This study investigates the link between breadth (or size) and depth of vocabulary knowledge, and the relationship between the latter and academic proficiency. Breadth of vocabulary knowledge was measured using a productive version of the Vocabulary Levels Test (Laufer & Nation, 1995), while depth was operationalised by productive knowledge of collocations. A small sample of 60 university students of English whose examination scores were closest to the 25 th , 50 th and 75 th percentiles was selected. Relationships were determined between breadth of vocabulary knowledge and depth of vocabulary knowledge on the one hand, and between depth of vocabulary knowledge and academic proficiency (represented by examination scores) on the other. While a relationship between breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge was found, suggesting a link between smaller vocabulary size and the production of deviant multiword units for the group as a whole, the relationship between depth of vocabulary knowledge and academic performance was not proved conclusively. It should, however, be kept in mind that numbers were relatively small. Further investigations using larger samples might find a more robust relationship.
{"title":"Probing the depths: Can both size and depth of productive vocabulary predict academic performance?","authors":"R. Scheepers","doi":"10.5785/34-2-812","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/34-2-812","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates the link between breadth (or size) and depth of vocabulary knowledge, and the relationship between the latter and academic proficiency. Breadth of vocabulary knowledge was measured using a productive version of the Vocabulary Levels Test (Laufer & Nation, 1995), while depth was operationalised by productive knowledge of collocations. A small sample of 60 university students of English whose examination scores were closest to the 25 th , 50 th and 75 th percentiles was selected. Relationships were determined between breadth of vocabulary knowledge and depth of vocabulary knowledge on the one hand, and between depth of vocabulary knowledge and academic proficiency (represented by examination scores) on the other. While a relationship between breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge was found, suggesting a link between smaller vocabulary size and the production of deviant multiword units for the group as a whole, the relationship between depth of vocabulary knowledge and academic performance was not proved conclusively. It should, however, be kept in mind that numbers were relatively small. Further investigations using larger samples might find a more robust relationship.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"63 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83444813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Multilingual education has seemingly been relegated to English and academic literacy lecturers in South African universities. This paper reports on the use of translanguaging in a multilingual second-year computer science class. Using descriptive statistical analysis as well as qualitative analysis, results showed that students perceived translanguaging to be a helpful pedagogical strategy that could be used to assist them to gain deeper meaning and understanding of difficult concepts in their field of study. The research also showed and proved that, for translanguaging to become relevantly useful to the students, all members of the faculty should be involved in using this pedagogical strategy in the classroom. Therefore, we argue that, through collaborative efforts by using translanguaging among lecturers from different faculties, students will be able to acquire deeper meaning and understanding of subject material, especially in content-based courses or modules.
{"title":"Translanguaging for epistemic access to Computer Science concepts: A call for change","authors":"Vimbai Mbirimi-Hungwe, T. Hungwe","doi":"10.5785/34-2-771","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/34-2-771","url":null,"abstract":"Multilingual education has seemingly been relegated to English and academic literacy lecturers in South African universities. This paper reports on the use of translanguaging in a multilingual second-year computer science class. Using descriptive statistical analysis as well as qualitative analysis, results showed that students perceived translanguaging to be a helpful pedagogical strategy that could be used to assist them to gain deeper meaning and understanding of difficult concepts in their field of study. The research also showed and proved that, for translanguaging to become relevantly useful to the students, all members of the faculty should be involved in using this pedagogical strategy in the classroom. Therefore, we argue that, through collaborative efforts by using translanguaging among lecturers from different faculties, students will be able to acquire deeper meaning and understanding of subject material, especially in content-based courses or modules.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78664311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article provides a narrative account of a literacy intervention I provided for an isiXhosa boy in Grade 1 who was struggling to read and write. The article first discusses the assumptions on which the intervention was based. These are: learning to read is a constructive rather than a mechanical process; educators who teach reading need to recognise the complexity of the reading process from the beginning of instruction, because even young children need to orchestrate complex mental operations when they start learning to read; and instruction should be based on close and systematic observation of what a child can do as a reader and writer and it should provide massive opportunities to read and write continuous texts. Next, the article explains how these principles were put into practice in the intervention. The aim of the article is to describe the theoretical principles underlying a one-on-one intervention based on the research undertaken by a core group of Reading Recovery theorists. It explains how that reading failure can be overcome through teaching that supports strategic reading. Its overall purpose is to contribute to an existing body of knowledge by providing insights that can help low-achieving readers make accelerated progress and catch up with their peers.
