Lifestyle Diglossia and Mobile

2017 ◽  
pp. 2100-2112
Author(s):  
Mukul Saxena
Keyword(s):  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Personal Communication ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies

This chapter proposes to chart the development of understanding of literacy as a practice, which is now digital in nature and globally distributed, therefore digital literacy practices require new lenses and ways of research explorations. The notion of literacy has shifted from being autonomous to ideological during the last three decades. It is not seen anymore as a single unified competence, but as changing from place to place and varying in different social-cultural contexts. Despite the fact that there are different writing systems that are used in different ways in different contexts, the differences between them are no longer seen as primarily technical (Graff, 1979; Heath, 1983; Street, 1993). The differences that do exist between literacies are seen as being due to differences in cultural practices, values and ideologies. As a consequence, the methodological shift towards ethnographic research on literacy has arisen from a fundamental change in thinking about the nature of literacy and the development of the “new literacy studies” (Street, 1993: 4). Ethnographic approaches to literacy, such as those developed by Heath (1983), Street (1984), Barton (1991, 1994) and others are based on the everyday uses of written language(s) by specific groups and subgroups in a specific locality. According to Graff, these approaches to literacy provide “both new and better cases for study, opportunity for explanations, and approaches to literacy's variable historical meaning and contribution” (1986: 127). The ethnographic research on literacies in multilingual contexts (e.g. Saxena, 1994; Hartley, 1994) further contributed to the development of ‘new literacy studies' (NLS). However, with the development of mobile devices during the last decade and the allied software industries, digital literacy communication has become synonymous with globalisation and a divergence between the literacy practices in ‘regulated spaces' and ‘unregulated spaces' (Sebba, 2009) particularly among the youth is becoming a marked feature of inter-personal communication. Sebba defines ‘unregulated spaces' as places where the prescriptiveness of standardisation and monolingualism has not yet reached, or where it holds no power and practices may deviate from the prescribed norms. Such spaces open up opportunities for identity construction and group definition.

Lifestyle Diglossia and Mobile

2016 ◽  
pp. 49-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mukul Saxena
Keyword(s):  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Personal Communication ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies

This chapter proposes to chart the development of understanding of literacy as a practice, which is now digital in nature and globally distributed, therefore digital literacy practices require new lenses and ways of research explorations. The notion of literacy has shifted from being autonomous to ideological during the last three decades. It is not seen anymore as a single unified competence, but as changing from place to place and varying in different social-cultural contexts. Despite the fact that there are different writing systems that are used in different ways in different contexts, the differences between them are no longer seen as primarily technical (Graff, 1979; Heath, 1983; Street, 1993). The differences that do exist between literacies are seen as being due to differences in cultural practices, values and ideologies. As a consequence, the methodological shift towards ethnographic research on literacy has arisen from a fundamental change in thinking about the nature of literacy and the development of the “new literacy studies” (Street, 1993: 4). Ethnographic approaches to literacy, such as those developed by Heath (1983), Street (1984), Barton (1991, 1994) and others are based on the everyday uses of written language(s) by specific groups and subgroups in a specific locality. According to Graff, these approaches to literacy provide “both new and better cases for study, opportunity for explanations, and approaches to literacy's variable historical meaning and contribution” (1986: 127). The ethnographic research on literacies in multilingual contexts (e.g. Saxena, 1994; Hartley, 1994) further contributed to the development of ‘new literacy studies' (NLS). However, with the development of mobile devices during the last decade and the allied software industries, digital literacy communication has become synonymous with globalisation and a divergence between the literacy practices in ‘regulated spaces' and ‘unregulated spaces' (Sebba, 2009) particularly among the youth is becoming a marked feature of inter-personal communication. Sebba defines ‘unregulated spaces' as places where the prescriptiveness of standardisation and monolingualism has not yet reached, or where it holds no power and practices may deviate from the prescribed norms. Such spaces open up opportunities for identity construction and group definition.

