Multilingual Learners and Academic Literacies
Sociocultural Contexts of Literacy Development in Adolescents

Shifting the discourse from a focus on academic language to the more dynamic but less researched construct of academic literacies, this volume addresses three key questions:

? What constitutes academic literacy?

? What does academic literacy development in adolescent multilingual students look like and how can this development be assessed?

? What classroom contexts foster the development of academic literacies in multilingual adolescents?

The contributing authors provide divergent definitions of academic literacies and use dissimilar theoretical and methodological approaches to study literacy development. Nevertheless, all chapters reflect a shared conceptual framework for examining academic literacies as situated, overlapping, meaning-making practices. This framework foregrounds students? participation in valued disciplinary literacy practices. Emphasized in the new college and career readiness standards, the notion of disciplinary practices allows the contributing authors to bridge the language/content dichotomy, and take a more holistic as well as nuanced view of the demands that multilingual students face in general education classrooms. The volume also explores the implications of the emphasis on academic literacy practices for classroom instruction, research, and policy.

Preface

Chapter 1. Introduction

Daniella Molle

Part I. Academic literacies: A rationale and exploration of the construct

Chapter 2. Academic language and academic literacies: Mapping a relationship

Daniella Molle

Chapter 3. In more than one tongue: Academic literacies at work as living texts

Marylin Low

Chapter 4. Adolescent development and everyday language practices: Implications for the academic literacy of multilingual learners

Alison Bailey, Marjorie Faulstich Orellana

Chapter 5. A sociocultural approach to academic literacy in mathematics for adolescent English learners: Integrating mathematical proficiency, practices, and discourse

Judit Moschkovich

Chapter 6. Translingual literacies in a social media age: Lessons learned from youth’s transnational communication online

José Ramón Lizárraga, Glynda Hull, John Scott

Part II. Academic literacy development: Contexts and practices

Chapter 7. Bilingualism-as-participation: Examining adolescents’ bi(multi)lingual literacies across out-of-school and online contexts

Mariana Pacheco

Chapter 8. Academic literacy development: A ten-year case study of an aspiring writer

Cathy Compton-Lilly

Chapter 9. Inquire to acquire: A discourse analysis of bilingual students’ development of science literacy

Laura Wright

Chapter 10. Schooling begins before adolescence: The case of Manuel and limited opportunities to learn

Kathy Escamilla

Part III. Implications of an academic literacies approach to learning

Chapter 11. The use of assessment in support of the development of adolescents’ academic literacies

Margaret Heritage

Chapter 12. Building teacher knowledge of academic literacy and language acquisition: A framework for teachers’ cross-disciplinary professional learning

Mary Avalos, Margarita Zisselsberger, Jennifer Langer-Osuna, Walter Secada

Chapter 13. Establishing a foundation for academic literacy: The role of standards

Edynn Sato

Chapter 14. Literacy development in academic contexts for adolescent English language learners: Policy considerations and future research

Timothy Boals, Kenji Hakuta, Alissa Blair

List of Contributors

Daniella Molle is a Professional Development Researcher at WIDA, Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

Edynn Sato is a Principal Research Scientist in the Research and Innovation Network’s Next Generation Learning and Assessment Center at Pearson, USA.

Timothy Boals is a Senior Research Scientist at WIDA, Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

Carol A. Hedgspeth is a Research Associate at WestEd, USA.