Integrating language and subject content in higher education : a pedagogy for course design

D.Litt. et Phil. (Higher Education)This study investigates the design of a Reading-to-Write programme for students who enter a university with limited literacy competence in English. The history of the design and development of the programme are tracked, examining the design principles that were extracted from the literature and how these were employed in the programme over a period of five years. Having identified that there were no theory-based design principles for literacy programme development in this context, the purpose of the thesis was to capture the evolvement of the literacy course in a design-based format addressing both literacy experts and relevant university administrators. Design-based research has the potential of informing innovative approaches to learning and teaching that can bring about change in educational practice showing how designs develop and require modification. Sustainable innovation, however, requires an understanding of how and why an innovation works within a setting over time and across settings (Brown & Camplone, 1996). The distinct advantage of such a methodological orientation is that it addresses the relationship between research and instructional practices while attempting to find workable solutions that accomplish educational goals (Reinking & Bradley, 2004). In South Africa, where many students come from an impoverished educational background with limited access to books and libraries, the dominant modes and literacy practices of higher education are often unfamiliar and alienating. Because students enter university without the prerequisite intellectual and linguistic basis needed for academic study, there is often a fundamental mismatch between their 'ways of knowing' and the expectations of the institution. For the majority of students the preferred language of instruction is English which is seen to provide access to .a global community. However, English is a primary language for a very small percentage of the South African population and in many instances, students have not acquired it adequately even as a second language at school, because of ineffective teaching methods. At university, students have to expand their often inadequate knowledge of the language of instruction, while they are busy learning their new content subjects