Written Communication Oct 2005

Commitments to Academic Biliteracy

Guillaume Gentil Carleton University

Abstract

This article examines the appropriation of academic biliteracy by three French-speaking students at an English-medium university in the Canadian province of Québec. Drawing on Hornberger’s continua model of biliteracy, Bourdieu’s critical social theory, and philosophical hermeneutics, the author conceptualizes individual biliterate development as a subjective and intersubjective evaluative response to social contexts of possibilities for biliteracy. Case study data were collected during 2 ½ years and included autobiographical and text-based interviews, inventories and analyses of academic writing in English and French, classroom-based observations, field notes, and documentation of the legal, historical, institutional, and demographic contexts. Analyses of the participants’ negotiations and trajectories of bilingual academic writing development reveal the challenges and resources of bilingual writers to uphold their commitment to academic biliteracy within English-dominant institutional and disciplinary contexts. Implications for the advancement of multilingual academic literacies are drawn.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2005-10-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088305280350
Open Access
Closed
Topics
qualitative research multimodality multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

  1. Hint et al. (2025)
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  5. Lillis (2008)
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Cites in this index (1)

  1. MATSUDA (1998)
    Situating ESL Writing in a Cross-Disciplinary Context
    Written Communication
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