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The Nordic Educational Research Association, NERA Conference 2025

Network

15. Literacy Research Network

Presentation

Paper presentation

Abstract

Since the 1990s, the number of students at Swedish higher education institutions has doubled. Nowadays roughly every third person in an age cohort studies at higher education (Brommesson et al., 2024). Thus, Higher Education institutions in Sweden have taken an inclusive perspective and worked on widened participation, sustainable development, and increased accessibility to university studies (UHR 2022:8). Despite these efforts towards inclusivity, a common (mis)conception remains: That students lack language skills (e.g., language proficiency, writing skills) and that referring students to writing centres is the solution. However, research (e.g., Blåsjö, 2004; Barton, 2007; Shanahan & Shanahan, 2012; Wingate, 2012; Catell, 2013; Solheim et al. 2022) shows that integrating literacy efforts within disciplines is a more effective way to scaffold student learning. 

In this paper we explore the changing views of university teachers scaffolding academic literacy. The aim is to discuss how strategies to integrate academic literacies in the discipline (e.g., modelling) can contribute to the development of disciplinary content knowledge. The study rests on Academic Literacies (Lea & Street, 1998; Lillis, 2003; Lea, 2004; Eklund Heinonen et al., 2018) as its theoretical framework. The data consists of video-recorded ethnographic interviews with two lecturers in an undergraduate programme in the Social Sciences; text analysis of, e.g. assignment instructions, feedback provided by lecturers, and samples of student writing; and workshop-style sessions where the informants were given opportunities to explore hands-on strategies to scaffold the development of their students’ academic literacy. The preliminary findings show a change from a discourse of deficit and a remedial approach to integrating academic literacy in the discipline. More specifically, the findings illustrate the lecturers’ transformation views in relation to: 

1. The students’ needs: From basic proficiency to disciplinary practices.

2. The lecturers’ own abilities: From outsourcing to collaboration.

3. Teaching practices: Modelling, strategy use, and formative feedback emerge as useful scaffolding tools.

4. The role of writing in the development of content knowledge.

This study highlights the benefits of a collaboration between researchers at a writing centre and subject lecturers. Our study is relevant to Nordic educational research in that the number of university students is steadily increasing all over the Nordic countries. Many students without an academic background make higher literacy demands on the teachers and contribute to making the teaching and learning situation more complex. Literacy and learning are the basis for success in almost all aspects of studies in higher education and future professional life.

Since the 1990s, the number of students at Swedish higher education institutions has doubled. As a consequence, Higher Education institutions in Sweden have taken an inclusive perspective and worked on widened participation, sustainable development, and increased accessibility to university studies (UHR 2022:8). Despite these efforts towards inclusivity, a common (mis)conception remains: That students lack language skills (e.g., language proficiency, writing skills) and that referring students to writing centres is the solution. However, research (e.g., Blåsjö, 2004; Shanahan & Shanahan, 2012; Wingate, 2012) shows that integrating literacy efforts within disciplines is a more effective way to scaffold student learning. 

Research on academic literacies (e.g., Lea and Street 1998; Lillis et al. 2015; Lillis and Tuck 2016) emphasises transformative practices as essential for fostering inclusive and critically engaged learning environments in higher education. In this context, transformation becomes a core concept that serves to critique traditional models, e.g., challenging the ‘study skills’ model (e.g., Lea and Street 1998) and shifting away from ‘deficit models’ (e.g., Lillis and Tuck 2016), thus advocating for an understanding of academic literacies as social practice that recognises diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and considers power dynamics and institutional contexts.

Implementing transformational approaches in Higher Education, however, presents significant challenges due to, e.g., institutional structures and lack of institutional support (e.g., Wingate 2018, Lillis 2019). Recent studies (e.g., McGrath, Negretti, and Nicholls 2019, 2023) reveal that subject lecturers often possess tacit knowledge of disciplinary writing conventions but lack explicit awareness and pedagogical strategies to convey these to students. This gap is attributed to insufficient professional development opportunities that focus on collaborative approaches between subject lecturers and academic literacies specialists. 

This study reports on the changing views of university teachers in relation to scaffolding the development of their students’ academic literacies, and how these changes can support the implementation of transformational practices. The study rests on Academic Literacies (Lea & Street, 1998; Lillis, 2003; Lea, 2004; Eklund Heinonen et al., 2018) as its theoretical framework. The data consists of: (a) video-recorded ethnographic interviews with two lecturers in an undergraduate programme in the Social Sciences; (b) text analyses of, e.g. assignment instructions, feedback provided by lecturers, and samples of student writing; and (c) workshop-style sessions where the informants were given opportunities to explore hands-on strategies to scaffold the development of their students’ academic literacies. 

