CHAPTER 2................................................................................................................................... 16
2.3 Understanding writing in the South African context
2.3.2 Recent studies into writing in the SA context
their counterparts learning in urban areas. This shortcoming of the CAPS could mean that learners progress to the next grade without sufficiently engaging with the concepts or fully meeting the objectives of the previous grade.
Following the lesson plans, assessment in HL is explained. A distinction is drawn between informal and formal assessment and the requirements for formal assessment are explained. For the recorded written component for Grade 6 in Term 1, the learners must write about family, friends, pets, favourite sport or current issues and a poem. In the second term, learners write an instructional text and, in this term, they write an examination which consists of three papers. Paper 3 comprises essays and transactional texts. For Term 3, they must write a short play script and a short story.
Finally, in Term 4, they write a report and, as with Term 2, in the examination they write Paper 3. In all four terms, each written piece is marked out of 30, but for Paper 3 the 30 marks is broken down into 10 marks for transactional texts and twenty marks for essays. All three papers in the final examination count for 25% of the learners’ final mark (DBE, 2011a, pp94-99). To obtain a pass in English HL in the IP, learners must achieve at least a level 4 rating, which means that they must not get less than 50%.
Noteworthy is that during the writing of Paper 3, learners do not follow the stages of the writing cycle. Instead, they are handed their examination, which comprises of instructions and writing topics and are given a time limit to complete their writing, the focus being on the product rather than the process. This could disadvantage them as the method of developing their writing skills during lessons differs from the examination. Thus, they will not benefit from planning, revising, drafting and peer editing before submitting their final product. Adding to this, teachers might be overwhelmed by the marking load especially because the writing has not been edited which could result in them not providing adequate feedback.
and Olivier (2016). The focus of the study conducted by Blease and Condy (2015) was on writing in multigrade classes whilst Navsaria et al (2011) and Julius (2013) gave voice to the teachers’ in the writing classroom. Another area that has received attention in the SA writing classroom has been on assessing writing (Akinyeye &
Pluddemann, 2016; Esambe, Mosito & Pather, 2016; Kasule & Langa, 2010).
These studies have all drawn attention to the paucity of research into writing, and the poor quality of writing and writing pedagogy in SA and have made the following contributions to this area of literature:
Table 2: Summary of writing research conducted in SA Authors Year Focus of
research Recommendations Kasule &
Langa 2010 FAL tertiary students attitudes toward self- editing
Overall the study has shown that although L2 writers in the research sample see self-editing as complex, they value it in reducing textual inaccuracies.
Although a larger study sample would have provided more generalizable
results, the findings of this brief attitudinal study contribute to the debate over how effectiveness within L2 writing can be developed: that, despite students’ attitude that self-editing is complex, self-editing is a vital skill for improving textual quality; and writing instruction that nurtures its development is beneficial for purposes of developing autonomous L2 writers (p.71) Navsaria,
Pascoe and Kathard
2011 Grade 5 and Grade 6 writing teachers’
perceptions
Further opportunities include training for teachers (e.g. around assessment), remedial assistance, a school library, a lower
teacher/learner ratio, providing interesting and culturally related reading books, greater parental support and involvement, and safe, nurturing home environments. The school, home/social community and learners collectively play a role in the development of written language and the overall education of the learners. A joint
partnership between the school and home is needed to assist and support learners to
achieve the writing outcomes of their grade and ensure future success in their academic careers.
