May 2005- August 2007

Research team

Professor Marilyn Martin-Jones (Project Director), Professor Roz Ivanic (Lancaster University) and Dr Daniel Chandler (University of Wales Aberystwyth), Buddug Griffith (University-based Researcher) and three College-based Researchers: Beryl Davies, Margaret Lewis and Anwen Williams.

The Research Project

The principal focus of this research project is on the use and development of bilingual literacies among Welsh-speaking students as they participate in bilingual and Welsh-medium courses in Further Education (FE). The research is based in an FE college in North Wales, Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor, which is known as the leading provider of bilingual and Welsh-medium education in the sector. From September 2005, the research team has been working with small groups of students attending different courses in the college and has been engaging in two main types of research: (1) documenting the range of literacy practices that each of the students engages in, within ‘informal’ lifeworld contexts, and the range of verbal and visual literacies that they bring to the learning process; and with (2) describing and analysing the bilingual literacy demands of their courses of study.

The project has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP). It is extending, to a Welsh context, research that is already underway in another TLRP project entitled, Literacies for Learning in Further Education (LfLFE), which is based in the Literacy Research Centre at Lancaster University and in the School of Education, University of Stirling. The Lancaster / Stirling project is being undertaken in four different F.E. colleges (two in England and two in Scotland).

The research project on Bilingual Literacies for Learning in Further Education is extending the investigation of literacy and learning into a bilingual context where, historically, English has been the dominant language of learning. The goal is to identify literacy-related issues that are specific to this context and to the particular challenge of developing and consolidating bilingual and Welsh-medium provision in Further Education and, at the same time, to make comparisons with research already underway in the Lancaster/Stirling project (e.g. comparisons related to students’ experiences of literacy and learning within the FE sector).

A further goal of this project on bilingual literacies is to address the need for research capacity-building in Wales, especially within the FE context, through the development of a reflexive HE/FE research partnership. Three Further Education lecturers are involved in the research team as college-based researchers and will be working with the university team at every stage of the research process.

The research is primarily ethnographic in nature, combining ethnography of literacy with discourse analysis and semiotic analysis and it is being carried out in two different college sites: in Dolgellau and in Glynllifon.

Research aims

• To identify commonalities and differences within the F.E. experiences of a range of bilingual learners across different areas of the curriculum in one F.E. college in Wales and, then, to further explore commonalities and differences with the F.E. experiences of a range of learners in the four F.E. colleges participating in the LfLFE project in England and Scotland.
• To identify literacies that can mediate between students’ everyday lives and their learning in the F.E. context and that can serve as generic resources for learning throughout the life course.
• To develop, implement and evaluate a curriculum development programme based on these findings.
• To inform future practice and policy in the design of learning opportunities in Welsh-medium and bilingual F.E. courses;
• To engage bilingual F.E. practitioners directly in a research partnership and thus support the development of evidence-based practice within the F.E. context in Wales.

Research design

Phase 1: ‘Laying the groundwork’ ( May-August 2005)

During this phase the research team was established and an initial profile of the college was put together. This included a first mapping of the range of bilingual provision at the college and of some of the bilingual literacy practices associated with learning across a range of courses in each college. This phase provided a context for the more detailed research in Phases 2 & 3 and lead to the identification of three focal curriculum areas: Agriculture, Early Years and Welsh.

Phase 2: ‘Literacies’ (September 2005-August 2006)

During this phase of the project, the research team is undertaking close ethnographic description – to a level of detail so far not attempted in bilingual literacy research – of FE students’ literacy practices – moving back and forth from the informal life worlds of students to formal learning environments.

Phase 3: ‘Curriculum Development’ (September 2006-April 2007)

From the findings of Phase 2, the research team will identify and trial new ways in which the FE curriculum can enable students to draw on the bilingual literacy resources of their lives outside college, with a view to enhancing learning outcomes. During this phase, the team will also seek ways of disseminating this bilingual curriculum development work to other practitioners in the college and, then, to other colleges offering bilingual and Welsh-medium provision. The guidance of the project’s Advisory Group will be crucial at this particular phase of the project.

Newsletters

2007 -     English version [2,010 KB, pdf]
                 Welsh version [2,165 KB, pdf]

2006 -     English version [579 KB, pdf]
                 Welsh version [624 KB, pdf]

For more information about this project (in Welsh or in English), please contact:

Professor Marilyn Martin-Jones
School of Education
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Tel: (0121) 414 4862; (0121) 414 3294 (messages)
E-mail: m.martinjones@bham.ac.uk