The findings show a change from a discourse of deficit and a remedial approach to integrating academic literacy in the discipline. More specifically, the findings illustrate the lecturers’ changing views in relation to: 

1. The students’ needs, from basic proficiency to disciplinary practices.

2. The lecturers’ raising awareness of their own abilities to implement changes through collaboration.

3. The lecturers’ views on their own legitimacy to implement transformational practices in their disciplinary context.

4. The role of writing in the development of content knowledge.

Our study highlights the benefits of a collaboration between researchers at a writing centre and subject lecturers. The findings are of relevance to other higher education institutions in that the number of university students is steadily increasing all over the Nordic countries which, in turn, increases the demands on lecturers and contributes to making the teaching and learning situation more complex. 

References

Blåsjö, M. (2004). Studenters skrivande i två kunskapsbyggande miljöer (Doctoral dissertation, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis).

Eklund Heinonen, M., Lennartson-Hokkanen, I., & Nord, A. (2018). ”Mer än bara text och ord”: Akademiskt skrivande i utbildningar i socialt arbete och sociologi. Arbetsrapporter om modern svenska, FUMS Rapport nr 235. Institutionen för nordiska språk, Uppsala universitet.

Lea, M. R., & Street, B. V. (1998). "Student Writing in Higher Education: An Academic Literacies Approach." Studies in Higher Education, 23(2), 157–172. 

Lillis, T. (2003). Student writing as ‘Academic Literacies’: Drawing on Bakhtin to Move from Critique to Design. Language and Education, 17(3), 192–107.

Lillis, T. (2019). "'Academic Literacies': Sustaining a Critical Space on Writing in Academia." Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, (15).

Lillis, T., Harrington, K., Lea, M. R., & Mitchell, S. (Eds.). (2015). Working with Academic Literacies: Case Studies Towards Transformative Practice. The WAC Clearinghouse; Parlor Press

Lillis, T., & Tuck, J. (2016). "Academic Literacies: A Critical Lens on Writing and Reading in the Academy." In The Routledge Handbook of English for Academic Purposes (pp. 30–43). 

McGrath, L., Negretti, R., & Nicholls, K. (2019). "Hidden expectations: scaffolding subject specialists' genre knowledge of the assignments they set." Higher Education.

McGrath, L., Donaghue, H., & Negretti, R. (2023). Embedding students’ academic writing development in early-career disciplinary lecturers’ practice. Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 17(1), 134-151.

Miljödepartementet. (2022, May 19). Sveriges genomförande av agenda 2030. Regeringskansliet. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://www.regeringen.se/rattsliga-dokument/skrivelse/2022/05/skr.-202122247/  

Shanahan, T., & Shanahan, C. (2012). What is disciplinary literacy and why does it matter?. Topics in language disorders, 32(1), 7-18.

Wingate, U. (2012). Using Academic Literacies and genre-based models for academic writing instruction: A'literacy’journey. Journal of English for academic purposes, 11(1), 26-37.

Wingate, U. (2018). "Academic literacy across the curriculum: Towards a collaborative instructional approach." Language Teaching, 51(3), 349–364. 

Over the last few decades, Higher Education institutions in Sweden and across the globe have been working on widened participation, sustainable development, and increased accessibility to university studies. The impact of these initiatives can be seen in today’s student populations, which are characterised by diversity and a wider range of academic skills. Other effects, however, include (a) concerns about lowering standards, (b) a discourse of deficit that focuses on the knowledge and skills students lack, and (c) a remedial approach to tackle said deficits. A common (mis)conception is that students lack language skills (e.g., language proficiency, writing skills) and that referring students to writing centres will solve the issue. However, research (e.g., Blåsjö, 2004; Barton, 2007; Shanahan & Shanahan, 2012; Wingate, 2012; Catell, 2013; Solheim et al. 2022) shows that integrating literacy efforts within disciplines is a more effective way to scaffold student learning. 

This presentation reports on preliminary findings from an ongoing empirical study on teaching practices for the development of university student’s academic literacies in the social sciences. In particular, the focus is on the changing views of teaching staff on scaffolding and the role of academic literacies in the students’ learning journey. 

