Chapter 6. Writing to learn and learning to write by shuttling between languages

This chapter considers how multilingual students might learn to write in different genres for different audiences and write to learn different ways of exploring and representing knowledge by shuttling between languages. It illustrates this possibility by analyzing how an advanced scholar from Sri Lanka switches discourses in recognition of the context of writing in his published research articles in both the vernacular and English, in local and foreign publishing contexts. The switches have implications for the knowledge represented in these articles. The author moves between different levels of descriptiveness, reflexive awareness, and analytical explicitness by moving between the genres and languages. He also adopts different ideological positions in these articles to critically negotiate the expectations of the respective audience and context, demonstrating his agency and voice.