A Parents’ Guide to Academic Literacy at

IAMSReading, Writing and Communication

(Literacy) Faculty

What is Academic Literacy?

The Role of the Literacy Faculty at IAMS(Reading, Writing and Communication across the Curriculum)

The Faculty aims to;

• promote and embed a cohesive and consistent approach towards the use and teaching of academic language throughout the school and in the wider community incorporating staff, pupils and their parents

• support and collaborate in the teaching of the keys skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening which underpin effective academic language use

• promote the school as an outstanding place of learning

‘Academic Literacy’ is the crucial set of transferrable skills that are required for successful academic study and research.

Why is academic Literacy important?

Academic Literacy (the reading and writing of academic texts) is essential for students’ success in higher education, and the world of work. In particular it is most useful at universities in the UK where achievement is predominantly assessed through students’ written work.

Statistics

• 5.2, million adults in UK are not functionally literate

• 65% of young people in young offender institutions have communication difficulties

• One in six people in the UK struggle with literacy. This means their literacy is below the level expected of an eleven year old

• Men and women with poor literacy are least likely to be in full-time employment at the age of thirty

6

Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS)

• everyday language• relies a lot on context, gestures, eye contact• low cognitive content• can mislead people into overestimating

children's language skills

We need to move our children on from this…

7

Cognitive and Academic Language Proficiency (CALP)

Enables the understanding of more abstract language and more specialist language

…..to this;

This is why the faculty aims;

• To develop a shared understanding of the role played by language in academic success.

• To ensure a clear and consistent approach to language development.

Language

What type of language do you use?

Who do you use this type of language with?

Do you need more than one type of language? Discus

s

The Register Continuum

What (Field)

Who (Tenor)

How (Mode)

Everyday

Intimate

Informal, face to face

Most spoken like

Highly technical

Impersonal

Very formal

Most written like

A Scenario given to Year 11 Pupils

You’re on holiday and your flight home has been cancelled and you are due back at college on Monday for an assessment. The airline cannot get you on a flight home for another two days. Your mum is expecting to pick you up from the airport later today.

In this scenario pupils were asked to write different types of communication to different people e.g. script what you would say to your mother on the phone or write an e-mail to the head teacher.

Answers

‘Yo Twigz! Manz is in sum sticky situation. Believe my flight got cancelled and I have sum assessment ting on Monday.Text mum ona ASAP show her how tings set, ya feel me.Tell her not to cum 2 da airport.

Text has developed in to a sub-language with its own rules. Normal grammar rules do not apply so this is all fine as a text message.

This is very informal and goes at position A

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to inform you about the inconvenience I experienced because of your staff. It was very unsatisfying; your staff were rude and showed a lack of respect. I would have expected them to help me communicate with my college, but they didn’t. I was extremely upset…

This is very formal and goes at position C

Dear Mrs Wilson,

I’m sorry to say that I cannot be able to attend college on Monday and complete my assessment, due to a flight cancelation. The airline have said they cannot get me on a flight home for another two days. Is there anyway that I can either do my assessment another day, or do my assessment abroad and email it to you?Please confirm receipt of this email.

Yours sincerely

This is quite formal but clearly the people know each other as a result it goes at position B on the register continuum.

Parents and teachers need to compensate for a world in which;

•Multi-media dominates

•A visual culture prevails

•Most ‘classic texts’ are known through film

•Reading extended writing is rare

•The notion of ‘accuracy’ is being challenged (spelling and punctuation aren't important!)