integrating academic lit (ac excellence forum)

Integrating academic literacy into the curriculum

Luciano Celini and Gillian Lazar

Learner Development Unit [email protected]

© Middlesex University

LDU: What do we do?

• Academic Writing and English Language Development (AWL)

• Maths, Stats & Numeracy Support (MSNS)


Academic Writing & Language

• Who we are:

Specialists in academic communication

• What we do:

Run sessions on writing as part of students’ degrees (i.e. embedded within modules/programmes)

Run voluntary AWL courses / workshops

Give confidential one-to-one tutorials (30 mins)

• We can help your students to:

Write assignments and improve their spoken and written communication

• We can help you to embed academic literacy in the curriculum:

- by coming into your modules and working alongside you

- by meeting up to discuss ways of improving academic literacy


Academic Writing & Language

• We work confidentially with all students:

– Students with English as 1st language

– Students with English as a 2nd language

– Students with English as an additional Language

–Anyone!

• Our services are free! Contact:

–Unihelp

–Website http://unihub.mdx.ac.uk/study/ldu

– Email [email protected]

–Online tutorial/workshop booking systems

–Call 0208 411 4609

mailto:[email protected]


LDU Website


Linguistic ethnography(e.g. Rampton, et al. 2004)

Informing AWL Provision (with thanks to our colleagues Peter Thomas and Paula Bernaschina)

Situated learning (Lave and Wenger 1991)

Discourse Analysis(e.g. Fairclough 1992)

Study Skills(e.g. Cottrell 2001; Murray 2011)

Composition studies / writing development (e.g. Elbow 1998; Bereiter & Scardamalia 1987)

Argument(e.g. Mitchell & Andrews 2000;)

Critical Pedagogy(e.g. Friere 1996; Giroux 2011)

Corpus Linguistics(e.g. Sinclair 1991; Biber et al 1998)

CLIL / ICL(e.g. Jacobs 2005 & 2010)

WiD / WAC(e.g. Bazerman, et al. 2005; Deane & O’Neil 2011)

Functional systemic linguistics(Halliday 1995)

Genre Analysis(e.g. Swales 2004; Nesi & Gardner 2012 )

EAP / Critical EAP / ESP(e.g. Alexander et al. 2008; Turner 2011; Benesch 2001; Pennycook 1997)

Discipline-specific writing(e.g. Medway 1996; Lees-Maffei 2012)

Academic literacies(e.g. Lea & Street 1998; Lillis 2003)


Thought for the day

‘Every time a student sits down to write for us...he has to learn to speak our language, to speak as we do, to try on the particular ways of knowing, selecting, evaluating, reporting, concluding and arguing that define the discourse of our community. Or perhaps I should say the various discourses of our community, since....a student...must work within fields where the rules governing the presentation of examples or development of an argument are both distinct, and even to the professional, mysterious.’

Bartholomae (1985:134); cited in Johns, A. (1997) Text, Role and Context: Developing Academic Literacies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Making the tacit visible

‘Every time a student sits down to write for us...he has to learn to speak our language, to speak as we do, to try on the particular ways of knowing, selecting, evaluating, reporting, concluding and arguing that define the discourse of our community. Or perhaps I should say the various discourses of our community, since....a student...must work within fields where the rules governing the presentation of examples or development of an argument are both distinct, and even to the professional, mysterious.’

-What are the different discourses of your community of practice? Can you describe them in an explicit way to an outsider?

- What forms of ‘evidence’ count as a valid argument in your discipline?

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An example from Land Law (LLB 3rd year)

As the bungalow is a registered estate, Brian must register the transfer of the property (1). If Brian fails to register it, the legal title will remain with Alice, leaving Brian as the equitable owner (2) of the property, since section 27(1) of the Land Registration Act 2002 (LRA) provides that legal title does not pass until it has been registered.

