Language and Literacy on and off-line: A Case Study with Multilingual Teenagers in Pakistan

Language and Literacy on and off-line

Abstract

This paper reported on a post doctoral research which explored the literacy practices of teenagers, who lived in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. The research participants, from two families, were girls and boys aged fourteen having Punjabi as their first language. The academic literacy practices associated with teaching/learning in their schools are in English and Urdu, so, the focus of this study had been on out-of-school literacies and language choices. The data had been collected by means of observations and semi-structured interviews. The findings of the research were as follows: The teenagers were frequently engaged in varied multi-modal literacy practices, on and off-line, on paper and on screen. They included: (1.) reading internet websites and postings by friends on Facebook; (2.) reading The Quran, newspapers and magazines off-line; (3.) writing emails and updating their own postings on Facebook; (4.) texting via mobile phones. The research had also shown that English language was being used more frequently, in different types of literacy practices, as compared to Urdu and Punjabi. The research was informed by social practice view of literacy that has been developed within the New Literacy Studies tradition and by recent research on the ethnography of digital literacy.