Furthermore, there is a need for SLTs in ordinary schools in South Africa to support the
crisis of written language (p.103) Julius 2013 Grade 5
teachers’
writing pedagogies
There appeared to be a distinct mismatch between the theoretical approaches to teaching writing outlined in CAPS and these two
teachers’ actual classroom practices. This mismatch suggests the need for interventions to bridge the gap between where teachers [and learners] are and where the curriculum is in relation to teaching EFAL writing, and for the teachers to engage with the curriculum…It is essential therefore that teachers, especially those in a similar situation to that of T1 in this study, get support and guidance from the relevant stakeholders in order to increase the effectiveness of their practices (pp.140-141) Dornbrack
& Dixon 2014 Grade 10 writing of the argumentative essay
We contend that this is a result of her teacher not fully understanding the importance of both process and genre steps for argumentative writing. One area is planning and its role in supporting and developing thinking and
reasoning. This connection emphasises what a cognitively complex act writing is and the need to provide explicit support at each stage. This makes a case for professional writing workshops that focus on specific
genres…Teaching complex genres also requires detailed planning of more than two lessons to meet the needs of FAL students. This means addressing the perception that teaching writing involves standalone lessons. To meet student needs, an integration of all the literacy skills is necessary. Students need time to think, discuss ideas and read. This requires challenging
teacher expectations of the forms of capital students have and their ability to think and reason. It also points to the need for teacher trainers to re-examine their assumptions and practices (p.8)
Blease &
Condy 2015 Rural
multigrade FP teaching of writing
A recommendation is that teacher-training institutions and in-service workshops should provide modules on teaching in rural multigrade environments. In these modules, discussions on how poverty and illiteracy may impact on the development of writing skills need to be included. Strategies should be offered on how teachers can use the more advanced learners, not necessarily the older learners, in the class to assist the slower learners. A final
recommendation
is that these two rural multigrade teachers would
like more professional development on writing skills provided by ‘more knowledgeable others’
in NGO’s and the WCED (p.8) Hill 2015 IP writing and
LoLT The most important feature of the project however, was the competence of the teachers as mediators, their leadership, and their
commitment to seeing it through. In one class, not all the children completed their books in the first year of the project. These learners’ drafts showed lack of progress, which indicated lack of mediation and leadership. This disappointing result, fortunately not typical of the outcome of the whole project, confirmed the McKinsey report’s assertion that ‘the quality of an
education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers’ and ‘the only way to improve outcomes is to improve instruction’ (Mourshed, Chijioke & Barber 2007:15) (p.8).
Akinyeye &
Pluddeman 2016 Grade 9 teaching and assessing writing
The pivotal ones appear to be a less-than- coherent language curriculum and inadequately trained teachers, exacerbated by unmanageable learner–teacher ratios and the consequent lack of time available for individualised attention during the writing process. Until all three issues are addressed, the undoubted potential of writers such as Zenobia and the generation she represents is unlikely to be realised (p.7)
Esambe, Mosito &
Pather
2016 Tertiary writing
and feedback There is a gap between students’ current writing competencies and the required competencies from a disciplinary and institutional context.
There is also a gap between the lecturers’
perception of their formative feedback provided to the students and the actual interpretation of the feedback by the students. These gaps demonstrate why
we see the students’ and lecturers’ literacies practices as interim (p.10)
Olivier &
Olivier 2016 Afrikaans first year tertiary students’
writing
apprehension
It is therefore important for writing, especially in compulsory academic literacy modules, to be taught through individualised student-centred methods, with affective support and reflective instruction, positive personal feedback,
additional support through counselling as well as effective modelled writing behaviour from
lecturers (p.8).
Drennan 2017 Tertiary writing of the
academic essay through a writing
The writing centre serves as a physical space that promotes the development of writing as a critical skill within these various spaces in tertiary education. By means of collaborative partnerships between writing centre practitioners
centre and academic staff members, the writing centre can serve as an intermediary between content lecturers and students. The two collaborative initiatives investigated in the article were perceived positively and it appears that the interventions might have had a positive impact on students’ writing performance, although it is very difficult to demonstrate the direct impact of such collaborative initiatives.
Such inter-disciplinary collaboration should be promoted and students’ writing needs, regarding discourse-specific writing conventions, need to be studied further and in more depth. The identification and teaching of discipline-specific writing interventions can facilitate students’
acquisition of and fluency in specialised discourses. In this way, writing centres can assist institutions in meeting the objective of addressing access and success within higher education (p.7)
As is evident from the table above, these researchers foreground the need for interventions in the writing classroom, particularly in terms of teacher development.
Despite the contribution of the studies reviewed above to the area of teaching writing, Grade 6 boys’ writing remains neglected. Also apparent is that the DBE has not afforded much consideration to the recommendations of these scholars, as there is still a need for interventions to be implemented to improve learners’ writing skills.