Family Multiliteracies Project: A Korean American Emergent Bilingual in the United States

• In Event: Exploring Fugitive Literacies With Youth of Color in Out-of-School Spaces

Abstract

In this case study, I interviewed a kindergartener’s parent from South Korea to explore the afterschool literacy practices of an emergent bilingual. The interview was an hour long, and I triangulated the interview data with a 45-minute classroom observation and a 45-minute teaching of a reading lesson. Bob (pseudonym) was an international Ph.D. student in the United States back in 2011 and is now working as a university staff. He was married to his wife who is also South Korean in 2012. The interview was adapted from Bailey and Osipova (2015) and Murillo (2012) and focused on their child’s (a Korean-English emergent bilingual) language development history, home language use, home (bi)literature practices, bilingualism, language similarities/differences, and parental concerns. In the interview, I focused on Bob’s daughter Lucy (pseudonym) who was a second child born in 2016. Three theoretical frameworks were used to analyze the interview data including funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 2012), multiple literacies (Morita-Mullaney et al., 2019), and linguistic bricolage (Murillo, 2012). For heuristic purposes, the interview revealed three categories of the family’s funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 2012): Korean language use at home, home bilingual print-rich environment, and Korean cultural immersion at the church. The child mostly used Korean at home and church, and although reading materials were available in both English and Korean, their primary interaction was in Korean with some English words. A deeper analysis of their funds of knowledge under Morita-Mullaney et al.’s (2019) typology of multiple literacies addressed two critical aspects of home literacy practices including (a) the fundamental role of print and the absence of media, and (b) the obscure role of school literacy and the explicit role of created literacies. As opposed to the traditional notions of literacy, Lucy and her brother’s home literacy practices included drawing, painting, singing, and reciting stories. Murillo’s (2012) linguistic bricolage provided an essential lens to study the child’s literacy development at home through family and native language support, and parents’ agency in standing up for non-English-speaking children.
The analysis suggested that schools should play a more active role in considering the child’s funds of knowledge from multiple sources (Moll et al., 1992) and “integrating heritages into schoolwork” (Louie & Davis-Welton, 2016, p. 604). Home literacy and school literacy should utilize their funds of knowledge to optimize their education. As an implication, three concrete steps can be taken: (a) mapping the contents with emergent bilinguals’ funds of knowledge, (b) building responsive instructions for emergent bilinguals, and (c) using multicultural materials to support inclusive education. In addition, school and family collaboration needs to be rethought (Moll et al., 1992; Morita-Mullaney et al., 2019) to tap into resources from the child’s funds of knowledge and support multiple literacies. Afterschool literacy practices should embody parent-and-school collaboration including home language support (Murillo, 2012). “Pipelines” between school and home literacy should not be pluralized; it should be a singular construct that is expansive and responsive to emergent bilinguals’ needs and the multilingual aspects of society.

Author

• Vikrant Chap, Purdue University