Improving student writing: roles for EAP and disciplinary faculty

Conference Theme: Research into Practice in the Four-year curriculumA substantial part of tertiary language centres’ work aims to enhance the writing ability of students. But how is this best done if the responsibility for improving writing is shared between a language centre and a faculty? This paper explores the question with reference to a small-scale study conducted in a disciplinary first year legal writing course which ran alongside a language centre enhancement course. The study investigated student needs for feedback and their perceptions of their writing improvement. Eight students took part in semi-structured interviews which probed what feedback focused on and student perceptions of the usefulness of the feedback they received from disciplinary staff. The study found that students did not believe their writing had improved as a result of the ...postprin