Thesis (Ph.D. (English Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / The aims of the study were to compare connector use and verb phrase use between two achievement groups. The achievement groups comprised the Highs, students whose essays were highly rated (124 essays; word length 59702), and the Lows, students whose essays were rated poorly (126 essays; word length 60524). The analytical frameworks for the analysis of appropriate use were taken from Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad and Finegan (1999).The analytical frameworks for inappropriate use were designed by the researcher. Connectors comprised circumstance adverbials, linking adverbials, co-ordinators and relativisers. Verb phrase uses comprised all the categories described in Biber, et al. (1999). The analysis entailed counting number of occurrences per use for each achievement group and determining whether difference in use was significant or not by undertaking Log Likelihood calculations using Paul Rayson’s Log Likelihood calculator available online. These also indicate the relative frequency of each use. The results for appropriate connector use revealed that although no significant differences occurred with respect to connector categories, highly/significant differences did occur with regard to specific forms. Regarding inappropriate connector use, results showed that differences between the two achievement groups were overall highly significant, with a substantially higher occurrence of inappropriate uses in the Lows compared to the Highs. The results for appropriate verb phrase use revealed highly/significant differences between the Highs and Lows for several verb phrase categories, such as modal auxiliary use and Perfect Aspect. The results for inappropriate verb phrase use, as was the case for inappropriate connector use, showed highly significant differences between the two achievement groups, with the Lows having a much higher incidence of inappropriate uses than the Highs. The study finally considers the pedagogical implications arising from the results and makes suggestions for course design relating to writing instruction.

Cette thèse a pour objet d’étudier les compétences discursives chez les étudiants nigérians de 3e année de FLE et l’influence des modes de discours culturels dans leurs productions de textes argumentatifs. Nous avons également étudié les représentations des enseignants sur les écrits des étudiants ainsi que leurs pratiques d’évaluation. Pour cela, nous avons présenté le contexte sociolinguistique de notre public, la politique linguistique du Nigeria ainsi que la place des langues nationales et étrangères dans le pays. Nous avons étudié les copies des étudiants à l’aide de la méthodologie issue des études de la linguistique textuelle et des écrits plurilingues. L'enquête de terrain s'est déroulée au Village Français du Nigeria (VFN) à Badagry. Nous l'avons organisée en trois étapes en nous appuyant sur le questionnaire et l'entretien exploratoire (destinés aux élèves et aux enseignants de français) et sur l’observation non participante. Les principaux résultats ont démontré une forte influence des ressources plurilingues et culturelles dans les productions écrites des étudiants. Or les enseignants ne tiennent pas compte des compétences plurilingues des étudiants dans leurs évaluations des copies mais se concentrent plutôt sur les aspects linguistiques et les fautes grammaticales. Partant de ces constants, nous avons jugé nécessaire de proposer une grille d’évaluation ainsi qu’une séquence didactique qui portent sur les notions d’argumentation et les composantes textuelles à travers des textes divers. Ces exemples pourraient être utiles pour les enseignants et les étudiants dans leur apprentissage. / The aim of this thesis is to study the role of the multilingual competence of third year undergraduate students of French as a foreign language in Nigeria. We also studied the teachers’ perceptions of the students’ essays as well as their assessment practices. To achieve this, we presented the sociolinguistic context of the students, the language policy of Nigeria as well as the place of national and foreign languages in the country. We studied the students’ scripts using textual linguistic and multilingual writing methodologies.The field work took place at the Nigerian French Language Village at Badagry. It was organised in three stages using questionnaires and exploratory interviews with the students and the teachers, and non-participatory observation in the classroom. The main results showed that the students have their perceptions of argumentative writing and multilingual competence. The teachers do not take into account the multilingual competences of the students but focus instead on linguistic content and errors in the scripts. We also observed that the teaching of argumentative writing remains at the theoretical level and unrelated to the students’ experiences and context. Following these observations, we deemed it necessary to propose an assessment grid and a didactic sequence on teaching argumentative essays and its textual features using different text genres. These examples could be useful for both students and teachers.

The aim of my study is to investigate if and in that case how the writing process and texts written by students in the upper secondary school are affected by the writing tool; does it matter if they write their texts on a computer or by longhand? Another objective is to compare such an effect with the findings of previous studies performed on earlier generations of writers. The first part of my study was a survey. It showed that two thirds of the 67 students participating thought that they would have written better texts in the national writing test if they had been able to use computers. In the second part of the study each of the fourteen participants wrote one text on computer and another by hand. Unlike the findings of earlier studies that I compared with, these students had a higher writing speed and spent significantly less time to produce their texts. This result could indicate that the students of today not only are accustomed to computers but also are unfamiliar with writing by hand. Furthermore this study, like previous studies, did not show any statistic proof of a correlation between a specific writing tool and the quality of the written text. Hence it did not support the opinion that the students of today have a disadvantage when they have to write their national test by hand. On the other hand the study indicated that such disadvantage still could be the fact for some individuals. Three of the participants took part in the third part of the study where they produced two more texts; one by hand and the other on computer. Their writing processes were recorded and the analyses indicate an individual variation in whether the writing tool had an effect on the writing process and quality of texts. / Syftet med min undersökning är att undersöka om och i så fall hur gymnasieelevers skrivprocesser och texter påverkas av om de skriver för hand eller på dator, men också att jämföra en eventuell påverkan med den som har konstaterats för tidigare generationer av datoranvändare. Bakgrundsenkäten i den första delundersökningen visade att två tredjedelar av de 67 elever trodde att de skulle ha skrivit bättre texter på det nationella provet i svenska om de hade fått använda dator. I den andra delundersökningen medverkade fjorton av gymnasieeleverna genom att skriva två texter, en för hand och en på dator. Ett resultat som skilde sig från dem i de tidigare studier jag jämförde med var att deltagarna skrev snabbare och under kortare tid när de använde dator. Resultatet tyder på att dagens gymnasieelever inte bara är datorvana utan kanske också ovana att skriva för hand. I likhet med tidigare undersökningar visade delundersökningen inte en statistiskt signifikant kvalitetsskillnad mellan deltagarnas datorskrivna och handskrivna texter. Gymnasieelevernas farhågor om att textkvaliteten skulle ha försämrats av att de tvingades skriva det nationella provet för hand fick därmed inget stöd. Samtidigt visade studien att för enskilda individer skulle det faktiskt kunna förhålla sig så. Tre av deltagarna medverkade även i den tredje delundersökningen, där deras skrivprocesser dokumenterades i samband med att de skrev ytterligare en text på dator och en för hand. Resultatet av den andra delundersökningen pekar mot att skrivverktygets påverkan på skrivprocessen och även på texternas kvalitet skulle kunna variera från person till person.

