| This qualitative study examines the literacy practices and events of Puerto Rican college first year students with a focus on pleasure reading as a biliterate event. The 'ideological' model of literacy (Street, 1995), which posits that literacy is embedded in society and therefore needs to be explored and examined from within the social, political and ideological beliefs and practices of a particular society, provides a framework. The author presents an overview of the unique language context of Puerto Rico (a Caribbean island where Spanish is their vernacular, yet politically it is a commonwealth of an English dominant country, the U.S.A.). She then explores the connections students make between literacy practices at home, in the community, at school, and their biliterate development with special attention given to pleasure (recreational, leisure) reading as a literacy event. A definition of pleasure reading is constructed from the participants' perspectives parting from the basic tenet that it is a voluntary literacy event with the overall goal of delectation and leisure.; The collective case study is made up of six first year students who study at the University of Puerto Rico at Bayamon. They were admitted to the intermediate level English class and are considered successful ESL students because they are able to read, write, and speak in English. Scores obtained in the English portion of the College Entrance Examination determine placement. The participating students evidence that home and community literacies are just as important to them as are the dominant school literacies. Biliteracy has been incorporated into their lives through new technologies at home (i.e., cable television, Internet access, and video games), and not necessarily as a direct outcome of the dominant school literacies. Participants use literacy in their quest for spirituality. Puerto Rican biliterate families reveal strength of character, resiliency, and an ethos of caring, elements that encourage literacy growth and development.; Participating students read for pleasure, even though the materials they read may not meet academic standards. There is a need to assess what students know; what are their multiple ways of knowing at home, in the community, and in school, so they can continue their literacy development process and establish connections between all literacy apprenticeship sites. Biliteracy is enmeshed in the daily lives of participating students and is inevitably linked to the history, culture, social and economic status, religious beliefs and practices, and ideological issues of the island of Puerto Rico. |
