EXPLORING STUDENT AND LECTURER PERSPECTIVES ON ACADEMIC WRITING: A CASE STUDY AT THE CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, SOUTH AFRICA
Abstract
This study explores the perceptions of students and lecturers regarding the Academic Literacy Course (ALC) at the Central University of Technology (CUT), South Africa. Academic literacy encompasses critical skills for effective communication, while academic writing provides a structured framework for presenting ideas, arguments, and research. The study investigates attitudes toward the course's relevance, effectiveness, and its impact on students' academic writing abilities. Using a qualitative approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with students who completed the course and lecturers from the Communication Sciences Department. Thematic analysis revealed recurring patterns and insights from participants. Findings indicate that both students and lecturers value academic literacy as essential for academic writing success. Participants highlighted the course’s focus on critical reading, writing, information literacy, and communication skills, expressing predominantly positive opinions. However, a majority of students (90%) and lecturers (80%) emphasized the need for tailored content and additional resources to address specific academic writing challenges. The study provides valuable insights into the strengths and areas for improvement in the ALC. It suggests that a more discipline-specific approach, incorporating relevant terminology and practices, could better align with students' academic needs. Recommendations include redesigning the course to integrate discipline-specific content and adapting it for both in-person and online delivery. These findings have significant implications for curriculum development, offering strategies to enhance the course’s effectiveness in fostering students' academic literacy and writing proficiency.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Amaechi, A., Bennett, C., Kafilatu, G., Kayit, I., Lillyman, S., Okeke, J., & Paticiente, T. (2013). Laying down the foundations for international student journey. Students as Academic Partners Project Report, Worcester Journal of Learning and Teaching(8).
Andrade, H. L. (2019). A critical review of research on student self-assessment. Frontiers in Education, 4, 87. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2019.00087
Aurini, J. D., Heath, M., & Howells, S. (2016). The how to of qualitative research. London, UK: Sage.
Bailey, R. (2018). Student writing and academic literacy development at university. Journal of Learning and Student Experience, 1(7). https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:155350883
Bilikozen, N. (2019). The case of “underdeveloped” academic literacy skills of undergraduates: Contrasting perspectives. International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, 11(2), 199–223. Retrieved from http://ijci.wcci-international.org
Blommaert, J. (2016). The conservative turn in linguistic landscape studies.
Boughey, C. (2013). What are we thinking of? A critical overview of approaches to developing academic literacy in South African higher education. Journal for Language Teaching, 47(2), 25–42. https://doi.org/10.4314/jlt.v47i2.2
Boughey, C. (2021). The structure and nature of the research field on teaching and learning in South African higher education. South African Research Chair on Teaching and Learning Research Report, 4.
Boughey, C., & McKenna, S. (2016). Academic literacy and the decontextualised learner. Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning, 4(2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v4i2.80
Butler, G. (2013). Discipline-specific versus generic academic literacy interventions for university education: An issue of impact? Journal for Language Teaching, 71–88. https://doi.org/10.4314/jlt.v47i2.4
Butler, A., Butler, G., & Schutte, N. (2022). Minding summaries: The development of a summary map rubric for an academic literacy intervention. Journal for Language Teaching, 56(2). https://doi.org/10.56285/jltVol56iss2a5624
Cai, L. J. (2013). Students’ perceptions of academic writing: A needs analysis of EAP in China. Asian-focused ELT Research and Practice: Voices from the Far Edge, 5–22. https://doi.org/10.5746/LEiA/13/V4/I1/A2/Cai
Chen, Q., Zhang, Q., Yu, F., & Hou, B. (2023). Investigating structural relationships between professional identity, learning engagement, academic self-efficacy, and university support: Evidence from tourism students in China. Behavioural Sciences, 14(1), 26. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14010026
Chokwe, J. M. (2022). Staff and students' perceptions and acceptance of an e-learning management system at a distance education institution (Doctoral dissertation, University of Leicester).
Conteh, B. G. (2020). Using digital technologies to enhance first-year students’ learning in a communication and academic literacy skills course at the University of Botswana (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia).
