Abstract:
How to prevent academic writing and academic aspects of English language from becoming a barrier for diverse university students? It seems that in many contexts, students getting entrance to universities gradually come from more diverse backgrounds. In this context, international students, indigenous students, and immigrants are being accepted at prestigious universities, such as the University of Auckland in Aotearoa New Zealand. And even though these groups clearly do not come in equal numbers, as it would be the ideal, they may have the common challenge of getting familiar with academic writing to initially cope with their studies. Furthermore, some international students who speak English as an additional language (EAL) may share with indigenous students, immigrants, or other marginalised groups what can be a problematic journey through this language barrier: English academic writing. In this presentation, I will illustrate the effort of the University of Auckland to widen diverse students’ possibilities to improve their academic writing through the service provided by the English Language Enrichment unit at the UofA. I will describe what might be useful language development support to increase EAL students’ potential to succeed in their university studies. This perspective comes from a reflective critical overview of my own educational and teaching practice and engagement with diverse university students in two countries. My standpoint has evolved from having been the academic coordinator of the School of Languages at a private Mexican university, to becoming an international doctoral student in Te Puna Wananga (School of Maori and Indigenous studies at the Faculty of Education, UofA), to having a current role as a language learning adviser at the University of Auckland, in New Zealand. I will expand the discussion to the contrasting expectations for language proficiency at university, initially in Mexico and subsequently in New Zealand. I will relate the shifting in perspective I personally experienced as an academic writer and how that experience has opened a way for me to work with diverse students to improve their academic writing and encourage their journey to find their own voice in an English-speaking context. This critical reflective effort may illuminate a way to increase the possibilities for AEL, indigenous, and other marginalised students to be actually included in the future of education.