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TMN3701 Study Guide

Teaching an Additional Language (University of South Africa)

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C ultu
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First edia T M
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De p
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Prof MM Nieman
Dr S Mukhari

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© 2020 University of South Africa

All rights reserved

Printed and published by the

University of South Africa
Muckleneuk, Pretoria

TMN3701/1/2021–2023

10000909

InDesign

PR_Tour_Style

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CONTENTS

Page
Preface xi
Learning unit 1: The curriculum and assessment policy statement (CAPS) 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION 2
1.2 CAPS 2
1.3 LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE FOUNDATION PHASE (GRADES R–3) 3
1.3.1 First Additional Language teaching in Foundation Phase 3
1.4 FIRST ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE
INTERMEDIATE PHASE (GRADE 4–6) 5
1.5 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 6
1.6 CONCLUSION 6
Learning unit 2: Additional language learning and teaching 7
2.1 INTRODUCTION 7
2.2 WHAT CAPS SAYS ABOUT AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE 9
2.3 HOW AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE IS ACQUIRED 9
2.3.1 Language acquisition versus language learning 11
2.3.2 Is there a critical period for language acquisition? 11
2.3.3        
2.3.4 Two important theories on second (additional) language acquisition 14
2.3.5 The important role of input, interaction and output in additional
language teaching 16
2.4 HOW CAN I TEACH AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE? 16
2.4.1 Shortcomings of traditional methods 17
2.4.2              
2.4.3 Learners’ preferences 18
2.5 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 19
2.6 CONCLUSION 20
Learning unit 3: Additional language teaching approaches 21
3.1 INTRODUCTION 21
3.2 THE TRADITIONAL OR GRAMMAR-TRANSLATION METHOD 22
3.3 THE DIRECT METHOD 22
3.4 THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD, BEHAVIOURISTIC OR LISTEN-
SPEAK APPROACH 23
3.5 THE TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR) 24
3.6 COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT) 25
3.7 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 28
3.8 CONCLUSION 28
Learning unit 4: Language teaching principles 29
4.1 INTRODUCTION 29
4.2 PRINCIPLE 1: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING
MUST BE INTEGRATED 29
4.3 PRINCIPLE 2: LANGUAGE TEACHING MUST BE COMMUNICATIVE 31
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4.4 PRINCIPLE 3: LEARNERS NEED SCAFFOLDING 33

4.5 PRINCIPLE 4: LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES IN THE CLASSROOM ARE
BASED ON ACTUAL EVERYDAY SITUATIONS 34
4.6 PRINCIPLE 5: LANGUAGE TEACHING IS LEARNER-CENTRED 34
4.7 PRINCIPLE 6: REPETITION, REPETITION, REPETITION 34
4.8 PRINCIPLE 7: DIFFERENTIATION 36
4.9 PRINCIPLE 8: AUTHENTIC RESOURCE MATERIAL AND TECHNOLOGY 36
4.10 PRINCIPLE 9: PROGRESSION FROM YEAR TO YEAR 36
4.11 PRINCIPLE 10: COOPERATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING FORMS
THE BASIS FOR INPUT, INTERACTION AND OUTPUT 37
4.12 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 38
4.13 CONCLUSION 38
Learning unit 5: The listening skill 39
5.1 INTRODUCTION 39
5.2 WHAT DOES LISTENING ENTAIL? 41
5.3 THE ROLE OF THE SHORT AND LONG-TERM MEMORY IN
LISTENING IN AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE 42
5.4 WHAT CAPS SAYS ABOUT LISTENING AND SPEAKING 45
5.5 LISTENING AS AN ACTIVE PROCESS 48
5.6 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 49
5.7 CONCLUSION 49
Learning unit 6: Teaching listening in an additional language 50
6.1 INTRODUCTION 50
6.2 THE PRESCRIBED LENGTH OF LISTENING TEXTS 50
6.3 THE PREPARE-PLAY-LISTEN-CONFIRM-REACT PATTERN 51
6.4 PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES (PREPARE) 51
6.5 WHILE LISTENING (PLAY-LISTEN) 53
6.6 POST-LISTENING ACTIVITY (CONFIRM AND REACT) 54
6.7 WHAT TO TEACH DURING LISTENING INSTRUCTION 56
6.7.1 Using stories during listening instruction 56
6.7.2 Giving oral directions that learners need to respond to 58
6.7.3 Listen and repeat 58
6.7.4 Controlled dialogue 59
6.8 ASSESSING LISTENING 60
6.9 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 60
6.10 CONCLUSION 61
Learning unit 7: Teaching speaking: Different forms of oral communication 62
7.1 INTRODUCTION 62
7.2 WHAT CAPS SAYS ABOUT SPEAKING 62
7.3 THE TEACHER’S RESPONSIBILITY IN ENSURING EFFECTIVE
TEACHING OF SPEAKING 63
7.4 NOTIONS AND FUNCTIONS 63
7.5 SPEAKING ACTIVITIES FOR THE CLASSROOM 64
7.5.1 Having conversations 65
7.5.2 Giving directions and instructions and making announcements 65
7.5.3 Storytelling 65
7.5.4 Retelling stories 66
7.5.5 Roleplay and role cards 66
7.5.6 Language games 67
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7.5.7 Short poems and rhymes 68

