Spatial and literacy practices of Chinese international students across a bridge writing classroom and WeChat

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe study is situated in a bridge writing course that serves multilingual international students during their first year in college. Based on interviews with 36 Chinese international students and detailed tracing of one focal student's literacy activities, this study examines the social production of a translocal literacy learning space that spans a writing classroom, informal spaces of learning, and a digital study group on WeChat (a popular smart phone social networking application among Chinese students). It explores students’ literacy and spatial practice as inscribed with historical and geographic meanings students draw from spaces that are both local and translocal, digital and real. Findings from the study extend current research in two ways. It challenges theoretical demarcations of spaces (classroom, digital, informal) by considering literacy and its ‘context’ as dynamically co-constituted through literacy and spatial practices. It problematizes current narratives of the expanding potential of digital tools, as students’ reliance on informal, digital spaces of learning might also constrain their learning through self-segregation, ascribed identities, and lost opportunities. Literacy teachers are encouraged to consider the challenges of implementing pedagogical practices that are sensitive to students’ spatial and literacy practices.