Conti, M., LaMance, R., & Miller-Cochran, S. (2017). Cultivating change from the ground up: Developing a grassroots programmatic assessment. Composition Forum, 37.
Deveraux, L., & Wilson, K. (2008). Scaffolding literacies across the Bachelor of Education program: An argument for a course-wide approach. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 36, 121–134.
Durrant, P. (2014). Discipline and level specificity in university students’ written vocabulary. Applied Linguistics, 35(3), 328–356. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amt016
Elliott, V. (2018). Thinking about the coding process in qualitative data analysis. Qualitative Report, 23(11), 2850–2861.
Eybers, O. (2015). From mechanist to critical realist interrogations of academic literacy facilitation in extended degree programmes. South African Journal of Higher Education, 29(1), 79–90. https://doi.org/10.10520/EJC172797
Flower, L., & Hayes, J. R. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. CCC, 32(4), 365–387. https://doi.org/10.2307/356600
Fouche, I., van Dyk, T., & Butler, G. (2017). An enlightening course that empowers first-years? A holistic assessment of the impact of a first-year academic literacy course. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 27, 14–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2017.02.006
Galloway, N., & Rose, H. (2018). Incorporating global Englishes into the ELT classroom. ELT Journal, 72(1), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccx010
Hitge, E. S. E. (2019). An evaluation of an academic literacy programme among first-year education students specialising in languages at a university of technology. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11462/2202
Holmes, B., Waterbury, T., Baltrinic, E., & Davis, A. (2018). Angst about academic writing: Graduate students at the brink. Retrieved from https://openriver.winona.edu/educationeddfacultyworks/5
Jacobs, C. (2007). Towards a critical understanding of the teaching of discipline-specific academic literacies: Making the tacit explicit. Journal of Education, 41, 59–81.
Khumalo, N. P., & Maphalala, M. C. (2018). Students’ perspectives on the role played by academic literacy in the higher education curriculum of South Africa. Journal of Gender, Information and Development in Africa, 7(1), 155–173. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-eea0e5573
Liao, Q., & Wong, Y. L. (2019). An emotional journey: Pursuing a bachelor’s degree for rural students in four elite universities in Shanghai, PRC. Cambridge Journal of Education, 49(6), 711–725. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2019.1592114
Marais, S., Nel, M., & Fourie, J. (2020). Student perception on a supplementary multimodal tool for academic literacy: A pilot study. Journal for Language Teaching, 54(1), 73–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jlt.v53i2.4
Mahaye, N. E. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on education: Navigating forward the pedagogy of blended learning. Research Online, 5(1), 4–9.
McCurdy, S. A., & Ross, M. W. (2018). Qualitative data is not just quantitative data with text but data with context: On the dangers of sharing some qualitative data. Qualitative Psychology, 5(3), 409–411. https://doi.org/10.1037/qup0000088
McMillan, J. H., & Schumacher, S. (2010). Research in education: Evidence-based inquiry. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Meehan, C., & Howells, K. (2018). What really matters to freshers? Evaluation of first-year student experience of transition into university. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 42(7), 893–907. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2017.1323194
Mgqwashu, E., & Bengesai, A. (2015). Exploring an analytical framework for a discursive construction of teaching and learning: The case of academic literacy in an engineering faculty. South African Journal of Higher Education, 29(4), 211–227. https://doi.org/10.20853/29-4-503
Millin, T., & Millin, M. (2014). Scaffolding academic literacy using the reading to learn intervention: An evaluative study of a tertiary education context in South Africa. Per Linguam: A Journal for Language Learning, 30(3), 26–38. https://doi.org/10.5785/30-3-590
Nizonkiza, D., & van Dyk, T. (2015). Academic literacy of South African higher education level students: Does vocabulary size matter? Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics, 44, 147–174. https://doi.org/10.5774/44-0-159
Ntereke, B. B., & Ramoroka, B. T. (2017). Reading competency of first-year undergraduate students at the University of Botswana: A case study. Reading & Writing-Journal of the Reading Association of South Africa, 8(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/rw.v8i1.123
Ntereke, B. B., & Ramoroka, B. T. (2018). Towards developing academic writing support for graduate students: An emic perspective of postgraduate academic writing needs and experiences at the University of Botswana.