7.6 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 69
7.7 CONCLUSION 69
Learning unit 8: Teaching speaking: Communication for social purposes 70
8.1 INTRODUCTION 70
8.2 INITIATING AND SUSTAINING CONVERSATIONS 71
8.3 TURN-TAKING CONVENTIONS 71
8.4 TEACHING NON-VERBAL LANGUAGE 73
8.4.1 Interpreting non-verbal messages 73
8.4.2 Identifying body movements as a means of non-verbal communication 74
8.4.3 Conveying meanings through facial expressions 74
8.4.4 Using tone of voice to convey meaning 74
8.5 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 75
8.6 CONCLUSION 75
Learning unit 9: Teaching speaking: Prepared and unprepared short talks 76
9.1 INTRODUCTION 76
9.2 SELECTING TOPICS 77
9.3 PRE-SPEAKING ACTIVITIES 77
9.3.1 Do vocabulary exercises 77
9.3.2 Explaining the structure of a speech 78
9.3.3 Brainstorming ideas 78
9.3.4 Organising material coherently 79
9.4 THE SPEAKING STAGE 79
9.4.1 Guidelines for presenting a prepared short talk 79
9.4.2 Incorporating appropriate visual, audio and/or audiovisual aids 80
9.5 THE POST-SPEAKING PHASE 81
9.6 UNPREPARED SHORT TALKS 82
9.7 TOLERATING ERRORS 83
9.8 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 83
9.9 CONCLUSION 84
Learning unit 10: Teaching reading and viewing: Getting ready to read 85
10.1 INTRODUCTION 85
10.2 READINESS TO READ 86
10.3 DIFFERENT METHODS OF TEACHING FORMAL READING 91
10.3.1 The preparation phase 93
10.3.2 Class reading 93
10.3.3 Group reading 94
10.4 PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH LOUD READING 95
10.5 INDEPENDENT READING (SILENT READING) 96
10.6 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 97
10.7 CONCLUSION 97
Learning unit 11: A framework for teaching reading and viewing 98
11.1 INTRODUCTION 98
11.2 PRE-READING ACTIVITIES 99
11.3 WHILE READING ACTIVITIES 99
11.4 POST-READING ACTIVITIES 100
11.5 READING AND VIEWING STRATEGIES 101
11.5.1 Skimming for main ideas 101
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11.5.2 Scanning for supporting details 102

