Discussion Questions on Seloni's "Intertextual Connections between Spoken and Written Text: A Microanalysis of Doctoral Students' Textual Constructio"

1. Seloni states that “[s]tudents at the doctoral level are expected to be active participants in academic communities within their disciplinary fields by writing and speaking in certain ways.” Do you agree with this? If so, what does academic literacy skills mean to you as a doctoral student?

2. For those of you who are multilimgual multiliterate students, how would you describe your “academic socialization” at IUP? If you are a domestic student, do you think that entering academia has compelled you to make any specific literacy adjustments? If yes, how?

3. We often think of academic literacy in terms of reading and writing as doctoral students. Both activities are often thought of as being individual. Seloni argues that doctoral students engage in an academic culture of collaboration whereby people, texts and events intertwine? To what extent do you agree with this and why?

4. As part of the Second Language Literacy course, and the whole English graduate program at IUP, we do engage a lot in dialogic exchanges oral, written, and virtual. Do you think we do co-construct new textual worlds? If yes, how?

5. As far as methodology is concerned, Seloni reconstructed the lived experiences of the doctoral students’ support group in the form of a “narrative description of the transcription”. What do you think of such reconstruction? Do you think your interaction of the textuality of the data would read differently had she used another textual device?

6. The results of the study showed that the students challenged the divide between their vernacular discourses and school discourses. Their speaking and writing experiences intertwined and were fostered by the academic culture of collaboration they engaged in. in what ways do these findings reshape your definition of academic literacy in general and literacy in particular?