本研究旨在探討利用Big6技能教學於高中一年級學生小論文寫作課程學習成效，並根據研究結果提出閱讀教師對於小論文寫作教學之改善建議，提供高中教師日後進行專題式教學之參考。 本研究採準實驗研究法、觀察法、文件分析法及訪談法，以兩班高中一年級學生為研究對象，一班為接受「Big6技能」小論文寫作教學之實驗組學生，一班為接受傳統分段寫作教學之控制組學生，兩班學生皆由研究者進行教學，進行為期十週共十二堂之實驗教學課程，在教學前後，對研究對象實施前測、後測，藉以了解學習成效是否有顯著的差異。 依據資料分析與研究結果，歸納出以下結論： 一.小論文寫作主題課程內容規畫宜在Big6技能教學中加入分段寫作教學指導。 二.學生學習成效表現在量的提升有明顯效果，在質的提升未達顯著差異。 三.小論文寫作教學宜有教師社群協作進行指導。 最後，根據研究結果，提出對高中教師進行Big6技能小論文寫作教學及未來研究之建議。 / This study aims to discuss the application of learning Big Six Skills to high school students' learning effect on essay writing course. Based on the research results, reference to high school teachers of the essay writing course into the instruction for pupils is proposed. With experimental research, observation method, documentary analysis, and interview, two classes of High school first grade students are studied. Students in the same class as one experimental group. One class receives the instruction of Big Six Skills, the other class which as the control group receives traditional instruction in essay writing class. Both classes are instructed by the researcher for 12 sessions in 10 weeks. In order to understand whether the difference is significant or not, students are preceded pretest and post-test before and after the instruction. According to the data analysis and the research results, the following conclusions are summarized. 1.The essay writing course content planning should be in the Big Six skills teaching into the traditional writing teaching guidance. 2.The performance of students' learning effectiveness has obvious effect in improving the quality, but there is no significant difference in qualitative improvement. 3.The teaching of essay writing should be guided by cooperation of teachers. Finally, according to the research suggestions for high school teachers of essay writing and future research are proposed according to the research results.

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 (M. A. (English Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / The study explored essay writing errors of English First Additional Language (EFAL) FET rural learners. The aim of the study was to analyse essay writing errors of the EFAL FET learners in rural schools. EFAL Grade 11 learners together with their educators from 4 circuits in Mopani West District of Limpopo Province (LP), South Africa (SA), participated in the study. The learners’ 40 essays were analysed. Additionally, the learners and educators were interviewed and the data generated were analysed. A qualitative Content Analysis (CA) research method was used to collect data. The sample was made up of 3 instruments; an essay checklist for the 40 essays, EFAL learners’ group interviews that consisted of 4 equal groups made up of 10 learners per school, and interviews with 4 educators from each of the school represented. N – Vivo was used for data transcription, storage and analysis. Errors populated in the checklist were arranged into smaller units, identified, analysed, described and reported. Data obtained through semi-structured interviews with EFAL learners and educators were transcribed and analysed thematically. The analysis of the EFAL FET rural learners’ essay writing errors revealed weaknesses pertaining to choice of essay topics, proofreading, spelling, punctuation and grammar.

This study discusses the evolutionist approach to African history as an action plan for challenging the hegemony of English in university education and in the teaching and writing of literature in post-independence Africa. The researcher selected Zimbabwe’s university education and literary practice as the microcosm case studies whilst Africa’s university education and literary practice in general, were used as macrocosmic case studies for the study. Some two universities: the Midlands State University and the Great Zimbabwe State University and some six academic departments from the two universities were on target. The researcher used questionnaires to access data from university students and lecturers and he used interviews to gather data from university departmental Chairpersons, scholars, fiction writers and stakeholders in organizations that deal with language growth and development in Zimbabwe. Data from questionnaires was analysed on the basis of numerical scores and percentage of responses. By virtue of its not being easily quantified, data from interviews was presented through capturing what each of the thirteen key informants said and was then analysed on the basis of the hegemonic theory that is proposed in this study. The research findings were discussed using: the evolutionist approach to the history of Africa; data from document analysis; information gathered through the use of the participant and observer technique and using examples from what happened and/or is still happening in the different African countries. The study established that the approaches which have so far been used to challenge the hegemony of English in post-independence Africa are not effective. The approaches are six in total. They are the essentialist, the assimilationist, the developmentalist, the code-switch, the multilingualist and the syncretic. They are ineffective since they are used in a wrong era: That era, is the era of Neocolonialism (Americanization of the world). Therefore, the researcher has recommended the use of the evolutionist approach to African history as a strategy for challenging the hegemony in question. The approach lobbies that, for Africa to successfully challenge that hegemony, she should first of all move her history from the era of Neocolonialism as she enters the era of Nationalism. / African Languages / D. Lit. et Phil. (African Languages)