Browsing by Subject "academic literacy"

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    Academic literacy curriculum renewal at a South African university: A case study
    (Journal for Language Teaching, 2015) Sebolai, Kabelo; Huff, Lindsay
    he number of students admitted by universities in South Africa has grown tremendously in the past two to three decades. Most of these students, however, graduate from high school without having gained the academic literacy ability required for success at university. A result of this has been that the students struggle to handle the demands of university education in English, the medium of instruction at these institutions. This causes them to fail to complete their studies in the scheduled time and even to drop out. South African universities have responded to this challenge by introducing academic literacy programmes to help the students bridge the language gap between high school and university. These universities spend large sums of money on academic literacy development requirements such as teachers, learning materials and general administration. It is important therefore that the academic literacy courses offered by such universities are effectively designed and taught. The Central University of Technology (CUT) introduced its first academic language programme in 2007. To date, three academic language courses have been offered under the auspices of this programme. The first of these courses was borrowed from another university and was taught at CUT until the end of 2009. The second one was developed by the academic language development staff inside CUT and was introduced at the beginning of 2010. The whole of 2013 was spent on designing and developing yet another academic language course inside the university, which was introduced in January 2014. This paper is a case study of the curriculum renewal process that went into this project.
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    Entry-level students' reading abilities and what these abilities might mean for academic readiness
    (Language Matters, 2014-12-23) Cliff, Alan
    he National Benchmark Tests Project (NBTP) was commissioned by Higher Education South Africa and became operational in 2009. One of the main aims of the NBTP is to assess the extent to which entry-level students might be said to be ready to cope with the conventional demands of academic study in three key areas: academic literacy; quantitative literacy; and mathematics. This paper presents an analysis of the academic literacy readiness of a sample of registered students as reflected in their performance on the NBT in Academic Literacy, a standardised assessment developed in the context of the wider project. The paper presents a theoretical analysis of the construct of academic literacy as operationalised in the test. This is followed by a categorised empirical analysis of test-takers’ performance on the test, in which the levels of academic readiness of these test-takers are presented and discussed. The argument presented highlights the diverse range of academic literacy levels of entry-level students, as well as implying the teaching and learning interventions that might be necessary to improve readiness. Concluding comments argue that some groups of students may be unable to cope with conventional academic literacy demands in the absence of explicit intervention.
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    A Guide to Reading and Writing at University
    (2015-12-19) Ojiambo, Melina; Chinaka, Michelle; Karigambe, Frank
    At University you will be expected to write well thought out texts (or written assignments). The goal of writing is to communicate ideas clearly and concisely. Right from the beginning, the reader should have a good understanding of what your text is about and why you are writing it. They should be able to see the central idea (or argument) of your text (assignment) and be able to identify the main ideas or points in your argument. Therefore, your text needs to have a clear structure from the beginning to the end with a strong introduction, a well-structured body (with paragraphs) and a clear conclusion. The ideas in your assignment should flow logically from one to the next and support your central argument. At university you will also be expected to integrate the thoughts and ideas of other authors in your texts (assignments). It is therefore important to know how to select, read and understand different kinds of academic texts (e.g. journal articles and textbooks). It is also important to know how to integrate the ideas of other authors in your text. The first two chapters of this workbook look at these key issues. The chapters that follow look at how to achieve clarity in your writing and begin by looking at how to plan your assignments (chapter 3) and how to develop a strong argument (chapter 4). Following this, chapter 5 discusses how to write strong introductions and conclusions, while chapter 6 looks at how to structure the body of your assignments and improve the flow of ideas within your text. The final chapter in this workbook (chapter 7) looks at how you can make your thoughts (or opinions) clear to the reader as you write texts.
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    A multimodal approach to academic literacy practices: problematising the visual/verbal divide
    (Taylor & Francis, 2006) Archer, Arlene
    There has tended to be an overemphasis on the teaching and analysis of the mode of writing in 'academic literacies' studies, even though changes in the communication landscape have engendered an increasing recognition of the different semiotic dimensions of representation. This paper tackles the logocentrism of academic literacies and argues for an approach which recognises the interconnection between different modes, in other words, a 'multimodal' approach to pedagogy and to theorising communication. It explores multimodal ways of addressing unequal discourse resources within the university with its economically and culturally diverse student body. Utilising a range of modes is a way of harnessing the resources that the students bring with them. However, this paper does not posit multimodality as an alternative way of inducting students into academic writing practices. Rather, it explores what happens when different kinds of 'cultural capital' (Bourdieu, 1991) encounter a range of generic forms, modes and ways of presenting information. It examines how certain functions are distributed across modes in students' texts in a first year engineering course in a South African university (specifically scientific discourse and student affect) and begins to problematise the visual/verbal distinction.
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    The National Benchmark Test in Academic Literacy: How might it be used to support teaching in higher education?
    (Taylor & Francis, 2015) Cliff, Alan
    The National Benchmark Test in Academic Literacy is designed to assess the ability of first-year students to cope with the typical language-of-instruction, academic reading and reasoning demands they will face on entry to higher education. Drawing on quantitative data, this paper reports on the overall performance levels of a large-scale (n = 6500) national sample of test-takers who took the test as applicants for the 2013 intake into higher education. Overall test-taker performance is disaggregated by performance on sub-scales of the overall construct of academic literacy. The argument is made that the National Benchmark Test provides a framework for a nuanced and practicable understanding of test-takers’ academic literacy ‘proficiencies’. The conclusion to the paper evaluates the extent to which the test enables higher education lecturers’ greater engagement with students’ academic literacy shortcomings and with research-led information aimed at the improvement of teaching and learning.
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    Tensions between textbook pedagogy and the literacy practices of the disciplinary community: a study of writing in first year economics
    (Elsevier Ldt, 2007) Paxton, Moragh
    This paper describes aspects of a research project which used linguistic and intertextual analysis of student writing to investigate the relationship between the academic curriculum and student voice in a first year economics course at a South African university. I argue that the discourses and practices of first year university economics textbooks provide a model of literacy practices which contradict many of the literacy practices of the discipline of economics. The first year economics textbook in particular, rather than exposing students to a variety of arguments and encouraging the development of critical reading skills appropriate for academic contexts, tends to be single voiced. This gives the impression of consensus in the discipline and it may encourage rote learning and plagiarism. This argument is supported with data from a research project.