Activity Systems

Activity theory revolves around the idea of medium, subject, and objective.

It is an interesting study that does not focus on the relationship between the author and audience, as the study recognizes that audiences can be ambiguous or non-existent in the mind of a writer during composition. The study focuses on the objective of writing, which is common to all mediums. A to-do list’s objective is to remind, an essay’s objective is to persuade, etc.

This idea of objective leads into a main point of the article, which is specialization. The article states that general level English  “courses are extremely ambiguous because those involved in it are teaching and learning the use of a tool (writing) for no particular activity system” (page 8). Since English professors teach these subjects, they teach it to the specializations of their department. With this, comes the intricacies of essay formats that many students may never utilize again, especially STEM students.

The article suggests that these introductory English classes pertain to what the student’s main activity system will be throughout school and/or their career, rather than one that is utilized by a completely different department

 

It does not argue for the abolition of beginning English, but instead a more stylized course with a specific object other than ‘improving writing skills’. For example, a course may be designed to teach an engineering student how to write an engineering based essay (idk what that would look like, but I’d bet it’s different).

 

Personally, I really relate to this theory because I have tutored for several years and consistently come into contact with students who just do not click with beginning English. They are mostly motivated and otherwise good students, but are both struggling and frustrated.

 

They feel upset that they are having to learn English paper writing skills that do not pertain to their futures, and frustrated because they are unable to perform the way they are supposed to. When coupled with the variety of standards different English professors have, the subject is quite difficult.

Personally, I had a very difficult time with the five paragraph essay format because I did not understand how to analyze texts. I had been taught several times, but nothing seemed to click to me. In my high school freshman English class, we were reading “A Tale of Two Cities” and I had a “D” in the class after only a few weeks in. I was a straight “A” student, but I could not analyze to save my life.

 

The text we were working on was extremely dense and difficult, and I just could not make sense of it.

To help me understand the concept, she had me write a fictional story of my choosing and analyzed it in front of me, without me speaking or giving input. I understood what she was doing. She pulled quotes out from what I said and described them in context. She said what certain words seemed to say about my character or the event, and how events implied a deeper meaning. Not all of what she said was true, but she was able to describe the character in my fictional story as I had pictured him while I was writing. She showed me that any aspect of the piece could be analyzed, from my choice of character gender, to certain literary devices, to the title and beyond.

She created an activity system for me that was completely different from what I had been taught before. I had a goal that made sense to me, personally, as a lover of fiction, and being taught in that context made a huge difference in my grade. I received an “A” in the class, and have continued to improve.

 

To this day, I think of writing essays in this same way, but most people do not. As the text states, “Change is not one-directional. It is accomplished through joint activity” (page 6). Each person’s mind works differently, even if only slightly, and some activities just will not click.