{"title":"Teaching reading and changing a life: Mihlali's story","authors":"Renee R. Nathanson","doi":"10.5785/34-2-760","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/34-2-760","url":null,"abstract":"This article provides a narrative account of a literacy intervention I provided for an isiXhosa boy in Grade 1 who was struggling to read and write. The article first discusses the assumptions on which the intervention was based. These are: learning to read is a constructive rather than a mechanical process; educators who teach reading need to recognise the complexity of the reading process from the beginning of instruction, because even young children need to orchestrate complex mental operations when they start learning to read; and instruction should be based on close and systematic observation of what a child can do as a reader and writer and it should provide massive opportunities to read and write continuous texts. Next, the article explains how these principles were put into practice in the intervention. The aim of the article is to describe the theoretical principles underlying a one-on-one intervention based on the research undertaken by a core group of Reading Recovery theorists. It explains how that reading failure can be overcome through teaching that supports strategic reading. Its overall purpose is to contribute to an existing body of knowledge by providing insights that can help low-achieving readers make accelerated progress and catch up with their peers.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"78 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74520516","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Primary school level is where the love for reading and understanding of literature starts, and for teachers to succeed in the teaching of reading and literature, they need to display certain habits and practices in their English as a second language (ESL) classrooms. One of the habits is reading extensively and developing a passion for reading. In this study, the impact of the in-service training of a specific group of primary school teachers in Botswana was explored by means of questionnaires and interviews. This was done to investigate the strategies employed by these teachers in terms of their content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as they teach literature to Standards 1 to 7 ESL pupils. The results from the questionnaires and the interviews allowed us to determine the start of problems with literature teaching. The questionnaire data gave an overview of the reading culture that prevailed in this case, and the interviews made it possible to enhance the picture provided in the questionnaires. This study revealed that the in-service teacher trainees lacked the requisite habits and practices required of a teacher of literature. We therefore argue that these teachers would fail to translate literary concepts into PCK because they had not gained any experience in analysing and evaluating full literary texts during their own schooling or teacher training.
{"title":"Training primary school teachers for literature teaching: A view from Botswana","authors":"Deborah Vimbandu Sanoto, C. V. D. Walt","doi":"10.5785/34-2-785","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/34-2-785","url":null,"abstract":"Primary school level is where the love for reading and understanding of literature starts, and for teachers to succeed in the teaching of reading and literature, they need to display certain habits and practices in their English as a second language (ESL) classrooms. One of the habits is reading extensively and developing a passion for reading. In this study, the impact of the in-service training of a specific group of primary school teachers in Botswana was explored by means of questionnaires and interviews. This was done to investigate the strategies employed by these teachers in terms of their content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as they teach literature to Standards 1 to 7 ESL pupils. The results from the questionnaires and the interviews allowed us to determine the start of problems with literature teaching. The questionnaire data gave an overview of the reading culture that prevailed in this case, and the interviews made it possible to enhance the picture provided in the questionnaires. This study revealed that the in-service teacher trainees lacked the requisite habits and practices required of a teacher of literature. We therefore argue that these teachers would fail to translate literary concepts into PCK because they had not gained any experience in analysing and evaluating full literary texts during their own schooling or teacher training.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"72 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84104167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Learner corpus research seeks to describe and thereby better understand learner acquisition, thus informing better teaching practice and creating an important bond between corpus linguistics and second/foreign language (L2) research. While much research exists for the study of L2 English, there is little research for the study of L2 German. This study explores the implementation of a corpus-based writing course in German studies at Rhodes University in South Africa with students at third-year level who were learning to write longer texts that present and defend an opinion. In order to evaluate the success of the writing course in teaching specific academic collocations, a diachronic collection of learner writing was undertaken. Written assignments were used to create a learner corpus, RUDaF (Rhodes University Deutsch als Fremdsprache). The creation of a learner corpus of German before and during the writing course served as a reflective tool to aid in the evaluation and improvement of corpus-based teaching materials. This is exemplified through the students’ use of three specific opinion-related everyday-academic German collocations before and after the writing course. The learner corpus revealed a marked improvement in the use of taught collocations before and during the writing course. These methods provide insights for other language educators who wish to implement corpus-based methods for improving writing in a second or foreign language, and for all educators wanting to assess improvements in student writing.
