published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The major purpose of this study was to determine the possible correlation between reading and writing abilities of college students who are identified as second language learners. It was also aimed at determining the relationships between variables pertaining to the ESL college students, namely, their self-selected reading materials, their reading interests, the amount of time spent studying English, how they studied English, how they were taught English, and the length of residence in the United States.

A thesis submitted to the Wits School of Education Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2017. / This thesis investigates the potential of an externally initiated and facilitated professional learning community (PLC) to influence and possibly change teachers’ beliefs and practices with regard to the teaching of writing in South African senior phase English home language classrooms. The main research question is: What factors enable and / or constrain the development of a PLC which has as its focus the teaching of writing. Questions related to the main question are (1) What is enabling or constraining about the contexts in which teachers work in public schools? (2) What, if any, impact do teachers’ life histories and current identities have on their take up of professional development opportunities in a PLC which focused on the teaching of writing? (3) In the context of South African public education, to what extent is a PLC a suitable vehicle for developing teachers’ understanding of and enactment of writing pedagogies? I chose to undertake an action research project and participated in the process of establishing PLCs as both a researcher and a facilitator. The main sources of the data analysed are transcribed audio-recordings of meetings with teachers, transcribed interviews with each teacher participant, lesson observations (for only some of the teachers) and journal notes. The unexpected challenges encountered in finding teachers willing to participate in a sustained professional development initiative are described and critically reflected on and findings in relation to each of the research questions are presented and discussed. A key finding is that societal culture and context fundamentally shaped the inception, development and sustainability of PLCs (Hairon and Dimmock, 2012) at the center of the study. It is argued that many South African teachers’ participation in a PLC is likely to be constrained by their personal and professional life histories and by the passive and compliant identity created for teachers by the lasting effects of the apartheid educational philosophy of fundamental pedagogics and by the currently increasingly prescriptive approach to teaching and assessment adopted by the provincial and national departments of education. Such an identity is likely to impact on teachers’ confidence and sense of agency to devise and drive their own professional growth agenda. The study found that the ethos of the schools in which teachers teach is also likely to be influential in enabling or constraining whether, and if so, how, teachers choose to participate in a PLC. An implication of this finding is that there is a need to acknowledge the impact of contexts on teachers’ attitudes and values, and to structure PLC activities to challenge existing assumptions and create a dissonance that will enable current knowledge to be reconstructed (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). The teachers who participated in the study used similar, traditional approaches to the teaching of writing which involved the presentation of ‘set prescriptions’, with an emphasis on grammatical correctness and the final product rather than on writing as a process of thinking, drafting, reflecting and redrafting. In instances where teachers adopted strongly deficit discourses about learners, they tended to resort to low level drill and skill instruction (Ball and Ellis, 2008). I argue that providing opportunities for teachers to engage thoughtfully and critically on their understanding and enactment of writing pedagogy in their contexts and classrooms over an extended period of time in a PLC could contribute to the disruption of deficit discourses and to the reconstruction of writing pedagogies. Key words: professional learning communities; societal culture; context; teacher life histories; teacher identities; dissonance; deficit discourse; teacher agency; writing pedagogies / LG2018

Advancements in technology have greatly influenced how students write, the ways they interact with readers, and the genres they create. In order to reflect real-world writing behaviors in the assessment setting and to be able to generalize test-takers’ performance from the assessment to their true writing ability, the current study investigated test-takers’ use of linguistic tools in second language academic writing assessment. The linguistic tools of interest involved three frequently used tool types: spelling, grammar, and reference tools (i.e., dictionary and thesaurus). Three highly contextualized tasks which reflect the tasks second language learners may encounter in the academic domain of language use (i.e., writing an apologetic email, a negative online review, and an opinion on a discussion board) were used as a way to elicit test-takers’ writing ability. Additionally, as a means of measuring writing performance, writing ability was defined in terms of the accuracy and/or variety of grammatical forms, semantic meanings, and pragmatic meanings produced in the written responses (Purpura, 2004, 2014, 2017). Using a mixed methods design, the current study first analyzed the quantitative data, which included 120 test-takers’ scores on the writing test, based on an analytic rubric through classical test theory, many-facet Rasch measurement, and multivariate generalizability theory. Test-takers’ scores across assessment conditions (i.e., access to no linguistic tools, spelling, grammar, or reference tool), proficiency levels (i.e., intermediate, advanced, and proficient) and three tasks (i.e., email, online review, and discussion board post) were compared. In order to explain the reasons behind the similarities and difference across the assessment conditions, proficiency levels, and tasks found in the quantitative analyses, the qualitative data, which included screen recordings of test-takers’ process of producing text, were analyzed. The results of the study were discussed to provide empirical evidence in supporting the domain description, evaluation, generalizability, explanation, extrapolation, and utilization claims (Kane, 2006, 2013) in regard to providing support in discussing the possibilities of allowing test-takers’ use of linguistic tools in second language writing assessment. Based on Kane’s framework for validation, the findings revealed that allowing linguistic tools—especially spelling and reference tools—in writing assessment contexts could be a possibility.

