Case Studies of Transitional Korean Adolescents' Literacy Practices

Different Literacies in Different Contexts of Use: Case Studies of Transitional Korean Adolescents’ Literacy Practices DISSERTATION Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University Jeongsoo Pyo, MA TESL Graduate Program in Education The Ohio State University 2015 Dissertation Committee: Professor Alan Hirvela, advisor Professor Youngjoo Yi Professor Francis Troyan ii Copyright by Jeongsoo Pyo 2015 iii Abstract As new technology has changed adolescents’ literate life pathways outside school in remarkable ways, new uses of terminology, such as “mutiliteracies” (The New London Group, 1996), are necessary to capture the multi-dimensional nature of current encounters with what was long called “literacy,” a term that reflects a more limited presence in a print- mediated environment. However, there has been relatively little interest in the multliteracies experiences of Korean adolescents in the U.S., especially I the framing of them as transitional youth. This study asserts that the term “transitional youth” best captures the nature of their movement from the native language and culture they are moving from to a very new language and culture. This study examined the literacy practices of transitional Korean adolescents across three contexts—school, home, and community— from a sociocultural perspective. I conducted multiple case studies of three transitional Korean adolescents in a Midwestern city in the U.S. Over a six month period, I used multiple approaches to data collection: participant observation, non- participant observation, semi-structured interviews, field notes, informal conversations, documents, and artifact collection. I used inductive analysis of the data by focusing on the transitional students’ literacy experiences in three contexts (school, home, and a community center) in ii terms of ways of engaging in both school and out of school literacies, the accomplishments associated with out of school literacy practices, the movement of literacy practices across contexts, literate identities in multiliteracies experiences, and the relationship between academic literacy and multiliteracies. Findings revealed that the out of school literacy practices of the participants were intricately involved in transitional and multiliteracies features of literacy activities. Their out of school literacy practices served as a means of constructing identities (a group identity and multiple individual identities), coping with the realities and the emotions they experienced, shifting their positioning and enhancing their circumstances, creating ties between the old and new worlds, retaining ties with their Korean heritage and identity, and improving their English. Furthermore, the literacy practices of these transitional students moved among languages, practices and locations. However, literacy practices on the move encountered social and cultural contingencies and were redefined by the social contexts in which they occurred. Therefore, the findings of the study suggest that literacies on the move have the potential to simultaneously empower and disempower writers. Through the multimodal composition, the participants were able to express their literate identities as writers by actively drawing on their out of school lives (resources), such as their border crossing experiences of life in America, everyday cultural practices, multimodal resources, and the inquiry process itself. They also developed academic knowledge and English proficiency as they reflected on and recreated their transitional lives and identities. The study suggests that through the different literacies in the three contexts of use studied, we need to consider ways to acknowledge and use such practices iii in pedagogy and curricula and support students as multilingual and multiliterate to construct and retain literate identities and to become powerful readers and writers while they are in school and beyond. iv I dedicate my dissertation to God v Acknowledgments I am really depressed…The class is boring… The teacher is saying cultural difference between American culture and other cultures… All of the students seem to be carefully listening to what the teacher says…They seem to be newcomers in the U.S….I am fed up with American culture, especially, certain superficial cultural things…I can't understand why I should be in this classroom. A long time ago, when I started my doctoral work, I had an opportunity to write an autobiography of literacy in a contrastive rhetoric class. Titling it “My journey through writing across cultures,” I recounted my encounters of several genres of writing through a five paragraph essay, expository writing and persuasive essay, and academic writing while reflecting on my four year writing journey in American institutions of higher learning. The quote above, from one of my papers, demonstrates how miserable I felt when I was placed in an ESL academic writing class again while starting my doctoral coursework at The Ohio State University. In spite of several years of study in another American university, I still did not meet the imposed requirements of an essay writing test in the new school. I lamented my Korean identity as a hindrance to my writing ability in English, and I asked myself about how I would reconcile my Korean identity and American identity through writing. Since then, many years have passed by, and now I realize my issues were the same as those of my research participants. Jessica, Inhee, and John were looking for ways to reconcile their Korean identity and American identity through various literacies. As an author and researcher, I needed to make their voices heard. I would be especially well vi positioned to do so because I had the same cultural backgrounds and understood them more than others. Unfortunately, this was not as easy as I thought, and to be honest, it was such a long, bitter process; while struggling with the dissertation, I wrote, re-wrote, re-re-wrote and needed to fight myself against an invisible future. Without my advisor, Dr. Hirvela, I would not have been able to find my direction and to tell their life stories through the dissertation. Indeed, my last encounter with dissertation writing in an American institution was the toughest, but I would say, “It was worthwhile” and “Now, I am likely to get a sense of how to reconcile my Korean identity and American identity.” It was a long, bitter journey through which I needed to look for my own way of juggling two cultures for myself with a strong academic voice. No amount of words could describe how much I owe it to Dr. Alan Hirvela. Giving me harsh comments, he taught me how to analyze data and construct an authorial voice, which enabled me to slowly grow up in the academic world. I also appreciate Dr. Youngjoo Yi, who supported me emotionally during the whole doctoral experience. I was lucky to meet her because I was able to share my L1 language and culture and talk about the same interests. I am grateful for Dr. Francis Troyan, who served as my committee member when I had a difficult time finding one. In addition, I should express special thanks to Dr. George Newell, who introduced me to multiltieracies during one of his courses and supported me in various ways. Studying for a long time would not occur without sacrifices. My husband has supported me through such a hard process without any complaint even though he also struggled with his adaptation to the U.S. as a first generation immigrant. My daughter, Jennifer, has grown vii up to be an independent college student. Arriving in a new world by simply following her mom, she said, “Now I know what my mommy is doing.” She was not likely to know exactly what I was doing back then. I confess I was a selfish wife and mother, putting a priority on school work, but my husband and daughter loved me despite my faults. My parents, my siblings, and my aunt would smile at my accomplishment-Thank you for helping me to become what I am in various ways. Pastor Keunsang Lee, whose sermons played an important role in teaching me how to persevere and strengthening me, is another person I am grateful for. Finally, I devote my gratitude to God, who worked on me through all these people and molded me beautifully through this hardship. viii Vita 1988.………………………………………...... B.A. in French Language and Literature Minor: French Education. Ewha Womans University 1990-92...……………………………………... French Teacher, Young Jin Foreign Language Institute, Seoul, Korea 1992 ………………………………………….. M.A. in French Linguistics, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea 2002 ………………………………………….. M.A. in TESOL New York University, NY, NY 2002-2004 …………………………………… ESL coordinator CCB Learning Center, Palisades Park, NJ 2003...………………………………………… Advanced Certificate in TESOL New York University, NY, NY 2005-2008 ……………………………………. Korean teacher / Vice Principal Korean-American Community School of Central Ohio Columbus, OH 2007-Present ………………………………….. Bilingual aide, Dublin School District Dublin, OH 2009-2013 ……………………………………. ESL teacher, Asian American Community Services, Upper Arlington, OH ix Publications Pyo, J.S. (Forthcoming). Bridging in and out of school literacies: An adolescent English language learner’s composition of a multimodal project. Journal of Adolescent and Adult literacy. Fields of Study Major Field: Education Area of Specialization: Second/Foreign Language Education Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Minor Fields: Second Language Literacy

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