A Continuum of Language Support Services for Undergraduate Students: Case Studies of Integrating Academic Literacy

Abstract

Academic literacy support is an important support service that enables undergraduates’ academic success. As Murray and Nallaya (Stud High Educ 41(7):1296–1312, 2016) point out, all students need to develop a competent level in academic literacies regardless of their cultural backgrounds or language proficiency. Competence in these socially situated literacies will also help students to become members of respective disciplinary communities. At the National University of Singapore (NUS), there is a comprehensive academic support system to strengthen students’ communication skills that facilitate their smooth transition into and engagement with relevant disciplinary communities (Tan, Writing classes a must for NUS freshmen. The Straits Times, Home, B1. 31st October, 2011). NUS is committed to the development of thinking and writing programs for undergraduates in each intake (Tan, Of whales and the campus Tsunami. State of University Address. Friday, 12th October, 11 am, University Cultural Centre, National University of Singapore, 2012). In response to the diverse cultural and language competence levels required to negotiate the rigorous academic literacy demands of English-medium universities, the Center for English Language Communication’s (CELC) academic literacy provision spans a range of types and levels of support. These provisions are also embedded or integrated, to different degrees, within discipline modules (Briguglio and Watson, Aust J Lang Lit 37(1):67–76, 2014). This chapter outlines the implementation of three programs which provide academic literacy support for the undergraduates. In addition to sharing the cases of academic literacy provision at NUS, this chapter discusses the challenges of integration between academic literacy support and the main disciplinary curriculum. These academic support services are illustrated by case studies at the lowest, intermediate, and highest level of integration and show how different models of academic literacy for students can be organized to address the academic writing needs of the undergraduate student population in the university.KeywordsAcademic literacy supportEmbedded literaciesLanguage proficiencyCommunication skills