The Annual MA LDC lecture
Brian Street, Emeritus Professor, King’s College, London
7th December, 5.30 – 6.20pm G552 WBW
The Social Turn in Language and Literacy Studies
ALL WELCOME
The starting point for this lecture will be my research into literacy in the field of what is known as
‘New Literacy Studies’. Drawing on ethnographic projects in India, Ethiopia, Uganda and elsewhere, I
will show the importance of taking social context into account in the study and teaching of literacy. I
will then consider how the ‘social turn’ emerged in the teaching and learning of language in the UK,
as well as the problems arising for teachers when they attempt to consider the social context of
language at the same time as trying to meet narrow assessment standards and to demonstrate
measurable ‘success’ in teaching and learning. I will argue, however, that recently the models
underlying standardised testing and ‘communicative competence’ have been challenged from a
more social perspective, and that the fields of New Literacy Studies and language studies are coming
together again once more. By way of example I will present a recent research project on ‘EAL and
Academic Literacies’ which has attempted to apply a social perspective to learning and teaching in
the last years of school and the first year of University, in selected sites in the London area. I will
describe some of the findings and discuss how they might point to future directions in the
development of the ‘social turn’ in language and literacy studies.
The Centre for Language, Discourse and Communication serves as an umbrella for seven Masters
level programmes: the MA in Language, & Cultural Diversity; the MA ELT & Applied Linguistics; the
MA in Language, Ethnicity & Education; the MA in Modern Foreign Language Education; the MRes in
Language, Discourse & Communication; the MA Linguistics Pathway in Modern Greek and the MA in
Digital Humanities.
The first MA LDC lecture will be a celebration of the LDC MA programmes and students, and a chance
for those who study and teach on the programmes to get to know each other.
The lecture will be followed by the LDC Christmas celebration in G552 WBW,
6:30-8:30pm