Literacy in everyday life: How bilingual college students repurposed and adapted literacy spaces

Abstract

This study aims to understand how bilingual college students constructed literacy spaces across their lives rather than an in‐school/out‐of‐school dichotomy. Drawing on Lefebvre's (1991) spatial triad as a lens to examine the participants' spatial literacy practices, the findings show that some participants repurposed planned spaces into literacy ones while others relied on the planned aspect of space. Furthermore, adapting spatial literacy practices to meet life and semester demands significantly impacted the participants' ability to compose college essays. This study has implications for college writing instructors because it shows that students' literacy spaces are contingent on the social production of space beyond the physical classroom and calls for a greater emphasis on the role of space in college.