Project Technical Data |
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Project was funded by the Center for Research, Development, and Innovation (CIDI) at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Sede Central Medellín [File No. 514B-11/15-S80]
Recapping
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In the first phase of our project (Mejía-Vélez & Pulgarín, 2015; Mora & Ramírez, 2014; Mora, M Castaño, Gómez, Mejía-Vélez, Ramírez, & Pulgarín, 2015; Mora, Mejía-Vélez, Ramírez, & Pulgarín, 2016), we explored the kinds of literacies present in physical spaces (i.e. those attached to edifices and static constructions). Our findings indicated new configurations for the local language ecologies (Mora, 2014c), including more expansive forms of indexicality (Blommaert, 2015; Collins & Slembrough, 2007), featuring ideas related to “irony, inspiration, and sexual innuendo” (Mora, et al., 2015), as well as overt references to foul language in titles.
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Situating
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As we discovered these new literacies in second languages, a larger question began to emerge because of feedback and our group meetings: What do these literacies look like from the vantage point of the city inhabitants? We had a clear landscape of how English had evolved in the city in over ten years (Velez-Rendon, 2003) and we have started raising questions about the potential effects of our findings in the curriculum and policy (Mora, 2015). Some of first findings had also showed that there are personal choices beyond trendy issues that drive people to resort to English as a literacy resource. These findings triggered a deeper interest in exploring personal narratives related to English literacy through the voices of the city dwellers.
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Evolving Our Framework |
From the inception of our research agenda, we have proposed a multi-dimensional framework we titled “The City as Literacy” (Mora, 2015; Mora, et al., 2015, 2016). In our framework, we conceive the city as a site where “Languages create new definitions of city and, at the same time, the city creates new and creative uses of said languages.” (Mora, et al. 2015, p. ). What was initially a quadrangular structure, featuring ideas from New Literacy Studies (Street, 2013), multimodality (Kress, 2010; Mejía-Vélez & Salazar Patiño, 2014), metrolingualism (Chiquito & Rojas, 2014, Pennycook & Otsuji, 2015), and polylanguaging (Jørgensen, Karrebæk, Madsen & Møller, 2011; Peláez & M Castaño, 2015), became for this stage a pentagonal framework. For this stage of our research, we added ideas from superdiversity (Blommaert & Rampton, 2011; Giraldo & S Castaño, 2014).
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Detailing the Framework |
Each element of the framework provides a particular lens to our research, making it richer. From New Literacy Studies we drew from the notion of literacy practices as socially situated and related to personal practice. The idea of multimodality enabled us to study literacy practices that, despite favoring the print word, also prompted an analysis of spatial modes (e.g. the location of tattoos in the body or the geographical areas where graffiti became more evident), and the synaestetic (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012) nature of these texts. Metrolingualism contributed a framework to understand these practices as transient. Graffiti, while affixed to a wall, may disappear at any moment (as our visits to some places in the city attested) and tattoos, while affixed to the body, are part of city dwellers, always on the move. Polylanguaging provided an idea that enabled our research team to detach themselves from traditional ways to look at language, such as actual proficiency or competence, looking instead at interest and resourcefulness as the new factors to analyze these literacies. In this stage of research, superdiversity provided the possibility to understand these practices as part of new ways to construct society that, just as second language literacies, begin to transcend geographical borders to create new forms to conceive culture and identity.
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The City as Routes we Walk and Talk to |
Phase Two is an invitation not only to walk the city, but talk to it via its inhabitants. If Phase One was about the physical spaces, Phase Two zeroes in on the cultural spaces and the ensuing suburban cultures that dwell the city and play with English. Our current study is exploring the following three routes:
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Academic Presentations and Publications
Raúl and Tatiana presenting at the AERA Annual Meeting in Washington, DC (2016)
Marjorie presenting at the LRA Annual Conference in Nashville, TN (2016)
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2014
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