Enhancing higher education transitions through negotiated engagements of learning experiences : lessons from a pre-undergraduate preparatory program language education course

McInnis (2001) has identified three key challenges for universities in maximising student engagement with the undergraduate experience: curriculum, learning community, and infrastructure and support. This paper demonstrates how the curriculum challenge is being addressed in the Language and Learning course in the STEPS pre-undergraduate preparatory program at Central Queensland University. The paper pays particular attention to the language education curriculum - with its focus on learning styles, brain-based learning, critical awareness and skill development - as it equips students to engage with 'university speak', critical self-reflection and negotiation of individual and institutional expectations of university.