Embedding academic literacies in the enabling curriculum: innovations to enhance successful student transitions into undergraduate study

Enabling courses occupy an established, albeit marginal, space in the Australian higher education (HE) landscape. Although enabling courses are designed to prepare students for study at the degree program level, little attention has been paid to the explicit development of students’ academic language and literacies within the context of the disciplines. This means that the benefits of embedded academic literacies curricula have not been fully examined at the enabling level. This paper will explore perspectives on embedding academic literacies before offering reflections on a case study of how subject-specific academic literacies support has been embedded within an enabling linguistics course at a regional Australian university. It then suggests that an approach that explicitly articulates disciplinary expectations and literacies may enhance students’ preparation for undergraduate study within that field. This paper proposes that such an approach offers both students and teachers new opportunities for enhancing learning and teaching in enabling programs, and better facilitates student transition into undergraduate programs.