Evaluative appraisal by master’s students on the teaching of reading and writing

Abstract

This article presents reflections about academic literacies, understood as social practices, ways of being, listening, reading, writing, acting, interacting, believing, valuing, feeling and using resources, tools and technologies capable of enacting and developing the identity that is characteristic of the academic sphere (FISCHER, 2007). In a qualitative-interpretative approach, we aim at analyzing the evaluative appraisals that students in a master’s program in Communication and Society at a public university develop about the teaching of reading and writing in the academic sphere, considering the pedagogical means used by higher education teachers. As empirical evidence, we use excerpts of accounts from collective interviews conducted in 2019, where the subjects reveal their experiences with the reading and writing of academic speech genres. Based on data so generated, it can be affirmed that, considering the existence of pedagogical practices that guide understanding about speech genres, the students’ evaluative appraisals indicate satisfaction and contentment in reading the texts. On the other hand, with regard to writing, their evaluative appraisals signal dissatisfaction and displeasure, due to the absence of pedagogical directions and the need for continuing education for teachers who: a) request texts for assessment purposes only; and b) do not provide enough information about the speech genre in which the texts requested are expected to materialize. The results suggest it is necessary to institutionalize activities for the teaching of reading and writing not only in undergraduate programs, but also in graduate ones, considering the dialogical, situated and uninterrupted nature of literacy processes in this discursive sphere.