Boundary crossings: student responsibility for academic language and learning at tertiary level Annie Bartlett Academic Skills and Learning Centre The Australian National University WA AALL Day Thursday 29 October 2009

Academic Skills and Learning Centre2 DEEWR: Good Practice Principles for English Language Proficiency Principle 3: “Students have responsibilities for further developing their English language proficiency during their study at university and are advised of these responsibilities prior to enrolment.”

Academic Skills and Learning Centre3 Good Practice Principle 3 “... reflects mutuality in development of English language proficiency. While universities have responsibilities to set entry standards and provide means for students to develop their English language proficiency during their studies, students must also take responsibility for their own language development while at university, as part of taking responsibility for their learning...”

Academic Skills and Learning Centre4  What does ‘taking responsibility’ for language development in this context mean to students? to ALL professionals? And how might students be advised of these responsibilities prior to, and post-enrolment?

Academic Skills and Learning Centre5 Why worry at ALL? Bacon (1993)  If there is a shared conception of responsibility, it offers a starting point for educators to create the conditions to assist students to take that responsibility. Devlin (2002)  The notion of student responsibility lies at the heart of metacognition “which … is essential in order to develop reflective thinking and lifelong learning.”  Survey of undergraduates (n=100): respondents perceived themselves to have more than half the responsibility for learning (56%)

Academic Skills and Learning Centre6 From the ALL perspective Given students are arguably  choosing to be at uni (not compelled)  choosing to access ALL teaching (unless course for credit, or PEDALA mandate) Plus, FYE (2004) research whereby the majority of respondents are indicating they are better prepared, are increasingly well-informed about uni expectations, and are more likely to seek assistance… then this is a significant additional starting point.

Academic Skills and Learning Centre7 Taking responsibility for [language] learning is Taking responsibility is doing away with excuses for not performing. It is accepting that you must take action or make change. In order to take responsibility for [language] learning you need to be able to understand your learning style, and the styles of others, value differences between individual styles, and learn from these differences. You need to be able to identify your strengths and weaknesses, identify strategies for [language] learning, and know when existing strategies are not working or when they are challenged. J. Ford, J. Knight and E. McDonald-Littleton, Knoxville Center for Literacy Studies 2001.

Academic Skills and Learning Centre8 Assumes ability to be metacognitive, that is, students have knowledge of their own cognitions and their own learning (Devlin ) to be able to  identify learning needs and articulate goals  identify strengths and weaknesses  select and use appropriate strategies  plan, carry out, monitor and flexibly adjust strategies (CLS 2001)  seek and make use of guidance (EUEC 2006) Where to start with EAL students who have limited degrees of proficiency?

Academic Skills and Learning Centre9 Further problems 1.Assumes ‘self actualization’ (Maslow) 2.Assumes students already ‘have the ability’ (vs. Pace’s 1990 respondents: to improve their ability to…) 3.Assumes cultural knowledge

Academic Skills and Learning Centre10 Not insurmountable problems Need to consider how  notions of metacogniton and self-actualisation  strategies to develop abilities, and  cultural knowledge are built into the prospective/post- enrolment student preparation. i.e., conscious, explicit construction of the ‘student as learner’ - both by the students and the educator. Takes time.

Academic Skills and Learning Centre11 Inherent difficulties working across cultures  Need to work harder (not necessarily more effectively)  My fault (for not being successful)  ‘Their’ fault  It’s because of my English (vs. focus, reasoning…)  It’s ‘cultural’

Academic Skills and Learning Centre12 Bright and von Randow (2008) Student responsibility for developing English language proficiency  To work at their language studies continuously  To take the initiative in mixing with native speakers  To identify language strengths and weaknesses  To act on language weaknesses

Academic Skills and Learning Centre13 Develop concept of student as learner  Good [content knowledge] is the most important thing, but the [content knowledge] needs to be clearly understandable (Cargill and O’Connor 2009: 105)  IELTS/TOEFL/matriculation is not the end of it  Prepare for transition: from EL learning, to academic language and learning  Importance of strong language skills in relation to meeting coursework demands

Academic Skills and Learning Centre14 Demonstrate language priorities in communication  Focus  Wide and critical research  Reasoning  Style and presentation  Language Identify and rank language errors (low, medium, high) progressively over time - leading to mastery

Academic Skills and Learning Centre15 Creating the conditions for taking language learning responsibility  Identify student responsibility to the student  Make ALL professional practice explicit (we do not offer proof reading or editing…)  Identify manageable, do-able language issues in the first instance, with student to take responsibility for text correction.  Ask what action student intends to take on particular language issues

Academic Skills and Learning Centre16 How might we know students are taking responsibility?  Fluency of perfomance (level of effort/ease to retrieve and apply)  Independence of performance - extent to which he/she needs guidance  Range of perfomance - transfer learning skills - range of tasks, contexts and audiences

Academic Skills and Learning Centre17 What does ‘taking responsiblity’ for language development mean to your students?