Critical Language Awareness: Key Principles for a Course in Critical Reading

Wallace, Catherine

doi:10.1080/09658419908667121

Cited by 49 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The point I want to make here is simply that, to date, little explicit attention has been paid to exploring how an academic literacies stance might inform the theory and practice of student writing pedagogy. Perhaps the nearest example yet of what might be considered a design response to academic literacies critique can be found in the notion and practice of critical language awareness (CLA), coined by Clark et al (1990) and developed in the work of higher education teacher-researchers in the UK and by others in different parts of the world, notably in South Africa (for UK developments see Clark, 1992;Clark & Ivanic, 1997;Wallace, 1999; for South Africa, see Janks, 1999;Thesen, 1997; for Singapore, see Kramer-Dahl, 2001). This pedagogical approach, drawing explicitly on critical discourse analysis, involves consciousness-raising amongst learners about power and ideology in relation to language use (for recent overview see Clark & Ivanic, 1999).…”

Section: Academic Literacies As Critiquementioning

confidence: 99%

Student Writing as 'Academic Literacies': Drawing on Bakhtin to Move from Critique to Design

Lillis¹

2003

Language and Education

308

141

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A body of research has recently emerged in the UK which adopts an 'academic literacies' stance towards student writing. An 'academic literacies' stance conceptualises student writing as a socially situated discourse practice which is ideologically inscribed (Jones et al., 1999; Lea & Street, 1998). Whilst powerful as an oppositional frame, that is as a critique of current conceptualisations and practices surrounding student writing, academic literacies has yet to be developed as a design frame (Kress, 1998, 2000) which can actively contribute to student writing pedagogy as both theory and practice. My aim in this paper is to work towards opening up a design space built on academic literacies critique. To do so, I draw on Bakhtin's work on dialogism (Bakhtin, 1981(Bakhtin, , 1984 and my research with a group of 'non-traditional' student-writers and their specific experiences of academic writing within a number of academic disciplines (Lillis, 2001). I map out the different levels of dialogism in Bakhtin's work and illustrate the way these are, and are not, enacted currently in student writing pedagogy. I conclude by calling for dialogue, rather than monologue or dialectic,to be at the centre of an academic literacies stance and briefly outline some design implications of a dialogic approach to student writing pedagogy. Context and Aims of This PaperIn the UK we are in the process of shifting from an elite to a mass higher education system where there is greater cultural, linguistic and social diversity than in the past. Current students in higher education have a wide range of life experiences and interests, as well as different reasons for wanting to participate in higher education and complex patterns of participation (for official figures and brief overview, see HEFCE, 2001). Given the changing nature of the student body within the context of official support for widening access and lifelong learning, there is an opportunity to develop a higher education premised upon the explicit aims of inclusion and diversity. Existing institutional and pedagogical practices, however, do not necessarily meet these aims. Indeed, the focus of this paper is on the ways in which one key higher education practice, student academic writing and the pedagogy in which it is embedded, seems to thwart opportunities for a higher education premised upon inclusion and diversity.Drawing on work within the area of 'academic literacies', which has provided a significant critique of the dominant discourse on academic writing in higher education, in this paper I set out to do the following:· To offer a brief overview of the different approaches to student academic writing in higher education in the UK, the conceptualisations of language implicit in them and their relationship to the broader institutional goals of

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Section: Academic Literacies As Critiquementioning

confidence: 99%

Student Writing as 'Academic Literacies': Drawing on Bakhtin to Move from Critique to Design

Lillis¹

2003

Language and Education

308

141

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“…In a healthy democracy, access and input to political discourse, and some control of where it goes, needs to be as broad as possible; effective participation, he argues, requires critical awareness of the discourses involved. Wallace (1997: 242) calls CLA 'the pedagogical arm of critical discourse analysis', situating it within a framework of Critical Pedagogy (Wallace 1999) which, as she points out, draws both on educational and social theory (writers such as Apple, Bernstein, Freire, Foucault, Giroux and Habermas), and on linguistics (for example, Clark, Halliday, Fairclough, Fowler and Kress) (Wallace 1997: 305; see also Phipps & Guilherme 2004). CLA practitioners clearly consider that it is both important and possible to carry out their potentially subversive work from within mainstream education.…”

Section: Critical Language Awarenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language awareness and language learning

Svalberg¹

2007

Lang. Teach.

