Academic Writing instruction – some missing links
Academic Writing instruction – some missing links

Author(s): Krystyna Warchał
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: academic writing; academic competence; writing conventions; language awareness; reading and writing for academic purposes.
Summary/Abstract: Building academic competence can be viewed as a long process of individual development, but academic writing skills at the university level are typically learnt rather than acquired. The need for effective instruction derives from the fact that students are expected to achieve a considerable level of academic English in a rather compressed time and that their success in this respect co-determines their overall results upon graduation. This paper discusses some of the challenges involved in teaching English academic writing in the Polish university context. In particular, it focuses on the following problem areas: students’ lack of awareness concerning academic writing conventions in Polish; lack of explicit, course-based connection between reading and writing for academic purposes; and students’ unwillingness to assume a dialogical, critical attitude towards sources. The paper ends with a suggestion that a remedy to some of the problems may be sought in approaches inspired by Academic Literacies, with their focus on raising language awareness, developing critical abilities, and fostering reflection on the social context of academic communication.

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