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Multiliteracies on Instant Messaging in Negotiating Local, Translocal, and Transnational Affiliations: a Case of an Adolescent Immigrant

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Multiliteracies on Instant Messaging in Negotiating Local, Translocal, and Transnational Affiliations: a Case of an Adolescent Immigrant Multiliteracies on Instant Messaging in Negotiating Local, Translocal, and Transnational Affiliations: A Case of an Adolescent Immigrant Wan Shun Eva Lam Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA ABSTRACT Through an in-depth case study of the instant messaging practices of an adolescent girl who had migrated to the United States from China, this qualitative investigation examines the development of multiliteracies in the context of transna- tional migration and new media of communication. Data consisted of screen recordings of the youth’s digital practices, interviews, and observations. Data analyses included qualitative coding procedures and orthographic analysis of the use of multiple dialects and languages in the youth’s instant messaging exchanges. These exchanges illustrate the process of social and semiotic design through which the youth developed simultaneous affiliations with her local Chinese immigrant community, a translocal network of Asian American youth, and transnational relationships with her peers in China. The construction of transnational networks represents the desire of the youth to develop the literate repertoire that would en- able her to thrive in multiple linguistic communities across countries and mobilize resources within these communities. This study contributes to new conceptual directions for understanding translocal forms of linguistic diversity mediated by digital technologies and an expanded view of the literate repertoire and cultural resources of migrant youth. As such, this study’s contributions are not limited to the domain of digital literacies but extend to issues of linguistic diversity and adolescent literacy development in contexts of migration. n recent years, there has been an increasing amount of (Lam, 2006; Suárez-Orozco & Qin-Hilliard, 2004). As research devoted to understanding how young people Jiménez (2003) suggested in regard to research of lit- Iare incorporating digital media into their everyday eracy learning among migrant students, not only is the lives and the kinds of literacy learning and socialization transnational character of literacy in these students’ that take place with the use of new media (e.g., Coiro, lives an underexplored area of research, but also such Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008; Hagood, Leander, literacy is “increasingly shaped by the potential and the Luke, Mackey, & Nixon, 2003; Ito et al., 2008; Sefton- continuously shifting realities created by newer forms of Green, 2006). However, in the United States, the study technology, particularly those that extend our commu- of literacy and socialization with new media has dealt nicative reach” (pp. 124–125). relatively little with young people whose first language In this article, I present a case study derived from a is not English or who have allegiances to multiple lin- larger qualitative comparative study of the transnational guistic communities, despite their current demographic digital literacy practices of immigrant youth of Chinese importance in the United States. Although digital media, descent. The central research questions in the larger in- and the Internet in particular, has been conceived as a quiry are as follows: (a) How do migrant youth of Chinese global technology that provides social and information origin use digital media to negotiate social relationships linkages across geographical space, research has rarely with diverse linguistic and cultural communities across examined the technoliteracy practices that young people countries? and (b) How does participation in multilin- of migrant backgrounds use to develop and maintain so- gual and transgeographic online networks affect youths’ cial relationships and affiliations across countries. This literacy use and learning; in particular, how are diverse is despite the fact that migrancy and new forms of media linguistic resources mobilized to develop social net- and technologies are both indicative of larger patterns works across countries? This case study presents analy- of globalization and transnationalization of our societies sis of the use of instant messaging (IM) by an adolescent Reading Research Quarterly • 44(4) • pp. 377–397 • dx.doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.44.4.5 • © 2009 International Reading Association 377 girl to develop simultaneous affiliations with her local within these communities. This study contributes to Chinese immigrant community, a translocal network of new conceptual directions for understanding translocal Asian American youth, and transnational relationships forms of linguistic diversity mediated by digital tech- with her peers in China. The diverse social networks fa- nologies and an expanded view of the literate repertoire cilitated through IM and other communicative contexts and cultural resources of migrant youth. As such, the reflect the youth’s migratory history that involves main- contributions of this study are not limited to the do- taining and developing personal ties across the United main of digital literacies but extend to issues of linguis- States and China and also her participation in online tic diversity and literacy development in the context of communities across the two countries. transnational migration. As a major form of digital communication that has become pervasive in the lives of young people in the United States and many other countries, IM involves private, synchronous, and mostly dyadic exchanges Theoretical Perspectives that are carried out via computers connected over the Multiliteracies in Changing Societal Internet. The interfaces of most IM software programs are multiwindowed, with the primary interface consist- Contexts ing of a contact list with the names of one’s IM partners Given that the interest of this study is to examine how and a text window where written exchanges take place. literacy is practiced and taken up in the social contexts There are a great number of IM programs in existence, of migration and digitally mediated communication, I some of which are regional in nature and are commonly approach literacy from a social and cultural perspec- used within specific countries, whereas others are glob- tive that considers the situated and contextual nature al and adopted widely across countries. The present of reading and writing. Research from this perspective study examines how the focal youth employed multiple (e.g., Barton, Hamilton, & Ivanic,‡ 2000; Gee, 1996; Pahl IM programs in conjunction with other online media to & Rowsell, 2006; Street, 2005) has illuminated how cultivate a dispersed set of multilingual networks across particular rhetorical styles, interpretive strategies, and countries. Although this study focuses on the use of a semiotic systems that are involved in any act of reading specific technological media (i.e., IM), the issues raised or writing are predicated on, and in turn give mean- in this study in regard to transnational networking and ing to, the beliefs, practices, and social relationships literacy development across multiple linguistic commu- of particular sociocultural groups. Hence, literacy, as nities are broader and deeper issues that remain per- a situated practice, appears in multiple forms that are tinent, even as the technology of IM changes and new contingent on the sociohistorical relationships and ide- forms of communicative media replace older ones. ologies that are in place. In the following, I first discuss several areas of re- Although the concept of multiple literacies allows us search that have informed this study, including the to recognize the diverse and socially specific practices of multiliteracies framework, the study of literacy in the reading and writing, scholars associated with the New transnational context of migration, and recent research London Group (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; Kalantzis & on literacy and learning in online networks. Drawing Cope, 2001; New London Group, 1996) proposed the on theoretical perspectives derived from these areas of concept of multiliteracies to describe the literate abilities research, I examine the IM practices of the focal youth to navigate and negotiate across diverse social practices as a process of social and semiotic design in which she and text forms that are integral to our changing societal constructs a transnational set of social networks that contexts. These contexts are characterized by (a) the in- allows her to access and develop multiple linguistic creasing salience and ubiquity of cultural and linguistic resources, including vernacular forms of English and diversity across localities and globalized relations across multiple (mutually unintelligible) dialects in Chinese, to national borders, and (b) the growing variety of hybrid construct her affiliations with different groups of peo- text forms associated with information and multime- ple across the United States and China. Analysis shows dia technologies. The changing demographics of most that, by developing and maintaining her affiliation to postindustrial and industrializing countries resulting multiple groups, the youth’s literacy practices are char- from the migration of labor associated with our global- acterized by the synchronic movement across lifeworlds ized economies have meant that people are increasingly and the development of multiple reference points in the inhabiting multiple lifeworlds—“spaces for community positioning of self. The construction of simultaneous life where local and specific meanings can be made” networks and the movement across lifeworlds represent (New London Group, 1996, p. 70)—and
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