Becoming Academically Literate in South Africa: Lessons from Student Accounts for Policymakers and Educators  

Oleh:

Leibowitz, Brenda

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Language and Education (Full Text) vol. 18 no. 1 (2004), page 35-52.
Fulltext: Vol. 18, No. 1, p 35-52.pdf (252.42KB)

Isi artikel

This paper reports on a series of studies undertaken at the University of theWestern Cape, South Africa, in the 1990s.The studies explorehow students acquire academic literacy in the home and community, school and at university. The main focus is on the literacy biographies of 36 students who come from a variety of educational, linguistic and socio-economic backgrounds. These biographies are discussed in relation to a set of essays produced by the students. The paper demonstrates the range of elements informing the acquisition of academic literacy of the students, including proficiency in the dominant language (English), access to literacymaterials, attitude, ways with words and level of participation in literacy events in the various sites. The juxtaposition of the literacy biographies with the analysis of the student texts demonstrates that the students’ literacy backgrounds inform their academicwriting, and that this is discernible in the texts. The final section demonstrates how research into students’ literacy backgrounds can inform the planning and course design of teachersand lecturers, aswell as informpolicy development at the national level.

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