Unpackaging academic discourse

Abstract

Studies of the social contexts of literacy learning in school contexts suggest that literacy development cannot be understood apart from the context in which it occurs. By studying the classroom contexts for literacy learning, the various ways in which students are socialized to use language and to “doing being student” are made evident. Some learning environments provide differential access to literacy activities in which using and participating in meaningful discourse is both the process and the product. This article argues that students must have opportunities to develop academic discourse, that is, both linguistic and sociocultural knowledge about what it means to be a member of a particular classroom community, in order to achieve academic competence. Students who participate in academic activities that provide few opportunities to co‐construct elaborated and meaningful oral and written texts and, instead, participate in activities whose knowledge exchange system is defined and directed by teachers who are socialized to different definitions of what counts as literacy and what counts as membership in effective communities of practice.