Literacy in content areas

Wilson, A. A., (2011). A social semiotics framework for conceptualizing content area literacies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(6), 435-444.

Background

The article questions the teaching of generic literacy skills for helping students deal with the literacy demands of content areas. The writer believes that the students need different skills for different areas.

Aims

The article seeks to show that meaning in the different content areas are presented in different ways and that students need to learn not only these differences but also the reasons for them.

Sample

As this is a theoretical article, there is no experimental sampling involved. Instead, the writer illustrates her argument by quoting examples of different types of literacy taken from different content areas.

Method

The writer looks at four general content areas: Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. She discusses the ways in which meaning is most commonly expressed in these areas.

Findings

The writer shows that in Mathematics, for example, meaning is often realized through the Arab numerals and other symbols. The meaning depends on the established order in which an expression is parsed. For example, material within brackets has to be computed first. In Mathematics, the reading and writing of language is very much a secondary vehicle for expressing meaning. In Science, symbols and graphics are also used but reading and writing have more importance than in Mathematics.

Implications

The writer believes that students must be shown not only the differences between how meaning is shared in the different subject areas but also why these differences occur. She emphasizes that these differences are not immutable rules but occur because of affordances of different communication methods. For example, diagrams are good for clearly expressing certain ideas but not others. As conditions change, so may the ways in which the different content areas express meaning. Helping students understand the reasons for the differences will help prepare them for the possibility of such changes.

Original article retrieved from EBSCOHost.