学习者语料库研究旨在描述并因此更好地理解学习者习得，从而为更好的教学实践提供信息，并在语料库语言学和第二语言/外语(L2)研究之间建立重要的联系。虽然对第二语言英语的研究很多，但对第二语言德语的研究却很少。本研究探讨了南非罗德大学德语研究中基于语料库的写作课程的实施情况，学生们正在学习撰写较长的文本来表达和捍卫自己的观点。为了评估写作课程在特定学术搭配教学中的成功，对学习者的写作进行了历时性的收集。书面作业被用来创建一个学习者语料库，RUDaF(罗德大学Deutsch als fredsprache)。在写作课前和写作课中建立德语学习者语料库是一种反思工具，有助于评估和改进基于语料库的教材。这是通过学生在写作课程前后使用三个具体的与观点相关的日常学术德语搭配来举例说明的。学习者语料库显示，在写作课前和写作课中，学生在运用教授的搭配搭配方面有显著的提高。这些方法为其他希望实施基于语料库的方法来提高第二语言或外语写作的语言教育者以及所有想要评估学生写作进步的教育者提供了见解。
{"title":"Using corpora to inform teaching practice in German Studies","authors":"Gwyndolen Jeanie Ortner, U. Weber","doi":"10.5785/34-2-789","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/34-2-789","url":null,"abstract":"Learner corpus research seeks to describe and thereby better understand learner acquisition, thus informing better teaching practice and creating an important bond between corpus linguistics and second/foreign language (L2) research. While much research exists for the study of L2 English, there is little research for the study of L2 German. This study explores the implementation of a corpus-based writing course in German studies at Rhodes University in South Africa with students at third-year level who were learning to write longer texts that present and defend an opinion. In order to evaluate the success of the writing course in teaching specific academic collocations, a diachronic collection of learner writing was undertaken. Written assignments were used to create a learner corpus, RUDaF (Rhodes University Deutsch als Fremdsprache). The creation of a learner corpus of German before and during the writing course served as a reflective tool to aid in the evaluation and improvement of corpus-based teaching materials. This is exemplified through the students’ use of three specific opinion-related everyday-academic German collocations before and after the writing course. The learner corpus revealed a marked improvement in the use of taught collocations before and during the writing course. These methods provide insights for other language educators who wish to implement corpus-based methods for improving writing in a second or foreign language, and for all educators wanting to assess improvements in student writing.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79750989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study was prompted by the fact that students who use a second language (L2) for higher education studies are often faced with the dilemma of not being able to express themselves in writing. This study attempts to comprehend experiences by higher education multilingual students engaging in the practice of expressive writing. Mastering a language and being able to make sense of oneself in writing is a complex activity especially for L2 writers. In this article, I look at ways in which we may understand the writing process better when viewing students’ writing against the backdrop of multilingualism in South Africa, with the notion of a social (cognitive) process and its influence on their ability to write. The literature review highlights Bakhtin’s concept of a heteroglossic dialogic relationship referring to the tensions between the multiplicities of language varieties within a national language, which draws it towards a standard central version by the use of expressive writing. This qualitative case study design, guided by interpretive epistemology, was used to collect students’ views, perceptions and suggestions on their experiences in writing. The aim of this study was to identify the kinds of strategies that could assist L2 students with English language writing tasks. The findings suggest that multilingual students benefit from the use of expressive writing. When pondering the holistic view of these findings, this study endorses the use of expressive writing as a developmental tool in the process of becoming academically literate.