This study looked at the effect of written and oral comments on students' writing. The research hypotheses were that the use of oral comments would improve the overall quality of the students papers, increase the length more, and cause more changes in content than the use of written comments. On the other hand, the use of written comments would cause a greater decrease in grammatical errors in the students' papers than oral comments. The tests used to evaluate these hypotheses were the holistic writing scale used by the Test of Written English (TWE), a word count, a content percentage scale developed by the researcher, and an adaptation of Brodkey and Young's Composition Correctness Score (1981). The procedures used in the study were as follows: Three different classes were used. Each class was randomly divided in half. After the students had written the first draft of an essay assignment given by their teacher, they were assigned to either the written or the oral group. Students in the written comments group received written comments only on their papers. Students in the oral conference group had conferences with their teachers about their papers. Then the students wrote a second draft of their papers. At this point, the process was repeated; students wrote a second paper. After this first draft, those students who had received written comments on the first paper had oral conferences, and those who had had oral conferences received written comments were revised based on these comments.

published_or_final_version / English / Master / Master of Philosophy

This dissertation studies the impact of using the Scaffolded Literacy Strategies as developed by Dr. David Rose, in a South African Special Needs school. The central aim of the study was to establish the efficacy of this approach and whether it would have any effect on the levels of literacy and comprehension of the learners at the / Thesis (M. Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

This study reports information received from basic writing instructors at colleges in the Christian College Coalition, a group of 77 Christian, liberal arts colleges in the U. S. and Canada. Respondents completed a questionnaire and submitted sample syllabi and writing assignments. The study compares data from the respondents to current theories of basic writing instruction, most notably those of Andrea Lunsford and Mike Rose. It also compares the results to a similar study of all colleges by Joe Trimmer.The study found that the Christian College Coalition population was similar to the national population with regard to placement methods, textbook choice, and course goals. However, the study showed that a significant portion of basic writing courses are taught by tenure track English department faculty members. This finding represents a strength of this population as the national study showed that almost no basic writing courses were taught by tenure track faculty. In addition, the atmosphere of the small, Christian liberal arts colleges encourages low teacher/student ratios and more contact between faculty members and students in writing classes. These are areas of strength the Coalition schools should develop further.This study also reports and analyzes actual writing assignments and syllabi, some of the course materials Stephen North calls "lore." The examination of these materials shows more clearly than survey responses the types of writing students are actually doing in basic writing classes. / Department of English

In order to discover to what extent the use of the word processor affects the motivation of high school students when engaged in writing tasks, and to determine the effects of the word processing on the length and quality of their work and editing, two groups, carefully matched in terms of prior computer experience, intelligence and language ability were given eight writing tasks. The test group used word processors while the control group used pen and paper. Their behaviour was closely observed and their writing was subsequently compared. It was found that while the test group were more motivated and spent longer both writing and editing their work, the quality of the work of both groups was similar. The degree of editing was greater for the test group. The conclusion is that there is a place for the use of the word processor in the English classroom, but specific strategies need to be developed to optimise its benefits.

In this study an attempt is made to describe and illuminate the current approaches to ESL writing in secondary schools in the Port Elizabeth-Despatch areas where Afrikaans is the first language of the pupils. Teacher and pupil Questionnaires were used as a means of data collection through which the approaches, practices and attitudes to the teaching of ESL writing in the secondary schools in the survey area could be reviewed and assessed. The teacher Questionnaire revealed that most respondents appeared to have a limited awareness or understanding of basic composing processes, especially the role of multiple drafting and teacher intervention in the form of interactive feedback. There is also evidence that there is a limited understanding of how these activities can be effectively implemented in a classroom situation. The pupil Questionnaire was used as a means to extend the understanding of teacher approaches to ESL writing as revealed in the teacher Questionnaire, to enable comparisons to be made and to evaluate the writing approaches currently practised in the ESL classroom. Many of the observations revealed in the teacher Questionnaire were echoed in the analysis of the pupil Questionnaire, especially the limited roles of planning and feedback, treatment of error, attitude to writing and the limited improvement in writing as pupils progress through the secondary school. The analysis also revealed that pupils were reluctant to expose, or share their work with audiences, were pre-occupied with error and viewed the teacher as grade-giver, grammarian and topic-provider. Topic selection was also revealed as a factor which influenced the pupils' negative or indifferent attitudes to writing. Although the process approach was considered a traditional approach to writing by 1986, the analysis and review of the Questionnaire data has revealed that a fair assessment of the state of ESL writing in the survey schools would place the current writing approaches in the traditional product- centred, form-dominated, teacher-centred mould. For this position to change, research pedagogy will need to become part of teacher training and the classroom so that there can be greater teacher awareness and understanding of composing processes and their implementation in the classroom. This is necessary, because research findings have revealed that a genuine orientation to a process approach and the application of composing stategies followed by good writers will result in improved writing progress and pupils having a more positive attitude to writing.