Overcoming learning barriers : encouraging writing across the curriculum.

Abstract

“Don’t you teach them anything in English?” This tongue-in-cheek question, posed by colleagues teaching other, subject-based courses, reveals a very real problem in English language courses in an academic environment. The English syllabus may be sound, and the teachers effective, yet students are simply not transferring linguistic or critical thinking skills they have gained, under the guidance of the English department, to other subjects, such as Psychology or Business Management. This presentation explores barriers to the transfer of these important skills in an international undergraduate programme in Thailand and suggests means of overcoming these obstacles, as implemented by Writing across the Curriculum (WAC) programmes. WAC goes a step beyond content-based writing curricula; it is a dual process that also involves embedding language and critical thinking goals in subject-based courses like Psychology or Business Management.