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The purpose of this study is to find out the academic literacy skills in English of ESL first year humanities students from their own point of view. It is motivated by the fact that many lecturers at this university (and perhaps at many other universities elsewhere) often complain about the limited academic literacy skills of their students, especially those who use English as an additional or non-native language. Using both quantitative and qualitative research methods, the views and final examination essays of thirty conveniently sampled students were analyzed. The findings show that the majority of the students rated many of their academic literacy skills 'average'. In terms of their writing skills, the results indicate that the majority of the students have pragmatic competence which enables them to communicate their intended meaning reasonably well; but what they lack mainly is organizational competence, i.e. the ability to write ideas fluently and accurately. To help the students overcome some of their academic literacy limitations, it is suggested that teachers should first try to understand the students' practices, and to give written work that fosters a sense of ownership, self-reflection and personal engagement.

Code-switching in the classroom is known to take place across a wide range of subjects in multilingual settings in Africa and, indeed, throughout the world; yet it is often regarded pejoratively by some educational policy makers. This article looks at code-switching (CS) in Botswana's senior secondary schools within the context of the country's language-in-education policy, which states that English is the official language of learning and teaching while Setswana is the national language used for identity, unity and national pride. The data are derived from an ethnographic study conducted at four high schools in the north-eastern part of the country, which is uniquely multilingual. The findings indicate that code-switching from English to Setswana is quite prevalent in content subjects, and is used as a pedagogic resource to clarify the knowledge of the subject matter and to reduce the social distance between the teacher and learners. From the findings, it is suggested that code-switching in ESL classrooms in Botswana should be recognized not only as a communicative strategy for instruction, but also as a way of creating classroom warmth and friendliness.

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