Essay On Sociocultural Literacy

Traditionally, approaches to teaching have regarded the learner as an ‘empty vessel’, to be filled with knowledge and information about the world imparted by an expert These traditional approaches, which see learning as primarily a cognitive, internally driven process, rarely take into account learners’ linguistic and cultural worlds outside the classroom (Hall, 2012). A sociocultural perspective of learning, on the other hand, makes clear the links between individuals’ sociocultural worlds and learning, and acknowledges the crucial role these worlds play in shaping a person’s world.

Despite concerns over the increasing use of digital media reducing youth participation in literacy, often fanned by moral scare stories in the media (e.g. Thompson, 2009; Beck, Ritter and Lash, 1992), it has been acknowledged that a wide range of literacy practices are occurring in most people’s everyday lives (Ivanic et al, 2007; Lunsford, 2009). Ivanic et al. (2007) define a literacy practice as a social practice which is generally textually mediated, and which includes certain tools, technologies, materials and resources which are specific to text generation or a communicative event. Such elements as genre, audience and participantsare also pertinent to the literacy practice or event.

Literacy practices are wide-ranging by their nature, and cover any

Through adherence to a clear protocol of language use, along with specific linguistic choices, students’ critical thinking and understanding of the themes and research under debate were developed. Participation was much greater when students were asked to comment on typical school scenarios where they could draw upon a range of sources and literature and frame this to pose a coherent argument, rather than answering decontextualized questions about course