Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2006. / Title from title page screen, viewed on May 11, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Janice Neuleib (chair), Paula Ressler, Ronald Strickland. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-192) and abstract. Also available in print.

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Thesis (M. A. (English)) -- University of Limpopo, 2011. / In 2008, the National Department of Education in South Africa introduced a new curriculum known as the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) in the Grade 12 classes. Prior to the introduction of this new curriculum, the writing of essays in Grade 12 classes was treated as a once-off activity. The focus on essay activities was mainly on the product and after the assessment of such product-driven essays, teachers had no further interest in them except for recording marks when necessary. The paucity of interaction between teachers and learners may have contributed to the majority of learners writing incoherent essays and achieving low marks. This research study investigates whether teachers in the Moroke Circuit understand and implement the process approach in the writing of English essays in rural Grade 12 classes as prescribed by the NCS. The NCS advocates the use of the process writing approach in essay writing. The process writing approach encourages a partnership between teachers and learners. Teachers are expected to treat learners’ essays as improvable objects through pre-writing activities, self and peer assessment which Kasanga (2004:64) refers to as “multiple-draft multiple-reader writing instruction”. To achieve the aim of the study, learners’ essays were checked against the process writing checklist and the teachers’ responses in the questionnaire they were requested to complete as part of the study. The findings revealed that teachers in the Moroke Circuit do not fully understand the process writing approach and thus they do not fully implement it as advocated. There are various factors which may contribute to the learners’ poor writing skills, the main of which appear to be the teachers’ inadequate training and poor understanding of the process writing approach. Some teachers attended short training courses on NCS and others did not attended any. Based on the findings, it is recommended that teachers should receive adequate training in the process writing approach for it to be implemented as effectively as the NCS prescribes. / National Research Foundation (NRF)

Thesis (M.Ed. (Language Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / This study investigates challenges grade 12 learners experience in essay writing in English first additional language (EFAL). Nine Grade 12 learners and 3 EFAL educators at Mothimako high school participated in the study. The method used in this study is qualitative method and it is used to get both teachers and learners experiences in depth detail regarding the challenges faced by learners in essay writing. Furthermore, the tools used to collect data are documents analysis, questionnaires, and observation. The study is underpinned by the Social Constructivism Learning theory. The researcher presented profiles of the school and EFAL teachers. The findings suggest that learners face a number of challenges with essay writing. The major challenges identified include the lack of resources, overcrowded classrooms, poor teaching methods and poor foundation skills of EFAL which led to poor grammatical competence. The study recommends that scaffolding be practiced when teaching the skill, conducive learning environments be created so learners learn the writing skill in a free, comfortable environment, support be provided in terms of writing materials, regular workshops be conducted to equip teachers with the writing skill, conducting workshops for parents so they could be aware how they could be involved in their children's education and lastly, encourage learners to work in groups if they are to learn the skill.

The transition to democracy in South Africa has resulted in systemic efforts to ensure equality education for all. However, despite such endeavours to address inequities, inequalities still remain regarding not only resources but also classroom pedagogies. One aspect of classroom pedagogy is the teaching of writing. The writing proficiency of mainly non-mother tongue learners seldom surpasses that of mother tongue speakers of English. Writing is seldom explicitly taught. Moreover, factual texts are almost never taught in schools although they are one of the most powerful genres in society. Systemic transformation in South Africa is often driven by global trends that focus on functional literacy. The Outcomes Based Curriculum is such an initiative with its emphasis on skills, values, critical thinking, and learner centeredness. The current process writing approach in our schools, within the framework of Outcomes Based Education, does not address the needs of all learners. The focus on grammar, correctness, and creative outpourings of self -reflective essays, advantages the learner familiar with the cultural heritage discourse. It disempowers those who are from different cultural or linguistic backgrounds. Writing is a social practice, and in order to write effectively learners have to uncover the generic conventions that configure different genres. In schools this translates into an explicit pedagogy of writing underpinned by theory. This thesis attempts to seek an alternate approach to the teaching of writing in a multicultural classroom, using the genre approach. The research was collaboratively planned and implemented as an action research intervention, at a multicultural school in Durban. The aims were to change learner attitudes to writing, use genre theory to teach learners explicitly about linguistic and generic conventions, produce a factual group text, and to transform my own practice. The first part of the thesis describes the rationale for the research within the context of transformation, issues of democracy education, and multiculturalism as a challenge to educators teaching English primary language. The second part examines the theories that inform this research especially genre theory, critical language awareness, functional grammar, and critical literacy. The implementation of the project in carefully planned and explicit stages is the subject of the third part of the thesis. It also describes how field notes, questionnaires, and the leaflets were used for data collection in the field of research. The fourth section addresses the action research intervention at Park High within a ten-day cycle, together with an integrated analysis of data collected and the findings. The final section of the thesis examines the limitations of the project together with recommendations for improved practice in the writing classroom. The findings indicate that learners value explicit pedagogies and that learning about generic conventions improves confidence and competence. The findings further suggest that learning about genres and generic conventions is a lengthy and difficult process. However, this process has the potential to transform implied pedagogies for both mother tongue and non-mother tongue learners in a post-apartheid society. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

