Using legitimation code theory to investigate English medium lecturers’ knowledge-building practices

Abstract

This study uses Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to examine the knowledge-building practices of two lecturers teaching computing courses through English as a medium of instruction (EMI) at a Spanish university. LCT is a sociological framework for exploring and improving knowledge practices across academic and other fields of activity. The study uses the LCT dimension of Semantics, which sees knowledge building in terms of condensation of meaning (semantic density) and context-dependence (semantic gravity). Five video-recorded sessions were transcribed and coded using the text annotation software CorpusTool, and the analysis traced variation in semantic density and gravity over the teaching sessions (both within and across the two lecturers’ practices). The findings show that the lecturers dealt with complexity of meaning and context-relatedness in ways which reflected the nature of the content topic and the teaching activity. There was evidence that they used “semantic waves” (movements between higher and lower semantic density and stronger and weaker semantic gravity) to build knowledge cumulatively over the sessions. We identify implications for the professional development of EMI lecturers, arguing that LCT Semantics has the potential to help lecturers see connections between their disciplinary knowledge building practices and the communicative resources used to enact them.