- West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
- Shizhou Yang, PhD (La Trobe University, Australia) is an applied linguist, second language writer, writing teacher, a... moreShizhou Yang, PhD (La Trobe University, Australia) is an applied linguist, second language writer, writing teacher, and researcher affiliated with Payap University. His current research interests include TESOL, translanguaging, and Global South epistemologies. He reviews for and publishes in international journals. His two books feature L2 autobiographical writing and identity.edit
The book explores the pedagogical potential of autobiographical writing in English-as-a-foreign language, approaching the topic from an educational, longitudinal, dialogical, and social perspective. Through a number of case studies, the... more
The book explores the pedagogical potential of autobiographical writing in English-as-a-foreign language, approaching the topic from an educational, longitudinal, dialogical, and social perspective. Through a number of case studies, the author delineates four phases that EFL writers may experience in their identity construction processes, illustrating the complexity of EFL writers’ social identities. This book will provide a valuable resource for language teachers and researchers interested in the pedagogical applications of autobiographical writing.
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Drawing on autoethnographic research on literacy autobiographies from a Chinese EFL writing context, this book provides unique insights into literacy, voice, translingualism, and critical pedagogy from a Global South perspective. The... more
Drawing on autoethnographic research on literacy autobiographies from a Chinese EFL writing context, this book provides unique insights into literacy, voice, translingualism, and critical pedagogy from a Global South perspective. The book presents literacy autobiographies as a cultural tool for analyzing and refashioning learners’ and teachers’ sense of self in ever-expanding dialogical spaces. In addition to highlighting teachers’ own stories around autoethnographies and translanguaging, it showcases literacy autobiographies from Chinese students themselves. The book theorizes the Global South as an ontological positioning that challenges colonial mindsets and practices concerning literacy, language learning, and narratives. It argues that literacy autobiographies from a Global South perspective can be reimagined as critical pedagogy for EFL writing teaching and learning, as well as teacher development. Validating and expanding student voices by presenting these literacy autobiographies, this book will be of great interest to researchers and students in the fields of TESOL, applied linguistics, English language teaching, second language writing, and literacy studies. Link: https://www.routledge.com/Literacy-Autobiographies-from-the-Global-South-An-Autoethnographic-Study/Yang/p/book/9781032265391
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Research on translanguaging in applied linguistics and language education is on the rise, and translanguaging application in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing programs has aroused great interest. Research on translanguaging... more
Research on translanguaging in applied linguistics and language education is on the rise, and translanguaging application in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing programs has aroused great interest. Research on translanguaging practices testifies to the benefits of deploying multilingual, multimodal, multisemiotic and multisensory resources in multilingual classrooms, of which little presents the specific implementation and outcomes of translanguaging pedagogies applied in EFL writing education. In response, this ethnographic classroom-based research, one taking place in a comprehensive university in southwestern China, aims to explore the educational influence of translanguaging pedagogies particularly on learners' critical thinking, content comprehension and effective communication. To triangulate data types and sources, data-collection methods include e-questionnaires, classroom observations, audio-recorded interviews and student writing samples. Data analysis reveals that translanguaging practices, as part of the classroom writing ecology, promote EFL students' critical awareness. Additionally, translanguaging pedagogies facilitate students' content comprehension and effective communication. This study demonstrates the affordances of a translanguaging lens for EFL writing education provided that it is reframed to serve students' strategies to negotiate language differences.
