Venue: Orchard Commons building, room 1001 – Vantage College. 6363 Agronomy Rd, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4
Open to public.
Discipline-specific approaches to English Language and Academic Literacies provision: A Case Study
Since the publication of seminal work on academic literacies in the late 1990s and early 2000s, associated with the outputs of Brian Street, Mary Lea and other scholars, there has been a gradual shift away from a traditional study skills approach to EAP, which sees academic English in more generic terms and as generalizable across discipline areas, to one that recognises the discipline-specific nature of academic discourse. This lecture will discuss the pluralistic notion of academic literacies and present a case study of the process of embedding academic literacies in Australia, including the political and administrative institutional hurdles that needed to be overcome, and the challenges involved in the process of implementation. The session will outline the way in which the discipline-focused nature of provision was supported by EAP tutors and academic developers in the form of complementary student support activities, professional development activities for academic staff, and access to online resources.
Invited Speaker: Dr. Neil Murray, Associate Professor, University of Warwick
Dr. Neil Murray is an applied linguist and has been involved in language teaching and learning for 30 years in Italy, Japan, Australia and the UK. His research interests include issues of policy and practice relating to English language and academic literacy in English-medium higher education institutions, and in particular the embedding of academic literacies, the benefits and challenges of post-enrolment English language assessment, and the intersection of English language and academic literacy provision and the widening participation agenda. For more information, including publications, visit: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/people/nlmurray/