Charting Multilingual Writing: Emergent Bilinguals' Navigation of Linguistic and Semiotic Worlds

• In Event: Shifting the Boundaries of Literacy: Writing, Identity, and Authenticity in Multiple Contexts

Abstract

This study aims to explore emergent bilingual children and adolescents’ translanguaging and transmodal literacies by analyzing data from two research projects. Given the growing number of immigrants and transnationals, this study seeks to address the 2025 AERA Annual Meeting theme by focusing on ongoing educational inequalities and equitable educational opportunities for all students. It challenges the traditional concept of writing and contributes to collaborative research efforts that address issues such as racism and inequality.
Both research projects are grounded in sociocultural perspectives. Our work is guided by the concepts of translanguaging (Canagarajah, 2013; García & Li, 2014) and the social semiotic approach (Kress, 2010; Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). Translanguaging allows bi/multilinguals to use their full linguistic repertoire for learning and self-expression, providing a holistic view of language practices. By navigating and integrating different semiotic resources to construct meaning in diverse contexts, multimodal writing enables students to creatively design texts that reflect their unique linguistic and cultural identities, rather than conforming to monolingual norms. This study uses these fluid concepts to challenge the traditional monolingual norms that dominate educational settings. As Canagarajah (2013) argues, these norms fail to reflect the real-life linguistic practices of bi/multicultural students who often use fluid expressions.
This study draws on students’ narratives, paper-based and digital writing, interviews, and observations collected from two qualitative studies. The initial study examined the literacy practices of four young emergent bilinguals (EBs) during their post-reading activities in the Heritage Language (HL) school. All participating children were in 1st grade learning English as an additional language. Their literacy practices were demonstrated through various semiotic resources, including drawings and written languages in both English and their HL. The second project focused on a sister who was staying in the U.S. from South Korea as a limited-term English learner; one was in early adolescence, 12 years old, and the other was 10 years old. The two girls engaged in digital storytelling and wrote biweekly journals in out-of-school contexts. During the data analysis, after analyzing each set of data, we met to discuss codings. Subsequently, we engaged in collaborative data analysis to identify themes (Saldaña, 2021).
The data analysis reveals how emergent bilinguals construct their writer identities through the use of semiotic modes and translanguaging. Agency is evident in the students' selection and utilization of diverse semiotic modes (e.g., images, music, text) to construct and represent their identities within multimodal compositions. The relationship between agency and multimodal writing is marked by the students' active role in choosing and employing these semiotic modes to construct and express their identities. Their use of translanguaging practices in writing was not random but strategic, aimed at effectively achieving communicative goals and fostering their learning. The findings contribute to understanding how bilinguals engage with various semiotic resources and translanguaging practices to showcase their full linguistic and cultural repertoires (Cárdenas Curiel, & Ponzio, 2021), which are deeply associated with their identities and not confined to monoglossic modes of expression.

Authors

• Sung-ae Kim, Seoul National University

• Jin Kyeong Jung, Texas Tech University

• Romario Montaño-Ramos, Texas Tech University