ERIC Number: EJ1311055
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-2395-9908
EISSN: N/A
Meaningful Literacy and Agentive Writer Identity
Yang, Shizhou
MEXTESOL Journal, v44 n4 2020
Studies on learner identity and studies on meaningful literacy seem to have gone on parallel tracks with little intersection between the two, leading to a lack of understanding regarding the impact of meaningful literacy on learners' identities, particularly as writers in a foreign language environment. In this context, this article reports on a study in which the teacher examines how meaningful literacy in the form of life writing shapes his English as a foreign language (EFL) writers' identity. The study used students' writing samples and written reflections as the primary data and through the lens of a poststructuralist theory of learner and writer identity. The author found that extensive investment in life writing in a supportive social milieu, including both story writing outside class and free writing in class enabled EFL learners to achieve agentive writer identities, i.e., forming a new habit of writing, gaining confidence as a writer, and taking life writing as a craft. This positively and actively invested relationship with writing in a foreign language suggests that life writing should be made an option in English literacy education to promote L2 writers' identity development.
Descriptors: Second Language Learning, English (Second Language), Self Concept, Literacy Education, Writing Instruction, Teaching Methods, Biographies, Story Telling, Writing Attitudes, Creative Writing, College Students
MEXTESOL Journal. Bernardo Couto 48, Col. Cuauhtemoc, Alcadía Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de Mexico, 06880, Mexico. Tel: +55-55-66-87-49; e-mail: mextesoljournal@gmail.com; Web site: http://www.mextesol.net/journal/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A