Big Booksn
in teaching reading, an enlarged reading text used in early literacy pro-
grammes. The enlarged format allows children to be able to see the print
while it is being pointed to and read by the teacher so that they can begin
to make the association between oral and written language and note the
process of reading right to left across the page. Typically they contain short
stories of high interest to learners, rhyme patterns that children can notice
and learn, extensive large pictures, and have repetitive phrases and con-
trolled vocabulary.
bilabial adj
a sound articulated by bringing together the upper and lower lips, for example
English /m/, /p / and / b/ in the words my, pet, bird.
see place of articulation
bilingualadj
a person who uses at least two languages with some degree of proficiency.
In everyday use bilingual usually means a person who speaks, reads or under-
stands two languages equally well (a balanced bilingual), but a bilingual
person usually has a better knowledge of one language than another.
For example, he/she may:
a be able to read and write in only one language
b use one language in different types of situation or domains, e.g. one lan-
guage at home and another at work
c use one language for talking about school life and the other for talking
about personal feelings
The ability to read and write a second or foreign language does not necess-
arily imply a degree of bilingualism.
see also compound bilingualism, diglossia, multilingualism
bilingual dictionaryn
a dictionary in which definitions are given in full or in part in another
language.
bilingual educationn
the use of a second or foreign language in school for the teaching of content
subjects. Bilingual education programmes may be of different types and
include:
a the use of a single school language which is not the child’s home language.
This is sometimes called an immersion programme.
b the use of the child’s home language when the child enters school but
later a gradual change to the use of the school language for teaching some
Big Books