'Naming' students' problems: an analysis of language-related discourses at a South African university

Abstract

This article examines a number of discourses that construct students 'problems' as they engage with tertiary study at a historically black South African university. These dominant discourses are then linked to Street's 'autonomous' model of literacy and Rampton's 'autonomous' model of applied linguistics in order to interrogate their ideological biases. Implications of the discourses for the provision of epistemological access to tertiary study are then explored. The article ends by indicating how a 'literacy across the curriculum' approach to working with students' difficulties could provide an alternative to current 'remedial' programmes.