Presentation
Information literacy in the phonology classroom
University of Manchester
(2019)
Abstract
Most of our students, particularly undergraduates, are not destined to become phonologists, or even linguists. Our primary goal, then, ought not to be instruction of any specific theory, topic or dataset. The imperative is to develop in students the literacies which inform the practice of phonology but which will also serve students in other arenas. In this talk, we discuss a collaboration between phonologist and librarian to embed information literacy into a one-semester undergraduate introduction to phonology. We want to help students to uncover the threshold concepts identified as central to information literacy by the Association of College & Research Libraries: authority is constructed and contextual; information creation is a process; information has value; research as inquiry; scholarship is a conversation; and searching as strategic exploration.
We explored these theoretical frames through a specific set of assignments in which students “adopt” a language and, through scaffolded activities, identify a salient phonological phenomenon and evaluate two competing analyses. Students are introduced to the notion of “a grammar” or “a phonology” of a language; they encounter, in an authentic way, unfamiliar transcription systems and theoretical notations; they narrow down to an appropriate topic by navigating the literature, rather than selecting a topic and then finding sources; they discover that scientific understanding is influenced by social context and evolves over time; and they move away from a false binary of correct/incorrect towards evaluating the arguments for competing analyses.
Keywords
- information literacy,
- phonology,
- teaching and learning
Disciplines
Publication Date
May 22, 2019
Citation Information
Jonathan Howell and Catherine Baird. "Information literacy in the phonology classroom" University of Manchester (2019) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/catherine-baird/15/
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-NC-SA International License.