Literacy practices introduced: instructional models for teaching academic writing in Swedish and English

This study investigates how academic writing practices at university are represented and introduced through instructional models in Swedish and English teaching materials. The scaffolding power of such models is often assumed without scrutinizing how these models can provide entrance points to writing practices for students dealing with specific writing tasks. Grounded in an interest in learning, the study analyses selected models in frequently-used teaching materials for academic writing in Sweden. Findings are: the same model is used to present writing as a matter of language or as academic work; the introduction of the models positions students as responders to assignment tasks in the Swedish materials or as actors on the global research market in the English materials. How writing can become relevant for learning by connecting students’ prior knowledge – gained from writing in different contexts and in different languages – with engaging in current writing tasks remains tacit.