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Drawing on autoethnographic research on literacy autobiographies from a Chinese EFL writing context, this book provides unique insights into literacy, voice, translingualism, and critical pedagogy from a Global South perspective. The... more
Drawing on autoethnographic research on literacy autobiographies from a Chinese EFL writing context, this book provides unique insights into literacy, voice, translingualism, and critical pedagogy from a Global South perspective. The book presents literacy autobiographies as a cultural tool for analyzing and refashioning learners’ and teachers’ sense of self in ever-expanding dialogical spaces. In addition to highlighting teachers’ own stories around autoethnographies and translanguaging, it showcases literacy autobiographies from Chinese students themselves. The book theorizes the Global South as an ontological positioning that challenges colonial mindsets and practices concerning literacy, language learning, and narratives. It argues that literacy autobiographies from a Global South perspective can be reimagined as critical pedagogy for EFL writing teaching and learning, as well as teacher development. Validating and expanding student voices by presenting these literacy autobiographies, this book will be of great interest to researchers and students in the fields of TESOL, applied linguistics, English language teaching, second language writing, and literacy studies. Link: https://www.routledge.com/Literacy-Autobiographies-from-the-Global-South-An-Autoethnographic-Study/Yang/p/book/9781032265391
Research Interests: TESOL and Translanguaging
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Research on translanguaging in applied linguistics and language education is on the rise, and translanguaging application in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing programs has aroused great interest. Research on translanguaging... more
Research on translanguaging in applied linguistics and language education is on the rise, and translanguaging application in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing programs has aroused great interest. Research on translanguaging practices testifies to the benefits of deploying multilingual, multimodal, multisemiotic and multisensory resources in multilingual classrooms, of which little presents the specific implementation and outcomes of translanguaging pedagogies applied in EFL writing education. In response, this ethnographic classroom-based research, one taking place in a comprehensive university in southwestern China, aims to explore the educational influence of translanguaging pedagogies particularly on learners' critical thinking, content comprehension and effective communication. To triangulate data types and sources, data-collection methods include e-questionnaires, classroom observations, audio-recorded interviews and student writing samples. Data analysis reveals that translanguaging practices, as part of the classroom writing ecology, promote EFL students' critical awareness. Additionally, translanguaging pedagogies facilitate students' content comprehension and effective communication. This study demonstrates the affordances of a translanguaging lens for EFL writing education provided that it is reframed to serve students' strategies to negotiate language differences.
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The translanguaging theory encourages language teachers to view their learners’ linguistic backgrounds as a resource for creative expression. This article proposes an autoethnographically oriented application of the translanguging... more
The translanguaging theory encourages language teachers to view their learners’ linguistic backgrounds as a resource for creative expression. This article proposes an autoethnographically oriented application of the translanguging approach to studying emergent bilingual creativity in online communication. It includes three steps—storytelling, cultural interpretation, and online research—thus linking personal experiences of bilingual creativity with communal practice. To illustrate the approach’s usefulness, the author applies it to his own observed cases of bilingual creativity in Chinese-English bilingual communication. Pedagogical implications for teaching language, World Englishes, and creative writing courses are provided.
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Although much is known about the benefits of providing creative writing courses to English learners, little research is available on Chinese ethnolinguistic minority learners’ creative writing in formal education. In response, this... more
Although much is known about the benefits of providing creative writing courses to English learners, little research is available on Chinese ethnolinguistic minority learners’ creative writing in formal education. In response, this ethnographic study explored three ethnolinguistic minority learners’ engagement with a three-month elective English creative writing course at a Chinese university. Data (drafts, interviews, and reflection) were analyzed to reveal the three learners’ investment in creative writing and its impact. It was found that creative writing helped the learners to develop more confident writer identities, that they became more proficient in writing, and that their language proficiency also grew. The study suggests creative writing can serve as identity texts, which reflect back on their emergent creative writer identity, and can be a beneficial pedagogical option for ethnolinguistic minority learners.
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The book explores the pedagogical potential of autobiographical writing in English-as-a-foreign language, approaching the topic from an educational, longitudinal, dialogical, and social perspective. Through a number of case studies, the... more
The book explores the pedagogical potential of autobiographical writing in English-as-a-foreign language, approaching the topic from an educational, longitudinal, dialogical, and social perspective. Through a number of case studies, the author delineates four phases that EFL writers may experience in their identity construction processes, illustrating the complexity of EFL writers’ social identities. This book will provide a valuable resource for language teachers and researchers interested in the pedagogical applications of autobiographical writing.
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Research Interests: Art History and Art
Studies on learner identity and studies on meaningful literacy seem to have gone on parallel tracks with little intersection between the two, leading to a lack of understanding regarding the impact of meaningful literacy on learners’... more
Studies on learner identity and studies on meaningful literacy seem to have gone on parallel tracks with little intersection between the two, leading to a lack of understanding regarding the impact of meaningful literacy on learners’ identities, particularly as writers in a foreign language environment. In this context, this article reports on a study in which the teacher examines how meaningful literacy in the form of life writing shapes his English as a foreign language (EFL) writers’ identity. The study used students’ writing samples and written reflections as the primary data and through the lens of a poststructuralist theory of learner and writer identity. The author found that extensive investment in life writing in a supportive social milieu, including both story writing outside class and free writing in class enabled EFL learners to achieve agentive writer identities, i.e., forming a new habit of writing, gaining confidence as a writer, and taking life writing as a craft. Th...
