Academic Literacies-October 7, 2009

• Discussion questions
1. Brain (2002) argues that acquisition of academic literacy means more than the ability to read and write in academic settings. Do you agree with this idea? If so, what does acquiring academic literacy mean to you? From your personal experiences, how did you develop/ have you developed your academic literacies?

2. In Brain’s (2002) article, several shortcomings of research methods such as surveys and the value of case studies in the research on academic literacy are presented. If you conduct a research study on academic literacy yourself, what methodologies would you use?

3. Canagarajah (2002) points out that “contextualizing the text” (p. 7) can mean different things to different people. What does it mean to you and why?

4. Canagarajah (2002) views writing as material rather than cognitive (p. 5). Discuss what ‘material’ means in this sense and (especially international students) do you have any examples in your country where any material restrictions affect writing?

5. Canagarajah (2002) suggests the negotiation model and the difference-as-resource orientation, making a case against the crossing, or deficit model. Have you ever had any teacher who holds, consciously or unconsciously, one of these three orientations toward multilingual writers in the classroom? Which model do you agree with? Why?