Academic literacy across the curriculum: Towards a collaborative instructional approach

• Published in: Language teaching Vol. 51; no. 3; pp. 349 - 364
• Main Author: Wingate, Ursula
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.07.2018
• Subjects: Academic Language; Collaboration; Colleges & universities; Content Area Reading; Curricula; Education reform; English for Academic Purposes; English Instruction; Essays; Faculty Development; Feasibility Studies; Higher education; Integrated approach; Integrated Curriculum; Literacy; Literacy Education; Plenary Speeches; Teacher Collaboration; Teaching; Teaching methods; Writing Across the Curriculum; Writing instruction; United Kingdom > UK; Hong Kong China; China
• ISSN: 0261-4448; 1475-3049
• DOI: 10.1017/S0261444816000264

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.