11.5.3 Inferring meaning of unfamiliar words by using word attack skills
and contextual clues 103
11.5.4 Making inferences 103
11.5.5 Identifying main and supporting ideas and using them to make a
summary in point or paragraph format 104
11.5.6 Making notes (main and supporting ideas) 105
11.5.7 Drawing conclusions/own opinion 105
11.6 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 106
11.7 CONCLUSION 106
Learning unit 12: Teaching reading and viewing: Different types of texts 107
12.1 INTRODUCTION 107
12.2 GUIDELINES TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN TEACHING THE READING
OF LITERARY TEXTS 108
12.3 TEACHING LITERARY TEXTS: STORIES AND PLAYS 109
12.3.1        
12.3.2 Traditional stories 109
12.3.3 Adventure stories 113
12.3.4    
12.3.5 Biographies 114
12.3.6      
12.3.7 Plays 114
12.4 KEY FEATURES OF A TEXT 115
12.4.1 Teaching learners to understand the plot of a story 115
12.4.2 Teaching characters and characterisation 117
12.4.3 Teaching background and setting 119
12.4.4 Teaching theme and message 120
12.5 TEACHING POETRY 122
12.5.1 Teaching sound devices in poetry 123
12.5.2 Following the reading framework when teaching poetry 125
12.5.3 A few concluding remarks about the teaching of poetry 125
12.6 NON-LITERARY (TRANSACTIONAL) TEXTS 125
12.7 VISUAL LITERACY 126
12.8 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 127
12.9 CONCLUSION 128
Learning unit 13: Teaching writing and presenting: Introduction 129
13.1 INTRODUCTION 129
13.2 WHAT CAPS SAYS ABOUT THE TEACHING OF WRITING AND
PRESENTING 130
13.3 WRITING IS COMMUNICATION 133
13.4 STARTING AT WORD LEVEL 134
13.4.1 Word walls in the additional language classroom 134
13.4.2 Thematic word charts 134
13.4.3 Recording of words and their meanings in a personal dictionary 135
13.5 TEACHING SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION 135
13.5.1 Writing simple sentences 135
13.5.2 Guided writing 135
13.5.3 Teaching the four types of sentences 137
13.5.4 Teaching learners to combine sentences 138
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13.6 TEACHING LEARNERS HOW TO WRITE PARAGRAPHS 139

13.7 WRITING CREATIVE AND INFORMATION TEXTS AND LONGER
TRANSACTIONAL TEXTS 144
13.7.1 Using writing frames 145
13.8 MODELLING WRITING TO THE LEARNERS 148
13.9 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 149
13.10 CONCLUSION 150
Learning unit 14: Teaching writing and presenting: The writing process 151
14.1 INTRODUCTION 151
14.2 PLANNING/PRE-WRITING 152
14.3 WRITING THE FIRST DRAFT 154
14.4 REVISING AND IMPROVING THE DRAFT 155
14.5 EDITING STAGE 157
14.6 PROOFREADING AND PRESENTING 158
14.7 USING TECHNOLOGY WHEN TEACHING WRITING 158
14.7.1 Word processing 158
14.7.2 Multimedia presentations 158
14.7.3 Txtng r 4 2mrw & 2day 158
14.8 MAKING WRITING FUN 160
14.9 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 161
14.10 CONCLUSION 161
Learning unit 15: Teaching language structures and conventions: Background 162
15.1 INTRODUCTION 162
15.2 WHAT CAPS SAYS ABOUT LANGUAGE STRUCTURES AND
CONVENTIONS 163
15.3 LANGUAGE STUDY IN CONTEXT 164
15.3.1 Comprehensible input and output 164
15.4 COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE 165
15.5 TEACHING LANGUAGE STRUCTURES 166
15.5.1 Grammatical forms 167
15.5.2 Grammatical markers in additional language learning 167
15.6 APPROACHES FOR FACILITATING LEARNING EXPERIENCES
FOCUSED ON LANGUAGE STRUCTURES 168
15.6.1 The deductive approach (rule-driven learning) 168
15.6.2 The inductive approach (rule-discovery learning) 168
15.6.3 The functional-notional approach 168
15.6.4 Teaching grammar through texts 169
15.6.5 Teaching grammar through stories 169
15.6.6 Teaching grammar through songs, poems and rhymes 169
15.7 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 170
15.8 CONCLUSION 170
Learning unit 16: Teaching language structures and conventions: Different
methods 171
16.1 INTRODUCTION 171
16.2 USING A TEXT-BASED APPROACH TO TEACH ENGLISH FAL 171
16.3 THE PPP APPROACH TO TEACHING AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE 173
16.3.1 The presentation stage 174
16.3.2 The practice stage of the PPP approach 174
16.3.3 The production phase 175
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16.4 USING GAMES TO TEACH LANGUAGE STRUCTURE AND