(1) Land Registration Act 2002, section 27(2)(a)

(2) Mackenzie, J. And Phillips, M., Textbook on Land Law, 13th ed (Oxford University Pres, 2010), pg. 103

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Genre: Problem questions

As the bungalow is a registered estate, Brian must register the transfer of the property. If Brian fails to register it, the legal title will remain with Alice, leaving Brian as the equitable owner of the property, since section 27(1) of the Land Registration Act 2002 (LRA) provides that legal title does not pass until it has been registered.

10


Language: Appropriate use of specific legal terms


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Language: Appropriate use of legal collocations and phrases


to register the transfer

legal title remains

equitable owner

the Act provides that

legal title passes

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Argument: Selection of relevant content to back up claims


13


Referencing: Accurate use of appropriate referencing systems

As the bungalow is a registered estate, Brian must register the transfer of the property (1). If Brian fails to register it, the legal title will remain with Alice, leaving Brian as the equitable owner (2) of the property, since section 27(1) of the Land Registration Act 2002 (LRA) provides that legal title does not pass until it has been registered.

(1) Land Registration Act 2002, Section 27(2)(a)

(2) Mackenzie, J. And Phillips, M., Textbook on Land Law, 13th ed (Oxford University Pres, 2010), pg. 103

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The different ways we collaborate with staff

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Single session or series of sessions delivered by LDU

staff within a module

LDU staff collaborate with academics to design

materials, but don’t teach

Academics adapt our materials to deliver their

own sessions (Repository)


Our ways of working

Close collaboration with staff

• Identification of specific student problems

• Analysis of student handbook and previous examples of student writing

• Analysis of assignment and what is required to complete it

• Where possible, team teaching

Content of sessions

• Discipline-specificity and genre-specificity

• Use of authentic examples of texts (based on what the students read or write, including previous student assignments)

• Interactivity (working in pairs or groups)

• Linguistic focus (‘noticing’ of language)

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HRM1004

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In the revalidation of Business School programmes in 2013:

• The LDU co-designs and co-delivers embedded academic writing across the entire curriculum

• HRM1004 module leader, Sara Calvo, and LDU design a pilot embedded module for first year undergraduate Business and Management students, consisting of team-teaching, writing instruction by subject lecturers and credit-bearing self-access online materials


HRM1004 Embedded Topics

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1) Assessments at university

2) Developing reading skills

3) Learning Techniques

4) Planning and structuring essays

5) Paraphrasing and summarising

6) How to cite and reference

7) Time management questionnaire

8) Reading at university

9) Learning styles questionnaire

10) Referencing tutorial


HRM1004 Example in-class materials (1)

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Characteristics of an argumentative thesis statement:

• makes the claim you are trying to support with evidence

• usually one sentence only

• some people would disagree with the claim

Example: This essay will argue that...

In groups, write a thesis statement for the question below:

Q3. : To what extent does personality predict employee performance?

This essay will argue that...


Abstract

Reading Journal Articles Introduction | 20

Quickly read the abstract from Barrick, Stewart & Piotrowski (2002) and look for the following:

1) The purpose of the text2) The key findings the writers have made



Think


How does this article fit in with the Personality chapter you read in your core textbook?

In groups, look through the textbook chapter and the journal article and note down as many connections as you can.

As you work, note down any information the journal article gives on personality that the book chapter doesn’t.

Do you have any questions about the information? If so, note them.



Summarising the text

In groups, summarise the journal article using this template:

The article discusses...

The authors’ main point is that...

The article also states/notes/observes that...

The authors conclude that...

Therefore, this article is important and interesting to the study of personality because...




HRM1004

Presentation title | 23

© Middlesex University | 26

Method Participants

Secondary data (in-class and

online activities participation

and essay performance)

166 undergraduate students at

Middlesex Business School

Feedback questionnaire 166 undergraduate students at

Middlesex Business School

Focus group discussion 6 participants (GTA, SLA,

module leader, LDU experts

and module tutors)

Action Research on HRM1004


Hypothesis: Students’ participation in both in-class and self-accessonline writing activities is associated with their grades on theiracademic essay.

