Literacy Practices in a Changing Cultural Context: The Literacy Development of Two Emergent Mayan-Spanish Bilingual Children

This study uses ethnographic tools to document the multiple literacy practices of two Mayan families living in a rural community in Yucatan, Mexico. It explores how young emergent bilingual children make sense of written language through their everyday practices. Data includes field notes from participants observations, video and audio recordings and literacy samples collected during fieldwork. The literacy events extracted from the data were analyzed in terms of the communicative function written language serves, the use of linguistic resources, and particular ways of socialization within literacy events. The findings of this study challenge public discourses which define marginalized children and their families as deficient. Literacy is part of the everyday life activities of minoritiezed families and these experiences provide their children with vast amounts of literacy knowledge. Through the two case studies presented, we document how different language and literacy practices shape children's different pathways to bilingualism and biliteracy.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Language, Reading & Culture

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Arizona.

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Azuara, Patricia

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Moll, Luis C.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Moll, Luis C.
• Goodman, Yetta
• Gonzalez, Norma I.

• Biliteracy
• Early Literacy
• Emergent Bilinguals
• Mayan Children
• Social Practices

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

Language dc:language.iso

EN

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10150/196103

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.arizona.edu:10150/196103