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Author(s): Yang, Shizhou | Abstract: Although critical pedagogy has been widely discussed in the Americas, little research has been done to recontextualize it in foreign language (FL) writing and explore its actual impact on the learners’... more
Author(s): Yang, Shizhou | Abstract: Although critical pedagogy has been widely discussed in the Americas, little research has been done to recontextualize it in foreign language (FL) writing and explore its actual impact on the learners’ sense of self. Hence, I consider in this article the possibility of transforming FL writing education by using a reconceptualized critical pedagogy. It first adapts from existing literature to develop a new framework for critical pedagogy for FL writing, emphasizing four interrelated components, i.e., relationship, identity, power and agency. It then describes the implementation of such a pedagogy in a creative writing classroom by a teacher researcher in an FL environment. Evidence such as students’ written reflections, writing samples and teacher’s fieldnotes suggests that this new critical pedagogy can help FL learners develop agentive ways with writing, which entails more increased confidence in writing, greater mastery of writing and healthier...
Research Interests: Sociology, Critical Pedagogy, Foreign Language Writing, Language, Identity, and 4 morePower, Agency, Relationship, and L
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References: Carlson, B. (2013). The ‘new frontier’: Emergent Indigenous identities and social media. In M. Harris, M. Nakata, & B. Carlson (Eds.), The Politics of Identity: Emerging Indigeneity (pp. 147–168). Sydney: University of... more
References: Carlson, B. (2013). The ‘new frontier’: Emergent Indigenous identities and social media. In M. Harris, M. Nakata, & B. Carlson (Eds.), The Politics of Identity: Emerging Indigeneity (pp. 147–168). Sydney: University of Technology Sydney E-Press. Galla, C. K. (2016). Indigenous language revitalization, promotion, and education: function of digital technology. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 29(7), 1137–1151. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2016.1166137 Jany, C. (2018). The role of new technology and social media in reversing language loss. Speech, Language and Hearing, 21(2), 73–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/2050571X.2017.1368971 Jacques, G., & Michaud, A. (2011). Approaching the historical phonology of three highly eroded Sino-Tibetan languages: Naxi, Na and Laze. Diachronica, 28(4), 468–498. Kral, I. (2014). Shifting perceptions, shifting identities: Communication technologies and the altered social, cultural and linguistic ecology in a remote indigenous context. Th...
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The past two decades have witnessed a burgeoning literature on L2 writers' identities, especially their discoursal identities. In contrast, little attention is paid to the writers' felt sense of self when they write in an L2,... more
The past two decades have witnessed a burgeoning literature on L2 writers' identities, especially their discoursal identities. In contrast, little attention is paid to the writers' felt sense of self when they write in an L2, which is an integral dimension of their autobiographical self. In this article, we provide empirical evidence of the nature of this aspect of L2 writer identity. To illustrate, we analyzed linguistic metaphors elicited from three groups of L2 writers (N = 83), majoring respectively in Thai, Japanese, and English in a Chinese university. Descriptive analysis shows that, due to challenges in content, language, organization, and cultural differences, a majority of L2 writers, especial Thai and Japanese L2 writers, experience a diminishing sense of self when they write in L2. In contrast, some L2 writers, especially English L2 writers, find writing in an L2 liberating, revealing the impact of their individual learning trajectories and pedagogical practices ...
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Recently, Cosmopolitan English and Transliteracy won the 2018 Research Impact Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), the largest international organization that specializes in the teaching and studies... more
Recently, Cosmopolitan English and Transliteracy won the 2018 Research Impact Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), the largest international organization that specializes in the teaching and studies of composition. This recognition seems to signal a turn to transliteracy education, i.e., English writing education should embrace a vision and actual pedagogical practices of cultivating citizens of the world who use English ethically. The purposes of this article are threefold: to define transliteracy, to provide illustrative studies, and to propose its application in foreign language contexts. The author suggests that in designing innovative programs sensitive to various English styles teachers need to strike a balance between traditional literacy and transliteracy. New ways of implementing such literacies in some alternate space, as mediated by modern communication technologies, especially the Internet, are provided.
