Blog 1

Yi, Youngjoo. “Adolescent Multilingual Writers Transitions Across In-and Out-of-School Writing Contexts.” Journal of Second Language Writing 19.1 (2010): 17-32. Science Direct. Web. 10 Sep. 2010.

     In Youngjoo Yi’s article “Adolescent Multilingual Writers Transitions Across In- and-Out-of-School Writing Contexts,” Yi conducts a study that “focuses on a Korean immigrant high school student, Jihee” and the relationship “between her voluntary, non-academic writing outside school and her academic writing” (17).  Yi expounds on “a growing body of research [that] has explored multiple literacies or multiliteracies and paid more attention to out-of-school settings to examine reading, writing, and language use as social practices” (18).  She offers two reasons for this rising interest.  First, she suggests that literacy researchers “have begun to see the value of understanding how students’ literate lives flourish outside the confines of formal schooling” (18).  Second, “some literacy scholars who are more sensitive to the issues of power with respect to ‘what counts as literacy and whose literacy counts’ have intentionally focused on non-academic, out-of-school literacy practices” (19).  Yi discusses a research study involving students “who saw academic writing activities as irrelevant and inauthentic literacy experiences;” however, both “voluntarily produced extensive writing outside school (e.g., poems, songs, rap lyrics, and plays)” (19).  Yi references another study where “L2 students who had difficulties with academic literacy . . . made a significant improvement in their English language and English writing skills through online literacy practices” (19).   

     While Yi acknowledges prior researchers’ contribution to the overall body of knowledge in the field, she argues that a majority of the researchers have overlooked students’ in-school writing practices and neglected to investigate the relationship between academic and non-academic writing practices.  Yi uses “a qualitative case approach so as to document possible links between Jihee’s in- and out-of-school writing practices” (20).   In order to triangulate data, Yi collected “participant observations . . . and field notes; interviews and transcripts . . . scribbles, notes, emails, and online chatting; samples of her academic writing. . .” (21).  Yi found that Jihee “blurred the distinction between the two types of writing rather than completely separate one from the other” (28).  In addition, Jihee’s “in-school writing practice shaped the topics or themes of her writing outside of school (e.g., diary writing, scribbling, and online chatting with her classmates)” (28).  Yi argues “that it is important to further examine the two-way street between in-school and out-of-school literacy practices, rather than separate one from the other or ignore     . . . out-of-school writing” (28).  

     I would recommend this article to my peers because as technology continues to grow, it goes without saying that the number of students writing in an online context is increasing.  This poses interesting pedagogical questions in terms of how students are using the knowledge they acquire outside the classroom to inform their in-class activities.  Because we are in a digital writing course, I wanted to read more about how Jihee used emails and online chatting (as well as what conclusions Yi drew from Jihee’s use of that particular context).  However, this article is extremely informative in terms of the transition from one context to another with respect to writing practices.