ERIC Number: EJ1179533
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1945-0222
EISSN: N/A
Against the Odds: Literacy Sponsorship in One Migrant Student's Trajectory to College
Gilliland, Betsy
L2 Journal, v10 n2 p183-197 2018
Ivan (pseudonym), the son of Mexican migrant farmworkers, rarely spent more than six months in the same school and by high school was still classified as an English language learner. This article traces Ivan's experiences as a language learner and writer, telling his story in his own words through his writing and ethnographic data collected during his junior year of high school and his first year of college. I examine how literacy sponsors (Brandt, 2001) helped or impeded his reading and writing as he worked to change his life. Through Ivan's writing and oral reflections, I argue that rather than solely supporting their reading and writing development, literacy sponsors for immigrant second language writers support learners as a whole. Central to Ivan's evaluation of his literacy sponsors is the role of caring relationships--or lack thereof--that endured longer than the technical literacy skills he learned from any one sponsor.
Descriptors: Migrant Children, Literacy, English Language Learners, Mexican American Education, Phenomenology, Ethnography, High School Students, College Freshmen, Assignments, Student Experience, Educational Experiments, Interviews, Personal Narratives, Transcripts (Written Records)
Berkeley Language Center, University of California. B-40 Dwinelle Hall #2640, Berkeley, CA 94720. Web site: http://escholarship.org/uc/uccllt_l2
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: High Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: California
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A