City literacies in second languages: New questions for policy and advocacy

This article documents the current research efforts of a research team at a Colombian university to explore the new forms of literacies in second languages in the city. The different research projects from this research team aim to break the social imaginaries, often perpetuated in policies, that people in cities are not using English as a literacy resource and that all policies must, therefore, bring second languages to them. The findings from our studies portray a narrative that is far more complex than what policies may show, where people in the city are using English in their daily literacy practices in different ways that show creativity in the use of the language. The article introduces some of the challenges that the research team is facing to move into a more active approach to using their findings as options for policy and advocacy related to English literacies.