Table 1 Definitions of academic literacy
From: A review of academic literacy research development: from 2002 to 2019
Approach | Typical definitions |
|---|---|
Language-based | |
Language use in academic settings | The concept of academic literacy has been defined broadly as the reading and writing used in school and academic contexts (Baumann & Graves, 2010) |
Language competence required for academic study | This is the kind of language competence that students need to possess in order to cope with the demands of academic study (Sebolai, 2016) |
Disciplinary-based | |
Higher-order academic/language socialization | Higher-order learning/thinking in pursuit of deep collaborative contextual meaning (Lea & Street, 2006) in the academic socialization process (Granville & Dison, 2005; Zhao & Chan, 2014) |
Disciplinary-specific language, cognitive and social practices | Academic literacy, i.e. "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" (Street, 2003, 79) in educational contexts, is pivotal to academic success |
The ‘academic literacies’ model | This approach ‘views student writing and learning as issues at the level of epistemology and identities rather than skill or socialisation’ (Lea & Street, 1998, p. 159) |
Sociocultural (‘academic literacies’) | |
Literacy practices as issues of power Epistemology and identity | An academic literacies model, involving students’ epistemology and identity negotiation of conflicting literacy practices and an engagement with literacy at a deep level of identity and epistemology (Lea & Street, 1998) |
The transformative functions of academic literacy | Literacy practices as socially constructed and therefore open to challenge (Lillis & Turner 2001) |