Arlene Archer

The Web and Information Literacy: Scaffolding the use of Web Sources in a Project-Based Curriculum.

In this article we describe and discuss a three-year case study of a course in web literacy, part of the academic literacy curriculum for first-year engineering students at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Because they are seen as ‘practical’ knowledge, not theoretical, information skills tend to be devalued at university and rendered invisible to the students. In particular, web-searching skills are problematic, given the challenges that the Web poses to academic values and traditional research practices. Consequently, the technical skills of web searching are often taught separately from academic curricula or left entirely unaddressed. We illustrate an alternative, integrated approach to the development of this aspect of information literacy. We apply a critical action research methodology to document, evaluate and reflect on students’ use of evaluative frameworks. Focusing on the facilitation of critical and evaluative use of the Web for exploratory learning, we interrogate the role of ‘cultural capital’ and evaluate the effectiveness of the scaffolding provided by the course design. We find important connections between developing knowledge of academic discourse and successful academic use of the Web, and note that, for students to transfer their skills to a range of contexts, these skills will require sustained attention throughout the undergraduate curriculum. We present evidence that the most effective strategies integrate everyday practical knowledge of research techniques with teaching about academic discourse and building students’ knowledge in a specific domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Multimodal Approach to Academic ‘Literacies’: Problematising the Visual/Verbal Divide

There has tended to be an overemphasis on the teaching and analysis of the mode of writing in ‘academic literacies’ studies, even though changes in the communication landscape have engendered an increasing recognition of the different semiotic dimensions of representation. This paper tackles the logocentrism of academic literacies and argues for an approach which recognises the interconnection between different modes, in other words, a ‘multimodal’ approach to pedagogy and to theorising communication. It explores multimodal ways of addressing unequal discourse resources within the university with its economically and culturally diverse student body. Utilising a range of modes is a way of harnessing the resources that the students bring with them. However, this paper does not posit multimodality as an alternative way of inducting students into academic writing practices. Rather, it explores what happens when different kinds of ‘cultural capital’ (Bourdieu, 1991) encounter a range of generic forms, modes and ways of presenting information. It examines how certain functions are distributed across modes in students’ texts in a first year engineering course in a South African university (specifically scientific discourse and student affect) and begins to problematise the visual/verbal distinction.

Multimodal texts in higher education and the implications for writing pedagogy

Abstract Although studies on writing pedagogy and academic literacies have examined changing genres in tertiary education, there has not necessarily been an emphasis on how a range of modes and media have influenced texts in various disciplines. This paper explores the influence and incorporation of the visual into student texts in Higher Education, looking at the semiotic weighting of modes, conventions and functions of images, visual / verbal linkages and visual composition. These aspects of multimodal texts have implications for the ways in which we teach ‘academic literacies’ practices and writing as multimodal composition to students.

Cultural studies meets academic literacies: exploring students’ resources through symbolic objects

This paper reflects on a first year communication project in a South African engineering foundation programme which attempted to bring a cultural studies perspective to the teaching of academic literacy practices. In the project, students identify everyday objects that have symbolic meanings and examine these in a range of physical, cultural and communicational contexts. These objects are seen as catalysts for enabling student narratives and understandings to emerge. Objects also become a way of exploring notions of culture and cultural practices in the classroom and the tensions between convention and change they often index. This paper focuses on a particular manifestation of this tension, in the form of a moralistic discourse, or a discourse of ‘propriety’. The pedagogical implications of this kind of cultural studies project are explored, including the importance of opening up less regulated spaces to allow different competencies to be validated and, crucially, ways of framing and critiquing students’ resources in order to harness these constructively.

Opening up spaces through symbolic objects: harnessing students' resources in developing academic literacy practices in engineering.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in English Studies in Africa on 30 January 2009. Available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00138390608691349.

Writer\'s stance in disciplinary discourses: A developmental view

An approach to writers stance will differ depending on whether one looks at it from an analytic theoretical perspective or a developmental perspective. This article describes a training activity in the Writing Centre at the University of Cape Town which led the authors to evaluate the concept of writers stance as used in corpus studies against the way it is used by academic literacy practitioners working in developmental fields. Corpus analysts tend to construct a general and theoretical conceptualisation of writers stance, while academic literacy practitioners who work in complex developmental fields focus on what actually happens (or needs to happen) when individual readers or writers grapple with texts within particular social environments such as academic disciplines.

Red socks and purple rain: the political uses of colour in late apartheid South Africa

This article explores the extent to which colour functions as an independent mode in a particular context and explores the culturally produced regularities in the uses of colour in this context. Drawing on a Hallidayan metafunctional view of text, we look at how colour instantiated systems of knowledge and belief (ideational function) and social relations and identities (interpersonal function) in South Africa during the last decade of the apartheid government. In this type of repressive socio-political context, colour was a less policed mode, and thus had different affordances to images and the verbal modes. We argue that colour can function as an independent mode under certain conditions, such as stringent press restrictions, where the use of colour in a range of media (clothing, flags, posters) can play a crucial role in communicating.

Changing spaces: Writing centres and access to higher education

CITATION: Archer, A. & Richards, R. (eds.). 2011. Changing Spaces: Writing Centres and Access to Higher Education. Stellenbosch: AFRICAN SUNMeDIA. doi:10.18820/9781920338602.

Discursive constructions of medical students identities in informal course-based online discussions

Studies into student identity have tended to focus on formal academic writing for assessment purposes. However, this is beginning to change with a shifting academic and semiotic landscape. More and more tertiary institutions are making use of the writing opportunities afforded by the online environment. Online forums are popular as they promote interaction and discussion among students. This change in the academic landscape has allowed for new approaches to studying the discursive constructions of student identity. Using critical discourse analysis, this paper explores how students construct their identities in informal course-based online discussions in Higher Education. It focuses on the various discourses medical students draw on and the language of online communication in identity construction. By providing a site for students to interact with each other, these online discussions provide for a more active curriculum where students are involved in the meaning-making process.

Access and resistance : challenges of using on-line environments to teach academic discursive practices

As our literacy landscape is changing and information and communication technologies (ICTs) are becoming an ineluctable part of our future, we need to become aware of the ways in which technology can be used to enhance our broad educational objectives. A multiplicity of representational and communicative potentials is important to explore in Higher Education in South Africa, where there is still differential access to economic, educational and cultural resources. This study looks at using ICTs to teach certain academic literacy practices within a particular curriculum, a first year course for educationally disadvantaged students in an Engineering Foundation Programme. In particular, it focuses not only on how ICTs can aid writers in identifying with and acquiring the language of a discourse community, but also on how they can function as a forum for resisting the language and values of that discourse community. Through social semiotic analysis, this paper examines on-line discussions between students and ...