Exploring the pedagogy of writing in English second language classrooms in the Foundation Phase

Abstract

Effective writing instruction starts with teachers recognising the learners’ background and writing needs. Teachers must plan approaches and strategies that encourage collaboration, interaction, and negotiation of meaning to improve the development of learners’ writing skills. Research has shown that instructions that scaffold learners’ writing development improve learners’ quality of writing and their attitude towards writing. Teachers should teach writing with the prominence it contributes to the development of learners’ literacy skills. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore how Foundation Phase teachers teach writing in English second language in their classrooms. Six teachers were purposefully sampled for a multi-case study to explore teacher practices in teaching writing in their English second language writing lessons. Semi-structured interviews, lesson observation, and document analysis were used to gather data. Themes were identified from the six-phase thematic analysis. The findings of the study indicated several factors in Foundation Phase writing instruction practices. First, the findings indicated that through the utilisation of annual teaching plans, teachers neglected learning outcomes and did not plan for the inclusion of writing skills nor did they reflect on their practices. Secondly, the teachers used shared writing to model writing to learners, however, they were not aware that the strategy they used to teach writing was shared writing. Thirdly, the manner in which writing was taught and the kinds of writing activities given to the learners showed that the learners were not exposed to different text types. Lastly, in schools where learners had low English second language proficiency, the teachers faced challenges when teaching this type of learner. The study concludes that the teachers’ limited knowledge of the strategies to teach writing had a negative impact on the way they taught writing, and, as a result, the learners were not exposed to different text types. The study recommends that the Department of Education develops a guideline document on how to teach writing in the early grades. Further research is required to fully understand the implication that teacher practices have on the development of learners’ writing skills.