Throughout my early years, primary and secondary education, I went to an international school where I learnt English as my native language, and Chinese as my second language. Living in Burma, I was constantly exposed to the Burmese language as well, so by luck or by chance, I grew up with two native languages – Burmese and English. At home, I speak in Burmese with my parents, and English with my younger brother. 

 

Although I consider both English and Burmese to be my native language, I did not learn to read or write in Burmese until I was about 10 years old. My mother enrolled me in an after-school Burmese language class and this was when I started to develop my Burmese language literacy. Before this, my knowledge of the Burmese language was acquired through daily conversations, and therefore, was very informal. I am very thankful to the language classes as it gave me the tools to expand my everyday literacy practices immensely. I was able to navigate my way around the city, keep myself up to date with the local news, and now that I am living away from home, communicate with my parents through messaging apps and social media.

 

I came to London in 2014 for my further studies. Although I spoke English fluently, I had a hard time understanding the different accents of my lecturers and friends. It took some time to get used to it but I eventually got familiar with the different English accents and dialects around me. My literacy practices in London are very diverse as I am engaged with various spaces and varies depending on whether I am in academic spaces, social spaces, or by myself. During these different literacy practices, I also find myself switching between different languages subconsciously to suit the activity I am engaged in. 

 

My language variety and multilingualism has a big influence on my perception of the world. I realised that my ability to speak multiple languages gave me different perspectives of the world and even my personal culture. It also gives me the capacity to engage with people in more natural and genuine ways. For example, my Burmese language helps me form a deep sense of connection with my heritage and family, whereas my English language, widely spoken around the world, helps me form connections with people whom I would not have had the chance to communicate with otherwise. 

Upon reading the panel, I learnt more about the artwork and its historical context. The bottle caps signify the history of oppressive trade between Africa and Europe. Alcohol was a commodity exchanged for goods in Africa, and eventually in the transatlantic slave trade. The copper wires also add fluidity to the surface, reminding us of the waters of the Atlantic Ocean that carried slave-ships and traders between Africa, Europe and the New World. This aspect is supplemented by Anatsui’s refusal to succumb to the Western norms of art creation; for example, it is hard to categorise the artwork into binaries of ‘fine art vs. craft’, ‘two-dimensional vs. three-dimensional’ or the simplest ‘painting vs. sculpture’. Moreover, the luminous gold colours also reference the colonial history of Anatsui’s home country. Ghana was a British colony called ‘The Gold Coast’ until its independence in 1957. 

 

The multi-modal analysis of the artwork revealed different modes at work here; the print literacy on the curator’s panel works together with the lighting, material and positioning to extend our meaning-making (Kress, 2003). The vast information I acquired through the interpretation of the different modes prompted me to extend my understanding of ‘literacy’ as what Freire argues to be “a form of empowerment, as a right, as something which people do, a process rather than a thing” (Barton, 2007: 12). Anatsui’s work has elements of multimodality that allows him to make meaning without restricting himself to the traditional notions of literacy (reading and writing).

Anatsui has a long-standing history of working with metals and creating large pieces (Figure 2). In an interview with October Gallery (2017), Anatsui noted “The amazing thing about working with these metallic ‘fabrics’ is that the poverty of the materials used in no way precludes the telling of rich and wonderful stories”. This has elements of Neisser’s “ecologically-based approach” of literacy as being situated in other human social activities rather than interpreted in isolation as a set of skills (Barton, 2007: 32). Literacy, in this naturalistic approach, is socially-constructed and should be understood within the context of its community. This provides a more inclusive interpretation of literacy; no longer seen solely as being able to read or write, but rather considers one’s ability to be confident and participate in these spaces. 

References: 

 

Barton, D. (2007) ‘Talking about Literacy’ in Barton, D. and Young, S. (Eds) Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language. Oxford: Blackwell. 

 

British Museum (2017) Collection Online: Man’s Cloth. [Online]. Available at: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1634331&partId=1&searchText=el+anatsui&page=4 [Accessed: 25 October 2017]. 

 

October Gallery (2017) El Anatsui. [Online]. Available at: http://www.octobergallery.co.uk/artists/anatsui/ [Accessed: 25 October 2017].

 

Thu, T. (2017) ‘Man’s Cloth’ by El Anatsui at the British Museum. [Unpublished photograph, 24 October 2017].

 

Young, A. (2017) El Anatsui, Old Man’s Cloth. [Online]. Available at: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/global-contemporary/a/el-anatsui-old-mans-cloth [Accessed: 25 October 2017].

