The Role of Language and Learning Advisers in University Settings: Helping Students to Help Themselves

A very diverse student body (particularly linguistically and culturally) is the norm in Australian tertiary institutions with many international students having to study in English as a second language. This paper briefly examines the approaches and provisions that Australian universities are adopti...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Briguglio, Carmela
Other Authors: Daniela Veronesi
Format: Conference Paper
Published: Bozen-Bolzano University Press 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/5979
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author Briguglio, Carmela
author2 Daniela Veronesi
author_facet Daniela Veronesi
Briguglio, Carmela
author_sort Briguglio, Carmela
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description A very diverse student body (particularly linguistically and culturally) is the norm in Australian tertiary institutions with many international students having to study in English as a second language. This paper briefly examines the approaches and provisions that Australian universities are adopting to help international students develop English language for academic purposes. Academic Language and Learning (ALL) advisers, whose role is to facilitate student learning, carry out this role in a number of different ways in different universities. This paper discusses how this role is carried out within the Communication Skills Centre of the Curtin Business School,at the Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia. Staff at the Centre have, over a number of years, adapted their role to ensure that students become active learners and take maximum responsibility for their own development.Some of the principles that have guided our work include: a continued emphasis on student development, rather than remediation; services available to all students studying at all levels across the Curtin Business School; support which aims to demystify academic discourse; student taking responsibility for their own work; and three way learning (students learn from us and from each other, but we also learn from them). This paper then discusses the strategies, based on the above principles, which have been adopted by staff to help students develop the skills they require in English for academic purposes. It is argued that the very diversity which marks our classrooms needs to be fully explored and built upon in order to teach valuable intercultural communication skills for global/multinational settings and to enrich the tertiary learning experience for all students.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-59792022-12-09T05:23:40Z The Role of Language and Learning Advisers in University Settings: Helping Students to Help Themselves Briguglio, Carmela Daniela Veronesi Christoph Nickening academic discourse academic adviser role internationalisation A very diverse student body (particularly linguistically and culturally) is the norm in Australian tertiary institutions with many international students having to study in English as a second language. This paper briefly examines the approaches and provisions that Australian universities are adopting to help international students develop English language for academic purposes. Academic Language and Learning (ALL) advisers, whose role is to facilitate student learning, carry out this role in a number of different ways in different universities. This paper discusses how this role is carried out within the Communication Skills Centre of the Curtin Business School,at the Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia. Staff at the Centre have, over a number of years, adapted their role to ensure that students become active learners and take maximum responsibility for their own development.Some of the principles that have guided our work include: a continued emphasis on student development, rather than remediation; services available to all students studying at all levels across the Curtin Business School; support which aims to demystify academic discourse; student taking responsibility for their own work; and three way learning (students learn from us and from each other, but we also learn from them). This paper then discusses the strategies, based on the above principles, which have been adopted by staff to help students develop the skills they require in English for academic purposes. It is argued that the very diversity which marks our classrooms needs to be fully explored and built upon in order to teach valuable intercultural communication skills for global/multinational settings and to enrich the tertiary learning experience for all students. 2009 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/5979 Bozen-Bolzano University Press fulltext
spellingShingle academic discourse
academic adviser role
internationalisation
Briguglio, Carmela
The Role of Language and Learning Advisers in University Settings: Helping Students to Help Themselves
title The Role of Language and Learning Advisers in University Settings: Helping Students to Help Themselves
title_full The Role of Language and Learning Advisers in University Settings: Helping Students to Help Themselves
title_fullStr The Role of Language and Learning Advisers in University Settings: Helping Students to Help Themselves
title_full_unstemmed The Role of Language and Learning Advisers in University Settings: Helping Students to Help Themselves
title_short The Role of Language and Learning Advisers in University Settings: Helping Students to Help Themselves
title_sort role of language and learning advisers in university settings: helping students to help themselves
topic academic discourse
academic adviser role
internationalisation
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/5979