Subject specific Literacy and School Learning

Green, B. (1988). Subject-specific Literacy and School Learning: A Focus on Writing. Australian Journal of Education, 32(2), 156-179. doi:/10.1177/000494418803200203

Background

The author believes that a major assumption about the situation in schools is that writing, and more generally literacy, is more the concern of English teachers and the junior primary school. This is harmful as it is based on an incorrect view of writing and of literacy which, when perpetuated in this manner, has quite negative effects on the development of literacy generally.

Aims

The study aims to enhance educators’ understanding of the contextualised nature of literacy, specifically in its relation to school learning.

Sample

The author draws on a range of research within language and literacy.

Method

Examples of school texts are analysed and described to show key text features and genre stages, which are drawn from research in the field of systemic functional linguistics.

Findings

The author details the role of literacy for subject area learning in school under the following headings:

Literacy and learning: A writing focus Although a lot of focus on school literacy has been on reading, students also need to become active producers of their own texts.

Learning literacy/Learning through literacy A shift in position from literacy as a goal of schooling to literacy as a means to achieve the aims of schooling is needed. Important to do this is for teachers of all subject areas to pay attention to both spoken and written language.

Contextualising context: Register and genre As making meaning and language usage are both constrained and enabled by the contexts in which they occur, teachers need to consider the contexts in which they and the students use language in their subject areas.

School writing and subject-specific literacy School writing needs to be explicitly related to the activity the writing is drawing on. With an understanding that classrooms and school subjects are the specific contexts for learning and making meaning, it is likely the quality of writing pedagogy will be enhanced by paying attention to such contexts.

Implications

The author details that there is a need to recognise the manner in which school writing is structured within specific contexts, and as a result, subject-specific literacy is a critical feature in effective subject-area learning.

The author also states that writing pedagogy needs to be sensitive to the notion of contextualisation and that all teachers at all levels need to have greater sensitivity to a more explicit and informed awareness of the language and literacy dimensions of their subject areas.

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