L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature
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Writing in the literacy era: Scandinavian teachers\u27 notions of writing in mother tongue education
Get PDFThe background of the present study is the current general educational focus on literacy across the curriculum, changing traditional ‘divisions of labour\u27 among subjects and raising questions as to the role of the MTE subject in the teaching of writing. 26 Nordic teacher diaries and interviews are examined to find patterns in the teachers\u27 understanding of writing as part of MTE in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The theoretical underpinning is research in MTE as a subject and in discourses of writing. The study applies a phenomenological and a discourse analysis to the empirical data, revealing three fairly distinct didactic profiles which reflect the participating teachers\u27 understanding of the aims of writing in MTE. The article concludes that a tentative answer to the question of MTE writing may be found in some Nordic teachers\u27 descriptions and reflections of their practice. In these writing is understood and practiced as an integrated part of MTE teaching, aiming at supporting students\u27 language and literary competence as well as their personal and social development. Inherent in this didactic project is the idea of Bildung and teachers\u27 positioning themselves as disciplinary didacticians with professional authority and autonomy writing in MTE, literacy, Bildung, disciplinary didactics, professional authority
One nation, eleven languages: Improving literacy and numeracy in South Africa through mother-tongue education
Get PDFSeventeen years after the acceptance of a new Constitution there is still no progress in implementing a language-in-education policy (LiEP) in South Africa. Systemic research shows that the literacy and numeracy skills of South African learners are far below what is required to learn and develop effectively – mainly because the government still believes that the acquisition of basic knowledge is synonymous with learning English as language of instruction. The problem starts in the Foundation Phase, where learners fail to acquire the basic literacy and numeracy skills because very few of them are being taught through their mother tongue, which has a huge impact on learners\u27 ability to master the curriculum. When South Africa became a democracy in 1994, the government accepted a multilingual language policy with 11 official languages: Afrikaans, English, IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, IsiNdebele, Siswati, Setswana, Sesotho, Sepedi, Tshivenda and Xitsonga. Although the Constitution makes provision for the protection of all languages, and declares that where it is reasonably practicable, everyone has the right to receive education in the official language of their choice, language practices in South Africa have not changed since the pre-1994 dispensation. Despite the constitutional principles, South Africa\u27s indigenous lan-guages are still marginalised
Beyond functional aspects of reading literacy: Theoretical structure and empirical validity of literary literacy
Get PDFAn important educational aim in secondary school is to impart sufficient literary literacy to ensure that students are able to understand and reflect literary texts, such as lyrics, epics, or dramas. This paper presents the theoretical framework, challenges of item design and empirical results from an interdisciplinary research project which was designed to analyze a central aspect of literary literacy (LL), i.e. the ability to understand literary texts. Our study explores two questions: First, can literary literacy be assessed and modeled as a multi-dimensional construct with respect to content, form, and context? Second, is literary literacy distinguishable from factual reading literacy for expository texts? A sample of 1300 9th-graders (49% girls) from 52 German school classes participated in the study and completed tests of literary literacy and factual reading literacy for expository texts. According to the theory of semiotic aesthetics, literary literacy can be described as an at least two-dimensional construct consisting of semantic and idiolectal literary literacy. This was confirmed by the data. Although literary literacy and factual reading literacy for expository texts were strongly correlated, they present partly distinct competencies. More generally, the project resulted in a reliable and valid measure of a theory-based construct of literary literacy which can be used in student assessments as well as in studies exploring the teaching and learning processes relevant to the development of this competence
Understanding reading development: A phenomenological perspective
Get PDFThe starting point of this article is a challenge presented to the research community in recent reviews of reading research and practice (Alexander & Fox 2004, 2008; Fox & Alexander 2009). That challenge is twofold in that it argues for the need for a unifying theory of reading that not only entails an expansion of the concepts of “text” and “reading” but is also capable of accounting for reading development throughout life. The present article compares and contrasts Alexander\u27s own attempt at taking up this challenge—the Model of Domain Learning (MDL)—with a general model of skill development—the Skill Model—which is rooted in a phenomenological understanding of being-in-the-world. The MDL is based on concepts that are generally accepted in the dominant reading-research community, meaning that the choice of concepts and dimensions to be included in the model represents a characteristic cognitive bias despite its explicit rejection of traditional expertise research. The Skill Model is put forward as a meaningful and promising framework based on an alternative understanding of “expertise” and “expert performance” in general that might provide fruitful answers to this and other challenges of current reading research
Book Review: Brady, S. A., Braze, D., & Fowler, C. A. (Eds.). (2011). Explaining individual differences in reading: theory and evidence. New York: Psychology Press.
