Writing approaches and strategies used by teachers in selected South African English First Additional Language classrooms

Reading & Writing

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Writing approaches and strategies used by teachers in selected South African English First Additional Language classrooms
 
Creator Ngubane, Nomalungelo I. Ntombela, Berrington Govender, Samantha
 
Subject — narrative essay; English First Additional Language; discourse analysis; code-switching; collaborative learning; Zone of Proximal Development.
Description Background: The teaching of writing in English First Additional Language (EFAL) classrooms remains less explored in the Further Education and Training Phase (FET) in South Africa. This is so despite research showing a decline in the writing skills of second language learners, especially at the FET phase, calling attention to how writing is taught.Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate writing approaches and teaching strategies used by teachers in teaching writing in selected EFAL FET classrooms in the Pinetown district.Method: A qualitative approach was adopted to observe five writing lessons across five schools using a video camera. Discourse analysis was used to analyse data.Results: The findings indicate that teachers mostly used a process approach to writing, which is in line with their curriculum. The study also found that teachers generally used a question and answer method to teach writing, which entails teachers controlling the interactions in the classrooms through a nomination-response cycle. Analyses of lessons also suggest that teachers creatively employed code-switching to explain writing concepts better.Conclusion: The study concludes that the effectiveness of any pedagogy depends on the teachers’ knowledge and understanding of writing and approaches to writing. For effective development of learners’ writing, the study recommends instruction methods that embrace collaborative writing activities in the learners’ Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and the recognition of learners’ home languages.
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor
Date 2020-06-18
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/rw.v11i1.261
 
Source Reading & Writing; Vol 11, No 1 (2020); 8 pages 2308-1422 2079-8245
 
Language eng
 
Relation
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https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/261/647 https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/261/646 https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/261/648 https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/261/645
 
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Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Nomalungelo I. Ngubane, Berrington Ntombela, Samantha Govender https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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