Exploring The Academic Literacy Socialization Of First-year Undergraduate Foreign Language Learners In China

Academic literacy is a hallmark of undergraduates' academic life and an embodiment of the quality of higher education.Therefore,in order to improve the quality of higher education,it is of great importance to explore the processes and the influencing factors in undergraduates' socialization into academic literacy.However,little research has focused on the academic literacy socialization of freshmen foreign language learners studying in their native language context.Furthermore,most research has adopted a narrow definition of academic literacy,lacked explanation of the situated context and underestimated the complexity of the influencing factors.To address these gaps,this study explores the academic literacy socialization processes of freshmen majoring in foreign languages.It adopts Language Socialization Theory and an Undergraduate Socialization Model as its theoretical frameworks.This ethnographic case study lasting for 18 months,explored the processes and the influencing factors of five university freshmen majoring in foreign languages.It was guided by the following two research questions,namely(1)what are the processes of first-year university students' socialization into academic literacy?and(2)what are the factors influencing these processes?To answer these research questions,it employed multiple sources of data,including questionnaires,interviews,classroom observations,narratives,and other materials.Context analysis as well as comparative and contrastive methods were employed in the process of data analysis.Two research findings emerged from the data analysis.First,academic literacy socialization is process-oriented.The undergraduates in this study experienced three stages of socialization into academic literacy,namely preparation,praxis and outcomes.The preparation stage is the starting point and the base for later academic literacy socialization.The praxis stage is the core stage and includes three sub-stages,namely,confusion,exploration and harvesting.The outcomes stage is the result of academic literacy socialization and also the starting point for later socialization.Thus,academic literacy socialization is progressive reflected in the changes of situations in time continuity and space extension.Second,multiple resources mediate the processes of academic literacy socialization,which is a complex system including the interactive functions among macro,meso and micro factors.At the macro-level,sociocultural factors together with university sources are the mediated sources.Factors at the meso-level includes courses and associations,such as course materials,teachers' and students' input,interactive patterns etc.At the micro level,individual networks of practice and agency are examined.These multiple resources are complex systems that mediate dialectically the interaction between the individual and society.Among them,agency is the driving force for academic literacy socialization.This study refines and extends the concept of academic literacy,taking knowledge-competence-disposition and social relations as its core elements.The study proposes a model of academic literacy socialization,providing an analytic framework for in-depth understanding of university students'academic literacy socialization.In addition,it facilitates both teachers and learners in higher education to better understand academic literacy socialization in teaching,learning and researching.The study suggests that mediational sources such as multiple academic activities,a profound theoretical basis,and unique forms of assessment should be available to learners in higher education,in order to provide a better environment for their academic literacy socialization.Future study may also focus on different research sites and/or participants,to further examine the proposed model.