The Written Discourse of Female College Students about Formal Literacy and Self: A Study Analysis

Abstract

Self is a fluid construct. Its construction and representation vary according to different contexts and other variables. Female self-construction and representation is a crucial domain which is affected by many social factors. The present research deals with construction and representation of self. The data for the present research has been collected from the 4 colleges, 2 belonging to urban area and 2 of peripheries. The participants of the research are girls of 1st year and 4th year. The present research analyses the construction and representation of self as a result of formal literacy. It also considers how formal literacy plays a role in the construction and representation of self. For the present research, the researchers have collected the data from the mentioned 4 colleges. The participants of the research are 200 female students, including 100 from 1st year and 100 from 4th year. The present research employs an amended model to analyze the data. The amended model consists of Fairclough's (2012) critical social analysis, Gee's (1999) cultural model of discourse and Street's (1984) ideological model of literacy. The data has been analyzed keeping into mind the 9 analytical devices i.e. implicature, identity, metaphor, comparisons, representations, back grounding, inclusion/exclusion, dialogically and difference. Moreover, the researchers have categorized the data into the dominant emerging themes, which have been classified and analyzed under separate headings, these dominant emerging themes are, religiosity, family background, identity (naming), desires and self, self through lexicalization, roles and relationships, conceptual metaphors and use of 1st person pronoun (I/we). The data has been analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Based on the analysis of data the findings of the research suggest that self is not an absolute term, its construction and representation keeps on changing because of different variables, one of them is formal literacy. Moreover, the study contends that construction and representation of self is an ever-ongoing process.