Get PDFThis review of Explaining individual differences in reading: theory and evidence by editors Brady, Braze, & Fowler provides highlights of current research trends relevant to reading acquisition and reading disabilities
Exploring the intertextualities in a grade 7 student\u27s graphic narrative
Get PDFThis article features a case study of the graphic narrative that was produced by Santino, a Grade 7 student. The analysis of Santino\u27s work focuses specifically on the intertextual strategies of appropriation, parody and pastiche. The graphic narrative was created when Santino was a participant in a classroom-based research project that explored how developing students\u27 knowledge of literary and illustrative elements affects their understanding, interpretation and analysis of picturebooks and graphic novels, and the subsequent creation of their own print multimodal texts. Ecological and sociocultural perspectives on teaching and learning in classrooms framed the research. During an 11-week period, Santino participated in interdependent activities that offered him opportunities to learn about metafictive devices, some art elements, and a few compositional principles of graphic novels. Santino had the opportunity to apply and represent his learning by creating his own multimodal print text as the culminating activity of the research. The content analysis of Santino\u27s written and illustrative text revealed that Santino\u27s participation and engagement in a particular classroom community of practice affected his learning of the content and concepts under study, that his graphic narrative is a plurality of other appropriated and parodied texts, and that the pastiche nature of his work reflects the influence of texts that Santino had read and viewed outside of school
What are skills? Some fundamental reflections
Get PDFWhen the concept of ‘skill\u27 is used in reading and writing research or more generally in linguistic research, it is rarely made the subject of detailed and precise definitions or reflections. The present article is a theoretical contribution that consists mainly in reflections on the type of phenomenon that ‘skill\u27 represents. Philosophically, the account is based above all on Aristotle\u27s views, according to which ‘skill\u27 is characterised as a potentiality. Psychologically, this article expresses the opinion that the only way to describe, understand and explain ‘skill\u27 is by combining behaviourism and cognitivism
Linguistic and plurilingual & intercultural competence in mathematics teaching and learning
Get PDFThis article argues that mathematical competence in the sense of "mathematical literacy" (OECD 2003) includes linguistic and communicative (partial) competences. It is therefore necessary when developing competence expectations of pupils in mathematics to take into consideration previous knowledge and development in this area also. It is possible to develop checklists of cognitive-linguistic capacities on the basis of an analysis of concrete descriptions of mathematical competence underpinning mathematical educational standards (example HarmoS project in Switzerland). At the same time it also becomes clear that these capacities at least to some extent are not simply preconditions but also integral components of mathematical competence. The ability to understand and articulate in language various modes of mathematical thinking is the aim of mathematical teaching and at the same time a possible contribution of the subject to the development of language awareness and plurilingual competence
Supporting ethnic minority students learning the Chinese language in multilingual Hong Kong
Get PDFThis paper examines progress made in four schools in Hong Kong over a two-year period in providing for students with markedly different language backgrounds and competence learning Chinese in the same classrooms. It centres in particular on ways of delivering the curriculum to classes containing immigrant and local children, a growing issue in Hong Kong where the number of non-Chinese speaking school-age children has doubled since the year 2000. The Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission has expressed concern about the impact on the indigenous local students of steps taken to integrate their non-Chinese speaking immigrant peers into Hong Kong\u27s schools. This paper considers a number of intervention strategies, including streaming by ability, grouping students according to their mother tongue, providing differentiated instructional materials and learning objectives and deploying resources specifically designed for linguistically disadvantaged students. Shortcomings in provision are discussed as well as problems faced by children who speak a “foreign” language in school and go home to environments in which only their mother tongue is spoken. Comment is directed at opportunities for non-Chinese speaking students to learn their mother tongue in school and at steps taken by schools to engineer multicultural environments
Literary praxis: Engaging with texts in classroom settings
Get PDFIn this article we explore how the social relationships of any classroom provide a vital context for literary interpretation, mediating the interpretive conversations in which young people engage. Those relationships extend beyond the classroom to embrace the various communities to which young people belong, and the values and beliefs those communities share. These dimensions of young people\u27s lives intersect with the institutional setting of the school, including its curriculum and organisation, as well as mandated educational policies—again significant dimensions that shape their interaction with the texts they are required to study. In addition, young people interact with their teachers, who bring their own biographies with them into the classroom, including their beliefs about the value of a literary education.
We develop our argument on the basis of a published book, namely Literary Praxis: a conversational inquiry into the teaching of literature (van de Ven and Doecke, 2011), in which contributors from around the world explore the values and beliefs that shape their professional practice as teachers of literature. The essay begins by outlining the nature of the inquiry presented in this book, and then proceeds to focus on particular examples of classrooms from that volume in order to develop an account of the complexly mediated nature of literary interpretation as young people and their teachers experience this activity in classroom settings