SISSEJUHATAVALT KOOLIDISKURSUSEST: TEKSTID JA KIRJAOSKUS NELJAS ÕPPEAINES
INTRODUCTION TO SCHOOL DISCOURSE: TEXTS AND LITERACY IN FOUR SUBJECTS

Summary/Abstract: This research investigated literacy instruction in four subjects: History, Physics, Music and Handicraft & Home Economics (HHE). Every school subject has inherent discourse patterns that appear in texts and language use. The concept of disciplinary literacy (DL) emphasizes language in learning, but there is little known about how Estonian core literacy is taught in school subjects in middle school. This ethnomethodological study was conducted among 32 teachers. First, one teacher of each subject was asked to keep a diary and report on authentic texts and methods used in the classroom; the data was supplemented by individual interviews. Secondly, two group interviews were carried out with teachers of the same subject. The data was analyzed through content analysis, detecting metadiscourses to see the features of disciplinary literacy. The results indicate that literacy is developed in the spirit of functional understanding and is asymmetrical, reading dominates over writing. However, examples of DL appeared in history as interpreting, common genres were media, historical sources, documentaries, movies; history was the most language-aware subject. DL in physics appeared in problem-solving tasks, describing procedures and phenomena, genres were procedural videos and explanations. Musical DL was about sharing experiences, analysing musical language, the common genre was evaluation. DL in HHE consisted in making meaning through handicraft and following instructions, which was also the common genre. The use of authentic texts in subjects indicate that the need and readiness for a DL approach is recognized. The starting point could be the awareness of genres and making language visible as a meaning-making resource.

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