scholarly journals ‘Academic literacies’: sustaining a critical space on writing in academia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Lillis
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Field Of Inquiry

In this paper, I briefly track the emergence and foci of academic literacies as a field of inquiry, summarising its contributions to understandings about writing and meaning making in academia. Writing from my specific geohistorical location in the UK, I foreground the importance of early key works that encapsulated concerns about deficit orientations to students’ language and literacy practices (e.g. Ivanič, 1998; Lea and Street,1998). I also underline the transnational dimension to the development of academic literacies which has helped drive forward intellectual debates about the relationship between academic language and literacy practices, and participation in academia. I argue that academic literacies provides an important space for critically exploring what are often taken-for-granted assumptions about the nature and value of academic writing conventions, and the ways these (both assumptions and conventions) impact on opportunities for participation in knowledge making. This critical thinking space continues to serve as an intellectual resource for researchers, teachers and students in contemporary neo-liberal higher education, where regimes of evaluation are super-normative, even in (or because of) a context of super-diversity, that is increased mobility of peoples and semiotic practices. Academic literacies as praxis necessarily involves straddling both normative and transformative orientations (Lillis and Scott, 2007) or what Hall (1992) refers to as the ‘academic’ and ‘intellectual’ dimensions to academia. 

scholarly journals Transnational Literacies as Social Remittances: The Role of Language Ideologies in Shaping Migrants’ Online Literacies

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-319
Author(s):  
Tony Capstick
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Social Remittances ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Similar Vein ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract It is now twenty years since the term ‘social remittances’ was taken up to capture the notion that migration involves the circulation of ideas, practices, identities, and social capital between destination and origin countries, in addition to the more tangible circulation of money. In a similar vein, a social theory of literacy sees practices not as observable units of behaviour but rather as social processes which connect people. To identify how literacy practices can be seen as social remittances, I identify how Usman, the key respondent in this study, goes about describing his first six months in the UK by tracing the meaning-making trajectories in our interviews together. I then explore the language and literacy choices that his family and friends make on Facebook as they remit ideas, beliefs, and practices in their transnational literacies. I examine how these practices are shaped by beliefs about language. The article seeks to understand the relationship between migrants’ literacy practices before and after their migrations and how these practices remit ideas and beliefs which maintain transnational migration.

Multimodal Literacy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy A. Mills ◽  
Len Unsworth
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Digital Images ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Multimodal Literacy ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Making Meaning

Multimodal literacy is a term that originates in social semiotics, and refers to the study of language that combines two or more modes of meaning. The related term, multimodality, refers to the constitution of multiple modes in semiosis or meaning making. Modes are defined differently across schools of thought, and the classification of modes is somewhat contested. However, from a social semiotic approach, modes are the socially and culturally shaped resources or semiotic structure for making meaning. Specific examples of modes from a social semiotic perspective include speech, gesture, written language, music, mathematical notation, drawings, photographic images, or moving digital images. Language and literacy practices have always been multimodal, because communication requires attending to diverse kinds of meanings, whether of spoken or written words, visual images, gestures, posture, movement, sound, or silence. Yet, undeniably, the affordances of people-driven digital media and textual production have given rise to an exponential increase in the circulation of multimodal texts in networked digital environments. Multimodal text production has become a central part of everyday life for many people throughout the life course, and across cultures and societies. This has been enabled by the ease of producing and sharing digital images, music, video games, apps, and other digital media via the Internet and mobile technologies. The increasing significance of multimodal literacy for communication has led to a growing body of research and theory to address the differing potentials of modes and their intermodality for making meaning. The study of multimodal literacy learning in schools and society is an emergent field of research, which begins with the important recognition that reading and writing are rarely practiced as discrete skills, but are intimately connected to the use of multimodal texts, often in digital contexts of use. The implications of multimodal literacy for pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment in education is an expanding field of multimodal research. In addition, there is a growing attention to multimodal literacy practices that are practiced in informal social contexts, from early childhood to adolescence and adulthood, such as in homes, recreational sites, communities, and workplaces.

Academic language and literacy socialization through project-based instruction

2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gulbahar H. Beckett
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Teacher Perceptions ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Based Instruction ◽  
Esl Learners

Project-based instruction has been heralded as a most promising activity that can socialize students into academic language and literacy skills (e.g., Beckett, 1999; Stoller, 1997). However, there is scanty research on project-based instruction in general and fewer still on ESL students’ perceptions of it (Thomas, 2000); furthermore, the few available studies show conflicting results (see Beckett, 2002). This article reports the findings of part of a larger research study conducted to understand how secondary school immigrant ESL students were socialized (taught) to acquire academic language and literacy skills in a public school in Vancouver, Canada. The findings of the study confirm the findings of earlier studies that ESL learners actively construct meaning from project-based instruction, and that some clash exists between language policy, teacher perceptions, and ESL students’ perceptions of this activity. I conclude by taking the discussion of clashes between teachers and students beyond the current cultural model and by making recommendations for further research and practice.

scholarly journals A Nested Model of Academic Writing Approaches: Chinese International Graduate Students’ Views of English Academic Writing

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Study Skills ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Academic Socialization ◽  
International Graduate Students ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Nested Model ◽  
International Graduate ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
Different Cultures

