Literacy en français and à la française: Socializing students to academic literacy practices in a foreign language

Abstract

AbstractResearch on academic socialization has predominately focused on the L2 educational experiences of international students. While foreign language (FL) research has explored “multiliteracies” and “intercultural learning,” literacy in a FL continues to be understood as the use of foreign words and grammar combined with culturally familiar reading and writing practices. This article, which is conceptual in nature, highlights the potential to socialize US FL learners to literacy practices from the target culture. It reports on an upper‐division French literature and composition course that was redesigned to socialize students at UC Berkeley to two French academic genres, namely, the explication de texte and commentaire composé. The insights from the present project, which are not language‐specific and hold relevance for undergraduate and graduate students alike, encourage critical reflection within FL departments on what is—and can be—entailed by literacy in additional languages.