CONVENTIONS 176
16.5 TEACHING SPELLING 178
16.5.1 Ways of making spelling interesting 179
16.5.2 List of words commonly misspelt 180
16.5.3 The CAT-CALL method 180
16.5.4 Look, close, write and check 181
16.5.5 Make learning spelling a game 181
16.5.6 Spelling and repetition 182
16.5.7 Spelling and reading 182
16.5.8 Assessment and spelling 183
16.5.9 Using dictionaries in teaching spelling 183
16.5.10 !        "   #
16.5.11 Capitalising on the peculiarities of English 186
16.6 TEACHING VOCABULARY 188
16.6.1 Vocabulary should be taught actively. 188
16.6.2 Refrain from giving learners long lists of vocabulary to learn and
rather teach vocabulary in context and let them built their own
vocabulary lists. 189
16.6.3 Make the most of new words in texts to extend the learners’ vocabulary. 189
16.6.4 $         %  ' *%+ 
16.6.5 Encourage learners to use dictionaries. 190
16.6.6 Extend vocabulary by means of word building. 190
16.7 DEALING WITH MISTAKES 190
16.8 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 191
16.9 CONCLUSION 192
Learning unit 17: Lesson planning and preparation 193
17.1 INTRODUCTION 193
17.2 WHAT CAPS SAYS ABOUT LESSON PLANNING 194
17.3 THE NATURE OF PLANNING AND PREPARATION 195
17.4 LONG-TERM PLANNING: THE ANNUAL TEACHING PLAN (ATP) 197
17.5 SHORT-TERM PANNING 206
17.6 USING THE LESSON PLAN TO DO PREPARATION 213
17.6.1 Have clear objectives in mind 213
17.6.2 Phases in the presentation of a lesson 214
17.6.3 Lesson preparation template 218
17.7 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 220
17.8 CONCLUSION 220
Learning unit 18: Assessment 221
18.1 INTRODUCTION 221
18.2 PLANNING FOR AND CONDUCTING ASSESSMENT 221
18.3 WHAT CAPS SAYS ABOUT ASSESSMENT 222
18.3.1 Assessment of languages 222
18.3.2 Types of assessment 223
18.4 AT WHAT LEVELS SHOULD LEARNERS BE ASSESSED? 224
18.5 ASSESSING DIFFERENT LANGUAGE SKILLS 228
18.5.1 Using rubrics to assess reading and writing 228
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18.6 EXAMPLE OF ASSESSMENT IN COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE

TEACHING 234
18.7 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT 243
18.8 CONCLUSION 243
BIBLIOGRAPHY 245

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PR EFACE

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PREFACE

Dear Student

(i) Welcome
Welcome to Teaching of English First Additional Language (FAL) in the
Intermediate Phase (TMN3701), a module that is offered by Unisa’s Department
of Language Education, Arts and Culture. As a student, you may be a teacher
who is already teaching or a student who has absolutely no teaching experience.
Whatever the case, if you have enrolled for this course, you certainly wish to
learn how to become a better language teacher. I trust that, whether you are
an aspiring or an experienced teacher, you will derive enough information and
preparation to enable you to become an excellent teacher or a better teacher
(if you are already teaching).

Please do not study this module just to pass it! Study it to see how you can
APPLY what you are LEARNING in your additional language classroom!

(ii) The purpose of and outcomes for this module

The purpose of this module is to equip you with the knowledge, skills and
values to teach English FAL in the Intermediate Phase (Grades 4–6) of the
General Education and Training Band. All four language skills, namely speaking,
listening, reading and writing – as well as language structures and conventions
– will be dealt with in this Teaching of English FAL module.

The outcomes for the module are as follows:

Specific outcome 1 Understand the theories on first additional language

acquisition and outline how additive bilingualism
helps to transfer literacy skills in the home language
to the first additional language.

Specific outcome 2 Identify and implement the variety of roles which

are essential to enhance listening and speaking
proficiency skills.

Specific outcome 3 Discuss different reading strategies in a first

additional language and enhance the use of English
as language of learning and teaching in reading
across the curriculum.

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Specific outcome 4 Develop learners’ writing proficiency skills in English

as a First Additional Language (EFAL) through
planning and refining their writing skills and by
improving their grammar and spelling.

