Multilingual writer
A multilingual writer is a person who has the ability to write in two or more languages, or in more than one dialect of a language.[1] Depending on the situation and the environment, these writers are often identified with many labels, such as second-language writers, non-native speakers, language learners, and many others.[1] In Life as a Bilingual by François Grosjean, it is mentioned that approximately 50% to 70% of the world’s population is bilingual.[2]
Multilingual writers have the ability to be more aware of many aspects of their writing process and their final product.[3] In addition, the domain of two or more languages and dialects allows these writers to have unique rhetorical perspectives and a remarkable ability to perform the skills at hand.[4] Multilingual writers are often discouraged because they are held to native-speaker or monolingual standards, and most educational systems end up discouraging multilingual literacy.[5]
Multilingual literacy programs
Around the world, educational institutions are creating programs to encourage multilingual literacy and give tools and support to multilingual writers. For example, in the United States, The Norman E. Eberly Multilingual Writing Center at Dickinson College[4] is an ongoing program that benefits multilingual students by giving them a space where their abilities are appreciated and they are given tools that help their learning process as well as the knowledge they put out to the world.
List of multilingual writers
- W. E. B. Du Bois American-Ghanaian sociologist and activist.
- Kahlil Gibran Lebanese American artist, poet, and writer.
- Xiaolu Guo. Chinese-British novelist and film director.
- Guillermo del Toro. Mexican filmmaker and author.
- Junot Díaz Dominican-American writer, academic, and editor.
- Ariel Dorfman. Argentine-Chilean writer and human rights activist.
- Eva Hoffman. Polish-American writer and academic.
- Kazuo Ishiguro. Japanese-British novelist.
- Jack Kerouac. American writer.
- Jhumpa Lahiri. American author.
- Vladimir Nabokov Russian-American novelist.
References
- Vieira, Kate (24 August 2019). "An Introduction to Multilingual Writers at UW-Madison". UW-Madison. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
- Grosjean, François. Life as a Bilingual: Knowing and Using Two or More Languages.
- Wesleyan University (2022). "Multilingual Writers, Writing at Wesleyan". Wesleyan University. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
- Lape, Noreen (2019). "From English-centric to multilingual: The Norman E. Eberly Multilingual Writing Center at Dickinson College". Composition Forum. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
- Enright, Kerry A. (2011). "Multilingual writing in an age of accountability: From policy to practice in U.S. high school classrooms". Journal of Second Language Writing. 20 (3): 183–195 – via Elsevier.
Further reading
- Brinkschulte, M., E. Grieshammer, and M. E. Stoian. “Translingual Academic Writing at Internationalised Universities: Learning From Scholars”. Journal of Academic Writing, vol. 8, no. 2, Nov. 2018, pp. 150–6, doi:10.18552/joaw.v8i2.460.