A writer–respondent intervention as a means of developing academic literacy

Open Praxis, volumen 7 issue 1

“…She contends that talkback focuses on the students' texts as a process, an acknowledgement of the partial nature of any text, an attempt to open up space where the student writer can say what she likes and does not like about what she is expected to make meaning within (Lillis 2006). Bharuthram and McKenna (2006) share the same view. Talkback appears to be a very interactive way of giving feedback where learners are engaged and asked deeper questions regarding their written work as opposed to just giving evaluative comments.…”

Towards Impact Measurement: An Overview of Approaches for Assessing the Impact of Academic Literacy Abilities

“…An additional and sometimes alternative method of determining whether the abilities acquired in a course were transferred to other subjects is by determining students' perceptions regarding the impact of a course (e.g. Mhlongo 2014, Van Dyk et al 2011, Carstens and Fletcher 2009b, Kiely 2009, Storch and Tapper 2009, Van Dyk et al 2009, Archer 2008, Parkinson et al 2008, Bharuthram and Mckenna 2006, Butler and Van Dyk 2004. One danger, however, is that it is very difficult to determine the reliability of perceptual data -just because students say that they have acquired (and transferred) abilities does not mean that this is necessarily the case.…”

“…They also mentioned anecdotal evidence from lecturers. Similarly, Bharuthram and Mckenna (2006) reported on students' perceptions (obtained by means of an evaluation questionnaire) of the success of a writer-respondent intervention at the Durban Institute of Technology. An important limitation of these studies is that no instruments were used to determine whether there was an improvement in students' academic literacy (or language) abilities between the onset and the conclusion of the various interventions.…”

Making inter-disciplinary spaces for talk about and change in student writing and literacy development

“…The many academic values, ideals and practices that create the culture of academia with which new students need to become familiar in order to succeed in higher education are part of us in ways that are not often clear to us. They are, in many ways, our 'ways of being' and we often do not stop to question them, or the way in which we work to uphold them (Bharuthram and McKenna, 2006). We often assume that our ways of knowing, and learning, talking, reading and writing about knowledge, are transparent and easily acquired by students, if they have met the required standards at secondary level.…”

“…i Sharita Bharuthram and Sioux McKenna(2006) comment on disciplinary academics often struggling to step outside of their disciplinary roles and 'headspaces' to consider the academic literacies that are embedded in their disciplinary teaching and writing. Cecilia Jacobs (2007) has also argued extensively for a need for collaboration between academic literacy practitioners and disciplinary academics in order to make the 'tacit' dimensions of learning and teaching more 'explicit'.…”