Newly arrived students’ writer agency at the end of preparatory education: writer profiles
Open accessAbstract
Schools socialise students into academic literacy, where writer agency across various genres is important. With increasing linguistic diversity due to global migration, this study provides insight into supporting the writer agency of newly arrived multilingual migrant students. It focuses on 12–17-year-old migrant students (N = 42) at the end of their lower-secondary school preparatory education in Finland, qualitatively identifying and characterising writer profiles regarding the resources for writer agency these students develop. Drawing on a sociocultural understanding of agency, language learning, and writing, as well as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, this study analyses two data types: (i) texts written by students as part of a project assessing literacy through language tasks and (ii) background information from students and teachers through a survey. Methodologically, the data were analysed using both theory-informed and data-driven approaches to content analysis, also incorporating linguistic content analysis. The analysis identified writer profiles: (1) well-developing resources for writer agency, (2) moderately developing resources for writer agency, and (3) emerging resources for writer agency. These profiles varied depending on the writer’s background, and the analysis suggested that without agency enablers – such as resources, opportunities, and support systems – written communication appears more challenging.
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Cited by
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Wong, W. L., & Fong, S. (2025) · Applied Language Sciences · doi:10.65553/als.250105 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
- Authors
- Repo, E., Tarnanen, M., & Aalto, E.
- Affiliations
- University of Jyväskylä (FI)
- Corresponding author
- Repo, Elisa
- Venue
- International Journal of Multilingualism
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2025-11-24
- Pages
- 1-19
- ISSN
- 1479-0718 (ISSN-L)
- 1747-7530
- OpenAlex
- W4416590319
- Cited by
- 0
- References
- 27
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Multilingualism (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Jyväskylä University Digital Archive (University of Jyväskylä) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Research Council of Finland (369363)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Education and experiences of immigrants and refugees
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
- Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Multilingual Education and Policy
- Keywords
- writer agency, migrant students, multilingual learners, academic literacy, author profiles, junior high school, preparatory education, linguistic diversity, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, writing support
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