supports the idea that what is true about teaching reading to monolinguals is also true for students learning to read in a language they are simultaneously learning to speak and understand.

Brain studies (opens in new window) and classroom studies (opens in new window) reveal that in order to learn to read, a person must connect (or “bind” is the term used in the neurolinguistic literature) the oral sounds in words to the letters that represent those sounds, then connect that connection to the words' meanings.

In my view, there is presently no evidence that how we teach reading should be in any way different based on brain differences between bilingual and monolingual learners.