A multi-level descriptive study on undergraduates’ academic literacy in English Medium Degree Programmes

Abstract

The work of many poststructuralist linguists has viewed the notion of Academic Literacy (AL) critically. This critical approach has also led its way to view academic literacy as a social practice in contrast to the existing dominant cognitive approach to academic literacy. In the Sri Lankan Higher Education (SLHE) context, there is an observation about the nonattendance, while the need to achieve quality outcomes of academic literacy in English Medium Degree Programmes (EMDP) remains uncritiqued. The aim of this study is to critically analyze the notion of academic literacy in SLHE with a view to identifying the macro, meso and micro level challenges that hinder undergraduates gaining AL. The identification of

multi-level challenges has been achieved by three means: (a) inquiring into the policy level decision- making official documents of SLHE, (b) analyzing the views of larger university academic population,

and (c) observing the existing pedagogical practices within various English medium study disciplines in three state universities of SLHE. A Qualitative Content Analysis (QLCA) has been applied to analyze reported data. This paper discusses the dominant theme out of three major themes identified in the analysis: the autonomous understanding of academic literacy, leading to the perception of the mediating language simply as a tool of communication, giving rise to an overriding practice. The aforementioned practice prevents subject lecturers from reflecting on their own disciplinary norms which may hinder undergraduates gaining academic literacy: a major challenge among many others.