ABSTRACT
It is widely recognized that to be literate in today's world requires conscious, creative and critical deployment of language (and other semiotic devices) for different social purposes, contexts and audiences (FREEBODY & LUKE, 1990FREEBODY, P., & LUKE, A. (1990). 'Literacies' programs: Debates and demands in cultural context. Prospect5, 7 - 16. , 2003FREEBODY, P., & LUKE, A. (2003). Literacy as engaging with new forms of life: The four roles model. In M. Anstey & G. Bull (Eds.), The literacy lexicon (pp. 51 - 65). French's Forest, NSW: Pearson.). This notion of literacy as social practice (BARTON & HAMILTON, 2000BARTON, D., & HAMILTON, M. (2000). Literacy practices. In D. Barton, M. Hamilton, & R. Ivanic (Eds.), Situated literacies: Reading and writing in context (pp. 7-15). London: Routledge.; STREET, 1995TEDDLIE, C., & TASHAKKORI, A. (2003). Major issues and controversies in the use of mixed methods in the social and behavioral sciences. In A. Tashakkori & C. Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research (pp. 3-50). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications .) has been extended to include the idea of multiliteracies (NEW LONDON GROUP, 1996NEW LONDON GROUP. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review66(1), pp. 60-92.; KALANTZIS & COPE, 2012KALANTZIS, M., & COPE, B. (2012). Literacies. Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.), in recognition of the roles technology and digital text use and production play in young people's lives. However, the literacy practices of primary school-aged students, as they enact them in their daily in-school and out-of-school lives, remain under-investigated. This is particularly the case with bilingually-educated students whose literacy practices, involving texts, talk and technology, are deployed across languages. The research reported here investigated the literacy practices and language use of 68 students at three primary schools in Melbourne, Australia. Each of these schools offered bilingual programs to their students (involving instruction in Mandarin Chinese or Vietnamese, along with English). Data collected through individually administered questionnaires and small group interviews reveal these students live highly multilingual lives, where sophisticated linguistic choices and translanguaging are part of both their in-school and out-of-school lives. The research revealed that direct connections are made between the languages learned at school and personal, family and community literacy practices. As such, the students were found to attach high levels of importance to becoming biliterate, and powerfully attest to the linguistic, educational, social and functional benefits of bilingualism and a bilingual education. The research findings provide valuable insights into bilingual and multilingual practices involving texts, talk and technology. This article posits that bilingual education, as implemented at the three research sites, enhances students' learning and their sense of personal identity, as well as affording them skills and understandings they deploy in their own increasingly technology-mediated lives.
Keywords:
bilingual students; literacy practices; multiliteracies
