Abstract Hornberger's Continuum of Biliteracy (CoBi) model is a precursor to approaches such as translanguaging and the New London Group's multiliteracies. CoBi enables us to analyse and address language and literacy practices in education in a structured way. In this paper, I reflect on the explanatory power of CoBi in education in the Global South, drawing on my own research and experiences, as well as those of others. CoBi is shown to challenge many common but unhelpful ideas held by teachers; it informs the design of teaching arrangements attuned to students' contexts; and it explains the content of their annotations on reading material. Given the benefits reported in the literature, there is much to be gained from incorporating CoBi into teacher education and continuous professional development. Scholars of language and other disciplines interested in decolonising the education curriculum, and keen to replace the Global North's Eurocentrism and conversion approach with a North‐South conversational approach to knowledge, should find CoBi of interest.