Australian Review of Applied Linguistics - Online First

Academic language and learning advisers are employed by many Australasian universities to help students develop their academic literacies, that is, the knowledge and skills needed to be successful at university both within and beyond disciplinary contexts. At the Academic Skills and Learning Centre of the Australian National University, a team of Learning Advisers spend a third of their time consulting students individually, often about a piece of writing to be submitted for assessment. There is much concern in the literature about the pedagogical effectiveness of the one-to-one session, yet little that examines it and its discourses as sites of identity genesis. This study examines Advisers’ post-consultation notes, and through a community of practice approach to workplace discourse finds that discussion of “what we do and don’t do” is the nexus at which Advisers negotiate the discourses of their organization, define boundaries around their work, and develop their professional identities.

In China, since 2004, developing students’ overall communicative competence has become the central goal of the current College English Curriculum Requirements. However, this goal has yet to be addressed, particularly in regard to the teaching of writing. This paper examines whether and how changes in teachers’ knowledge base related to teaching writing may impact their students’ writing outcomes. Six experienced teachers were introduced to a SFL (Systemic Functional Linguistics)-informed genre approach and subsequently trialled this pedagogy in practice. Through pre- and post- workshop interviews and classroom observations, changes in teachers’ knowledge base were investigated. In each observed class, two writing samples produced by students were collected. The findings of changes in the teachers’ knowledge base were compared with possible changes emerging in their students’ writing products. The results of the comparison reveal that, corresponding to positive changes evidenced in the teachers’ knowledge base, the majority of the students made improvements in their writing products.