This thesis begins with sufficient research to support the contention that secondary teachers should be using writing in the classroom, proceeds to question why some are not, and then supplies specific lesson plan ideas which can be adapted to suit most needs in the secondary history classrooms.

This thesis explores the current theories on the personal narrative (as a tool in teaching freshman composition) and examines the ways that this essay is now being used in first year courses at California State University, San Bernardino.

Thesis (M.Ed. (Language Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / It is well known that essay writing is one of the lengthy assessment activities in the teaching and learning of English First Additional Language (FAL). This study focused on exploring the challenges faced by learners in English essay writing at Sekgosese West Circuit. The motive behind this research emanates from noticeable poor writing of English essays and related longer transactional writing by learners. This was accompanied by a rapid complain arising from teachers about the same writing incapacities which they find themselves confronted with daily. In view of this, the researcher saw it fit and academically worthy and investigated the causal causes of this challenge with a view to help the stakeholders in education in addressing this challenge going onward. The data for this study was collected from English FAL teachers and learners. The research is projected within phenomenological design under the interpretive paradigm. In view of this, the study was specifically qualitative where principal devices used to collect data were: semi-structured interviews, focus groups and document analysis. The findings of the study reveal that learners are experiencing challenges in spelling, diction, punctuation, paragraphing, syntax, lack of topical understanding, creativity, and coherence. When looking at the teachers, there is a limited time teach writing, they teach other skills more (literature) than writing because of personal preference. Teachers do not teach writing and there is no feedback given to learners upon completion of writing assessments. Some of these challenges are materializing because the learners do not engage in writing for leisure and teachers are not employing effective methods.

