Academic discourse socialization

About: Academic discourse socialization is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 49 publications have been published within this topic receiving 4204 citations.

Negotiating Participation and Identity in Second Language Academic Communities.

Abstract: This article reports on a qualitative multiple case study that explored the academic discourse socialization experiences of L2 learners in a Canadian university. Grounded in the notion of “community of practice” (Lave & Wenger, 1991, p. 89), the study examined how L2 learners negotiated their participation and membership in their new L2 classroom communities, particularly in open-ended class discussions. The participants included 6 female graduate students from Japan and 10 of their course instructors. Student self-reports, interviews, and classroom observations were collected over an entire academic year to provide an in-depth, longitudinal analysis of the students' perspectives about their class participation across the curriculum. Three case studies illustrate that students faced a major challenge in negotiating competence, identities, and power relations, which was necessary for them to participate and be recognized as legitimate and competent members of their classroom communities. The students also attempted to shape their own learning and participation by exercising their personal agency and actively negotiating their positionalities, which were locally constructed in a given classroom. Implications for classroom practices and future research are also discussed.

The Discursive Co‐construction of Knowledge, Identity, and Difference: An Ethnography of Communication in the High School Mainstream

Abstract: This article describes the ethnography of communication as a viable, context-and culture-sensitive method for conducting research on classroom discourse. I first provide an overview of the method and its role in applied linguistics research and then present a study of discourse in mainstream high school classes with a large proportion of students who speak English as a second language. Drawing on social constructivist views of language learning and socialization that recognize the role of participation in language-mediated activities in people's development as fully competent members of sociocultural groups, I examine the macro- and micro-level contexts of communication within one content-area course. I focus on the discourse and interactional features associated with teacher-led whole-class discussions, examining the sequential organization of talk, including turn-taking and other features of participation, and explicit and implicit references to cultural identity and difference. The paper reveals the contradictions and tensions in classroom discourse and in a teacher's attempts to foster respect for cultural identity and difference in a linguistically and socioculturally heterogeneous discourse community. I conclude with a poststructural commentary on the ethnography of communication.

The Acquisition of Academic Literacy in a Second Language A Longitudinal Case Study

Abstract: This study examines the reading and writing strategies of one student, Yuko, over a 3-year period and traces the process she went through to acquire college-level academic literacy in English, her ...

Language Socialization into Academic Discourse Communities

Abstract: Although much has been written about academic discourse from diverse theoretical perspectives over the past two decades, and especially about English academic discourse, research on socialization into academic discourse or literacies in one's first or subsequently learned languages or into new discourse communities has received far less attention. Academic discourse socialization is a dynamic, socially situated process that in contemporary contexts is often multimodal, multilingual, and highly intertextual as well. The process is characterized by variable amounts of modeling, feedback, and uptake; different levels of investment and agency on the part of learners; by the negotiation of power and identities; and, often, important personal transformations for at least some participants. However, the consequences and outcomes of academic discourse socialization are also quite unpredictable, both in the shorter term and longer term. In this review I provide a brief historical overview of research on language socialization into academic communities and describe, in turn, developments in research on socialization into oral, written, and online discourse and the social practices associated with each mode. I highlight issues of conformity or reproduction to local norms and practices versus resistance and contestation of these. Next, studies of socialization into academic publication and into particular textual identities are reviewed. I conclude with a short discussion of race, culture, gender, and academic discourse socialization, pointing out how social positioning by oneself and others can affect participants’ engagement and performance in their various learning communities.