Literate Identities and Belonging in First-Grade Language and Literacy Learning Contexts

• In Event: Instruction and Language Learning

Abstract

Learning is deeply intertwined with the construction of identity (Wortham, 2005). Likewise, when students engage in literacy learning, they also engage in producing and performing literate identities. Drawing upon theoretical frameworks that view identities in interactions (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005, 2008), I examine the social construction of literate identities with a focus on one first-grade bilingual student, Adam, across his homeroom and ESL classroom. Using an ethnographic approach to discourse analysis (Bloome et al., 2005), I demonstrate ways in which Adam’s literate identities are socially constructed through classroom interactions over time. his study provides ways of understanding bilingual students who are institutionally designated as ESL students and their classroom practices to belong as literate through the positioning lens.

Author

• Jungmin Lee, The Ohio State University - Columbus