Literacy plays such an important role in our lives that being able to know who we are as literate individuals is paramount to live and thrive in a complex literate society in the 21st century. Understanding the relationship between an individual's background (cultural, linguistic, social, political, familial, educational, communal and economic) and his/her literacy development is crucial to continue to evolve as a literate individual. This self-study examines the literacy development of the

more »

... or as an international scholar by examining the convergence of two different but equally important literacy experiences in two languages (Italian and English) as a blueprint for becoming a scholar in the US. The author will explore two main questions related to his interlingual and intercultural literacy roadmap: (a) how did my experiences in literacy in my L1 supported a literacy development in L2 as a scholar? (b) When did the two different but equally important trajectories merged to further deepen and refine my literate persona as a scholar? Implications for further research in interlingual and intercultural literacy development as a scholar will be discussed in this paper.