221

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“…That is why critical thinking must be fostered at schools in all areas of knowledge including EFL learning because learning a foreign language is more significant when critical thinking skills are used to promote communication and meaning negotiation (Pineda, 2003). According to Wallace (1999), second language development can happen through analytic reading of texts and critical discussions around texts, and critical interpretation of texts needs to be dependent on the appropriate understanding of the language system. Wallace also states that "readers are in a position to bring legitimate interpretations to written texts.…”

Section: Critical Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transactional Reading in EFL Learning: A Path to Promote Critical Thinking through Urban Legends

Hernández¹,

Rodríguez

2015

Colomb. Appl. Linguist. J

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Transactional reading in EFL learning: A path to promoting critical thinking through urban legends La lectura transaccional en el aprendizaje del inglés: una ruta para promover el pensamiento crítico mediante las leyendas urbanas AbstractThis article reports an action-research study 3 that attempted to develop EFL 4 eleventh graders' critical thinking through the transactional reading approach. Since learners were used to taking grammar-oriented English classes and had negative attitudes towards reading, they were encouraged to do reading transactions with the support of urban legends. These legends inspired them to discuss social conflicts (loss of values, drug consumption, alcoholism, risky lifestyles, etc.) that related to the problems of the insecure and vulnerable neighborhood in which they lived in Bogotá. Data were collected from teachers' observations, interviews with students, and worksheets (artifacts) in a pedagogical intervention. Through the grounded approach analysis, it was found that learners fostered critical thinking as they criticized human behaviors, generated solutions to correct questionable behaviors, and produced knowledge based on previous information in the foreign language.Keywords: critical thinking skills, critical learners, EFL learning, urban legends, transactional reading ResumenSe reporta un estudio de investigación acción cuyo objetivo fue desarrollar el pensamiento crítico de un grupo de estudiantes de inglés a través del enfoque de lectura transaccional. Debido a que los estudiantes estaban acostumbrados a clases de inglés con un énfasis gramatical y tenían actitudes negativas hacia la lectura, fueron incentivados a hacer transacciones de lectura con el apoyo de varias leyendas urbanas. Estas leyendas los inspiraron a discutir conflictos sociales (la pérdida de valores, el consumo de drogas, el alcoholismo, estilos de vida riesgosos, etc.) que de alguna manera se relacionaban con los problemas de la localidad insegura y vulnerable donde vivían en Bogotá. Se recogieron datos por medio de las observaciones de los profesores, las entrevistas a estudiantes y de talleres hechos en la intervención. Mediante el método de análisis fundamentado en los datos, se halló que los estudiantes construyeron pensamiento crítico al lograr criticar comportamientos humanos, generar la solución de conflictos personales y sociales y planear y producir nuevo conocimiento a partir de información previa. Otro hallazgo importante es que fueron críticos expresando sus opiniones en la lengua extranjera. R E S E A R C H A R T I C L E S Luis Fernando Gómez RodríguezPalabras clave: habilidades de pensamiento crítico, aprendizaje del inglés, estudiantes críticos, leyendas urbanas, enfoque de lectura transaccional

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Critical Language Awareness: Key Principles for a Course in Critical Reading

Cited by 49 publications

References 7 publications

Student Writing as 'Academic Literacies': Drawing on Bakhtin to Move from Critique to Design

Student Writing as 'Academic Literacies': Drawing on Bakhtin to Move from Critique to Design

Language awareness and language learning

Transactional Reading in EFL Learning: A Path to Promote Critical Thinking through Urban Legends

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