Language in the Trades: The
Literacy Demands of
Vocational Study
Jean Parkinson
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
James Mackay
Wellington Institute of Technology
1
Reason for the study
• Vocational literacy practices are often invisible to both students and
staff and yet are central to the success of students in relation to
attainment. […] Vocational subjects may actually be more demanding
in the range of literacies required for assessment than is often
considered to be the case.
Edwards, Minty & Miller, 2013
Carpentry
Bricklaying
Plumbing
The trades that were investigated and their context
Automotive
Welding
Electrical
Method of data collection
• Semi-structured interviews
• Interviews were 20-60 minutes long
• 20 male tutors and 1 female tutor were interviewed
• The interviewer was a male colleague, well known to the interviewees
Literacy
• Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening.
• Visual elements such as graphs and diagrams and how these coconstruct meaning with reading, writing, speaking and listening.
• Values: “Ways of talking, thinking, believing, knowing, acting,
interacting, valuing and feeling”. (Gee, 2003, p.31)
Trades literacy: Matching language to listener
Peter: We have to remind our trainees they're actually learning trades talk
which is a different language and when they explaining to a client they have
to crank that back a bit and put it in layman’s terms so people can actually
understand and keep up with them…you could have a client on one side of
you; you could have an architect on the other side of you; you could have
your boss standing behind you and you’ve got to go like that [clicks fingers]
and get everyone on board. It’s not directly taught – it’s something they
learn on site with their boss; it’s something they learn when they come to
WelTec when we start talking compliance documentation. [It’s] reliant on the
trainee being involved with these people…
…and everything we do has to comply, everything we do has to meet a NZ
standard, everything we do must be to manufacturers’ specifications. It’s not
about taking that combi valve set out of that box and throwing the box away;
it’s actually reading that box and making sure that you do it to
manufacturers’ specifications because if you don’t and that valve fails …
Trade talk: language and identity
• “I reckon, like, you know, you look like a builder, you
walk like a builder, you might as well talk like a
builder, you know what I mean, and that way we can
have a conversation, we can get into the
conversation, how builders talk […] it’s the building
terminology, builders have their own sort of language,
and I try and get the guys to talk to me in that sort of
language, similar language, you know the size of
nails, the size of the timber, the grade of the timber,
the treatment of the timber”
Carpentry tutor
Trades talk: technical vocabulary
Building a brick arch
1. Set up a temporary support and mark
around the top edge each voussoir
plus a joint.
2. Cut springer bricks to correct angle
(line through striking point with string)
and set in mortar.
3. Bed voissoirs, working alternately
from either side, checking correct
angle with string through the striking
point.
4. Keep soffit joints clear of mortar for
later pointing when arch support is
removed.
5. Mortar all bed faces thinly when
placing the key brick.
The
vocabulary
8
Trades talk: Sub-technical vocabulary
• Even words that have a meaning in general use have a very specific
meaning in trade use and especially in the electrical trade so when I
write anything up on the board, the first time we come across a word
I stop and I explain the word. […] “write down 'charge' in your book
and let's discuss; have you got a meaning for it?”
Electrotech tutor
• ‘Fix' has a special meaning in construction. Fix means attaching
something. The term 'fixings' is the bolts, screws etc.
Carpentry tutor
Trades talk: Language features
Building a brick arch
1. Set up a temporary support and
mark around the top edge each
voussoir plus a joint.
2. Cut springer bricks to correct angle
(line through striking point with
string) and set in mortar.
3. Bed voissoirs, working alternately
from either side, checking correct
angle with string through the striking
point.
4. Keep soffit joints clear of mortar for
later pointing when arch support is
removed.
5. Mortar all bed faces thinly when
placing the key brick.
The language
features
The visual
images
10
Prominent literacy practices: reading
• Reading course notes
• Reading professional texts: Codes, Standards,
Specifications, Manufacturer’s instructions
3.9.4 Protection against
mechanical damage
3.9.4.1 General
Wiring systems installed in
positions where they may
reasonably be expected to be
subject to mechanical damage
shall be adequately protected
in accordance with Clause
3.3.2.6 and the applicable
requirements of Clauses
3.9.4.2 to 3.9.4.4.