Specific outcome 5 Teach EFAL language structures and use in contexts

when the language skills are taught.

(iii) Overview

In this Orientation, we will give you an overview of and some general information
about this module. We will also tell you more about how you can study in
this module, how to use myUnisa, and about the assessment in the module.

Your study guide and tutorial letters contain everything you need to complete
this module. However, you may benefit from also using the module website
on myUnisa. It is actually of the utmost importance that you access this site.
By using the site, you can:

• submit assignments (please note: it is advisable that you submit your

assignment online as this will ensure that you receive rapid feedback
and comments),
•       ;
• have access to the UNISA Library functions,
• “chat” to your lecturer or e-tutor and fellow students and participate in
online discussion forums, and
• obtain access to a variety of learning resources (all study material is uploaded
onto myUnisa).

Check the site regularly for updates, posted announcements and additional
resources uploaded throughout the semester.

Please note that there are two sites you should use in studying the module.
The first is the module site, where you will find the learning units and where
you can communicate with your lecturer. In your list of modules, this usually
has a name in the following format:

Module code-year- semester e.g. TMN-21-S1.

(iv) Tutor site

The second site is your e-tutor site, where you can communicate with your
e-tutor and fellow students. This site has the same name, but with ‘-1E’ or ‘-2E’
added at the end, depending on the semester, for example:

TMN-21-SI-1E

You need to note that there will not necessarily be an e-tutor for your module.
The appointment of an e-tutor depends on the number of students enrolled
and the NQF level on which the module is pitched.

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Your e-tutor is there to support your learning, and you can post any questions
to him or her in the site’s discussion forum, in the appropriate forum or topic
for general questions. In another forum, you will also be able to communicate
with your fellow students

On the e-tutor site, you should also respond to discussion questions that are
given in the learning units. Your e-tutor may provide you with the opportunity
to engage in additional discussions or to do specific online tasks or activities;
please participate fully, as this will go a long way to assist you with your learn-
ing. Both the lecturer and e-tutor may also send you announcements from
time to time.

(v) Study material for this module

Your study material for this module includes:

• This study guide

• Tutorial Letter 101
• Any other tutorial letters you may receive through the year
• Any additional information provided on your e-tutor site or module site
on myUnisa
• Any additional electronic communications you may receive, e.g.
Announcements from your lecturer or e-tutor

Tutorial letter 101 will be part of your study pack or will be posted to you, but
you can also access it on myUnisa. You can do this by clicking on ‘Official
Study Material’ in the menu on the left of the module portal.

Tutorial letter 101 is just one of the tutorial letters you will be receiving during
the year. It is extremely important that you should read this tutorial letter
carefully. You will also receive tutorial letter 201 during the course of the year
shortly after the due dates for submission of each assignment. This tutorial
letter is closely linked to Tutorial Letter 101 and will provide you with a guide
to the answers for the assignments.

(vi) The course content

In this course you will be introduced to theory and terminology pertaining to
first additional language teaching (FAL) in the Intermediate Phase (IP). In this
case it will be English FAL.

As the Curriculum and Assessment Policy (CAPS) is the official curriculum used
in South African schools, you cannot start learning how to teach English First
Additional Language (EFAL) in the IP, before you have made a thorough study
of the CAPS. Each learning unit thus starts with a thorough unpacking of the
CAPS for EFAL in the IP. If you haven’t got a copy of the CAPS for ENGLISH
First Additional Language yet, it would be a good idea to download it now at:

https://www.education.gov.za/Curriculum/CurriculumAssessmentPolicyState
ments(CAPS).aspx
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(vii) How the guide is structured

The first learning unit discusses the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement
documents (CAPS). In learning unit 2 we look at additional language learning
theories and a number of additional language teaching approaches that
developed over the years are discussed in learning unit 3. Learning unit 4
deals with a few principles of language teaching.

In learning units 5 to 6, we will explore the teaching of listening, while we

explain in learning units 7–9 how to help learners to plan, prepare and present
short talks in English.

Learning unit 10, 11 and 12 deal with the teaching of reading and viewing,
while learning unit 13 and 14 discuss the teaching of writing and presenting.