The study rests on Academic Literacies (Lea & Street, 1998; Lillis, 2003; Lea, 2004; Eklund Heinonen et al., 2018) as its theoretical framework. The data consists of: (a) video-recorded ethnographic interviews with two lecturers in an undergraduate programme in the Social Sciences; (b) text analyses of, e.g., assignment instructions, feedback provided by lecturers, and samples of student writing; and (c) workshop-style sessions where the informants were given opportunities to explore hands-on strategies to scaffold the development of their students’ academic literacies.

The results show a change from a discourse of deficit and a remedial approach to integrating academic literacies in the discipline. More specifically, the findings illustrate the lecturers’ changing views in relation to:

1.    The students’ needs: From basic proficiency to disciplinary practices. 

2.    The lecturers’ own abilities: From outsourcing to collaboration.

3.    Teaching practices: Modelling, strategy use, and formative feedback emerge as useful scaffolding tools. 

4.    The role of writing in the development of content knowledge.

This study highlights the benefits of a collaboration between researchers at a writing centre and subject lecturers. The results show that applied linguistics can contribute to scaffolding the students’ learning journey by fostering engagement with disciplinary discourse to build disciplinary knowledge.

Contemporary workplaces are characterized by diversity, involving participants from multiple linguistic and cultural traditions. In such settings, translanguaging is considered a common practice in which multilinguals “create an apparently seamless flow between languages and language varieties and to transcend the boundaries between named languages and/or language varieties as well as the boundaries between language and other semiotic systems” (Hua et al., 2022, p. 315). Little research, however, exists on such practices in multilingual workplaces (Du & Zhou, 2022), and even less on the linguistically diverse Swedish workplace. To gain greater insight into the seamlessness, transcendence, and boundaries such language users create and perceive, we explore the communication practices of employees in different Swedish workplaces. As an initial departure point, five employees in managerial positions were interviewed in the pilot study. We adopt a critical intercultural communication approach, seeing “culture” as a dynamic concept, which employees may attribute to self and others, and (dis-)align with in different ways. Findings show that categorisations of languages are prevalent, with participants applying a scale of linguistic sophistication or complexity and ranking formality conventions on a strong-to-weak scale. When categorising people and groups, participants foreground identity and face, and group dynamics is a recurring theme, with distinctions made between groups and orientations. This presentation focuses on participants’ descriptions of L1 and L2 identities and their perceived effects on workplace communication. Findings suggest that translanguaging has yet to be commonplace in the workplaces we investigated and shed light on lay perspectives on (trans)languaging in the workplace.

References

Du, J., & Zhou, X. (2022). Translanguaging practices in Chinese/English bilingual engineers’ communications in the workplace. Applied Linguistics Review, 13(3), 389-402.

Hua, Z., Jones, R.H. & Jaworska, S. (2022). Acts of distinction at times of crisis: An epistemological challenge to intercultural communication research. Language and Intercultural Communication, 22(3), 312-323.

In this talk, we present a research project that we plan to launch in late 2023. The aim of the project is to investigate professional communication in video meetings, which is justified given their growing importance in the modern and post-pandemic workplace. The setting is workplaces in Sweden where English is used as a lingua franca, due to the increasing societal impact of multilingual workplaces. In the specific context of study, communication is embedded in several layers of complexity: It takes place in an institutional setting; it is digital and takes place in video mode; it is done across cultures and marked by diversity; and it is done partly in English as a lingua franca. The project focuses on internal communication within the workplace and does not consider external communication, for example involving customers. The overarching research question is: What factors contribute to (un)successful digital intercultural interactions in multilingual workplaces, specifically in video meetings? To map the characteristics of video meetings, we compare them to in-person meetings. We thus ask: (a) What (perceived and actual) differences and similarities are there between digital and in-person workplace meetings? To map the video meeting as a genre, we ask: (b) What are the key structural, linguistic, and interactional patterns of the video meeting? Given the central role of English as a lingua franca in these workplaces, we ask: (c) To what extent and how does English language proficiency—including participants’ beliefs about and attitudes to English language proficiency—affect workplace communication in digital intercultural interactions? Finally, we adopt a critical intercultural communication approach, seeing ‘culture’ as a dynamic concept (e.g., Hua et al., 2022), which employees may attribute to self and others, and (dis-)align with in different ways. We ask: (d) To what extent and how is culture seen as relevant in multilingual workplaces? Participants will be interviewed about communication practices in the workplace both individually and in focus groups. We will also record and analyze samples of (i) video and (ii) in-person meetings, to enable triangulation of different types of data. We conclude by discussing how the project's findings can be used as a basis for best practices and for developing workplace communication training materials.

