From literature to literacy : some reflections on my personal journey and some thoughts for the future

![CDATA[The paper is based on my metamorphosis into a university learning advisor giving academic literacy advice to students, in a language which had been equally foreign to me, or maybe more so as compared to that of many of my students. My initiation into English had come via all manner of poetry from Donne, Eliot and Sarojini Naidu to Michael Jackson and through the novels of Jane Austen, Anita Desai and Jackie Collins and by drama from Shakespeare to Dirty Dancing. The two phases of this metamorphosis, studying at university and then teaching English as a Second language in Australia had already proved to be rather confronting experiences for me. However teaching academic literacy here at university has posed an even greater challenge. As I look through my newly acquired 'glasses' I can see that in my role as a LAS advisor, I am now asking my students to give up what I myself had cherished; a way of thinking, studying and writing, as it is not congruent with the conventions of western academic culture. In a shrinking world where boundaries have blurred, surely the internationalisation of higher education should recognise more than just curries and currencies of the east. Should not there be some confluence of the east and the west forming an academic culture, which recognises the strengths of both? This paper invites colleagues to share many such qualms and challenges of this personal odyssey into the academic world 'downunder'.]]