 

1.      How many languages can you read and write? 

2.      Which languages do you read/write the most? 

3.      Did you learn any other languages other than your mother tongue when you were young? 

o   If so, what languages? How do you feel about being bilingual/ multilingual? 

o   If no, how do you feel about being monolingual? 

4.      How do you see literacy impacting your life? 

5.      How do you see literacy impacting your community, society and the world? 

6.      How would you describe literacy as a source of power? [being able to speak English?]

7.      What role has language played in creating and transforming your identity? 

8.      How do you feel about reading? [Happy, pleasurable, boring, …]

9.      What do you like to read? 

10.  Why do you read? 

11.  How often do you read? [for education, work, just for fun?]

12.  Where do you read? [Probe if different domains not mentioned – work, family, faith, leisure, education]

13.  Do you prefer to read printed material or read online? [Why?]

14.  Do you read silently to yourself? 

15.  How do you feel when you read silently to yourself?

16.  How do you feel when you read aloud? 

17.  Do you see yourself as a reader? 

18.  Do you read aloud to others? 

19.  Who do your read aloud for?

20.  How do you feel when you read to others? 

21.  Do others read to you? Why? 

22.  How do you feel when you hear others read?

23.  How do you feel when you hear others read in a different language? 

24.  How do you feel about writing? [Happy, pleasurable, boring, …]

25.  What do you like to write? 

26.  Why do you write? 

27.  How often do you write? [for education, work, just for fun?]

28.  Where do you write? [How? – pen, computer, phone, etc.]

29.  Do you prefer to write by hand or on a computer? [Do you ever write by hand/computer? If so, why? Where?]

30.  What do you find the most difficult thing about writing? [Purpose/audience/ technical aspects]

31.  What kinds of writing do you do in class? 

o   Do you think you do too much or too little of different kinds of writing? 

o   Is it useful in your life outside class?

o   What do you mainly use to write at work? [pen, computer, phone, etc.]

32.  What different kinds of writing do you do in your life outside college? [Home, other responsibilities, interests]

33.  Is there a difference between the kinds of writing you do at work and out of work? 

34.  Do you prefer online or offline writing? 

35.  What writing do you think is most important for your life and future? 

36.  Do you think you are a good writer? 

o   What kinds of things do you base your decision on? [knowing the audience, appropriate vocabulary, etc.]

37.  Do you prefer reading or writing? 

38.  Do you think talk helps with writing?  

39.  How often do you use the computer? How often do you use your phone? 

o   Do you use the internet to read information? [fav. actors, news, etc.]

o   Are there things you see and hear about on television that you then go and read more about those things (on the internet/books)?

40.  Is there something you would like to add that I did not ask? 

 

 

T: How many languages can you read and write? 

D: Just one. 

T: Did you learn any other languages other than your mother tongue when you were young? 

D: Yeah, I learnt Spanish.

T: So, do you speak Spanish as well as your mother tongue? 

D: No, I can’t speak Spanish anymore, because I stopped using it and I kind of forgot it. But I can recognise certain words when I hear them on the streets.

T: So when you were learning Spanish, how did you feel about being bilingual? 

D: Umm… I liked it. I thought it was quite cool to be able to understand, obviously I couldn’t fluently speak because I only studied it at GCSE level, but it was quite cool to be able to understand more than one language. 

T: So now, how do you feel about being monolingual?

D: I feel a bit disappointed that I didn’t carry on doing Spanish because I really did, I always did, enjoy speaking another language. I always thought about, you know, what if I could speak all the languages and listen to people cause I’m quite nosy [laughs].

T: Okay, so in this interview, when I refer to literacy, I mean reading and writing skills. 

D: Ok.

T: So how do you see literacy impacting your life?

D: Umm… So obviously for university, you have to read and write. A lot [laughs]. And also, everyday things – you need to read on the signs, on the streets to know where you’re going, texting – you have to read your texts… It’s just everything, it’s everywhere.

T: How do you see literacy impacting your community, society and the world? 

D: Oh… you know, like I said before, it’s everywhere, so it has a huge impact on everything that you do. Anywhere you go, you see something that you need to read or something that you need to write about. It’s not a small part of the world. It’s huge.

T: So, not just in the context of this country [UK], if you think about your literacy skills, how would you describe your literacy as a source of power? 

D: Well, obviously, English is a huge language. It’s spoken; it’s one of the most widely spoken languages, so it is quite powerful to be able to speak English. I haven’t been to many countries, but I went to Bulgaria, and even there, the script is different but most of them, a lot of them speak, even if it’s just a little bit of English, they all speak English. So it’s really, it’s probably one of the most useful languages to have, really. 

T: What role has language played in creating and transforming your identity? 

