Managing academic literacy practices in specific disciplinary courses: Investigations into students’ learning subject specific knowledge. ERGA Conference Presentation, Adelaide University, September 2012

1. Managing academic literacy practices in
specific disciplinary courses:
Investigations into students’ learning
subject specific knowledge
Dr Peter Mickan
Discipline of Linguistics
University of Adelaide
peter.mickan@adelaide.edu.au
ERGA presentation
Adelaide September, 2012

2. Discipline knowledge & skills
 What is it to be competent in a course?
 How do we conceptualise knowledge & skills in a
discipline?
 How do we screen/select students for competence?
 How do students exhibit competence?
 What do students need to do to become
competent?

3. Preparation for
academic study
 Language competence: a significant factor
in tertiary students’ academic success &
graduates’ workplace effectiveness
 Language preparation in PEP/EAP/ESP
programs
 For discipline specific study, what are the
actual language demands or expectations?

4. Managing disciplinary
discourses
Remediation
 Error identification
 Grammatical focus on discrete items e.g.
punctuation, spelling, sentence structure
 Sentence level analysis

5. General language
competence
 English for academic purposes - a
general language competence
underlying academic work [like general
engineering?]
 But
 Need language specific to an academic
course context - to purpose & task
 How can we investigate this?

6. Subject specific knowledge
Epistemology
 Epistemology: episteme to
know/understand + logos word, speech
 What is it to be a nurse [insert
profession, job] in terms of knowledge &
skills?
 Example of Environmental Impact
Assessment [EIA], in Geographical
Studies

7. Case studies in specific
disciplines
 Postgraduate Curatorial and Museum
Studies
 Masters in Environmental Policy and
Management
 Environmental Impact Assessment [EIA]
 Postgraduate Nursing

8. Environmental Impact Assessment
course
Topic Aims Learning Outcomes/Graduate
Attributes
1. Develop and understanding of 1. Explain the history, context,
the purpose, process and methods and various stages of the
methods of EIA EIA process
2. Show the critical role of EIA 2. Comprehend the role of EIA in
processes indifferent states of environmental management and for
Australia and in other countries achieving the goal of sustainable
development
3. highlight the variability of EIA 3. critically assess the usefulness,
processes in different states of strengths and limitations of the EIA
Australia and in other countries process
4. draw attention to the strengths 4. Discuss the social, ecological,
and weaknesses of the EIA political and economic dimensions
process of the EIA process
5. further develop critical thinking 5. communicate effectively about
skills or ecological literacy in concepts, ideas and issues of the
regard to developmental and EIA process
environmental issues

9. EIA literacy resources
 Reading materials for students:
representations of Geography and
Environmental Studies:
 EIA Course Guide: Course Information,
Study skills, Course Resources, Details of
Assignment Tasks, Assessment
Guidelines, Lecture and Seminar details
etc.
 Readings: journals, text books, articles
 Seminar handouts

10. EIA literacy events
Geography and Environmental Studies students
engage in the following literacy practices:
 • Classroom discussion-open class, small group
 • Listening to Lectures/Seminars
 • Social chatting between the students
 • Asking questions (tutor, each other);
 Discussing class requirements &
assessment/assignment requirements;
Different texts for different purposes: oral,
written, formal, informal text types

11. EIA text extract for analysis
 China’s EIA system has made much progress to
develop a framework of environmental laws,
regulations and procedures during the last three
decades, while there are some deficiencies in the
statutory framework. China’s government is keeping
to improve its institutional capacity for managing the
environment. China’s 2003 EIA Law can be regarded
as a significant step towards a more effective
environmental management system in China (Wang,
2003). However, in China’s 2003 EIA Law there are
two design limitations needed to be improved: 1) a
limited scope 3) an ambiguous role for environmental
authorities in regulating EIA. (Excerpt 2)

12. Theories of language & learning:
Socialisation & semiotic
 Social theory of language learning: Halliday (1978)
Language as social semiotic—a resource for making
meanings
 Knowledge: “to “know” something is to have transformed
it into meaning, and what we call “understanding” is the
process of that transformation” (Halliday in Webster (ed):
2)

13. Becoming a Nurse:
the lecture
Okawa case study: analysed in detail selected
literacy events & practices of a student nurse, one
being the lecture:
 pre-reading (textbooks),
 fill in the blanks in textbook,
 Note taking during lecture
 Viewing power point after lecture (visuals &
technical terminology)
 Video-streaming of lecture after lecture plus note-
taking (Okawa 2008)

14. Nursing (cont.) Tutorial &
workshop
Literacy practices:
•video-streaming of physical assessment,
•Multiple choice questions,
•participating in the pair-work and group work,
•Viewing the mechanism of the body using dummy
& visual aids,
•Note taking,
•Reading & documenting during the Physical
assessment

15. Literacy events in nursing

16. Making meanings with texts +
Building discourse skills
Language in context
With discipline skills
Text awareness - analysis of text types
Focused instruction related to purpose of texts

17. Texts in a nursing lecture
Printed study plan.
Printed textbooks:
Text types- Explanation
- Diagrams.
Power Point Presentation.
Information on white board :
Vocabulary
Diagram
J1’s lecture notes.
Displayed electronic text.
Lecture displayed in electronic mode.
Lecture notes written by J1.

18. Academic action!
 Investigate!
 What is your subject or course on about? The
epistemology?
 What knowledge/skills?
 What literacy practices?
 What texts & discourses?
 What awareness of literacy expectations?
 Reflection! Collaboration! Knowledge-building!

19. Thanks
 Thanks to PhD and MA Applied
Linguistics Students in the Academic
Literacies Research Group
 In particular thanks to Kateryna
Katsman & Thomas Wanner for use of
EIA data and Toshi Okawa

20. Further reading
 References
 Halliday, M. (1978). Language as social semiotic:
the social interpretation of language and meaning.
London: Edward Arnold.
 Mickan, P. (2012) Language Curriculum Design and
Socialisation. Brighton, UK: Multilingual Matters.
 Mickan, P. (in presss) Social Semiotics and
Academic Literacies: An Epistemological Approach
to The Study of Disciplinary Discourses.
International Journal of Innovation in ELT and
Research, Vol. 2: 2-12

21. Professional choices?
 Academic dependency?
 Innovation? Knowledge creation?
 Exploit technology
 Create curriculum, build knowledge,
collaborate & empower students & ourselves
 Please join in our research!
 peter.mickan@adelaide.edu.au

22. Inquiry: action research,
reflective practitioner
 Research identity & professional practice
 Practitioner managed
 Classroom research
 Qualitative/naturalistic studies
 Relevant investigations
 Collaborative—in community
 Resource-based—people + information
 Documentation & reporting

23. Language learning—why
inquiry-based instruction?
 Multiple, conflicting theories: cognitive,
structural, behaviourist, acquisition v.
learning, naturalistic, social theory,
acquisition v. learning etc
 Contradictory research methods: quantitative,
experimental, ethnographic, naturalistic, case
study etc.
 ????????????????????????????

24. Sttudents’ experiences of
learning languages
 Universal, normal-shared experiences
& knowledge of language

25. Texts in a nursing lecture
 Printed study plan.
 Printed textbooks:
 Text types- Explanation
 - Diagrams.
 Power Point Presentation.
 Information on white board :
 Vocabulary
 Diagram
 J1’s lecture notes.
 Displayed electronic text.
 Lecture displayed in electronic mode.
 Lecture notes written by J1.