Aims and Scopes Although there has been a growing body of literature on the needs, possibilities, benefits and challenges in providing creative writing courses to L2 learners in both ESL and EFL contexts, much remains to be done to... more
Aims and Scopes Although there has been a growing body of literature on the needs, possibilities, benefits and challenges in providing creative writing courses to L2 learners in both ESL and EFL contexts, much remains to be done to theorize the roles of creative writing in foreign language literacy education and to trace students' growth as writers within specific classroom contexts. In response, we invite potential authors to explore issues related to texts, contexts and identity of L2 creative writing in Asia. Possible topics include: • Forms of L2 creative writing in Asia • Nature of L2 creative writing in the foreign language writing context • Nurturing of Asian students' creativity • Relationship between creative writing in a foreign language and "speaking back" • Relationship between creative writing courses in an Asian EFL and individual learners' life and literacy trajectories • Impact of creative writing on Asian learners' ongoing identity work • Pedagogical practices that facilitate Asian learners' creativity through writing in a foreign language About the Journal International Journal of TESOL Studies (IJTS) (ISSN: 2632-6779) is a fully peer-reviewed international journal published on behalf of the International TESOL Union, a professional platform to unite schools, colleges, universities, research institutes, and government organizations to promote depth and diversity in TESOL and language education.
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Despite the vast literature on critical pedagogy in general, a clear understanding of what critical pedagogy entails in foreign-language (FL) writing has not yet been articulated—perhaps due to the field’s pragmatic orientation. In this... more
Despite the vast literature on critical pedagogy in general, a clear understanding of what critical pedagogy entails in foreign-language (FL) writing has not yet been articulated—perhaps due to the field’s pragmatic orientation. In this article, I propose four intertwined key elements of a critical pedagogy for FL writing: relationship, agency, identity,and power. I argue first, drawing on Freire’s theory of education and Bakhtinian philosophy, that the essence of applying critical pedagogy to FL writing lies in carving out a dialogical space in which FL learners can form new self-otherrelationshipsto disrupt their often-marginalized status. Second,inspired mainly by sociocultural approaches to language and literacy studies, I define agencyas individuals’ goal-oriented capacity to act, which lies at the core of the effective application of critical pedagogy in the FL context. Depending on power dynamics, agency may take negative (e.g., resistance) or positive (e.g., investment) forms. Third, identity, defined from the perspective of poststructuralist and narrative practices as individuals’ multiple andevolving relationships with the world, is implicated in each literacy activity; as such, practitioners of critical pedagogy in FL writing should design ways both to validate learners’ existing identities and to expand their identity options. Fourth, power, defined from theperspective of literacies as unbalanced yet pervasive social relations, shapes all human interactions and individuals’ capacity to act as agents. These key elements influence each other, and the contextualized configurations of these interrelated elements provide flexible pathways to critical pedagogy in FL writing. A case study within a creative writing course illustrates all four elements and the effectiveness of such critical pedagogy in FL writing education in developing learners’ agency. It is hoped that this study will encourage further discussion and localized explorations of critical pedagogy in FL writing education.
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The book explores the pedagogical potential of autobiographical writing in English-as-a-foreign language, approaching the topic from an educational, longitudinal, dialogical, and social perspective. Through a number of case studies, the... more
The book explores the pedagogical potential of autobiographical writing in English-as-a-foreign language, approaching the topic from an educational, longitudinal, dialogical, and social perspective. Through a number of case studies, the author delineates four phases that EFL writers may experience in their identity construction processes, illustrating the complexity of EFL writers’ social identities. This book will provide a valuable resource for language teachers and researchers interested in the pedagogical applications of autobiographical writing.
Research Interests:
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Drawing on autoethnographic research on literacy autobiographies from a Chinese EFL writing context, this book provides unique insights into literacy, voice, translingualism, and critical pedagogy from a Global South perspective.... more
Drawing on autoethnographic research on literacy
autobiographies from a Chinese EFL writing context, this
book provides unique insights into literacy, voice,
translingualism, and critical pedagogy from a Global South
perspective. Validating and expanding student voices by
presenting these literacy autobiographies, this book will
be of great interest to researchers and studentsin the fields
of TESOL, applied linguistics, English language teaching,
second language writing, and literacy studies.
autobiographies from a Chinese EFL writing context, this
book provides unique insights into literacy, voice,
translingualism, and critical pedagogy from a Global South
perspective. Validating and expanding student voices by
presenting these literacy autobiographies, this book will
be of great interest to researchers and studentsin the fields
of TESOL, applied linguistics, English language teaching,
second language writing, and literacy studies.
