Identity Formation and Collaborative Inquiry

This study is an ethnographic investigation of a Grade Eight Advanced ESL class conducting research with topics of their own choosing for one academic year. This investigation is a qualitative teacher-research study: an examination of collaborative inquiry in an ESL classroom setting where the majority of the students are Brazilian. Of major interest is the students’ own voices as they become readers and writers, their perceptions of themselves as learners in the reading and writing process in English. The questions that frame this study are: What does the writing process look like in the context of this research class? What does this class look like vis-à-vis the student’s research, literacy, and collaboration? How does ESL writing develop through the research/writing process? The findings of this study have many implications for the teaching of reading and writing to second language learners.