ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 explores EFL writers’ ways of voice construction through their literacy autobiographies (LAs) from a Global South perspective. This chapter was informed by two sets of classroom-based data: a collection of LAs by 11 EFL writers and other autobiographical data produced in an academic writing course. Its primary purpose is to critically examine translingualism in the EFL context by embracing three epistemological stances. First, it employs a creative autoethnography that embeds letters, poetry, and diary to cross the artificial boundary between academic and non-academic genres. Second, it revisits the triad of transnationalism, translingualism, and investment beyond one single participant, as shown in Chapter 5, to transcend the artificial line between the Global North and the Global South. Third, the chapter reconsiders translingualism from a Global South perspective by addressing its English biases to bridge the artificial divide between Latin-based and non-Latin-based literacies. Following these epistemological moves, a new definition of translingualism is provided that positions modalities as primary and writers’ other resources (such as non-print-based languages, idiolects, cultures, native genres, emotions, and life experiences) as relevant. Furthermore, writing scholars should scrutinize both internal and external translanguaging conditions within each pedagogical context. Pedagogical implications of this expanded view of translingualism are discussed.
