Open AccessLiteracy Uses and Practices of Schoolchildren Living in a Contemporary Malaysian Context
Author(s) -
Syerina Syahrin,
AUTHOR_ID
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the australian journal of teacher education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.646
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1835-517X
pISSN - 0313-5373
DOI - 10.14221/ajte.2021v46n10.3
Subject(s) - literacy , context (archaeology) , pedagogy , face (sociological concept) , psychology , subject (documents) , sociology , mathematics education , project commissioning , publishing , social science , political science , library science , computer science , paleontology , law , biology
This paper reports the uses and practices of literacy in English of primary schoolchildren in Malaysia. Data was gathered from two children, their parents and the English subject teacher. The results reveal four major findings. First, the results reveal that the students’ experience with out-of-school literacies in English were largely afforded by new technologies Second, popular culture played a considerable role in the students’ out-of-school lives. Third, the students’ engagement with out-of-school texts was influenced by cultural artefacts and social discourses, and fourth, there were also complementing and contrasting literacy practices reflected in both environments. This paper argues that awareness of the students’ uses and practices of English as they participated in different communities may enable teachers to incorporate aspects of out-of-school literacy into the school to facilitate the students’ learning. Additionally, it may also help teachers prepare the students to face the growing challenges of using English in the 21st century.