Thesis (DLitt (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / This study aims to investigate properties of writing relating to genre-based literacy in isiXhosa as a first language (that is, as home language) for Grade eleven learners. The research investigates the problem of writing in isiXhosa at secondary school level, and the associated instruction, to grade eleven learners, whose first (home) language is isiXhosa. The educational context of these learners is such that the language of instruction in content subjects is English, which is as an additional language to these learners. Furthermore, they take English as a language subject. The learners’ home language is, however, only taught as a subject in this context. The language of instruction officially is English in all the content subjects, hence language proficiency problems in English are often encountered not only by the learners, but by educators as well. The genre-based theoretical framework and associated methodology is explored and employed in this study to establish the extent to which the isiXhosa first language learners are able to transfer the skills they have acquired in their first language, isiXhosa, to writing in the content subjects. Thus, the study has the following five main aims: (i) The study investigates the question of the extent to which high school learners can use their isiXhosa as their home language for the purpose of writing in their content subjects in a bilingual education system, where English as their second or additional language is the prescribed medium of instruction for content subjects; (ii) The study addresses the questions of how genre-based writing skills of learners with isiXhosa as home language are realized in their writing in the home language, isiXhosa as subject, assuming a genre-based approach to language learning and teaching; (iii) This study examines the writing of learners whose first (home) language is isiXhosa with regards to the extent to which they can transfer the genre-based writing skills they have acquired in writing in isiXhosa as language subject to writing in their content subjects; (iv) This study aims to determine the textlinguistic properties of writing in isiXhosa. Thus, the study will investigate genre-related concerns about the extent to which explicit genre-based instruction in isiXhosa will result in improving genre-based writing across the curriculum while enhancing the educational performance and achievement of learners; (v) This study explores the gap in knowledge and insights as regard the role of writing across the curriculum in isiXhosa as home language (first language), providing theoretically-motivated arguments for the importance of a strong focus on genre-pedagogy for African languages as language subjects, more generally.Therefore, this study aims to address the question of the role of writing in isiXhosa, as learners’ home language in a bilingual education in the learning and teaching context, a central point of concern in the South African education system. The methodology of this study entails the examination of three stages of the learners’ writing in isiXhosa, in both the biographical recount and the expository genres. The three stages are termed stage one, stage two and stage three, respectively, of the learners’ writing. For the purpose of data collection the writing in isiXhosa, two secondary schools in the Cape Peninsula, Bulumko Secondary School in Khayelitsha and Kayamandi Secondary School in Stellenbosch have been examined, focusing on the writing of the grade eleven learners. For all the three stages of writing in each secondary school a class of fourty grade 11 learners was instructed to write essays in isiXhosa on both the biographical recount genre and the expository genre. After the learners had written their essays the effectiveness of the essays was classified according to the levels of learners’ performance, for the purpose of analysis. In stage one, learners write the essay without being taught the genre-based properties of writing. In the stage two essay writing, the learners wrote the biographical recount and the expository essays after they have been taught the genre-based properties of writing. In the stage three essay writing, the learners applied the skills they have been taught in stage two regarding genre-based properties of writing. The teacher and learners brainstormed, discussed and exchanged views with each other on genre-based properties before the learners engaged in the writing in the third stage. As mentioned above, the stage one, two and three essays were categorised according to the learners’ performance, that is the good essays, the middle standard essays and the less or lower performance essays were classified for the purpose of the analysis. This study explores the genre-specific writing in isiXhosa by grade 11 learners with isiXhosa as first language, assuming as framework the genre properties by Feez and Joyce (1998), Grabe and Kaplan (1996), and Hyland (2005), the latter concerning metadiscourse. These models are discussed in chapter two and employed in chapter three for the analysis of both the biographical recount and the expository genres of grade eleven learners. Grabe and Kaplan’s (1996) linguistic and ethnographic construction of texts, the overall structure of texts and the generic move structures were examined in the content of the isiXhosa text. The parameters of the ethnography of writing, “Who writes what to whom, for what purpose, why, when, where and when and how?” posited by Grabe and Kaplan are also employed in this study in the analysis of the essays written in isiXhosa. In addition, the isiXhosa essays have been analysed with respect to Grabe and Kaplan’s (1996) components of information structuring under the writes parameter; topic sentence structure, topic continuity, topic structure analysis, topic-comment analysis, given-new relations, theme-rheme relations and focus-presupposition. In addition to the textlinguistic components of the write parameter, the writing in isiXhosa was analysed as regard the elements of text structure, which form part of the textuality and the structuralism of a text, as well as text cohesion, text coherence and the lexicon. In addition, the writing in isiXhosa was examined as regard Feez and Joyce’s (1998) overall design and language components of a biographical recount, including the three stages that reflect the rhetorical structure. The analysis of the isiXhosa essays has taken into account Hyland’s (2005) classification of metadiscourse according to two dimensions of interaction: the interactive dimension and the interactional dimension. The evaluative discussion invoked evidence from the analysis of the isiXhosa essays conducted in chapter three to demonstrate the view that, despite the variations in the three stages of both the learner’s expository and biographical recount essays, a steady progress and improvement from the stage 1 to the stage 2, and from the stage 2 to the stage 3 was evidenced. The findings of this study confirmed the effective realization and effective transfer of genre-based skills across the curriculum, in accordance with the objectives and aims stated for the study.