Academic literacy in undergraduate teaching training courses

ways of referring writing activities

Abstract

To understand how writing practices occur in undergraduate courses, we examined answers from an online questionnaire from teachers of these courses, which involved public and community universities in Santa Catarina. The qualitative research used an online questionnaire, answered by 41 teachers, and interviews as research instruments. For this article, responses to questions that addressed the objectives of identifying the ways in which writing activities are assigned and the feedback that teachers give to them were considered, as well as understanding the challenges they pointed out in the guidance given to students. We draw on contributions from academic literacy studies, especially when they refer to the idea of deficit, a perception that university teachers have about their students' writing: Fiad (2011), Street (2010), Castanheira (2019), and Lea and Street (2006). We are based on the contributions of academy literacy studies, especially when referred to the idea of deficit, perception that university teachers have about their students writing. The data analysis indicated the teacher’s worries whit the guidance that leaves clear what is expected in the written productions requested. Guiding scripts and explanation of the text characteristic are some of the orientations given.  It was noticed that the generic use of the word ‘text’, made by the participating teachers, may indicate that the guidance for writing activities is being done in a way that does not consider the characteristics inherent for each text genre, especially from the modes of manifestation and circulation in the academic sphere. Another finding refers to writing activities closely linked to reading activities, giving reading almost a secondary role in the students’ training process. In feedback, teachers search to highlight points to be improved and seek to give individuals guidance, said as the main challenge to be faced, as well as the issue of time and the heterogeneity of the students. Still, some consider the students’ writing to be deficient, many understand the challenge posed in the development of this academic writing and, therefore, for your student academy literacy.