The discussion of the teaching of language structures and conventions is done

on learning unit 15 and 16.

In the final two units (learning unit 17 and 18), you will learn more about
planning and assessing a language teaching programme.

You can consult the table of contents to see the names and subsections of each
of the learning units that are dealt with in this study guide.

Now that you have a better idea of how the module is structured, let us look
at what your studies will involve.

(viii) How should you go about studying this module?

Distance learning is not easy and you should not underestimate the time and
effort involved. Once you have received your study material, please plan how
you will approach and complete this module.

Your work on each learning unit should involve the following:

• Skim through the unit and draw your own basic mind map of the content of the
learning unit. Then expand this map as your knowledge and understanding
of the unit increases. If you have Internet access, you can learn more about
making mind maps on the following web sites:

– http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Mind-Map
– http://www.mind-mapping.co.uk/make-mind-map.htm

• Make your own summary of every unit.

• = > @    J +  
contain some self-assessment exercises that you should do at the end of
each learning unit.

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• Do NOT wait until you have to do your assignments before starting to

study the content of this unit. If you study a learning unit over a period
               
module and not feel overwhelmed by the amount of work required.

This is a year module offered over 30 weeks and it requires at least 120 hours
of study time. This means that you will have to study at least four (4) hours
per week for this module.

Here is a suggested schedule that you could use as a guideline for studying
this module.

ACTIVITY HOURS

Reading and rereading Tutorial Letter 101 and the introduction 3

to the study guide

Skimming through the study guide to form a general but thor- 4

ough impression of the whole

First reading of learning units 1–4 and participating in the online 12

e-tutor site (3 hours per learning unit)

In-depth study of learning units 5–9 which deals with the 36

teaching of listening and speaking, making summaries, doing
learning activities and participating in the online e-tutor site

In-depth study of learning units 10–12 which deals with the 12

teaching of reading and viewing

Completing Assignment 01 3

Completing Assignment 02 3

In-depth study of learning units 13–18, making summaries, do- 30

ing learning activities and participating in the online e-tutor site

Final examination revision 15

Final examination 2

Total 120

As you work, build up your own study and exam preparation file. This study
file will not be assessed, but it will be an extremely valuable tool for you
in completing your assignments and revising for the examination.

What is a study file? A study file is a folder or file in which you gather and com-
pile additional and/or summarised information during the year as you work
through the learning material.

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Your study file should comprise:

• The CAPS for the Home Language that you intend to teach
• answers to each activity in each learning unit
• a mind map/summary of each learning unit
• your marked assignments (or a copy you made prior to submitting your
assignment)
• >    
• where relevant, any extra reading material taken from the internet, additional
Z* ; [   \ 
• a new vocabulary of words or glossary of new terms in your own words

Compile and revise the contents of your study file to ensure that you achieve
the learning outcomes for this module.

This is YOUR study guide. You can highlight, circle words, make notes in the
margins, etc. while working through it.

(ix) Assessment in this module

• Activities in the study guide

We would like to meet you and to be able to talk to you, but we realise that this is
unlikely since you are a distance education student. Most of our communication
will therefore be written communication. If we were in a classroom situation,
we would ask questions to which you will be able to respond immediately. But
since we are not in a face-to-face classroom situation, we have set questions,
which we would like you to answer in writing. These activities require you to
give your opinion or link the content in the study guide with your everyday
life, experiences and prior knowledge. You have the opportunity to be creative,
to do practical work, to offer an opinion and to say when you do or do not
agree. You need to post your responses to these activities onto myUnisa so
that other students can also read your views and start a discussion if necessary.

• Testing yourself

It is of the utmost importance that you test yourself on a regular basis in

self-assessment activities. Although each Learning Unit is concluded with an
exercise which expects you to reflect on what you have learned and whether
you have achieved the learning objectives, it is important that you test yourself
by constantly asking yourself “what do I know now, that I didn’t know before?
and “how can I apply what I have learnt in my own classroom?” By making
mind maps of each of the learning units as explained in the previous section,
you are also testing yourself.

