Magister Artium - MA / This study is an investigation into the biliteracy skills (in Arabic and English)
employed by Libyan students at the University of the Western Cape to gain their
academic success. Nowadays, international students form a significant number in
every academic institution. The study attempts to show that there are literacy factors
beyond basic editing of written tasks by biliterate students studying outside their
country of origin that need to be acknowledged as contributing to their success in
completing such tasks. Qualitative research methods - a questionnaire and interviews
– were used in order to understand what strategies the participants rely on to first
understand, then write their assignments, how they apply their biliteracy skills, and
what biliterate resources they draw on in their writing in order to produce a successful
assignment. Hornberger’s (1989) Biliteracy Model was adopted as a framework to
map students’ responses.
This study may serve as a response to the question posed by Hornberger and Link
(2012:243): “How should educators engage with students’ linguistic and literacy
diversity in order to facilitate successful school experiences and greater academic
achievement for students from often minoritized backgrounds?” This study might also
be one of a series of research studies exploring, as Creese and Blackledge (2010:113)
recommend, “what ‘teachable’ pedagogic resources are available in flexible,
concurrent approaches to learning and teaching languages bilingually”.
The findings of the research show that the Libyan students in this study used
particular strategies whenever they faced academic barriers, and to compensate for
their limited competence in English and the academic discourse in the foreign context
of UWC. The most significant of these strategies were the use of the first language as
a bridge to the second, oral discussions preceding written assignments, drawing on
prior knowledge, and moving from reading to writing. Moreover, the findings
revealed some of the factors behind the students’ growing confidence in their writing
and consequently, succeeding in writing their assignments. These were lecturers’
feedback, oral discussions with a writing coach or friends, and drawing on
contextualized content.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uwc/oai:etd.uwc.ac.za:11394/6953 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Shibani, Fathia El |
| Contributors | Dyers, Charlyn |
| Publisher | University of the Western Cape |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | University of the Western Cape |
Page generated in 0.0022 seconds