Contemporary workplaces are often characterized by diversity, involving participants from multiple linguistic and cultural traditions (e.g., Angouri, 2014). In such settings, participants draw on their rich cultural assumptions and values to co-construct meaning (e.g., Takamiya & Aida Niendorf, 2019), as language use and communication patterns have been found to be inextricably linked to different group belongings. While diversity enriches workplace interaction linguistically and culturally, it also presents “communicative challenges to many employers and co-workers” (Holmes, 2018, p. 335). These communicative challenges include increased likelihood of miscommunication, social exclusion (Lønsmann, 2014), and limited interpersonal communication (Tange & Lauring, 2009). While considerable research has been devoted to understanding intercultural workplaces communication, little research exists on the linguistically and culturally diverse Swedish workplace. To gain greater insights into how diversity may enrich workplace interaction and the communicative challenges employees may experience, this pilot study explores employees’ attitudes to and beliefs about intercultural communication in the Swedish workplace. The pilot study is part of a larger project on digital professional communication in multilingual workplaces in Sweden. Five employees in managerial positions in Swedish higher education and corporations were interviewed. We adopt a critical intercultural communication approach, seeing “culture” as a dynamic concept, which employees may attribute to self and others, and (dis-)align with in different ways. Findings show that: (a) language competence in English is seen as indexing general competence; (b) categorisations of cultures are prevalent: Participants often view culture as synonymous with nation and point at differences between groups as a challenge to achieve effective communication; (c) identity and face are foregrounded: Some participants feel like a different person when using a different language, while others see a specific language as a way to adopt a different persona or professional role; and (d) culture and language are used to explain group dynamics (e.g., feeling as an outsider or as part of the group), and as tools to actively integrate or exclude others. The material has raised our awareness about not seeing the workplace as a monolith, but workplaces may be marked by internal variation when it comes to intercultural communication. 

References   Angouri, J. (2014). Multilingualism in the workplace: Language practices in multicultural contexts. Multilingua 33, 1-9.     

Holmes, J. (2018). Intercultural communication in the workplace. In B. Vine (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language in the workplace (pp. 335-347). Routledge.    

Lønsmann, D. (2014). Linguistic diversity in the international workplace: Language ideologies and processes of exclusion. Multilingua 33, 89–116.    

Takamiya, Y. & Aida Niendorf, M. (2019). Identity (re)construction and improvement in intercultural competence through synchronous and asynchronous telecollaboration: Connecting Japanese language learners in the United States and Sweden. In Zimmerman, E. & McMeekin, A. (Eds.), Technology-supported learning in and out of the Japanese language classroom: Theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical developments (pp. 111-145). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.    

Tange, H., & Lauring, J. (2009). Language management and social interaction within the multilingual workplace. Journal of Communication Management 13(3), 218–232.     

Over the last few decades, Swedish Higher Education institutions have been working on widened participation (Högskolelagen, 1992, p.1434) as part of a wider effort towards sustainable development and increased accessibility to university studies (Agenda 2030). As a consequence, student populations today bring with them a wider range of academic skills. This, in turn, means that teaching staff across disciplines face a myriad of challenges. In our presentation, we discuss an ongoing empirical study on teaching practices for the development of university students’ academic literacies in the social sciences, with a particular focus on the role of modelling as a teaching strategy. Using Academic Literacies (Lea & Street, 1998; Lillis, 2003; Lea, 2004; Eklund Heinonen et al., 2018) as the theoretical framework, the study aims at (a) identifying challenges as experienced by teaching staff in the Social Sciences, and (b) carrying out a pedagogical intervention. The project, which is a collaboration between two lecturers from the Social Sciences and two researchers from the Language Support Unit, comprises four stages, namely: (1) a needs analysis to map the faculty’s existing teaching practices and to identify their challenges in relation to their students’ academic skills; (2) planning of a pedagogical intervention through a series of workshops; (3) implementation of the intervention; and (4) assessment of the project. So far, the findings reveal that modelling is a crucial teaching strategy in making tacit knowledge and task instructions explicit. The project is also expected to contribute to our understanding of (a) the challenges teaching staff experience in Swedish Higher Education today and (b) how to best support university students’ development of academic literacies. Furthermore, the project’s findings will be used to develop a course for professional development targeting teaching staff at our university.