An Autoethnographic Study of My Biliteracy Writing Practices as an Akan Speaker of English: Implications for L 2 Writing

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research-in-Progress Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Writing Across Educational Contexts (Table 5)

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss my academic literacy socialization practices, particularly my linguistic and social adjustments in US graduate school. This autoethnographic study utilizes stories and evidentiality (corpus from my graduate school papers) as self-reflective epistemologies to understand my literate practices in a US academic discourse community. Contributing to the scholarship on the academic socialization of transnational graduate students in the US, I discuss and analyze my stories and experiences around academic writing practices in navigating graduate school's expectations in the context of higher education in the United States. By focusing on my lived experiences as a Ghanaian student, I emphasize that international students should be bold and unapologetic in centering their voices, counter-stories, and identities in their educational environment without falling into any racial and scholarly hegemonies.

Author

• Gabriel Opare, University of Maryland