Academic skills and linguistic power : negotiating a syllabus for the acquisition of multi-faceted litaracies in English

This dissertation is submitted in fulfillment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, English, in the Department of English at N01th-West University. This dissertation is submitted in fulfillment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, English, in the Department of English at o:ih- West University. In memory of my late father, Vangowa Joram 'Major' Hove, my late brother Melusi 'Munodawafa', my late sister, Sithokozile 'Mutinhimira,' and in sincere gratitude to mai, Helia 'waJeke' Moyo.

Discursive and expository compositions that showed the characteristics of appropriately projected thoughts and an awareness of the perceived audience were more successful than compositions that relied on simple subject matter and consistent sentence structures. A major challenge in the analysis of the compositions arose from incidents where incomplete sentences were used, with no clear subject-verb pattern or agreement. It was deduced from this three-year longitudinal study that an attempt to improve the writing quality and strength of high school students could come about through a deliberate focus on dc, avoiding their cognitive academic literacy (CALP) by design .

Explicit grammar instruction, especially the structural patterning of the sentences used by learners in their writing. v•as decided upon as a practical reinforcement for language skills that the learners need to develop academic literacy skills in English. Contrastive analysis and its contribution to the study 2.2.4. EJTor anal)sis and its contribution to the present study 2.2.5.

PRESENTATION OF HESULTS AND ANALYSIS

CHAPTER 1

Here there is a clear problem in the results in relation to the students' grade level and age. The classroom experiences of the students in this study readily demonstrate that the development of CALP skills. The thick descriptions of the intrYiews and the written texts (Denzin and Lincoln, 1995; \'ithal, 2000) highlight in the process.

The double involvement of researcher and the learners in the study gave authenticity to the study and the analysis of the data. As the learners saw some of the similarities between their home languages and the target language.

Figure 1. Learner and educato r strategies towards CALP s kHis acquisition

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The assembly process then became a recursive exercise of generating, re-reading, erasing and regenerating to achieve a "tight fit". intended when writing a composition. ,.\t times. the recursive processes described abo\'c \\'ere , er) complex and affected by the individual learner's difficulties '"'ith ,·ocular English language. Sometimes. the) r~soncd to check the dictionary to confirm spelling. fthis \\as did not make any t:askr b: the fact that sometimes. a student \That she is not sure or the right word to search for in a sentence. A school in Toronto. the side some of the participants came from. is 27km outside of Polob>,ana.

In the pedagogical space of the classroom, this 'flexibility' and elasticity of the word had to be explored from the context in which each term was used. This preliminary task is based on the observation that <>omc of the participants. Since the digest is a repo11. in his ovm way). the simple past tense should be used consistently in the student's writing. This is in addition to the instruction to use one's own words as much as possible, a skill that discourages lifting phrases from the relevant passages.

When you change such a construction into repeated speech. 'ersion should be: The teacher asked who had brought the spiders into the room.). Idcnti switching off the pa11 of speech and the function f in the ph1·ase/klausk A commendable performance. This was particularly contested in light of the feedback research participants received on their writing and SABE or "untranslatable exper!ssions" that posed meaningful problems.

I\ Form an oral discussion forum. students were tasked with presenting a written version. using the most \inning style and taking a clear stand on the subject. Except this. Leamers are expected to \\Ork on a gi,·en task in draft fonn and perfect this or a series of edits. rewriting and refinement efforts. The practical implication is that: help in accomplishing the task comes from ':.Hious •wurccs th~ educator. parents and members of the class or group. As an indicator of \\Titten's skill abilities. Student writers must demonstrate an excellent lasting sense of the audience.

1hc Cl E English first language paper has higher race validity comJXlrcd tu the DoE paper.. O\ crlooh. the curriculum and political impcrativity in the South, and the will to develop curricula as well as exam protocols. To provide a full answer to question I in the CIE article. the candidate must focus on . thrc~ pmts: llesandro's eccentric behavior. the unknown event::. and .. hcthcr or not:\.llesandro should be retired. In . This last part of the question. the candidates must also make judicious interpretations of both character and conduct. based on what they read.

Figure 7: Writer' s effects responsl.! procc-;s:

COMPAR AT~V E PERFORMANCE ACROSS SUBJECTS 2009

AGGREGA TE

The implications for this study were that the low levels of reading proficiency observed in the students here negated some degree of frustration level reading and that much help was needed to increase their understanding and appreciation of the story. In an effort to facilitate comprehension of the text, key words were removed from the text and students were asked to replace them as they were used in context. Some suggestions are closer to the basic meaning of the words than to a good approximation in the semamic sense of the sentence or meaning in contc:->l.

These tasks were intended to facilitate reading words in addition to lines, making inferences, and extracting implied meanings rather than simple surface sentence reading ability. Th~ len!!lh of sentences. and on the other hand paragraphs also contribute to the structuring of information. so the communication of meaning in the story.. even though this may sound like a small thing. -;one focus was dnl\m on the capital letters at the b.:beginning of the e\er) clauc:;e and the period at the end.. minor) of tht: research participants had demonstrated the degree of uncertainty regarding the use of these basic reatun.:s. This scanning process also allowed users to express their opinions on the importance of the use of some of the clause structures in the excerpt I searched.

This \\US\ developed further to allow students to observe the coordinating conjunctions used in C'\lract. SU!:!!.!.Csts Orphic personality. nobilit:. majesty. importance and dominance over others. and perhaps extends to "commander of the defense forces"· in ·'modern democracies.·· In dictatorships the term has created layers and circles of meaning that include. Tshepiso is a pig”. the equivalence between the Tshcpisa and the pig \\ould be ascertained in such qualities and characteristics a . dirty. snort, ugly.''.

The discourse on literacy skills also emphasizes the "visual" element as a factor that enhances the process of comprehension in reading and typing. for example, it was used extensively to explore the impact created by such a construction in terms of enhancing the visual element of the image. Students were asked to find the 'onion rings' suggested by 'loomed' and were further probed to state what the loom suggested to them in the last half of the clause in terms of the size and immensity of the mountain range. Consequently, some of the Jeamers continued to tease out many other words, and in their "heading," it was found that they had begun to use commands appropriate to the particular emotion or sensation they wished to express or describe.

A more significant strategy wa!' built around the concept of ·'point of view,'. that is to say, the position or attitude that a m·it~r adopts in describing an object. and the feelings evoked in the reader "when they encounter specific ,·crsions as communicated by the chosen \\'Orders. They) read the information on the card and brainstormed the reliability and objectivity of the information. All groups knew \\·hal total incident involved and they could tb~rcfor make informed decisions about the victim discharged by each of the participants in the incident.