The book explores the pedagogical potential of autobiographical writing in English-as-a-foreign language, approaching the topic from an educational, longitudinal, dialogical, and social perspective. Through a number of case studies, the author delineates four phases that EFL writers may experience in their identity construction processes, illustrating the complexity of EFL writers’ social identities. This book will provide a valuable resource for language teachers and researchers interested in the pedagogical applications of autobiographical writing.

Drawing on autoethnographic research on literacy autobiographies from a Chinese EFL writing context, this book provides unique insights into literacy, voice, translingualism, and critical pedagogy from a Global South perspective. The book presents literacy autobiographies as a cultural tool for analyzing and refashioning learners’ and teachers’ sense of self in ever expanding dialogical spaces. In addition to highlighting teachers’ own stories around autoethnographies and translanguaging, it showcases literacy autobiographies from Chinese students themselves. The book theorizes the Global South as an ontological positioning that challenges colonial mindsets and practices concerning literacy, language learning, and narratives. It argues that literacy autobiographies from a Global South perspective can be reimagined as critical pedagogy for EFL writing teaching and learning, as well as teacher development. Validating and expanding student voices by presenting these literacy autobiographies, this book will be of great interest to researchers and students in the fields of TESOL, applied linguistics, English language teaching, second language writing, and literacy studies.

This edited book highlights the identities and practices of ethnically diverse families and schools in contexts where multicultural policies are not always a priority. In an era of globalization and ensuing population mobility, it places a focus on Asia-Pacific, a continent with diverse customs, populations, and languages, but grapples with what it might mean to be multicultural. The book features studies and frameworks that illustrate how minoritized communities engage with the diversity they live in and strategies in adjusting and adapting to their sociocultural environments, including practices that might support these efforts. This book represents initiatives and interdisciplinary scholarship from Japan, Hong Kong, mainland China, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan, which underscore the intersection of identities, cultural values, efforts, conflicts, and religions in making diversity work in their contexts. Collectively, these works make a unique contribution by invigorating debates on the flows and evolvement of cultural values and practices within and across families and institutions. This book will appeal to researchers, practitioners, and readers with interest in the current state of cultural diversity among minoritized families in Asia-Pacific and beyond.

Writing is not just about conveying 'content' but also about the representation of self. (One of the reasons people find writing difficult is that they do not feel comfortable with the 'me' they are portraying in their writing. Academic writing in particular often poses a conflict of identity for students in higher education, because the 'self' which is inscribed in academic discourse feels alien to them.)The main claim of this book is that writing is an act of identity in which people align themselves with socio-culturally shaped subject positions, and thereby play their part in reproducing or challenging dominant practices and discourses, and the values, beliefs and interests which they embody. The first part of the book reviews recent understandings of social identity, of the discoursal construction of identity, of literacy and identity, and of issues of identity in research on academic writing. The main part of the book is based on a collaborative research project about writing and identity with mature-age students, providing: - a case study of one writer's dilemmas over the presentation of self;- a discussion of the way in which writers' life histories shape their presentation of self in writing;- an interview-based study of issues of ownership, and of accommodation and resistance to conventions for the presentation of self;- linguistic analysis of the ways in which multiple, often contradictory, interests, values, beliefs and practices are inscribed in discourse conventions, which set up a range of possibilities for self-hood for writers.The book ends with implications of the study for research on writing and identity, and for the learning and teaching of academic writing.The book will be of interest to students and researchers in the fields of social identity, literacy, discourse analysis, rhetoric and composition studies, and to all those concerned to understand what is involved in academic writing in order to provide wider access to higher education.

The aptitude to write well is increasingly becoming a vital element that students need to succeed in college and their future careers. Students must be equipped with competent writing skills as colleges and jobs base the acceptance of students and workers on the quality of their writing. This situation captures the complexity of the fact that writing represents higher intellectual skills and leads to a higher rate of selection. Therefore, it is imperative that best strategies for teaching writing speakers of other languages is imparted to provide insights to teachers who can better prepare their students for future accomplishments. Futuristic and Linguistic Perspectives on Teaching Writing to Second Language Students examines the theoretical and practical implications that should be put in place for second language writers and offers critical futuristic and linguistic perspectives on teaching writing to speakers of other languages. Highlighting such topics as EFL, ESL, composition, digital storytelling, and forming identity, this book is ideal for second language teachers and writing instructors, as well as academicians, professionals, researchers, and students working in the field of language and linguistics.

This book is a powerful narrative of how six women experienced their lives alongside their desire to overcome the challenging and empowering nature of the English language. The volume shares who they are as transnational and mobile women living in the midst of linguistic privilege and marginalization. It is one outcome of a research project and the lived experiences which surround and influence (and were influenced by) it. The author documents how she and her research partners began studying what had drawn them to US TESOL programs, and how English was and is a symbol of power and privilege, a symbol of educational access and a pursuit of equity, yet, at times, is also a symbol of linguistic marginalization.

"This edited book provides a foundation as to why writing as an independent discipline should be in progress, what sort of theoretical and practical implications should be in place for second language writers, and in what ways it can be possible to provide futuristic and linguistic perspectives on teaching writing to speakers of other languages"--

The literacy autobiography is a personal narrative reflecting on how one’s experiences of spoken and written words have contributed to their ongoing relationship with language and literacy. Transnational Literacy Autobiographies as Translingual Writing is a cutting-edge study of this engaging genre of writing in academic and professional contexts. In this state-of-the-art collection, Suresh Canagarajah brings together 11 samples of writing by students that both document their literary journeys and pinpoint the seminal works affecting their development as translingual readers and writers. Integrating the narrative of the author, which is written as his own literacy autobiography, with a close analysis of these texts, this book: presents a case for the literacy autobiography as an archetypal genre that prepares writers for the conventions and processes required in other genres of writing; demonstrates the serious epistemological and rhetorical implications behind the genre of literacy autobiography among migrant scholars and students; effectively translates theoretical publications on language diversity for classroom purposes, providing a transferable teaching approach to translingual writing; analyzes the tropes of transnational writers and their craft in "meshing" translingual resources in their writing; demonstrates how transnationalism and translingualism are interconnected, guiding readers toward an understanding of codemeshing not as a cosmetic addition to texts but motivated toward resolving inescapable personal and social dilemmas. Written and edited by one of the most highly regarded linguists of his generation, this book is key reading for scholars and students of applied linguistics, TESOL, and literacy studies, as well as tutors of writing and composition worldwide.

Jim Cummins is Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning department at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.