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Redeveloping an academic literacy course to help students gain access to the academic language and writing style

Presenter

Faika Haroun is a lecturer and workshop presenter in professional communication and academic literacy. Her forte is content development and assessment development in both English and Afrikaans. Her professional standing is complemented by specialised knowledge regarding document design, discourse analysis and second language acquisition. Her knowledge with regard to developing teaching materials is enhanced by a sound understanding of the Youth Sub-Culture within the environment of the tertiary institutions.  

Haroun's qualifications started with a Diploma in Medical Technology (CPUT 1986) and a Higher Diploma in Laboratory Management (CPUT 1990). In 2004, Haroun completed a BA degree (UWC) and a BA Honours in 2005. Graduated with a MA Sociolinguistics in 2009, she started teaching at Stellenbosch University Language Centre shortly thereafter. Currently, she is working on a PhD proposal in Sociolinguistics. 

Abstract

Personal and professional development is a course offered to all first year medical students at the Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. This course is divided into various themes/modules of which Theme B is the academic literacy module. In 2016 I was tasked to teach this module. I did not get a finite outcome of the module, but was given a workbook to teach from. However I found it most difficult to teach in this manner and redeveloped the module for teaching in 2017. 

This workshop will be based on the case study of the redevelopment of Theme B. This redevelopment started off by firstly determining the outcome of the module. Then viewing the outcome as a product. With the product in mind, the content of the module was determined as components of that product.  

Secondly, the student demographics were considered when the actual course material was selected and compiled. In addition, the student demographics also influences the examples used and the teaching methodology applied. 

During the workshop this process of redevelopment of a module will be discussed. Participants are therefore encouraged to bring along their module/course guides or coursework so that we may share best practices. 

Presentation & Resources