Languages and Literacies in Translocation: Experiences and Perspectives of a Transnational Youth

• In Event: Roundtable Session 78
  In Roundtable Session: Transnational and Immigrant Experiences in Education

Abstract

This paper examines shifts in language and literacy practices that occurred for a transnational youth, a Mexican adolescent girl who immigrated to the US and continued to participate in life in Mexico. The research project from which this paper draws activated educational knowledge in social settings by presenting the youth with an opportunity to critically examine her experiences and perceptions of transnational life and associated shifts in her language and literacy practices. Findings include that the adolescent acquired, developed, diminished, and lost particular languages and literacy practices as she experienced transnational life and that her transnational experiences generated productive as well as problematic sociopolitical, sociocultural, and economic insights related to language, literacy, and transnationalism.

Author

• Allison Skerrett, The University of Texas - Austin