ARCHIVE REFERENCES TO ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT AT A SA UNIVERSITY

AACADEMIC LITERACY DEVELOPMENT AT THE CUT Background One of the biggest challenges higher education institutions in South Africa are facing is the unacceptably low academic language proficiency level of their increasingly diversifying student populations. To illustrate how the students at these institutions are affected by this, it is appropriate for one to refer to the results of two studies recently conducted under the auspices of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (AAEP). The studies were aimed at assessing students’ proficiency levels in Mathematics, Science, Reading and Writing. South Africa was one of the 38 countries which participated in the research. The South African sample used for this study included students from both advantaged and disadvantaged educational backgrounds. The South African students participating in the research scored the lowest. They scored lower than students from other developing countries like the Philippines and Morocco. According to the findings of the two studies, at least 69% of all students at South African universities are “under-prepared” for university education and are therefore “at risk”. Yeld (2003: 26-27), currently the Dean for the Faculty of Academic Development at the University of Cape Town, postulates that students require particular levels of knowledge and skills in order to gain epistemological access to the disciplines they will study at tertiary level. If they have not reached these levels, universities will need to acknowledge this, develop means for identifying the students’ curriculum needs, and then respond by developing programmes (e.g. foundation, bridging or extended programmes) that will meet these needs. Failure to do so will lead to unacceptably high failure rates or to lowered standards as institutions attempt to avoid the inevitable consequences of educational under preparedness. Among others, the low throughput rates at South African universities are a result of students’ poor academic language abilities and this is a problem that these institutions cannot afford to ignore anymore. THE ASSESSMENT OF ACADEMIC LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY AS PART OF ENTRY LEVEL SELECTION AT THE CUT At this point the CUT, like other universities in South Africa, has as part of the institution’s criteria for selecting first years students, been using the Proficiency Test, English Second Language Advanced Level. The test was developed and standardized by the Human Sciences Research Council in 1991. While this test is aimed at determining a candidate’s knowledge and skills regarding a particular field of experience or subject matter, it only contains tasks whose specific aim is to assess learners of English as a Second Language in Grade 10, 11 and 12. Universities in the country have detected certain shortcomings in this test and have consequently resorted to using the Tertiary Education Linkage Project set of tests. The Tertiary Education Linkage Project set of tests (TELP) The TELP set of tests are a preferable alternative to the CUT’s present model for the evaluation of English proficiency. The TELP is part of the Alternative Admissions Research Project (AARP) based at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The TELP tests are designed to elicit responses from an educationally disadvantaged population. The original aim of the tests was to diagnose students’ academic weaknesses and strengths for purposes of curriculum design and not for placement and/or selection (Yeld, 2003). The TELP tests include the Placement Test in English for Educational Purposes (PTEEP) and the Mathematics Placement Test (Yeld, 2003). This report concentrates on the PTEEP only. This test is based on the following assumptions: • Academic literacy implies a wide range of relevant abilities: The construct around which the PTEEP is developed, is constituted by a wide range of linguistically oriented cognitive abilities. These include the ability to comprehend information and present it in various modes, to paraphrase, to present information visually, to summarize, to describe, to write expository prose (e.g. argument, comparison and contrast, classification, categorization), to develop and signal own voice, to acknowledge sources and to perform basic numerical manipulations. “In demonstrating these abilities, candidates will be required to construct and write summaries, to write expository prose in the form of a one page essay in which they adopt, challenge, and/or support a position, drawing on the information provided in the tests, to construct and read graphs, flow – charts and diagrams, and to perform simple numerical manipulations within the context of the test’s theme” (Yeld, 2003, p. 27). • Academic literacy is not possible without mastering the language of instruction: In the case of the PTEEP, English is the language of communication. The test is “based on a componential model of language ability, which comprises topical knowledge and language knowledge, mediated by strategic competency (metacognitive strategy use) and affective schemata”. THE ACADEMIC LITERACY PROGRAMME AT THE CUT The Unit for Academic Development at the CUT introduced its own academic language programme in 2007 and has since been running it in partnership with the English department of the UFS. The PTEEP is used to assess the academic literacy levels of all first year students at the CUT. Those who pass are exempted from taking the course while those who fail have to take classes in the programme from the second quarter until the end of the year. In 2008, 1552 students wrote the PTEEP on the Bloemfontein campus and only 323 (21%) of them passed. In 2009, 3581 students took the test on the Bloemfontein, Welkom and Kimberly campuses of the CUT and only 600 (17%) of them passed. The content of the Academic Language Programme The academic language Course essentially focuses on developing the students’ academic reading and writing skills in English. The major aim is to develop the students’ academic reading and writing skills to a level that will give them a fair chance of success at university study. The ultimate aim of the course is to boost the CUT’s Student throughput rates. The reading component of the course includes both intensive and extensive reading instruction. Intensive reading is done in class and it involves the students rigorously reading moderately short academic passages (one to two pages). Extensive reading constitutes the major part of the reading component of the course. Extensive reading basically means reading a lot. Graded Readers (the books are 50-100 pages) are used to accomplish this part of the course. At the beginning of each year, students’ academic reading proficiency is tested and on the basis of the marks they obtain, the students are placed at different reading levels. (1,2,3,4 and 5) A student reads one book per week and writes a reading response on it. The academic writing instruction component of the academic language course involves teaching the students the following sub-skills: Awareness of audience, sentence control, clarity of expression, correct mechanics, paragraph unity and coherence and essay unity and coherence.