ERIC Number: EJ984305
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Dec
Pages: 32
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1086-296X
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Languages and Literacies in Translocation: Experiences and Perspectives of a Transnational Youth
Skerrett, Allison
Journal of Literacy Research, v44 n4 p364-395 Dec 2012
Transnational youth represent an increasing demographic in societies around the world. This circumstance has amplified the need to understand how youths' language and literacy repertoires are shaped by transnational life. In response, this article presents a case study of a Mexican adolescent girl who immigrated to the United States and continued to participate in life in Mexico. It examines shifts in her multiple language and literacy practices that she attributed to transnational life and the knowledge she acquired from transnational engagements with languages and literacies. Data include interviews of the young woman, observations of her in a variety of social contexts, and literacy artifacts that she produced. Research on transnational youths' language and literacy practices and theories of multiliteracies and border crossing facilitate analysis. Findings include that language and multiliteracy practices shift in interconnected ways in response to transnational life and engagements with multiple languages and literacies foster transnational understandings. Accordingly, attending to transnational youths' multilingual as well as multiliterate practices can deepen understandings of how people recruit multiple languages, literacies, and lifeworlds for meaning making. Implications of this work are offered concerning the features of a transnational curriculum that can both draw from and build up the language and literacy reservoirs of transnational youth. (Contains 2 figures and 1 note.)
Descriptors: English (Second Language), Foreign Countries, Multilingualism, Multiple Literacies, Second Language Learning, Case Studies, Females, Mexican Americans, Immigrants, Interviews, Language Usage, Social Environment, Observation, Grade 9, High School Students, Dance, Art, Spanish, Student Attitudes, Self Concept, Biculturalism
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Grade 9; High Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A