CONTEXT AND LITERACY PRACTICES

2005 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 170-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Reder ◽  
Erica Davila
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Theoretical Ground ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Core Issues

This chapter reviews recent progress in resolving tensions between conceptions of literacy as a system of locally situated cultural practices and conceptions of literacy as a broader system of written language that transcends specific individuals and local contexts. Such theoretical tensions have arisen out of earlier, long-standing literacy debates—the Great Divide, the Literacy Thesis, and even debates about situated cognition itself. Recent reviews and critiques of the “New Literacy Studies” examined here—Brandt and Clinton, 2002; Collins and Blot, 2003; Street, 2003a, 2003b—are reaching toward new theoretical ground to address emerging concerns about the adequacy of current literacy theories framed in terms of locally situated social practices. This new work should be of interest not only to those working in the field of literacy but also to applied linguists in general, because the core issues have to do with the nature and role of context in language use, whether in oral or written form.

scholarly journals Multiple Literacies Theory: how it functions, what it produces

Perspectiva ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Masny
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Literacies ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
The World ◽  
The Moment

At the moment, there are two literacy theories that seem to dominate the research on literacies. They are known as the New Literacy Studies (NLS) (BARTON; HAMILTON; IVANIČ; 2002; STREET, 2003) and Multiliteracies (COPE; KALANTZIS, 2009). This article is about a different theory, Multiple Literacies Theory (MLT) that demarcates itself from them ontologically and epistemologically. It will also highlight aspects of NLS and Multiliteracies in order to point out the differences with MLT. This article aims to put forward the major concepts that underlie this theory and present vignettes from a study examining how perceptions of writing systems in multilingual children contribute to reading, reading the world and self as texts.

scholarly journals Tracing interacting literacy practices in master's dissertation writing

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin Kaufhold
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
Business Partners ◽  
Dissertation Writing ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches

Academic literacy practices are increasingly varied, influenced by the diverse education and language backgrounds of students and staff, interdisciplinary approaches, and collaborations with non-university groups such as business partners. Completing a master's dissertation thus requires students to negotiate literacy practices associated with different domains. To enable an investigation of conditions for such negotiations, this article extends the concept of literacy practices by combining insights from Academic Literacies, New Literacy Studies and Schatzki's (1996) social practice ontology. The resulting framework is applied in a case study of a student who negotiates academic requirements and entrepreneurial goals in completing a master's dissertation.

Family and Home Literacy Across Time

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Compton-Lilly
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Family Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Home Literacy ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
Family Home

In 1982, Denny Taylor coined the term “family literacy” to reference the ways young children and their parents interact around texts. Since then, the term family literacy has generally been applied to the practices that occur in homes to support young children as they become readers and writers. However, 30 years later, this definition negates the full scope of possibilities that might inform our understandings of the literacy practices that occur within home spaces and among family members. These possibilities reflect two important trends increasingly recognized within literacy research communities. First, technological advances have affected the ways people read and write and the multimodal literacy practices that have come to define literacy in families and homes. These developments are often the focus of New Literacy Studies as defined by the New London Group and others. Second, while generally not addressed in terms of family literacy, a substantial and growing body of research has documented the out-of-school literacy practices of adolescents and youth. Many of these literacy practices are enacted and displayed in home settings. While connections between out-of-school literacy practices and family literacy are generally not explicit, homes and families provide significant social contexts that are critical to engaging in technological, peer-informed, and popular culture practices. In short, family literacy does not end once children learn to read. In contrast, family literacy assumes new forms and involves new modalities that both echo and extend the literacy practices found within families. This is significant, as it challenges conceptions of adolescent and youth literacy as being separate from the literacy practices of families. To extend what is meant by family literacy, it is redefined as more than traditional activities that involve young children with texts. Instead, researchers are challenged to consider the full range of literacy practices that occur among family members and within homes across time. In doing this, family literacy and new literacy studies are brought together. Thus, the term family/home literacy is used to recognize not only the literacy practices that are enacted between children and parents, but the full range of literacy practices that occur among all family members—including siblings, extended family members, and friends. In short, family/home literacy practices are intertwined with home literacy affordances, which include the texts, opportunities, and technological resources that are available and used in homes. In order to explore family/home literacies over time, children’s literacy practices, including traditional and technological family/home literacy practices, are explored. Issues raised include parental mentoring of school-age children as they encounter new technologies at home, the adaptation of available resources by children as they move into and through adolescence, and transactions involving texts (both traditional and digital) among adolescents, young adults, and their parents.

scholarly journals PLURILINGUAL SOCIAL NETWORKS AND THE CREATION OF HYBRID CULTURAL SPACES

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Windle ◽  
Bárbara Bravo Pires Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
Linguistic Resources

ABSTRACT Although plurilingualism is a well-established topic in the international literature, especially in situations of transnational mobility, we still know little about the learning and appropriation of non-standard forms of English by young Brazilians online. Unlike the instrumental uses that predominate in formal English language teaching, digital literacy practices often focus on identity construction and expression, posing questions of race, gender, sexuality, and social status. Based on a digital ethnography of a Facebook page focused on American black popular culture, we analyze the linguistic resources and cultural references drawn upon by participants. The research seeks to understand the perspectives and online practices of young Brazilians, mobilizing theoretical resources from New Literacy Studies to understand the processes of discursive construction and resignification. The results show the importance of virtual spaces for the affirmation of subaltern identities, and at the same time the spatial restriction of some discursive expressions of identity, isolated from other educational and social environments in which the participants circulate. The article concludes by considering the implications for the democratization of foreign language learning in Brazil.

