Chapter 6 Empirical Experiences of academic literacy
6.2 History of the Technical Communication course: Documentary Evidence
As its mission, the Faculty of Engineering sees its role as being
―Equipping students with knowledge and skills‖ can also be read as empowering students to participate in the engineering discourse. There is a discourse in higher education, in particular in critical studies, which see the role of education as being fundamentally to empower. Freire (1996) has argued that education is a tool for bringing students (especially the disenfranchised) into societal conversation. By logical extension, empowering/equipping engineering students with the necessary
‗skills‘ should bring them into dialogue with significant others in their field. This idea undergirds the philosophy of discursive identity as espoused by Gee (2001) and of participation as theorised by Lave and Wenger (1991). Gee (2001) desists, however,
to equip students with knowledge and skills to apply the fundamental principles in dealing with a wide range of practical problems they will encounter in their professional lives as engineers, construction project managers, land surveyors and quantity surveyors‖ (Faculty Handbook, p. 1).
from using the term skill in favour of the more socio-culturally accepted practices‟
The important question in this regard is how then has the Faculty interpreted and translated this aim into pedagogic practice? This question is significant in the light of what Bernstein (2000) refers to as the pedagogic device, which serves, he suggests, to convert assumptions about knowledge into pedagogic communication. Suffice to say that the assumptions of technical writing inevitably influence what is taught. With this broad aim in mind, the course packs for the academic literacy course from 2008 to the first semester of 2012 were explored in this study.
6.2.1 English for Engineers (2008)
The English for Engineers course for UKZN Faculty of Engineering students was outsourced and followed the structure that had been used in a foundation programme for the UKZN Faculty of Science. The authors of the manual titled Guide to teachers of Technical Communication which was used in this course were language specialists who had been teaching academic literacy to Science students.
The manual was designed primarily as a resource pack for students, although tutors were also expected to use it for planning their tutorial sessions. A resource guide for tutors which stipulated the approach to teaching literacy that was to be adopted accompanied the manual. The aim of the course was advertised as being to develop
―essential skills of reading and writing and expression in English [together with] the ability to write fluently and persuasively (scientific and non-scientific) in the English language” (Course template, 2008). The emphasis on English language suggests that the course centred on grounding students in the grammar and linguistic (technical) aspects of the English language. Furthermore, the course would assist students ―to learn the skills of critical analysis, interpretation and evaluation [these being] important critical tools which can be applied to a wide range of literary and cultural texts (and academic disciplines)‖ (Course template, 2008). The English language element in the course was realised through topics such as
Introduction to English Language study, grammatical structures with reference to technical and literary writing styles
Comprehension of literature
Writing skills – development of the written argument, inferring of meaning and drawing conclusions
Other skills to be developed were oral language skills, ‗general‘ vocabulary, scientific vocabulary, systematic nomenclature, and types of reports such as newspapers, popular science literature, textbooks, data books, scientific journals. Notwithstanding this emphasis on skills, the course was described as operating in a ―literacies approach rather than a skill-based or ESL approach‖ (Guide for teachers of Technical Communication, 2008 p. 1). This suggests a degree of confusion in what the course actually envisaged, in that a ―literacies‖ perspective would more usually foreground socially embedded literacy practices rather than skills. From a realist point of view, this indicates the disjuncture that can exist between espoused and enacted beliefs, further justifying a study that analyses both as levels of reality.
These assumptions about academic literacy as a set of essential and generic skills were embodied in the course material. Twenty readings were included, ranging from journal articles and extracts from text books to newspapers. Students were also required to produce
an essay on ―Lead in Petrol‖
a feasibility report on the topic ―A pebble bed reactor near Durban‖
design a poster on comparison between an industrial and a traditional process using fermentation
an oral presentation on the importance of Calcium Carbonate (CaCo3), Magnesium Carbonate (MgCo3), Sodium Carbonate (Na2CO3) and Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate (NaHCO3); industrial preparation, properties and uses of these chemicals; Nitric acid production; uses and properties of nitric acid; and the use of chlorine in sterilising water in swimming pools
The manual for the course indicated how the assignments were to be assessed but had nothing to say about the relevance of the material (and the course) to an engineering student. Of what use is essay writing to an engineering student? Are these assignments authentic for the engineering curriculum? The readings suggest that the broad focus of English for Engineers course was general science. The English for Engineers course only lasted for a year, as administrative issues took centre stage at the end of 2008. The Faculty of Engineering
indicated that they were not satisfied in the way the English for Engineers was offered and are not confident that the new module
would be effectively taught. They expressed concerns that the materials are not available to the schools for evaluation and no persons are put in place for the delivery of the module. There is no sense of ownership of these modules either by the Faculty of Engineering or Faculty of Humanities7.
The consequence of this dissatisfaction was the introduction of a new course called Technical Communication for Engineers (ENCH1TC).