Academic Literacy And Genres In University Learning Communities

Abstract

The study of genre through diferent perspectives has contributed to a better understanding of how writing performs a major role in the enculturation process students must undergo when entering the university context. Considering that written genres instantiate the speciic practices of disciplines, their diferent ways of doing and knowing (Carter, 2007), this study aims, by means of a qualitative approach, at exploring the way literacy in academic writing is addressed, according to the discourse of teachers and students of five diferent disciplinary communities at a Chilean university, based on the approach to their particular genres. he results reveal that, in the communities addressed, literacy in academic writing is conceived under two distinctive orientations: a formative and a prescriptive one, each of them associated to genres displaying expert and instructional characteristics, respectively. Keywords Author Keywords:Academic Literacy; Academic Writing; Disciplinary Communities; Genres; Social Representations