Manufacturers’ instructions
NZ Standards
Specifications
Prominent literary practices: writing
• Pedagogical writing
• Writing professional texts
Automotive: Job cards
Carpentry: Builders’ diary
Builder’s diary – multiple purposes
1. Student assessment
2. Acquiring the habit of writing the diary – a genre important for a qualified carpenter;
“Teach them now and they'll have to do it in their working lives.”
3. Keeping a record for future reference:
“in 5 or 10 years’ time they can go back to that diary and say ‘how did I do it then?’”
4. Job prospects - the carpenter can prove the kinds of jobs he’s worked on:
“it gives an employer a better idea of what that student has been up to”
5. The possibility of having to give evidence in court in the case of a dispute:
“they are legally bound for 10 years […] they can go back to their diary and say no
sorry I wasn't on that wall I was on the north wall […] if you stuffed up a wall before
the leaky buildings they didn't chase down the individual builders, now it's all down to
the individual builder who has worked on those particular walls.”
Builder’s diary: form & instruction
• "What we also encourage them to do is to attach
photos or drawings of certain areas they've been
working on as well as writing comments.”
• “We don't actually have a teaching class for them to learn how to write
in their diaries. We teach the diary on site. I say you just need to tell
me what you've done for the day and where you've done it. So that's
the basics. And then it gets more detailed as time goes on.”
• I have copies that I've taken of one of my students that I take that I
keep with me. […] you've got photos and descriptions to go with them.
[…] Now not that I'm showing them how to do it but I give them the
examples to have a look at so that’s the only form of teaching I can
give them on the spot ‘cos I don't have the time to do it.
Job cards: Automotive
• “Service advisor, she has no idea. She writes exactly what the
customer said. The qualified mechanic is pretty much doing the
diagnostics as he's going though the process”.
• “The technician doesn’t write in sentences – usually phrases or point
form. Usually the office lady will sanitize it”
• “Basic job card reports. They must tell a coherent story.”
Trades talk: Speaking & listening:
The role of informal talk
• “Trade talk is learnt in the smoko sheds; it’s learnt
with the people that you trust around yourself.”
• “We have a lot of 'bullshit sessions' where we just talk about what
they want to talk about - a new model motorbike or something
they've seen in a shop or in YouTube and they also pick up the
technicalities. So if new vocab comes up they can say 'what the hell's
that?’ rather than not saying anything in a formal classroom”
• “On a Monday morning I do a round up - if they have work
experience, I ask them how it went, was there any mechanical faults
they could talk about.”
Trades talk: technical language
• Knowing the language, knowing the trade: Everything that I do, I always call it
by its name. […] in the workshops it's all worked around that tool whatever
its name is
• Using specific rather than generic terms: I think it's the mystery of not
knowing what these terms are that's why the mortar is ‘the shit’ as they say
because they don't understand it and it’s a way of covering up.
• Regional variation: I was taught that you use the
term 'noggins' for the small bit of timber in
between your studs; ‘Noggs’ was the term used.
And the equivalent to it is 'dwang‘ but 'dwang'
sounds too much like an Australian way of
speaking so we used 'noggs'.
Trades talk: technical language
• Identity: “We have a lesson going over all the
terminology of an arch, and they go 'why do
we need to know this?' ‘Well because you
need to know what a voissoir is; you need to
know what a skewback is’ […] after a while
when they're building their arch they're
starting to use the terminology and they're
really pleased to be using it, cos they
understand it […] When they start to talk like
this they are a builder, they are a bricklayer;
because they know, they begin to know their
stuff.”
Next steps
• More data
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Course notes and other reading in the 6 trades
Student writing
Professional writing and reading
Record classroom teaching
Interviews with students
• This will provide a closer look at:
• key written genres: Builder’s diary and job cards
• how diagrams are embedded in text and talk to co-construct meaning
• the vocabulary of trades talk – technical and sub-technical language
• Later:
• How can our findings be useful in trades classrooms