Metaliteracy and writing among 4th grade multilingual students in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Literacy in the twenty-first century global environment is increasingly essential to participation in society. Literacy skills include not only the ability to read, write, and interact with text, but also the capacity to use semiotic (sign) systems, numeracy, multiple modalities, and to link oracy to text using computerised devices. Despite this array of literacies, writing remains one of the least understood – yet increasingly important – skills through which evidence of learning is assessed in schools, on the one hand, and through which epistemic opportunities and identity positions of students are formed and expressed, on the other hand. This study examined the biliteracy development in writing across ten emergent multilingual students in a primary school in South Africa. We use a lens of multiliteracy knowledge, which frames how multilinguals engage in writing. Findings demonstrate how language and culture intersect in students’ writing to reveal their knowledges and identities, two aspects of writing that are both overlooked and undervalued among multilingual students. We offer implications for teachers and teacher educators.

KEYWORDS:

• Writing
• multilingualism
• metalinguistic abilities
• acquisition of English
• crosslinguistic influence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.