David Barton (linguist)

David Barton (born 1949) is a British linguist. He is currently an honorary professor at the Department of Linguistics and English Language of Lancaster University, United Kingdom.[1] His research focuses on applied linguistics with a special focus on literacy, and academic writing. Barton's research also concentrates on the qualitative methodology such as ethnography in applied linguistics.

David Barton
Born (1949-06-25) 25 June 1949
Lancaster, United Kingdom
Known for
Academic background
Alma mater
Academic work
DisciplineLinguist
Sub-discipline
Institutions
WebsiteBarton on the website of Lancaster University

Career

Barton has been a Professor of Language and Literacies at the Lancaster University since 1993.[2] He also served as the Director of the Lancaster Literacy Research Centre, which is a core partner in the National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy.

On 26 January 2006, Barton's opinion on an article entitled The struggle to keep basic skills up to scratch was published on The Guardian. He said that "It is insulting to adults who have problems reading and writing to compare them to children. Adults with problems have the knowledge and experience of the world, and, mostly, lead normal lives. The comparison with children is silly - I wish I could surf the internet, programme the video and download music as quickly as a 12-year-old".[3]

Barton was a visiting Professor at the University of Stavanger, Norway.[4][5]

Barton is the Life President of the Lancaster Literacy Research Centre at Lancaster University.[6]

Research

Barton's research focuses on all aspects of language online, including the interaction of words and images, multilingual issues, changes to vernacular practices and learning.

Barton's book, Literacy: An introduction to the ecology of written language, has been published twice. First it was published in 1994 and later in 2007. Michael Stubbs said that literacy emphasises the social approaches to literacy, as opposed to the merely psychological approaches which dominated the field of literacy for many years.[7]

In his book entitled Local literacies: reading and writing in one community, Barton and his co-author (Hamilton) focused on a particular community in Britain by analysing how people use literacy in their everyday lives. Their exploration provides a description of literacy at one segment in time, and also explores the nature and significance of communication to people, households and communities.[8]

Between 2002 and 2009, Barton's research was funded by the Department for Education and Skills as part of a national research and development consortium, the National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy (NRDC) to support the major government initiative Skills for Life.[9]

In an article entitled Redefining Vernacular Literacies in the Age of Web 2.0, published in Applied Linguistics in 2013, Barton and Lee examined the characteristics of vernacular literacies on Web 2.0, focusing on the writing activities performed on the photo-sharing website Flickr.com. Their study showed that people draw upon a large array of multi-lingual and multi-modal resources to project new global identities. The writing practices found on Flickr are often changing and new ones are formed out of existing ones.[10]

In a research article entitled Researching writing across the lifespan: The value of literacy studies for highlighting social and contextual aspects of change, published in Writing and Pedagogy in 2019, Barton and his colleagues (Karin Tusting, Sharon McCulloch, Uta Papen, Diane Potts) argued that shifts in material, social and institutional dimensions of context have a huge effect on what individuals write and on the writing practices that they develop. They also emphasised the role of changing tools for writing and values around writing, and the importance of transformations in identity and relationships. In addition, they argued that the tradition of literacy studies research, drawn on by all the projects described in their journal article, provides the theoretical and methodological resources to approach such aspects of academic writing development across the lifespan.[11]

Publications

Barton has publications in several journals such as Applied Linguistics, TESOL Quarterly, Writing & Pedagogy, Discourse, Context and Media, Journal of the European Association of Languages for Specific Purposes, Journal of Child Language, Situated literacies: Reading and writing in context, and Language and education.[12]

Bibliography

Books
  • Barton, D., & Hamilton, M. (1998). Local literacies : a study of reading and writing in on community. London: Routledge.
  • Barton, D. (2007). Literacy: an introduction to the ecology of written language. (2nd ed.) Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Barton, D. P., Hamilton, M. E., & Ivanic, R. (2000). Situated literacies. (Literacies). London: Routledge.
  • Barton, D. P., & Tusting, K. (2005). Beyond communities of practice: language, power and social context. (Learning in doing). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Barton, D., & Lee, C. (2013). Language online: investigating digital texts and practices. London: Routledge.

Articles
  • Barton, D. P. (2000). Images of illiteracy. Literacy Today, 23, 19-20.
  • Barton, D. (2005). When the magic of literacy wears thin. Literacy and Numeracy Studies, 14(2), 93-97.
  • Barton, D. (2012). Participation, deliberate learning and discourses of learning online. Language and Education, 26(2), 139-150. doi:
  • Barton, D., & Lee, C. (2012). Redefining Vernacular Literacies in the Age of Web 2.0. Applied Linguistics, 33(3), 282-298. doi:
  • Barton, D., & Potts, D. (2013). Language learning online as a social practice. TESOL Quarterly, 47(4), 815-820. doi:
  • Tusting, K. P., Barton, D. P., McCulloch, S. A., Papen, U., & Potts, D. J. (2019). Researching writing across the lifespan: The value of literacy studies for highlighting social and contextual aspects of change. Writing and Pedagogy, 10(3), 401-422. doi:

References
  1. "Barton - Lancaster University". lancaster.ac.uk. 6 April 2019.
  2. "Literacies for Learning in Further Education". Lancaster University. 6 April 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  3. "The struggle to keep basic skills up to scratch". The Guardian. 26 January 2006. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  4. "2010 The Learner". The Learner. 6 July 2010. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  5. "Professor ønsket i Stavanger" (in Norwegian). Rogalands avis. 15 November 2007. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  6. "Lancaster Literacy Research Centre". Lancaster University. 6 April 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  7. Stubbs, Michael (9 February 2009). "David Barton, Literacy: An introduction to the ecology of written language". Language in Society. 24 (4): 595–598. doi:10.1017/S0047404500019114.
  8. Local literacies: reading and writing in one community. Worldcat.org. 29 June 1998. OCLC 37560340.
  9. "Lancaster Literacy Research Centre". Research Excellence Framework. 1 May 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  10. Barton, D.; Lee, C. K. M. (24 March 2012). "Redefining Vernacular Literacies in the Age of Web 2.0". Applied Linguistics. Oxford University press. 33 (3): 282–298. doi:10.1093/applin/ams009.
  11. "Researching writing across the lifespan: The value of literacy studies for highlighting social and contextual aspects of change". Equinox publications. 25 February 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  12. "David Barton - Google Scholar". Google Scholar. 6 April 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
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