D: Well, obviously, I am English and I only speak English, so I suppose that’s part of my identity. But, umm… in education, English is huge and that forms your identity through education, even at low levels, up until now. 

T: Now we’re going to talk a bit about your reading practices. How do you feel about reading? 

D: [Pause]

T: Do you find it pleasurable? Boring? 

D: Oh! I think it depends on what I’m reading. I used to, actually, I used to not like reading at all, but I think through being in university, I actually like it a lot more than I used to. My younger sister always read a lot of books and I use to say to her, “How do you manage that?”. I just, I couldn’t get myself stuck into a book, but now, I think I could. I think it’s informative and I like reading, most, no, some things. 

T: Can you tell me more about the things that you like to read? 

D: I think I mostly read university stuff, but if it’s interesting rather than mundane or hard to read, I enjoy reading it. I don’t really have time to read books and stuff, but I do enjoy reading books if I had the time. Like fictional books, not you know [laughs]. 

T: So, your personal reading practices, why do you read? 

D: For university. I don’t really have time to read other than that. But if I had time, I would read others as well. 

T: And how often do you read? 

D: Umm… Everyday [pause] I think. 

T: Where do you read normally? 

D: At home. Umm, yeah. I do read to my sister as well. That’s not very, that’s not very. Yeah. Especially my younger sister, she’s only three. She’ll come up to me with the books she got from nursery saying “teedee, read this to me”, and you have to, cause she’s the boss, you know. [laughs].

T: If you’re reading for university, do you prefer printed material or to read online? 

D: Printed, definitely. I find it so much easier to concentrate on, and obviously, it’s more physical – you can make notes and highlight.

T: Do you read silently to yourself? 

D: If I’m in a busy place, but I do prefer to read aloud. It goes into my head better.

T: And how do you feel when you read silently to yourself? Or when you read aloud?

D: When I’m reading aloud, I think it goes in better. I think I can focus more. When I read silently, a lot of the time, I need to go over what I’ve just read, you know, like “what did I read before?”.

T: Do you see yourself as a reader? 

D: Umm, only as far as university takes me. Like I said, before this, I didn’t really read, but now, you have to read for university. 

T: And with others, do you read aloud to them?

D: So yeah, my little sister, I read to her. Umm, but I think that’s the only person I really read aloud to. Umm, my other little sister, I read aloud when helping her with her homework, so that’s another thing I read aloud. There’s obviously everyday things like reading off signs and stuff – if you’re with someone “Oh, we need to go that way! Look, that says, you know, that says that street. You need to go there” sort of thing.

T: And how do you feel when you read to others?  

D: With my little sister, I love it cause I love her reactions to it, but yeah, she loves reading, and seeing her get involved in the pictures, it’s very cute. I love it. 

T: Do others read to you? Why? 

D: I wouldn’t say so, no. I think in my family, well, that’s the place where I read mostly, so I’ll use that. Mostly, I’m the best reader really. You could say that the rest aren’t really involved in reading. I’m more likely to read to others rather than them reading to me. 

T: How do you feel when you hear others read? 

D: I like it! I think it goes in, I think you can concentrate on what they’re saying. I think sometimes it’s better to hear it rather than have to read it yourself. 

T: And how do you feel when you hear others read in a different language? 

D: Oh, I find it interesting. My boyfriend speaks a different language and when he speaks that language, I want to listen to it and I want to read the body language and everything. I want to know what they’re talking about, what they’re saying, but I have to kind of… I find it… It’s really confusing but at the same time, really intriguing. So yeah, I like to kind of evaluate what they’re saying through their body language and their tone of voice and everything. But at the same time, it’s very hard. 

T: When you hear your boyfriend in a conversation in his language, do you feel that you can be a part of the conversation by looking at the gestures? 

D: I feel like I’m a spectator. I can’t get involved in the conversation directly because obviously, well they do speak English but I don’t know what they’re saying, so I couldn’t butt in and be like, yeah what about this, because I literally have no clue what they’re saying. 

T: Ok, we’re going to move on to writing practices. How do you feel about writing? 

D: Umm, I think it depends what I’m writing, but if I do it because I have to, I’m kind of like ughhh. But if you do it for helping your reading, it’s a lot more, I think it’s a lot more pleasurable. Rather than if you’re doing it because you’re writing an assignment or something. I think sometimes, … but then again, I do prefer writing. I think I prefer writing over reading, to be honest. Because it’s nice to get your thoughts on paper, especially on what you’re reading. 

T: And what kind of things do you like to write? 

