Table Of ContentLLITITEERRAACCYY A ANNDD
TTHHEE B BILILININGGUUAALL
LLEEAARRNNEERR
TETXETXST ASN ADN PDR PARCATCICTEICSE ISN ILNO LNODNODNO SNC SHCOHOOLOSLS
CCATAHTHERERININE EW WAALLLALACCEE
Literacy and the Bilingual Learner
Also by Catherine Wallace:
ADVANCED READING SKILLS (co-author)
LEARNING TO READ IN A MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
READING
CRITICAL READING IN LANGUAGE EDUCATION
Literacy and the Bilingual
Learner
Texts and Practices in London Schools
Catherine Wallace
Institute of Education, University of London, UK
Palgrave
macmillan
© Catherine Wallace 2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-0-230-29100-3
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
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save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
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Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-33181-9 ISBN 978-1-137-31763-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137317636
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.
This book is dedicated to the students and teachers at the
schools and colleges which feature in this book and
which – using pseudonyms – I have called Hollytree School,
Roseland College, Greenfield College and West London
College. I should like to make specific mention of one of the
many students whose words I have drawn on: Mohamed
Hashim. Mohamed allowed me to use his own name in
documenting our conversations, both face to face and through
emails, over the years, as well as giving me permission to
reproduce extracts of his writing.
Contents
List of Figures and Tables viii
Acknowledgements ix
A Note on Terminology x
Introduction: Setting the Scene 1
1 Texts and Practices: Sociolinguistic and
Political Perspectives 15
2 Literacy Instruction and the Bilingual Learner 44
3 Bilingual Learners in a Multilingual Primary School:
Literacy Narratives about Texts and Practices 79
4 New Arrivals in a Multilingual Secondary School:
Literacy Narratives about Texts and Practices 126
5 New Arrivals in the Classroom: Literacy and
the Curriculum 157
6 Adult Bilingual Learners: The Foregrounding of
Critical Literacy in the Classroom 192
7 Pulling the Threads Together 226
Bibliography 239
Index 249
vii
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
6.1 Tree diagram on the teachers’ strike 196
6.2 Immigrants worth ‘4p to each of us’ 218
Tables
1.1 A literacy diary 20
1.2 Range of critical reading processes 39
2.1 Halliday’s three parameters of field, tenor and mode 77
2.2 Key critical questions related to field, tenor and mode 77
6.1 The Hallidayan framework 217
viii
Acknowledgements
This book is the outcome of many years of talking about, researching
and reflecting on literacy, in the context of work with teachers and
teacher educators first at the then Ealing College of Higher Education
(now University of West London) and at the Institute of Education,
University of London. I am indebted to all the students and teachers
I have met and worked with in schools and colleges where I have carried
out classroom-based research.
Special thanks are due to colleagues who have been collaborators and
joint researchers in some of the projects described here, notably Gervase
Blake, Paul Shrubshall and Melanie Cooke. Many of the insights drawn
on here, particularly in Chapter 6, arose from conversations with Paul
and Melanie in the course of our research. A particular thank you is
due also to the following for permitting me to reproduce their data and
examples in this book: Yvonne Foley, Fariha Hayat, Cathy Johnstone,
Cynthia Macknish, Trusha Patel, Gillian Rees-Kaye and Mirela Temo.
I would also like to thank friends, colleagues and the teachers men-
tioned in this book who were so supportive and constructive in reading
and commenting on chapters from this book. These are Alison Appleby,
Elsa Auerbach, Andrew Barras, David Block, John Clegg, Min Dinning,
Pauline Gibbons, John Gray, Paul Nancarrow, John O’Regan, Amos
Paran, Sian Preece, Sue Walters, Roger West and John Yandell.
ix
A Note on Terminology
I use the term ‘bilingual’ to describe a wide range of learners with
different linguistic resources. What the learners here share is that their
first language or ‘heritage’ language/languages is or are other than
English which, in the classrooms under scrutiny here, is the medium
of instruction.
I also use the terms ‘white’ and ‘black’ to describe the ethnicity of
the young people in this book. These terms are disputed and take on
a wide range of meanings in context. I have used them here because
skin colour is a visible identifier in describing classrooms and schools
in UK urban contexts. More significantly, some of the young people
themselves use the terms ‘black’ and ‘white’; they may describe being
the target of racism, due to the colour of their skin, or they may, like
Zara, one of the focus pupils in Chapter 5, allude in more matter-of-fact
ways to physical difference: as she contemplates the move from school
to university, Zara says ‘when we go to uni there will be more white
people – more white people go to university’.
x
