Inducting Researchers Through Oppositional (?) Discourse

Abstract

This article reports on ‘synthesis writing’: the key interactive literacy event in the MA programme in Applied Linguistics at the University of Natal, completed mainly by students from marginalised communities. The principal intended outcome of the programme is that students become active members of the applied linguistics research community. The article traces the genesis of this event, and outlines the rationale for it. This includes both pragmatic reasons and those that are informed by the theories of Critical Linguistics and New Literacy Studies. The article outlines the characteristics of synthesis literacy, comparing and contrasting it with the dominant expository literacies of academic and other settings, and reflects on the different ideologies that inform each. Thirdly it reports on what the quantitative and qualitative analyses of interactional data (i.e. students' syntheses and tutors' written responses to these) reveals about the nature of students' and tutors' contributions to synthesis literacy; and what impact they have on the socialisation of students into the Applied Linguistics research community.