ABSTRACT
In this paper I discuss some of the issues involved in becoming academically literate for students in a South African context. The material for this paper is drawn from interviews with fifteen black first year students at the end of their first year (1994) of an academic literacy course at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) - a 'historically' white institution. The students, seven women and eight men, were selected to reflect a range of ages and backgrounds, both urban and rural and, as they did not wish to be tape-recorded, their comments are taken from notes made during interviews. Focusing on this group, I have attempted to locate patterns in the students' comments in socio-cultural terms, particularly in the university context. A brief summary of one of the interviews appears in the appendix to this chapter.
Across and within institutions, approaches to academic literacy are broadly functional, cultural and critical. Within a South African tertiary institution, academic literacy is seen as the mastery of technical skills and the surface features of English and academic discursive practices. Cultural approaches emphasize that becoming literate in the university 'involves learning to "read" the culture, learning to come to terms with its distinctive rituals, values, styles of language and behaviour' (Ballard and Clanchy, 1988, p. 8) and are often assimilationist in intent. A critical literacy perspective questions assimilationist views of academic literacy and advocates pedagogical practices and content that enable students to challenge the 'ways of knowing' and the ways of presenting knowledge. Such approaches may also include a critical functional perspective - aiming simultaneously to teach the features of academic discourse and examine their role in supporting the interests of dominant groups.
