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This research focussed on the use and
development of bilingual literacies as Welsh-speaking students participate
in Further Education (F.E.) courses. It investigated the interaction
between ‘informal’ vernacular literacy practices (reading, writing
and uses of texts, in different languages and modalities, and involving
different technologies) and bilingual practices entailed in the
more ‘formal’ institutional settings of post-compulsory education.
The main aims were: (1) to identify actual and potential ‘border’
literacies which are pivotal to learning in a digital age; (2) to
incorporate these literacies into the design and implementation
of a bilingual curriculum development project. The research was conducted in close research partnership with staff in one F.E.
college in North Wales . It extended the existing TLRP project
on 'Literacies for Learning in Further Education' to a bilingual
context, opening up opportunities for incorporating new comparative
dimensions to the empirical work and new opportunities for theory-building
(e.g. extending the notion of ‘border’ literacies). The research
was particularly timely since a strategic framework for the consolidation
and extension of Welsh-medium and bilingual provision within the
post-16 sector in Wales was being put in place at the start of the project.
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