Patton, M. Q. (2014). Qualitative research & evaluation methods: Integrating theory and practice. Sage Publications.
Peterson, J. S. (2019). Presenting a qualitative study: A reviewer’s perspective. Gifted Child Quarterly, 63(3), 147–158. https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986219844789
Pineteh, E. A. (2014). The academic writing challenges of undergraduate students: A South African case study. International Journal of Higher Education, 3(1), 12–22. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v3n1p12
Rowe, A. D., Fitness, J., & Wood, L. N. (2015). University student and lecturer perceptions of positive emotions in learning. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 28(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2013.847506
Ruslin, R., Mashuri, S., Rasak, M. S. A., Alhabsyi, F., & Syam, H. (2022). Semi-structured interview: A methodological reflection on the development of a qualitative research instrument in educational studies. IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education (IOSR-JRME), 12(1), 22–29. https://doi.org/10.9790/7388-1201052229
Scholtz, D. (2016). Improving writing practices of students’ academic literacy development. Journal for Language Teaching, 50(2), 37–55. https://doi.org/10.4314/jlt.v50i2.2
Sebolai, K. (2014). Evaluating academic literacy teaching at a South African university: A case study of an academic literacy programme. Journal for Language Teaching, 48(1), 51–69. https://doi.org/10.4314/jlt.v48i1.3
Sebolai, K. (2016). Distinguishing between English proficiency and academic literacy in English. Language Matters, 47(1), 45–60.
Sebolai, K., & Huff, L. (2015). Academic literacy curriculum renewal at a South African university: A case study. Journal for Language Teaching, 333–351. Retrieved from https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jlt/article/view/122879
Solikhah, I. (2015). Reading and writing as academic literacy in EAP programs of Indonesian learners. Dinamika Ilmu, 15(2), 325–341. https://doi.org/10.21093/di.v15i2.261
Tardy, C. M., Reed, K., Slinkard, J. R., & LaMance, R. (2021). Exploring global Englishes content and language variation in an academic writing course. TESOL Journal, 12(1), e00520. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.520
Terry, G., Hayfield, N., Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2017). Thematic analysis. In The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology (2nd ed., pp. 17–37). https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526405555.n2
Vaismoradi, M., Turunen, H., & Bondas, T. (2013). Content analysis and thematic analysis: Implications for conducting a qualitative descriptive study. Nursing & Health Sciences, 15(3), 398–405. https://doi.org/10.1111/nhs.12048
Vaismoradi, M., Jones, J., Turunen, H., & Snelgrove, S. (2016). Theme development in qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 6(5). https://doi.org/10.5430/jnep.v6n5p100
Van Dyk, T., & van de Poel, K. (2013). Towards a responsible agenda for academic literacy: Considerations that will benefit students and society. Journal for Language Teaching, 47(2), 43–70. https://doi.org/10.4314/jlt.v47i2.3
Van Dyk, T., & van de Poel, K. (2015). Discipline-specific academic literacy and academic integration. In R. Wilkinson & M. L. Walsh (Eds.), Integrating content and language in higher education (pp. 161–180). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-653-05109-4
Wickham, H., & Wickham, H. (2016). Data analysis. In Springer International Publishing (pp. 189–201). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24277-4_9
Wu, Z. (2023). Interaction and second language development in EFL based on scaffolding theory. Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, 8, 791–796. https://doi.org/10.54097/ehss.v8i.4359
Zhou, J., Zhao, K., & Dawson, P. (2020). How first-year students perceive and experience assessment of academic literacies. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 45(2), 266–278. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2019.1637513
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30743/ll.v8i2.10165
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Fakultas Sastra
Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara (UISU), Medan
Jl. Sisingamangaraja Teladan Medan 20217
Telp. (061) 7869911, e-mail: language_literacy@sastra.uisu.ac.id