Focusing on adolescent multilingual writing, this text problematizes the traditional boundaries between academic writing in school contexts and self-initiated writing outside of the formal learning environment. By reconceptualizing the nature of adolescent multilingual writing, the author establishes it as an interdisciplinary genre and a key area of inquiry for research and pedagogy. Organized into six chapters, Reconceptualizing the Writing Practices of Multilingual Youth provides an in-depth examination of the writing practices of multilingual youth from sociocultural and social practice perspectives. Drawing on first-hand research conducted with young people, the text questions the traditional dichotomy between academic writing and non-formal equivalents and proposes a symbiotic approach to exploring and cultivating the connections between in- and out-of-school literate lives. By highlighting a bidirectional relationship between formal and informal writing, the text advocates for writing instruction that helps adolescents use writing for entertainment, identity construction, creative expression, personal well-being, and civic engagement, as well as helps them learn to navigate future literacies that we cannot imagine or predict now. This much-needed text will provide researchers and graduate students with a principled overview and synthesis of adolescent multilingual writing research that is significant yet underexplored in applied linguistics, TESOL, and literacy studies.

This volume details the development and initial evaluation of a supplemental literacy course intended to support at-risk high school students in the US. Developed using design based research (DBR), the course combines argument writing and knowledge building literacy routines to support academic literacy development. Acknowledging the demand for US students to meet academic literacy standards that emphasize explanatory and argumentative writing, the text foregrounds knowledge building as key to effective writing development. Chapters trace the development and implementation of course literacy routines designed using DBR and use whole-class and individual case studies to demonstrate how informational reading, discussion, and argument writing become an activity system to support literacy development. Ultimately, the text has important implications for literacy course design, and the use of knowledge building analysis and DBR in research. The text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators in higher education with an interest in academic literacy education, writing and composition, and secondary education more broadly. Those specifically interested in methodologies relating to classroom teaching and learning as well as argumentation and argument writing will also benefit from this book.

This book explores boys’ underachievement in literacy in early years education in Malta, using the dual lens of children’s rights and postcolonial theory. The author confronts issues in literacy attainment, early literacy learning and transitions to formal schooling with a case study from Malta. The book includes the voices of young boys who experience formal education from the age of five and adds a fresh perspective to existing literature in this area. Drawing on empirical research, the book traces the impact of foundational ideas of gender and early childhood, and makes practical recommendations to help young children experience socially just literacy education. This timely text will be highly relevant for researchers, educators and policymakers in the fields of literacy education, early childhood education, postcolonial education and children’s rights.

Presenting a mixed methods study conducted in a bilingual mathematics classroom in Zimbabwe, this text reveals the semantic pedagogical functions and linguistic forms of code-switching during STEM instruction. Code-Switching as a Pedagogical Tool in Bilingual Classrooms offers a detailed analysis of code-switching in the context of educational linguistics, and reveals ten major pedagogical techniques which illustrate how teachers use code-switches to engage students and provide guidance, clarification, discipline, and recaps during individual and whole-class interactions. Chapters highlight that code-switching can be used in a targeted manner to harness the cognitive potential of bilingual speakers and enhance instruction. Ultimately, the text identifies implications for teacher education, language policy, and educational leadership more broadly, and demonstrates intersections with key areas including functional, critical, and cultural literacy. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in bilingualism, applied linguistics, and secondary education more broadly. Those specifically interested in multicultural education, sociolinguistics and educational policy will also benefit from this book.

This book contributes to the innovation of writing education and research globally by providing crucial insights into how the structures and aims of literacy curricula vary internationally. It examines how nine education systems across five continents represent ‘good writing’ in curricula that shape students’ experiences learning to write in school. The book presents curricular analyses aimed at providing insight into how writing development can be better supported through innovative policy and research. The findings regarding international variation are presented under three broad dimensions: social and contextual factors that shape writing curricula; the discourses of writing reflected in curricula and official documents; and hallmarks of classroom practice, including the relationship with official discourse. Case study chapters present integrated inductive and deductive document analyses, findings of which are compared in a concluding, cross-case analysis chapter. Offering a detailed comparative analysis of writing research, International Perspectives on Writing Curricula and Development will be of great interest to academics, researchers and students in the fields of education, literacy and curriculum studies. It will also be relevant reading for policymakers and curriculum designers. Chapters 1, 7, 9, 10, and 11 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This text responds to changing literacy practices in the digital age by developing an interdisciplinary framework for analysis of digital content created by students. Drawing on scholarship that expands traditional understandings of literacy to account for new ways in which students engage with interactive text and media, Aguilera develops a methodological toolkit for formal analysis of multimodal representations. This book frames the central challenges faced by researchers entering the field of digital literacy studies, presents a nuanced discussion of digital mediation, and brings these topics to life in the case study of a Code Club, a library-based computer programming club for elementary, middle, and high school students. The three-dimensional framework, which offers a schema for analysis of multimodal content, computational procedures, and contextual factors involved in the creation and interpretation of digital content, serves as a much-needed framework for the critical analysis of digital multimodal composition. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators in the areas of language and literacy, multimodality, and technology and digital innovation in education.

Informal language learning beyond the classroom plays an important and growing role in language learning and teaching. This Handbook brings together the existing body of research and unites the various disciplines that have explored this area, in order to present the current state of knowledge in one accessible resource. Much of adult learning takes place outside of formal education and for language learning, it is likely that out-of-class experiences play an equally important role. It is therefore surprising that the role of informal language learning has received little attention over the years, with the vast majority of research instead focusing on the classroom. Researchers from a range of backgrounds, however, have started to realise the important contribution of informal language learning, both in its own right, and in its relationship with classroom learning. Studies in the areas of learner autonomy, learning strategies, study abroad, language support, learners’ voices, computer-mediated communication, mobile-assisted language learning, digital gaming, and many others, all add to our understanding of the complex and intersecting ways in which learners construct their own language learning experiences, drawing from a wide range of resources, including materials, teachers, self-study, technology, other learners and native speakers. This Handbook provides a sound and comprehensive basis for researchers and graduate students to build upon in their own research of language learning and teaching beyond the classroom.