Abstract

The research presented in this article is drawn from an ethnographic study of bilingual literacy practices among young Welsh speakers, which was based in a Further Education (FE) college in North Wales. The research was conducted with forty six young Welsh speakers (aged 16–19) and their bilingual tutors. In the first year of the project, the focus was on the out-of-college literacy practices and language choices of the young people in our sample and on their uses of texts, in Welsh and in English. This included the literacy practices of their life worlds and their workplace literacies. In the second year of the project, college tutors planned and introduced small changes in their in-class uses of texts, in Welsh and in English, with a view to building on the findings regarding their students' out-of-college literacies. The main orienting theory for the project, and the ethnographic approach adopted, were those that have been developed within the New Literacy Studies tradition. The main questions addressed in this study were as follows: How are the young bilinguals drawing on print and screen literacies in different domains of their lives outside college and for what purpose? What reading and writing do they do in Welsh and in English? How are their language choices facilitated or constrained? What are the main characteristics of their out-of-college literacy practices? And finally, how can these characteristics be harnessed with a view to supporting bilingual learning at college?

How to Cite:

Martin-Jones, M., (2009) “From life worlds and work worlds to college: The bilingual literacy practices of young Welsh speakers”, Wales Journal of Education 14(2), 45-62.