To integrate or not? Interests, practice and the dialogic development of graduate students discourse skills

Abstract

The literature has provided a necessary corrective to any notion that generic skills can be taught in ignorance of disciplinary-specific practices, but this does not mean that integration is the best way to proceed in all situations. In graduate studies, the writing culture is far more complex than in undergraduate work. It is difficult to see that there is a disciplinary discourse when graduate students have to produce different discourses in their disciplines. Discourse practices are as variable as the writing culture is complex, any definition of which needs to be multilayered not single, inclusive rather than exclusive. At the same time, teaching practices and approaches to teaching discourses are governed by the ‘interests’ of language and learning staff, which are conditioned by various factors discussed in the paper. As these conditions constrain and open up possibilities for teaching, it is inevitable that teaching practices and approaches remain variable. One practice discussed in detail in this paper is the dialogic development of discourse skills. While the practice is not suited to all situations of teaching, it is particularly useful in helping research students gain control of text construction in a way that increases their understanding of the constructedness of all academic texts, as well as other texts. Show more