Breaking the Frame

Lectures, Ritual and Academic Literacies

Authors

  • Lucia Thesen University of Cape Town

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v4i1.33

Keywords:

lectures, ritual, academic literacies, South Africa

Abstract

Lectures are central to undergraduate academic literacy practices, yet they are a neglected area of research. This paper approaches the lecture through the lens of ritual studies, and sheds light on aspects of academic engagement that usually remain hidden. The approach used here emphasises the dynamic (rather than static) character of the ritualisation process, and foregrounds embodiment and symbolic meaning. The data are from a study of lectures in the Humanities in a South African university, and include ethnographic reconstructions of ‘liminal moments’ in two different lectures, as well as material from focus group discussions with students after the lectures. I argue that lectures have been prematurely written off, and that with ritual theory as a lens there is much to learn about participants’ desire for engagement and about the relationship between micro processes ‘on the ground’ and wider institutional and political dimensions of academic engagement. I conclude by discussing the implications for academic literacies of lectures as a space in which the modes and meanings of orality rather than textuality are primary.

Author Biography

  • Lucia Thesen, University of Cape Town

    Lucia Thesen is a senior lecturer in the Language Development Group in the Centre for Higher Education Development, University of Cape Town. She is interested in academic literacies and the politics of access. Her most recent publication (2006 edited with Ermien van Pletzen) is Academic Literacy and the Languages of Change (Continuum)

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Published

2015-09-14

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Thesen, L. (2015). Breaking the Frame: Lectures, Ritual and Academic Literacies. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 4(1), 33-53. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v4i1.33

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