ERIC Number: EJ1176425
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1522-7502
EISSN: N/A
The Politics of Academic Language: Towards a Framework for Analyzing Language Representations in FYC Textbooks
Russell, Alisa LaDean
Composition Forum, v38 Spr 2018
This article argues that composition studies' professional artifacts and pedagogical materials can perpetuate tacit ideologies about academic language that are in conflict with our field's larger goals toward social justice and inclusion in FYC. In order to exemplify a systematic analysis of our artifacts and materials for their tacit language ideologies, the author compares how three popular FYC textbooks--"The Norton Field Guide to Writing," "Everyone's An Author," and "They Say, I Say"-- represent academic language in seven major categories: name, placement, definition, characterization, features, examples, and instruction. This textbook analysis illuminates how no representation or discussion of academic language can be neutral, and it also illuminates the obvious gaps that still exist between scholarship on academic language and textbooks' representations of academic language. The author ultimately advocates for this kind of systematic and proactive analysis across our professional artifacts and pedagogical materials so they might be revised to better align with social justice and inclusion initiatives.
Descriptors: Politics of Education, Academic Discourse, Discourse Analysis, Language Usage, Freshman Composition, Textbooks, Ideology, Textbook Content, Content Analysis, Scholarship, Social Justice, Inclusion, Comparative Analysis
Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition. e-mail: cf@compositionforum.com; Web site: http://compositionforum.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A