D: I don’t think I write other than what I have to do for university. Umm, unless it’s like putting stuff in my calendar or my, umm, you know, little things like birthday cards or Christmas cards, and stuff like that. Other than that, I don’t think that, sometimes I write my little sister’s name. She finds it really interesting what I write. She can’t write properly, so she like to copy me, well, try and copy me.

T: So how often do you write? 

D: I think I read more often than I write, but obviously around assignment period, I write a lot more than just, you know. But then, when I read, I like to make notes, so I suppose, I do write quite a lot. May be even every day. 

T: And where do you like to write? 

D: At home. 

T: And how do you like to write? Pen and paper? Computer? 

D: Pen and paper, mostly. I think I’m quicker with pen and paper rather than computer. 

T: What do you find is the most difficult thing about writing? [Purpose/audience/ technical aspects]

D: I think, when writing, I think, I find it difficult to… I just ramble on and on. I don’t notice the sentence structure and stuff like that, you know. I kind of, I have to read it afterwards, like “wow that is a really long sentence!”. I could write a whole paragraph that’s one sentence, and I’ll be like, “come on, it needs to be changed!”. That’s kind of what I struggle with. I don’t think I struggle much with the purpose and the audience, but rather the little tiny nitty-gritty bits that you think you can just overlook but you really can’t. [laughs]

T: What kinds of writing do you do in class? 

D: Umm, note-taking. Well, I print the slides, so whatever’s not on the slides or something that’s added by the lecturer that’s interesting, umm, I just kind of jot it down to make sure that I remember. 

T: And do you think you do too much or too little of the kinds of writing? 
 D: I think I have to do a lot of note-taking and a lot of assignment writing, but not any writing for pleasure. I think that … I’d love to write for pleasure if I had the time. 

T: Is the writing that you do in class useful in your life outside class?

D: Sometimes… yeah, if I’m a bit stuck with something, I’ll have a look back at the stuff I wrote. Yeah, sometimes the lecture slides don’t make sense, and I’ll look at what I’ve wrote and it kind of clarifies what the lecture slides mean. 

T: What different kinds of writing do you do in your life outside university? [Home, other responsibilities, interests]

D: Not really, I don’t really think I really write. Like I said before, birthday cards, maybe little things like that, but not regularly I don’t really write. 

T: Do you prefer online or offline writing? 

D: Oh yeah! Online! You know what, that’s probably the place where I write the most, but then again, I don’t really post often on social media. I do text a lot, so that’s a, I suppose that’s a big part of my writing. So for that I prefer to write digitally. 

T: And what writing do you think is most important for your life and future? 

D: I think all of them are important. I think it’s important to text because you need to keep in contact with your friends and make sure that I text my mum on my way home so she knows I’m safe but also I’m doing this course for a reason, it’s for my career. I want to be a primary school teacher, so obviously I need to get good grades in this degree, so that’s another really important aspect of my writing. 

T: And do you think you are a good writer? 

D: Umm… yeah, apart from rambling, I think so. I like to think so, yeah. 

T: And what kinds of things do you base your decision on? [knowing the audience, appropriate vocabulary, etc.]

D: So, I think knowing the purpose of what you’re writing for is important, so you know who you’re writing for. You know, obviously for birthday cards, you’re not going put, umm, you’d put like personal jokes in a birthday card. So you know, it depends who’s going to read it. If it’s the birthday girl/boy reading it, then you would know what you’re talking about, but someone else might not, so. 

T: So regarding both reading and writing, do you prefer reading or writing? 

D: I think I prefer writing actually. I think it flows easier than reading. 

T: And do you think talk helps with writing? 

D: Yeah, sometimes. I do that a lot when I’m doing my assignments. I’ll go talk to my mum and say oh this is what I want to write but I haven’t, you know, just voicing what you need, what you want to write kind of helps you to find out what you need to do, that sort of thing. 

T: How often do you use the computer? 

D: When I need to write assignments. Yeah, around assignment time. I’ll use it to print things and I’ll read it physically. 

T: And how often do you use your phone? 

D: Very often! Everyday! [laughs] Yeah, I use it everyday to text, to do stuff, so that’s probably a bigger part of my reading and writing. Digital.

T: Do you use the internet to read information? [fav. actors, news, etc.]

D: Umm, yeah sometimes. If I see something on social media that I go “ohh, what’s that about?” I go on to the internet and properly search it, so yeah, I’d say that I use the internet quite a lot to read about things. 

T: Are there things you see and hear about outside that you then go and read more about those things (on the internet/books)?

D: Yeah definitely. If I hear something in class that I’m not familiar with, I’ll go on the internet and have a look. Yeah definitely. 

T: Is there something else that you would like to add that I did not ask about.

D: No not really, yeah I think you covered it. 

T: Thank you very much.