Using Academic Literacies and genre-based models for academic writing instruction: A ‘literacy’ journey

Three writing development initiatives carried out at King’s College London UK are discussed in this article to illustrate the need to draw on different theoretical models to create effective methods of teaching academic writing. The sequence of initiatives resembles a journey: the destination is to develop academic writing programmes suitable for students from all backgrounds; the point of departure was the dominant institutional provision of extra-curricular ‘study skills’ courses. The Academic Literacies model subsequently offered useful guidance for moving away from this provision towards discipline-embedded approaches. However, Academic Literacies could not easily be applied to instructional practice, because its preference for issues such as identity, power relations and institutional practices over text seemed to be at conflict with students’ preferences. This finding led to a change in direction towards a genre-based approach to writing instruction. It is argued that the analysis of discipline-specific texts is the best starting point for teaching and learning of academic writing, and that students will be more willing to take a critical perspective when they are able to understand and control disciplinary discourses.

► Three approaches to teaching writing and their underlying theories are discussed.
► Academic Literacies, EAP and SFL contributed useful principles.
► Students preferred text-focused approaches to taking a critical perspective.
► Effective approaches to teaching writing need to be informed by various theories.