Equitable Design and Assessment

English academic discourse in U.S. institutions rests on Eurocentric rhetoric where hidden assumptions and expectations may place transnational students at a disadvantage in instruction, assessment, and entrance into communities of practice. The author's empirical research draws on transnational students, faculty, and staff perceptions into linguistically sustaining pedagogy to bring awareness to transnational lived experience and to make recommendations for equitable instruction and assessment. Bakhtin's dialogism and negotiation and the Academic Literacies model provide theoretical frameworks to provide practical recommendations while also examining the negative discourse and deficit-based practices surrounding English learners in American higher education. A discussion of a course redesign highlights possibilities for valuing the transnational student and offering equitable pedagogy while also increasing student investment in language learning.

Assessment of EAP Literacies in Diverse and Multilingual Classrooms

Older views of the English for Academic Purposes Literacies (EAPL) assessment have been in line with the assessment of the four-skills second language (L2) competencies. However, the new understanding is that literacy is not just a cognitive competence of reading and writing but also a set of other purposeful social processes. This understanding makes EAPL assessment multifaceted by calling upon a set of supra-linguistic behaviors, i.e., cognitive and social skills in addition to L2 competencies. This chapter starts with a brief history and the current state of theoretical constructs (of what is actually assessed) of EAPL assessment. It then centers its discussion on different academic literacies models, and the critical issues in measuring EAPL. The author highlights different strategies for planning assessment in the practical applications of academic literacies constructs. The chapter ends with the presentation of useful steps in creating EAPL assessments.

Thinking of doing a doctorate? : Reflections from a Tertiary Learning Advisor perspective

This article considers the desirability of the doctorate for a tertiary learning advisor (TLA), explains the process and experience of doctoral study, and affirms how doctoral study can enhance the effectiveness of a TLA in developing students’ academic literacies. Effectiveness relates not only to the pedagogical relationship between a TLA and students, but to enhanced visibility and credibility of the TLA and their team within their institution. But what is the doctoral journey actually like? This article will be of interest to curious individuals who may have wondered what the doctorate involves in terms of time and commitment, and whether the benefits outweigh the costs. This article seeks to demystify the process and encourage neophyte researchers who may be considering a qualitative project. Using an autoethnography approach, I take as a case study my own doctoral journey, touching on my initial motivation and sharing candid insights on the challenges and milestones as I perceived them. These insights are shared through a series of brief narratives and reflections, with practical advice offered for each stage of the journey.

English Language Literacies – Practices, Competencies vs Demands in Academic Discourses

The role and position of the English language within the higher education has increasingly plays a significant role as the leading language of academic publications, technologies as well as communication. The higher institutions in the country hold important responsibilities to educate and produce the younger generation of Malaysians as potential human resources that not only fulfil the needs of the local and international workforce in the attempt to achieve the national’s aspiration of a developed country. This study seeks to understand the undergraduate students’ English language literacies in relation to the demand of the literacy practices and competencies needed at the tertiary level. The literacy practices in this instance include academic literacies that encompasses not only knowledge of discrete language skills and appropriate language use in context, but it is to be holistically understood to include also competence in reading and writing. Subsequently, data were collected via questionnaires and focus groups with selected undergraduate from various disciplines to investigate whether their educational and environmental factors influence their existing level of English language competencies.. Findings of the study provides in-depth insights of the challenges faced, and the language literacy practices needed in meeting the expectations of potential employers of the required English language skills to be used at workplace. Peranan dan kedudukan Bahasa Inggeris di peringkat pengajian tinggi semakin meningkat kepentingannya dan telah menjadi antara bahasa utama didalam penerbitan ilmiah, bidang teknologi serta komunikasi. Institusi pengajian tinggi di negara ini memegang tanggungjawab yang utama didalam mendidik dan melahirkan generasi muda warga Malaysia yang berpontensi bagi memenuhi keperluan tenaga kerja yang berkemahiran tinggi di peringkat tempatan dan antarabangsa didalam usaha negara ini mencapai inspirasinya sebagai negara yang membangun. Kajian ini dijalankan untuk memahami keperluan penguasaan amalan literasi dan kecekapan Bahasa Inggeris yang diperlukan oleh pelajar di peringkat Sarjana Muda. Amalan-amalan literasi yang dimaksudkan merujuk kepada penguasaan literasi akademik yang merangkumi bukan saja pengetahuan kemahiran berbahasa serta penggunaan bahasa yang sesuai didalam konteks, malahan juga kecekapan didalam aspek membaca dan menulis. Oleh itu, dapatan data dilakukan melalui kaedah soal selidik secara bersasar kepada sekumpulan pelajar sarjana muda yang berlatar belakangkan pelbagai bidang di dalam mengenalpasti samada pengaruh persekitaran akademik mereka mempengaruhi tahap penguasaan Bahasa Inggeris sedia ada mereka. Hasil kajian memberikan gambaran yang jelas berkaitan cabaran serta amalan literasi bahasa yang diperlukan oleh pelajar sarjana muda didalam memenuhi tahap penguasaan bahasa Inggeris yang diharapkan oleh bakal majikan mereka berkaitan kemahiran Bahasa Inggeris yang diperlukan untuk digunakan di tempat kerja.

Das (verhinderte) Potential der Mehrsprachigkeit

This paper introduces the results of a series of writing workshops about “Mehrsprachig Schreiben” [Multilingual Writing], which took place at the University of Vienna between 2015 and 2017. The article poses the question, how individual, multilingual potentials can be used productively and creatively for the development and enhancements of academic literacies in the tertiary education sector. First it focuses on the linguistic landscapes at Austrian Universities such as the handling of multilingualism in this context, as well as it concerns the framing conditions and challenges of academic writing per se, before it shows the terms of the writing workshops and the methodical and didactical approach in connection with the concept of a multilingual process orientated writing didactic. On the basis of an exercise example (“Meine Sprachen und ich” [My languages and I]) it is responding in the end to the concrete challenges of multilingual academic writing at “German speaking” universities.