{"title":"Literacies: Skills and practices in developing writing identities","authors":"V. Pfeiffer","doi":"10.5785/34-1-741","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/34-1-741","url":null,"abstract":"This study was prompted by the fact that students who use a second language (L2) for higher education studies are often faced with the dilemma of not being able to express themselves in writing. This study attempts to comprehend experiences by higher education multilingual students engaging in the practice of expressive writing. Mastering a language and being able to make sense of oneself in writing is a complex activity especially for L2 writers. In this article, I look at ways in which we may understand the writing process better when viewing students’ writing against the backdrop of multilingualism in South Africa, with the notion of a social (cognitive) process and its influence on their ability to write. The literature review highlights Bakhtin’s concept of a heteroglossic dialogic relationship referring to the tensions between the multiplicities of language varieties within a national language, which draws it towards a standard central version by the use of expressive writing. This qualitative case study design, guided by interpretive epistemology, was used to collect students’ views, perceptions and suggestions on their experiences in writing. The aim of this study was to identify the kinds of strategies that could assist L2 students with English language writing tasks. The findings suggest that multilingual students benefit from the use of expressive writing. When pondering the holistic view of these findings, this study endorses the use of expressive writing as a developmental tool in the process of becoming academically literate.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89694022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article analyses the implementation and evaluation of a first-year legal writing programme which, over a period of three years, was increasingly integrated into the law curriculum of two first-year courses with a concomitant improvement in students’ assignment marks, as well as in their and their tutors’ perceptions of their learning. It argues that an increasingly integrated approach improves the legal reasoning and writing abilities expected of a first-year law student. The course design focused on the genres required in the law degree along with the underlying cognitive skills of analysis, synthesis, application, evaluation and argument necessary for legal reasoning. Students were required to submit four writing tasks to trained final-year student writing tutors who provided extensive personalised feedback. These ungraded tasks served to scaffold students’ subsequent submissions of coursework assignments. External evaluations of the project each year facilitated reflection and informed changes made to the project design. The conclusion drawn is that a particular type of integration that is achieved through ‘insider-outsider’ collaboration between an academic literacy expert and a law academic may be most effective in achieving the desired outcomes.
{"title":"The effect of integration on learning: An analysis and evaluation of a legal writing project in a South African Law Faculty","authors":"Toni Gottlieb, L. Greenbaum","doi":"10.5785/34-1-775","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/34-1-775","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses the implementation and evaluation of a first-year legal writing programme which, over a period of three years, was increasingly integrated into the law curriculum of two first-year courses with a concomitant improvement in students’ assignment marks, as well as in their and their tutors’ perceptions of their learning. It argues that an increasingly integrated approach improves the legal reasoning and writing abilities expected of a first-year law student. The course design focused on the genres required in the law degree along with the underlying cognitive skills of analysis, synthesis, application, evaluation and argument necessary for legal reasoning. Students were required to submit four writing tasks to trained final-year student writing tutors who provided extensive personalised feedback. These ungraded tasks served to scaffold students’ subsequent submissions of coursework assignments. External evaluations of the project each year facilitated reflection and informed changes made to the project design. The conclusion drawn is that a particular type of integration that is achieved through ‘insider-outsider’ collaboration between an academic literacy expert and a law academic may be most effective in achieving the desired outcomes.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80786529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The language and literacy practices of two French-speaking Cameroonian families living in South Africa are the focus of this paper. Since its democracy, there has been an influx of immigrants from all over the world into South Africa. This influx has inevitable consequences for education. The aim of this research was to map the language and literacy practices of two immigrant Cameroonian families residing in Johannesburg, South Africa. The case study utilised interviews with the parents and children, as well as home observations. The research findings reveal that little linguistic congruence exists between the home and school, and that the parents and children serve as language brokers at different points. The study concludes that, if South Africa wants to live up to its democratic status, inclusive to all who live in it, teachers need to be versed in the multiple layers of literacy practices of learners from diverse backgrounds and consider initiatives such as family and community literacy programmes. This is vital not only for immigrant children, but for the South African education system as well.
{"title":"Mapping the literate lives of two Cameroonian families living in Johannesburg: Implications for language and literacy education","authors":"Kajee Leila","doi":"10.5785/34-1-827","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/34-1-827","url":null,"abstract":"The language and literacy practices of two French-speaking Cameroonian families living in South Africa are the focus of this paper. Since its democracy, there has been an influx of immigrants from all over the world into South Africa. This influx has inevitable consequences for education. The aim of this research was to map the language and literacy practices of two immigrant Cameroonian families residing in Johannesburg, South Africa. The case study utilised interviews with the parents and children, as well as home observations. The research findings reveal that little linguistic congruence exists between the home and school, and that the parents and children serve as language brokers at different points. The study concludes that, if South Africa wants to live up to its democratic status, inclusive to all who live in it, teachers need to be versed in the multiple layers of literacy practices of learners from diverse backgrounds and consider initiatives such as family and community literacy programmes. This is vital not only for immigrant children, but for the South African education system as well.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"394 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74311624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Learning a language’s grammar is frequently experienced as a complicated, abstract and often boring process. To alleviate this situation, scholars like Harald Weinrich advocate the use of literature in grammar teaching and learning. Literature has a very special potential of emotionally touching its readers, causing them to reflect on what they have read. In turn, readers can easily be animated to respond. This article attempts to demonstrate how the potential of literature can be used even in grammar teaching and learning to stimulate the learners emotionally and lead them towards writing their own personal response to the text. In this way, they have the opportunity to express themselves in the foreign language while at the same time applying the grammar they have learned. Although the example is based on teaching German as a foreign language, the principle underlying the proposed pedagogical sequences can be applied to the teaching and learning of other foreign languages as well.
