Code-switching by Chinese English-as-a-Second-Language Students

Information and communication technologies have fundamentally altered the nature of young people s literacy development and practice. Students interact within a variety of communities of practice, both online and offline, to accomplish a range of educational, personal, recreational, and social purposes. As the gap widens between technologically mediated home literacy practices and the more traditional instructional approaches typically used in classrooms, the academic requirements of many students, especially those from diverse cultures, are not being met. This book examines the home literacy practices of Chinese students learning English as a Second Language (ESL), specifically, the linguistic strategies they use when they have difficulty expressing themselves in English while engaged in online communication. The authors examined the range of code-switching strategies that they employed to cope with linguistic difficulties. Information in this book will help educators to accommodate ESL students learning using multiliterate approaches. This book also will be useful to researchers, graduate students, and curriculum specialists in the field of second/foreign language education.

Autorentext

Yanping Cui, PhD candidate in Education and sessional instructor at the University of Victoria,Canada,publishes on second/foreign language acquisition. Her work has been funded by a number of prestigious fellowships. Judith C. Lapadat is Northwest Regional Chair for the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada, and Professor of Education.