Entering the Discourses of the University

Abstract

In this paper a general model is developed, based on Gee's (1990) theory of primary and secondary Discourses, in order to describe and explicate the process of the acquisition of academic literacies by two ESL students during their first academic year at university. Data was collected from a series of interviews as well as from the students' written work during the year, and the model provides a concise, visual way to represent some of the differences and similarities in their experiences of the Discourses of their first year at university. On the basis of these two case studies, it is argued that Gee's theory offers some valuable insights into and explanations for the complex problems experienced by ESL students entering tertiary institutions from a range of different backgrounds. Since these problems are not only linguistic, the solutions are more complex than simply offering language support.