Academic Literacy Development

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Development ◽  
Academic Literacy

scholarly journals Academic literacy across the curriculum: Towards a collaborative instructional approach

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Wingate
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Literacy Development ◽  
Intervention Study ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Conference Theme

I respond to the conference theme ‘English across the Curriculum’ by suggesting that ‘Academic literacy’ should be taught across the curriculum. I first explain the concept of academic literacy, which describes the range of abilities that students have to acquire when starting out in a new academic discipline. I then discuss the dominant instructional provision at universities. As this provision fails to address students’ real learning needs, I argue for curriculum-integrated academic literacy instruction that is based on the collaboration between English for academic purposes (EAP) specialists and subject lecturers. I provide examples of collaborative, discipline-specific approaches to supporting student learning, and present some insights from an intervention study that I have carried out to explore feasible ways of teaching and collaboration. Finally, I discuss the need for lecturer training to achieve a curriculum-integrated approach, and report on my experience of running a professional development module which aimed to enable lecturers to embed academic literacy development into their teaching practice.

scholarly journals Academic Literacy Development: What Does It Entail for Multilingual Scholars?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Laura-Mihaela Muresan ◽  
Concepción Orna-Montesinos
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Literacy Development ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Research Writing ◽  
Multiple Dimensions ◽  
Multilingual Scholars

AbstractIn the introductory chapter, Muresan and Orna-Montesinos provide an overview of the multiple dimensions of academic literacy development, with a focus on its relevance for plurilingual scholars engaged in academic research writing and publishing processes. They situate the ethnographic and pedagogical studies presented in the subsequent chapters within a cognitive/socio-cultural theoretical framework, providing insights into higher education and academic literacy in glocal contexts.

scholarly journals A decade of embedding: Where are we now?

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-25
Author(s):  
Anna M. Maldoni ◽  
◽  
Emmaline L. Lear ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Student Learning ◽  
Literacy Development ◽  
English Language ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Specific Model ◽  
Reading Program ◽  
Support Program ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Comparative Results ◽  
The Impact

Over the last 10 years the higher education sector has undergone a myriad of changes both in student demographics and the influx of international students. With these changes, concerns about the ability of students to meet the English language and academic demands of tertiary study have come to the forefront. This paper reports on a project of embedding academic literacy into nine units across four disciplines, which spanned the duration of a decade. The paper documents the process by which the Unit Support Program (USP) evolved from a discipline-based reading program in a university preparation context to an embedded, integrated and team-taught approach in the university mainstream. It sought to determine whether the introduction of the program improved student learning in the discipline, specifically in English language and academic literacy development. Using data drawn from over 2500 students relating to progression rates, final grades, participation levels, and qualitative data relating to student and staff perceptions, this longitudinal study demonstrated a positive relationship between embedding academic literacy in the disciplines and student learning. The added benefit of academic socialisation for staff is also a reported result of this study. Although significant ongoing institutional support is needed, this paper advocates that an embedded, integrated and team-taught model should be incorporated into the first year of study. Using a case study approach, this paper firstly explains the rationale to embed language and academic literacy development within disciplinary contexts; the framework from which the Unit Specific Model emanated; and the team teaching approach used in the delivery of the Unit Support Program (USP) across a variety of disciplines. It considers the comparative results for both participating and non-participating groups, and the impact of collaboration across the faculty on the success of USP. Finally the paper recommends strategies for the long term sustainability of these programs.

Conceptualisations and pedagogical practices of academic literacy in Namibian higher education

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lukas Homateni Julius
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Literacy Development ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Academic Development ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Genre Theory ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Institutional Types

The purpose of this study was to investigate academic literacy development lecturers’ conceptualisations of academic literacy and resultant pedagogical practices in academic development courses at three different Higher Education Institutional types in Namibia. The research sites were a Traditional University, a University of Technology and a Comprehensive University. The focus was to understand the extent to which the academics’ conceptions of academic literacy and the resultant pedagogical practices in the academic development courses at these three Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) facilitate epistemological access into students’ chosen fields of study. Bernstein’s Pedagogical theory (1990), Genre theory (1996) and Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (1978) were used as the study’s theoretical lenses and analytical framework. An interpretative paradigm and a qualitative case study design were employed as the research approach. Semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and documentary evidence were used to generate data. Research findings revealed a common (mis)conception of the nature of academic literacy, the resultant inadequate learning support offered to students in the selected academic literacy development courses, and a clear divorcing of academic literacy interventions from the students’ ‘home’ or mainstream disciplines at the three HEIs. The participants understood academic literacy from an autonomous position as a set of generic skills which could be taught outside of mainstream classes. Moreover, findings revealed that this understanding impacted on the design and assessments of all the academic literacy courses across the three universities under study. The study calls for a context sensitive model through which academic literacy acquisition can be scaffolded to meet the discipline-specific epistemological needs of the students.

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