TEACHING STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE THE WRITING SKILLS FOR ...

[Pages:181]TEACHING STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE THE WRITING SKILLS FOR GRADE 8 AND 9 LEARNERS IN ENGLISH FIRST ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE: A CASE STUDY OF

FOUR HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE CRADOCK EDUCATION DISTRICT. BY

ZIMKHITHA KALIPA Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of

MASTER OF EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF FORT HARE

SUPERVISOR: DR N. PYLMAN January 2014

DECLARATION

I declare that:

Student number: 201013162

TEACHING STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE THE WRITING SKILLS FOR GRADE 8 AND 9 LEARNERS IN ENGLISH FIRST ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE: A CASE STUDY OF FOUR HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE CRADOCK EDUCATION DISTRICT.

Is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references.

Z.KALIPA ________________

DATE ________________

(i)

DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my family especially my loving mother Linda, my sister Apelele, my son Hlumisa, siblings, friends and my colleagues for their unwavering support and encouragement.

(ii)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am thankful to God for giving me tremendous strength to carry out this study. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr. N. Pylman, for providing me with the assistance and guidance in this study. Thank you for your kindness, your patience and for being there every step of the way. Without your encouragement and constant assistance, this dissertation would not have been possible. I owe my deepest gratitude and love to my mom for her belief in me, caring for my son during this period and for her support in this study. Thank you for your love and support. I acknowledge with thanks the assistance of the following people:

The Principals and the teachers involved in this study for their cooperation. My friends for their support, Sibongiseni Dwenga and Isabella Mafuna. My colleague, Fiola Mnqathu for her words of encouragement and inspiration. My sister, Apelele Kalipa for her support. My aunt, Evelyn Tobbie Kalipa for being there for me throughout this journey. Mpumelelo Speelman for his motivation and support.

(iii)

ABSTRACT Writing skills is are an essential requirement to lifelong learner success yet the way teachers teach and provide feedback to their learners on writing is quite challenging. This study sought to explore the teaching strategies to improve writing skills as an essential requirement for effective learning in schools for grade 8 and 9 learners in English First Additional Language. For people living in the townships and rural areas in South Africa, exposure to English is limited, because the majority of people communicate with each other in local languages. With teachers and learners residing in the townships where communication occurs mostly in isiXhosa, problems in language proficiency, in particular writing in English First Additional Language, are often encountered not only by the learners, but by educators as well.

This was a case study of four high schools in the Cradock Education District. In-depth interviews were conducted with eight participants in the four schools.

There were eight main findings, which are as follows: Lack of support for teachers, lack of a culture of learning amongst learners, and lack of competence in English for both learners and parents, which need to be addressed; and strategies proposed to improve writing skills are: the importance of creative writing; regular feedback and the importance of drafts.

(iv)

KEYWORDS: Teaching strategies, writing skills, English First Additional Language, process approach model, product approach model and genre approach model.

(v)

ACRONYMS

CAPS EFL FAL FL GET HoD LOLT L1 L2 SL T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8

Curriculum and assessment Policy Statement English First Language First Additional Language Foreign Language General Education and Training Head of Department Language of learning and teaching First Language Second Language Second Language Teacher One Teacher Two Teacher Three Teacher Four Teacher Five Teacher Six Teacher Seven Teacher Eight

(vi)

LIST OF TABLES

PAGES

Table 4.1 Respondents in relation to gender

81

Table 4.2 Presentation in relation to teaching experience

82

Table 4.3 Respondents in relation to qualifications

83

Table 4.4 Profile of respondents in relation to age

84

(vii)

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download