Research Interests:
Drawing on autoethnographic research on literacy autobiographies from a Chinese EFL writing context, this book provides unique insights into literacy, voice, translingualism, and critical pedagogy from a Global South perspective. The... more
Drawing on autoethnographic research on literacy autobiographies from a Chinese
EFL writing context, this book provides unique insights into literacy, voice, translingualism, and critical pedagogy from a Global South perspective.
The book presents literacy autobiographies as a cultural tool for analyzing and
refashioning learners’ and teachers’ sense of self in ever-expanding dialogical spaces.
In addition to highlighting teachers’ own stories around autoethnographies and
translanguaging, it showcases literacy autobiographies from Chinese students themselves. The book theorizes the Global South as an ontological positioning that challenges colonial mindsets and practices concerning literacy, language learning, and
narratives. It argues that literacy autobiographies from a Global South perspective
can be reimagined as critical pedagogy for EFL writing teaching and learning, as
well as teacher development.
Validating and expanding student voices by presenting these literacy autobiographies, this book will be of great interest to researchers and students in the fields
of TESOL, applied linguistics, English language teaching, second language writing,
and literacy studies.
Link: https://www.routledge.com/Literacy-Autobiographies-from-the-Global-South-An-Autoethnographic-Study/Yang/p/book/9781032265391
EFL writing context, this book provides unique insights into literacy, voice, translingualism, and critical pedagogy from a Global South perspective.
The book presents literacy autobiographies as a cultural tool for analyzing and
refashioning learners’ and teachers’ sense of self in ever-expanding dialogical spaces.
In addition to highlighting teachers’ own stories around autoethnographies and
translanguaging, it showcases literacy autobiographies from Chinese students themselves. The book theorizes the Global South as an ontological positioning that challenges colonial mindsets and practices concerning literacy, language learning, and
narratives. It argues that literacy autobiographies from a Global South perspective
can be reimagined as critical pedagogy for EFL writing teaching and learning, as
well as teacher development.
Validating and expanding student voices by presenting these literacy autobiographies, this book will be of great interest to researchers and students in the fields
of TESOL, applied linguistics, English language teaching, second language writing,
and literacy studies.
Link: https://www.routledge.com/Literacy-Autobiographies-from-the-Global-South-An-Autoethnographic-Study/Yang/p/book/9781032265391
Research Interests:
Although it is commonly known now that multilingual writers’ identities are multiple, complex and dynamic, much remains unknown about how autobiographical writing in a second language mediates the writers’ identity work. Taking a... more
Although it is commonly known now that multilingual writers’ identities are multiple, complex and dynamic, much remains unknown about how autobiographical writing in a second language mediates the writers’ identity work. Taking a transnational perspective to language and identity, this article analyzes a Chinese university student’s autobiographical writing in English and its multiple drafts in a writing circle over nine months in light of the student writer’s drawings and interviews. The study reveals three potential phases of identity work, i.e., performing, reflecting and re-visioning, that multilingual writers may experience as they engage in autobiographical writing in a second language. Pedagogical implications of these findings are discussed.
orcid.org/0000-0002-8113-4689
orcid.org/0000-0002-8113-4689
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Although translanguaging research has received considerable attention in TESOL and bilingual education across the globe, little is known about translanguaging identity and its decolonizing potential in English writing education. The... more
Although translanguaging research has received considerable attention in TESOL and bilingual education across the globe, little is known about translanguaging identity and its decolonizing potential in English writing education. The poetic autoethnography examined in this article explores translanguaging identities as narratives, practices, and processes whereby multilingual speakers imagine, embody, and showcase their preferred sense of self by reconfiguring their language use. Data include fieldnotes, teaching documents, and class artifacts, especially literacy autobiography (LA) drafts, from a writing-intensive senior seminar course in a Thai university in 2020. Moment analysis, as verified by other data, indicates that translanguaging, or the synergic use of multiple languages and modalities, contributed to teaching, class interaction, idea generation, data collection, and the drafting and revision of the students' LAs. It is proposed that translanguaging and classroom writing ecology can be intertwined. Through pedagogical translanguaging, a teacher shapes every aspect of the writing ecology, which in turn feeds back into both the teacher's and students' translanguaging orientation, language use, and evolving sense of self. Classroom-situated translanguaging identity helps to decolonize the mind by nurturing linguistically and epistemologically savvy subjectivities at the local level.
