Second Language Writing Practices, Identity, and the Academic Achievement of Children from Marginalized Social Groups

Abstract

Identity texts, literacy engagement, and multilingual classrooms: What do these terms mean and encompass, and how do they play out with today's highly diverse school-aged population, their teachers, and their families? The articles included in this volume of Writing & Pedagogy deal with the educational experiences of individuals from marginalized social groups, adding names and faces to individuals who teach and learn in multilingual classrooms. The latter term refers to classrooms that are multilingual by virtue of the large number of home languages spoken by students in these classrooms, home languages that are not the same as the language of instruction. The articles in this special issue illustrate how and why multi-lingual learners' literacy engagement, or personal investment in schooling, increases when teachers, peers, and their own parents view students' literacy productions positively. The term used for these productions or " texts " – be they written, spoken, visual, musical, or any combination thereof – is identity texts to emphasize that they express the learner's identity. taken together, these articles offer readers a global view of the relationship between providing spaces that honor marginalized groups' languages and cultures, of why marginalized individuals invest themselves in those spaces, and of how such investment influences children's subsequent academic achievement. The contributors draw on Cummins' (2001; this volume) academic language learning and literacy engagement frameworks to capture, untangle, and illustrate the dialectical interplay and writing & pedagogy ISSN: 1756–5839 (print) ISSN: 1756–5847 (online)