EAP & Academic Literacies

The readings on EAP and Academic Literacies have drawn my attention to my own experience when I first entered university as a student. It took a while to understand what academic writing was all about. I had to learn skills of writing academic essays, reports, journals, presentations. Different tutors/lecturers had different expectations, which made things difficult. This makes students confused and a lot of time is spent on learning the guidelines on the academic writing skills and applying them within their own contexts.

The point is that there needs to be assistance provided for the students so that academic writing is made easier. Of course there are academic writing courses being run by universities which are meant to help sutdents. but these writing courses are not always subject specific. This means that the "study skills are divorced from subject content and knowledge" (Wingate, 2006). I have done EAP course which was to a large extent helpful. However, a few things taught were not quite related to my context.

What needs to be done is that the academic skills should be taught within the degree course rather than as a separate course. Wingate (2006) suggests that " a far more effective model is the embedded model, in which skills are developed as an integral part of the study program".


reference:
Wingate, U. (2006). Doing away with 'study skills'. Teaching in Higher Education, 11 (4), 457-469.