Pearson’s analysis: There is a statistically significant correlationbetween students’ participation in self-access online and in-classactivities and essay performance.

The findings show a statistically significant correlation betweenstudents’ participation in self-access online and in-class activities andessay performance.

Action Research on HRM1004


75% stated that they enjoyed the in-class and self-access online activitieswith only 6% of the sample disagreeing. 19% of the sample neither agreednor disagreed.

75

6 19

1 2 3

Enjoy the in-class and online activities

Feedback questionnaire


77% stated that in-class and online activities were pitched at the rightlevel, and 18% of the sample neither agreed nor disagreed. Only asmall number of students (5%) disagree or strongly disagree.

77

185

1 2 3

Activities at the right level



While 79% of students either agreed or strongly agreed that the in-class activities helped them increase their knowledge of academicwriting, only 67% of the sample did with the self-access onlineactivities.

79

15

6

67

24

9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1 2 3

Increase their Knowledge




86 82 7771 67

60

1 2 3 4 5 6

In-class activities

In-class activities that were found most useful were: assessments atuniversity (86%), planning and structuring your essay (82%), learning(77%), how to cite and reference (71%), followed by how to useacademic words, reading at university (67%) and how to paraphrase(60%).


Online activities considered most useful were: referencing tutorial (70%),reading at university (66%), followed by learning styles (65%) and timemanagement questionnaire (59%).


70

6665

59

1 2 3 4

Online Activities


Qualitative data (focus group and open space questionnaire)

Positive experience with activities: ‘the activities helped me tobuild my self-confidence with writing’, ‘helpful activities’, ‘Istrongly recommend them’, ‘they were enjoyable andinteresting’

Respondents from the focus group were also keen toemphasise the beneficial aspects of the activities:

• “Well, I can see that students have benefited from these activities, their academic essays have a better quality than of

students from previous years”.



Differences in perceptions: some students underestimated the importance of academic writing

• “While I appreciate that the course must cater for all students, I expected more content in the module, rather than instructions

on how to write essays”

• “I think some students have benefited more and others less, but overall I can say that even mature students needed academic writing skills ... even if they were mature, they didn’t have the

experience in academic writing”.


Access to additional resources

• “I notice from this module a considerable number of students were booking tutorials, it appears than in comparison with other years, students are more engaged with writing skills”

The experience of teaching academic writing

• “the integration of writing skills is very important but wonder whether we are the right people to teach academic writing”



Conclusions

Overall, a positive experience. However, academic literacycould be more implicitly embedded, so students perceivereading and writing as tools for critical thinking and problemsolving, rather than separable skills.

Practical guidelines needed to help subject lecturers embedacademic literacies in their teaching.

Further research should be conducted:

- A comparative study between an embedded and a non-embedded programme.

- A comparative study to compare different types ofacademic writing embedding across and outsideuniversity.


A jigsaw activity

1. Read the sheet of paper you have received. Do not discuss it yet with anyone else. (Everybody in your group has a different text.)

2. You will have a list of tasks or activities. Evaluate whether or not you could use any of these activities on your module/programme.

3. Describe these tasks or activities to the other members of your group who will have a different list of activities. Explain what skills you think they will develop, and whether or not you would use any of them.

4. As a group, decide on one activity you could use on a module. Be prepared to report back in plenary.

Jigsaw activities work well with students as they promote genuine interaction and exchange of ideas and information.

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Discipline-specific Academic and Writing Development

Co-ordinator for Academic Writing and Language: Nick Endacott ([email protected])

School of Art and Design and School of Media and Performing Arts:

Peter Thomas ([email protected])

School of Health and Education: Alexandra Pitt ([email protected]) and Gemma Wilkinson ([email protected])

School of Business: Luciano Celini ([email protected])

School of Science and Technology: Paula Bernaschina ([email protected])

School of Law: Gillian Lazar ([email protected])

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integrating academic lit (ac excellence forum)

Education

academic communication

academic literaciese

middlesex universitymaking

middlesex university6thought

discourse analysise

students degrees

particular ways

various discourses