Multilingualism and Literacy through a Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Lens
What is BLLING?
The Bilingual Language and Literacy Investigative and Networking Group (BLLING) is a learning community established to foster continued learning about culturally and linguistically responsive and liberatory practices in speech-language assessment and intervention contexts. Its membership includes faculty and students in several programs in Communicative Sciences and Disorders in the United States, practitioners with CCCs in different contexts of the field, and educational and other related professionals. Membership is voluntary, free of charge, and enables individuals to participate in lectures, workshops, interviews, while engaging in community-building with other culturally and linguistically responsive professionals.
What is our mission?
Our three pronged mission include research, teaching, and community engagement. Members meet several times a month with an aim at:
Discussing current topics of interest in the areas of race, ethnicity, language, literacy, dis/Ability, gender, and other intersectional identity markers through invited minoritized and renowned researchers in Communicative Sciences and Disorders and related fields of practice.
Offering education on multilingualism and culturally and linguistically responsive and sustaining practices to pre-service and in-service teachers, speech-language diagnosticians and interventionists, and other related professionals.
Supporting the community through student-led book drives, family-centered co-learning sessions, and other events with the goal of increasing awareness of the benefits of maintaining sovereignty over one's own cultural and linguistic funds of knowledge.
