Academic Literacy Enhancement along the Schooling Path-Students� Reading and Writing Practices in Portuguese Schools and Universities

Abstract

Many students in Higher Education have difficulties with reading and writing for academic purposes as their new context implies specific cultural and social practices, new genres, and new epistemological positions. An analysis of the Portuguese reality places the question beyond the borders of Higher Education. Analysis reveals Portuguese university students face specific reading and writing difficulties requiring complex uses of language. After considering possible social, cultural and economic causes that may underlie such difficulties, this analysis locates the primary cause in the Portuguese educational system and the literacy practices Portuguese students are involved in throughout their whole schooling path. The contrast between the reading and writing tasks students are expected to perform in Higher Education and those they used to perform at lower school levels suggests that any effective approach to academic writing should cover the whole schooling process. As well, the approach should also take into account language uses students perform daily outside school which are often different and distant from those discourses valued within academia.