Switching the paradigm in academic literacy: from a normative to a transformative insight in academic writing in English as a foreign language

Academic literacy in a foreign language is a competence to be developed by many university students and professionals nowadays. However, perspectives towards this multidisciplinary field have changed throughout the years in order to inform the requirements of modern society and the challenges observed in terms of achieving academic writing standards. Therefore, an ample and inclusive comprehension that informs current practices occurring worldwide, where English is considered a lingua franca for communication, is required. This literature review aims at describing an overview of paradigms towards academic writing as a continuum, integrating both traditional and current literacy practices throughout a revision of empirical studies conducted in this area. To conclude, a switch from normative traditional approaches to more transformative ones, under the scope of the New Literacy Studies and translingualism, is suggested as an alternative towards academic literacy practices in English