History, Concepts, and Characteristics of Disciplinary Literacy : A Review of Representative Research

Abstract

Disciplinary literacy, which is a very active area of research in the U.S., is little known in Korea. Given that Korean language educators are only now starting to study disciplinary literacy, comparing and analyzing the different perspectives of leading disciplinary literacy researchers in the field will provide a useful theoretical foundation for future studies of disciplinary literacy in the Korean context. By providing this perspective, this study describes and analyzes (a) how disciplinary literacy grew out of content area literacy, (b) how representative disciplinary literacy researchers define disciplinary literacy and its characteristics, and (c) which teaching points these researchers emphasize. This review of the perspectives, definitions, characteristics and teaching proposed by representative disciplinary literacy scholars reveals where their perspectives are similar to each other and where they differ. All agree that each discipline requires special literacy skills, strategies, and practices and most also emphasize the need for disciplinary experts, teacher educators, and teachers to work together to teach and engage their students in each discipline (content area). From this review, some issues are raised: how discipline should be defined, how the disciplinary literacy approach can be taught in universities in Korea, whether the approach should be applied to the elementary school level, and how content area professionals and literacy professionals should collaborate with each other.