{"title":"Teaching grammar through literature in foreign language learning with German as an example","authors":"A. Weber","doi":"10.5785/34-1-826","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/34-1-826","url":null,"abstract":"Learning a language’s grammar is frequently experienced as a complicated, abstract and often boring process. To alleviate this situation, scholars like Harald Weinrich advocate the use of literature in grammar teaching and learning. Literature has a very special potential of emotionally touching its readers, causing them to reflect on what they have read. In turn, readers can easily be animated to respond. This article attempts to demonstrate how the potential of literature can be used even in grammar teaching and learning to stimulate the learners emotionally and lead them towards writing their own personal response to the text. In this way, they have the opportunity to express themselves in the foreign language while at the same time applying the grammar they have learned. Although the example is based on teaching German as a foreign language, the principle underlying the proposed pedagogical sequences can be applied to the teaching and learning of other foreign languages as well.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86278631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Maryna Mariette De Lange, Hanlie Dippenaar, J. Anker
Since 2012, the poor literacy levels of Intermediate Phase (IP) learners have been a concern for officials in the Western Cape Education Department (WCED). Responding to the literacy crisis, the WCED has implemented the South African Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), along with various other literacy interventions, but in the West Coast District, IP learners’ writing skills remain poor. Focusing on the West Coast District, this article sheds light on the implementation of writing-instruction practices in Afrikaans classrooms, specifically ‘shared writing’, as outlined in CAPS. The article maps the theoretical and conceptual framework of the writing process. In particular, it discusses Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s ideas on social-cognitive development and scaffolding, which propose that a competent adult should interactively model the writing process to learners before practice and independent writing are attempted. Current literature in the field of writing instruction foregrounds the concepts of ‘thinking aloud’ and a ‘shared pen’, according to which the teacher and learner co-compose a text, allowing teachers to model writing strategies and learners to become competent writers. In this study, quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to describe and understand West Coast District IP Afrikaans Home Language teachers’ implementation of shared writing. Data collection consisted of quantitative and qualitative questionnaires, as well as interviews, with results converted into percentages. Subsequent data analysis disclosed the patterns, strengths and weaknesses experienced by IP Afrikaans Home Language teachers in the West Coast District, and provide valuable insights into the implementation of shared writing.
{"title":"Shared writing as first phase in writing instruction of Intermediate Phase Afrikaans Home Language learners","authors":"Maryna Mariette De Lange, Hanlie Dippenaar, J. Anker","doi":"10.5785/34-1-704","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/34-1-704","url":null,"abstract":"Since 2012, the poor literacy levels of Intermediate Phase (IP) learners have been a concern for officials in the Western Cape Education Department (WCED). Responding to the literacy crisis, the WCED has implemented the South African Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), along with various other literacy interventions, but in the West Coast District, IP learners’ writing skills remain poor. Focusing on the West Coast District, this article sheds light on the implementation of writing-instruction practices in Afrikaans classrooms, specifically ‘shared writing’, as outlined in CAPS. The article maps the theoretical and conceptual framework of the writing process. In particular, it discusses Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s ideas on social-cognitive development and scaffolding, which propose that a competent adult should interactively model the writing process to learners before practice and independent writing are attempted. Current literature in the field of writing instruction foregrounds the concepts of ‘thinking aloud’ and a ‘shared pen’, according to which the teacher and learner co-compose a text, allowing teachers to model writing strategies and learners to become competent writers. In this study, quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to describe and understand West Coast District IP Afrikaans Home Language teachers’ implementation of shared writing. Data collection consisted of quantitative and qualitative questionnaires, as well as interviews, with results converted into percentages. Subsequent data analysis disclosed the patterns, strengths and weaknesses experienced by IP Afrikaans Home Language teachers in the West Coast District, and provide valuable insights into the implementation of shared writing.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80443086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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