Adopting Lea and Street’s (1998) three models of academic writing (i.e., the study skills, academic socialization, and academic literacies), this qualitative study explored 10 Chinese international graduate (CIG) students’ perceptions of differing literacy practices in a different academic milieu and in various disciplines at a Canadian university. The findings reveal how different epistemologies in different cultures and disciplines have impacted these CIG students’ English academic writing. This paper acknowledges the limitations of the exclusive use of skills study and academic socialisation orientations in writing support for international students. It recommends a nested model of writing support, which is more inclusive and transformative in nature.

scholarly journals AUTOETHNOGRAPHY AND THE STUDY OF ACADEMIC LITERACIES: EXPLORING SPACE, TEAM RESEARCH AND MENTORING

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 264-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Olmos-López ◽  
Karin Tusting
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Place And Space ◽  
Mentoring Relationship ◽  
Team Research ◽  
Insight Into

ABSTRACT Autoethnography is the study of culture through the study of self (ELLIS, 2004; ELLIS et al, 2011). In this paper, we explore the value of autoethnography in the study of academic literacies. We draw on our own experiences as ethnographers and autoethnographers of literacy to provide illustrative examples. We show how autoethnography has provided a fresh understanding of the role of place and space in developing academic writing across countries and between English and Spanish (OLMOS-LÓPEZ, 2019). We discuss the value of team autoethnography in researching academic writing (TUSTING et al., 2019). And we reflect together on our own journey of development as academic writers, showing how a mentoring relationship has been part of both of our trajectories. The paper aims to argue for the value of autoethnography as an approach to studying academic literacy practices, particularly in providing insight into identity and personal experience.

Visual accounts of Finnish and Greek teenagers’ perceptions of their multilingual language and literacy practices

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 333-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Pitkänen-Huhta ◽  
Anastasia Rothoni
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
First Language ◽  
Visual Methods ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Personal Meanings ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Common

AbstractThis paper uses visual methods to explore how teenagers in two different European countries (Finland and Greece) personally relate to their first language and to English, which is widely used in the everyday lives of young people in both countries. Our data comprise sets of self-made visualizations in which 14- to 16-year-old teenagers depict their personal relationship to their first language (Finnish/Greek) and to English. Theoretically and methodologically, we subscribe to socio-culturally oriented research on (foreign language) literacy and language learning and recent studies on multilingualism. Overall, by offering a detailed account of the variety of representation forms and meaning-making symbols employed by our participants in their visual products, our analysis in this paper highlights the common but also diverse perceptions, values and attitudes that young people from two different European contexts bring to their practices and their encounters with English and other languages in their lives. By revealing the personal meanings and values attached by teenagers to English, our analysis also provides indirect insights into the multiple ways English is locally encountered, appropriated and drawn upon by young people in two different countries to serve their own purposes.

scholarly journals Student voices in academic writing: PsychLiverpool a community for meaning making

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Forsythe ◽  
Emir Demirbag ◽  
Jasmine Warren
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
Student Voices ◽  
The Social ◽  
Peer Network ◽  
Academic Communication ◽  
The Impact

The practice and expectations of academic communication are changing, and blogging provides a socially liberating mechanism by which to support the development of student writing and literacy. The study reported here examines the impact of an academic–student partnership in supporting the development of student discourse. Anonymous feedback gathered from both the contributors and readers of the student blog, PsychLiverpool was analysed using automated text analysis. The analysis identified that high levels of positive emotion were associated with PsychLiverpool. Students valued its capacity to trigger thinking and insight, and the social and networking relationships the blog offered. PsychLiverpool empowered students to expand their learning networks outside of their classroom and peer network by connecting them with like-minded students and academics.  By providing students with safe opportunities to develop their skills and networks, it fulfilled their needs for affiliation and achievement, power and reward. The particular advantage of PsychLiverpool was that in operating outside of traditional university processes of assessment and feedback, students were more motivated to write about and engage with academic language on their own terms.

Coding, Computational Thinking, and Cultural Contexts

2021 ◽  
pp. 201-215
Author(s):  
Libby Hunt ◽  
Marina Umaschi Bers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines the relationship between coding, computational thinking, and the contexts in which those concepts are learned. It recounts a pilot study where a 12-week robotics curriculum was taught in kindergarten classrooms at eight interfaith and secular schools in Boston, United States of America and Buenos Aires, Argentina. In this chapter, the authors explore how teachers and students drew from their socio-cultural environments to inform the language of computational thinking and support the internalization of computational concepts and, in turn, how computational thinking was used as a tool for deeper exploration of cultural traditions and beliefs, meaning-making, and creative expression.

scholarly journals Identity, Literacy, and English-Language Teaching

2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonny Norton
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Community Practice ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Language Classrooms

In the field of English-language teaching, there has been increasing interest in how literacy development is influenced by institutional and community practice and how power is implicated in language-learners’ engagement with text. In this article, I trace the trajectory of my research on identity, literacy, and English-language teaching informed by theories of investment and imagined communities. Data from English-language classrooms in Canada, Pakistan, and Uganda suggest that if learners have a sense of ownership over meaning-making, they will have enhanced identities as learners and participate more actively in literacy practices. The research challenges English teachers to consider which pedagogical practices are both appropriate and desirable in the teaching of literacy and which will help students develop the capacity for imagining a wider range of identities across time and space. Such practices, the research suggests, will necessitate changes in both teachers’ and students’ identity.

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