Academic Literacy: Language in Education

Unit 1: Academic Literacy for Education Students

• The first unit focuses on language's role in learning and teaching, posing key questions about the meaning of "knowing" a language, the connection between language and learning/teaching, decisions affecting language use in instruction, and why language should be taught across the curriculum.

Knowing a Language

• Language distinguishes humans from other animals.
• Language learning transforms an infant from a kuntu (thing) into a muntu (person).
• Knowing a language involves using the symbolic system that relates sounds and meaning, including rules for sentence formation, pronunciation, and interpretation.
• Lacking language skills creates barriers in expressing oneself and can lead to misunderstandings.

Language Acquisition and Language Learning

• The process of first language acquisition in children remains not fully understood despite research.
• Children acquire their first language naturally and is distinct from second-language learning which is more difficult with age.
• Second-language learning is especially important in South Africa where many students study content in a language other than their primary one.

Language and Education

• The choice of language for instruction is a governmental policy matter and reflects political, economic, and social strategies.
• Language policy can be culturally impactful.
• Some countries favor a lingua franca as an official and unifying language, for example, Senegal where french remained the official language and Wolof the regional language
• South Africa has eleven official languages.
• The Language in Education Policy (1996) was introduced to promote multilingualism.
• There is ongoing debate about the appropriate language of instruction and its impact on learners.
• Learning in one's home language, particularly in early years, is recommended by the Department of Education.

Language and Learning

• Learning involves unconscious knowledge and conscious reflection (Gee, 1996: 138).
• Language is used to formulate thoughts, with implications in the way a child understands concepts.
• Neil Mercer describes language as a "social mode of thinking".
• Language helps to make sense of experience.
• Language transforms experience into knowledge.

Knowledge and Knowing

• Knowledge is accumulated information.
• Learning is an active and personally conducted experience.

Language and Teaching

• Teaching involves social interaction between teachers and learners.
• Communication is an essential component.
• Language connects human beings interacting.
• The quality of communication in teaching determines the quality of learning.

Language Across the Curriculum

• Movement suggests all teachers are language teachers.
• All Students need language to cope with the demands of their studies in Geography, Science or Mathematics
• Reading, writing, listening, and speaking are indispensable tools for students being taught across the curriculum.
• Each subject area has special requirements and teachers should be aware of them.
• Students need language to work and explore ideas, they need language to be able to develop critical thinking skills.
• Language across the curriculum stresses concern for how people learn and how people use language.
• Language is an integral part of a child's daily life in and out of school.

Language Focus

• A useful way of examining classroom interaction is to record and transcribe the conversations that take place in classrooms, this a useful research method to analyse how teachers use language to explain concepts.
• A "case study" is another popular research method.

Battswood Biliteracy Project

• A case study of a bilingual project with isiXhosa and Afrikaans-speaking children at Battswood Primary School in Cape Town.
• The project aimed to create a print-rich environment to motivate children to read and write for meaningful reasons.
• It was found that using isiXhosa as a language of instruction, alongside English, did not harm the development of English competence.

Unit 2: Identifying Genres or Text Types in Academic Writing

• The unit addresses the definition of genre.
• The unit addresses genres in the study of education.
• The unit addresses language and structural features.
• The unit addresses helping to read and write using the understanding of genres.
• The unit addresses the differences of everyday language differ compared to academic language.

Genres

• Genre involves how different disciplines construct and apply knowledge.
• Word, defined in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary as a particular style, helps us create meaning and social contexts.