New Literacies in 21st Century Classrooms

2017 ◽  
pp. 22-42
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Social Semiotics ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Insight Into

Understanding 21st century communication requires an acknowledgement of the increasing role technology plays in the everyday lives of children. At home, children routinely engage in techno-literate environments where they use multiple modes for playing and learning. In order to build a bridge between theory and practice, it is helpful to draw upon the field of multiliteracies, New Literacy Studies, and social semiotics. Applying these theories to the language and literacy practices of elementary students provides insight into text making and the design process or fit between modes and affordances. This chapter helps the reader gain the necessary background for grasping the complexities involved in producing coherent and cohesive texts.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Niv Allon
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Group Formation ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
Eighteenth Dynasty ◽  
The Social ◽  
Main Figure

The introduction sets up the historical background and the methodological foundations of the book. It first describes the Eighteenth Dynasty in broad strokes and locates Haremhab, the main figure in this book, within this timeframe. Following the historical discussion, the introduction touches upon three main issues at the heart of the book’s methodology: literacy, self-representation, and group formation. Engaging with issues raised by scholars of New Literacy Studies, the book focuses on the social contexts in which literacy practices are used. Building on the works of Stephen Greenblatt and Bruno Latour, the chapter then begins to ask questions regarding the relationships between art, patron, and society.

“It’s not the same thing as last time I wrote a report”: Digital text sharing in changing organizations

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Blåsjö ◽  
Carla Jonsson
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Digital Systems ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
Work Processes ◽  
Digital Text ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
Potential Risks

Abstract In the communications of modern organizations, text sharing and knowledge management are mainly digital. The digital systems that frame many types of communication consist of, e.g., intranets and document sharing software that are occasionally exchanged for new systems. Employees have to adjust to modified routines and learn new systems, and management has to make decisions about digital systems and how these are to be integrated with work processes and knowledge management. In this article, we contribute to research on work-life literacies by highlighting the increasingly frequent issue of digital text sharing in modern workplaces through the study of commercial companies, mainly through ethnographic observations and interviews. The theoretical framework comes from New Literacy Studies where literacy practices, i.e., common patterns of using reading and writing, form a key concept. Moreover, the sociolinguistic concept of metadiscourse is applied in order to uncover the reflexive orientation of participating professionals towards digital text sharing. The results show that these professionals relate the combination of digital text sharing and technological and organizational change to problems, obstacles and potential risks; ambitions of enhancing digital text sharing may exclude certain groups, and changes in digital text sharing systems per se may cause professionals to lose control. These risks are often associated with access to information: a person who cannot access information in their organization has a lower degree of agency or power over their situation. The results are discussed in light of theories concerning modern work life from New Literacy Studies.

scholarly journals Self-access Materials: Their Features and their Selection in Students’ Literacy Practices

2012 ◽  
pp. 465-481
Author(s):  
María del Rocío Domínguez-Gaona ◽  
Guadalupe López-Bonilla ◽  
Karen Englander
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
Literacy Practice ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
Cultural Approach ◽  
The Core

Autonomous, self-directed language learning is the literacy practice that self-access centers aim to promote. Much of this activity occurs when students interact with the equipment and the materials available in the center. These resources, in many ways, become the core of the learning environment, and, therefore, it is critical to understand what learning is provided or afforded through them. In this study, we examine the literacy practices of students in a self-access center in Mexico, focusing on the materials. We combine description and analysis of materials, student observations, and interviews to identify the learning students perceive those resources afford and the criteria they employ to make decisions concerning their use of the materials. This investigation is accomplished through the theoretical perspective of New Literacy Studies, because it provides a unique and rich socio-cultural approach to language learning. As a result, we determined that affordances of the materials are constrained. We also identified five different criteria students use to choose materials, but despite their personal criterion, we found they often do not have a clear direction and purpose for their choices.

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