• Assignments and the examination

Your work in this module will be assessed by the following:

• Two written assignments which will give you admission to the examination
and also count for your year mark

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• One written examination of 2 hours

Please consult Tutorial Letter 101 for details about the assessment in this mod-
ule. Be sure to read the following information in the tutorial letter:

• How your assignment and exam marks will be calculated

• The due dates and unique numbers of your assignments
• How you should submit your assignments
• Examination periods, admission and marks

Tutorial letter 101 also contains the actual assignment questions.

Remember that while Tutorial Letter 101 will be sent to you, you can also
access an electronic version on myUnisa, by clicking on the option ‘Official
Study Material’.

(x) Orientation to using myUnisa

You need to be able to use the various menu options on the myUnisa site.
They will enable you to participate actively in the learning process.

These options include the following:

myUnisa menu option What you will find here

Official Study Material Your study guide and tutorial letters

will be stored under this option, as
well as past examination papers.

Announcements From time to time we or your e-tutor

will use this facility to give you
important information about this
module. You should receive e-mail
notification of new announcements
placed on myUnisa.

Calendar This tool shows important dates,

such as examination dates and
deadlines for your assignments. You
will need this information to help
you manage your time and plan your
own schedule.

Additional resources We (or your e-tutor) may use this

folder to provide any additional
learning support material that
might help you in your studies
for this module. We will send an
announcement to inform you if we
add anything to this folder.

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PR EFACE

myUnisa menu option What you will find here

Discussions This tool allows us to hold discussions

as if we were in a contact setting.
Check your e-tutor site for any topics
that the e-tutor might have posted.
You can also post any specific queries
to the lecturer (on the main module
site). There will also be a forum for
students, where you can discuss
issues among yourselves, or just
support one another.

Assessment info This tool allows you to submit your

assignments electronically, and to
monitor your results. If you can,
please submit your assignments via
myUnisa. If you do not know how to
do this, consult Tutorial Letter 101.

In interacting online, always remember to be mindful of and respectful towards

your fellow students and your lecturers. The rules of polite behaviour on the
internet are referred to as netiquette – a term that means “online manners”.

You can access the web sites below to learn more about netiquette.

• http://networketiquette.net/
• http://www.studygs.net/netiquette.htm
• http://www.carnegiecyberacademy.com/facultyPages/communication/
netiquette.html

Please observe the rules of netiquette during your normal, everyday online com-
munications with colleagues, lecturers, and friends. In particular, remember to
be courteous to your fellow students when using the Discussions tool.

(xi) Contact details

Our contact details, as well as those of the academic department, are provided
in Tutorial Letter 101. Should you need to contact the university about matters
not related to the contents of this module, consult the publication entitled
Study @ Unisa, which you received with your study material. This brochure
contains information on how to contact the university (e.g. to whom you can
write with different queries; important telephone and fax numbers; addresses
and details of the opening and closing times of particular facilities).

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Pr e f a ce

(xii) Teaching practice

You will be expected to spend some time in schools as part of your compul-
sory teaching practice. You will need to consult this study guide on a regular
basis when doing your teaching practice.

We wish you success in your studies!

(xiii) Teacher’s Resource File

You will note that the CAPS often refer to the Teacher’s Resource File (TRF).
A teacher’s resource file is not something that can be built up in a week. You
should start collecting items for the file now while you are still studying. Any
text that you come across that you think might be useful once you teach should
be placed in your teacher’s resource file. Start building your file as soon as
possible as you will also be required to use material from your resource file
in the assignments.

Prof MM Nieman and Dr Shirley Mukhari

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PR EFACE

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LEARNING UNIT
1 1

The curriculum and assessment policy

1

statement (CAPS)

WEEK 1

Take a minute and think back to your favorite class. Chances are you do
not remember the name of the textbook, the name of computer software,
or the order in which the curriculum was taught. What you do remember
is the person in charge of that class: the teacher.
Oran Tkatchov

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• explain the guidelines indicated in CAPS for English First Additional Language for
the Intermediate Phase

It should take you approximately 4 hours to work through this learning unit.

1 Ac tivit y 1a
(1) What is your expectation of a document entitled ‘Curriculum and
Assessment Policy Statement’?
(2) Do you have a copy of the CAPS for English First Additional language?

You will not know what to teach if you do not have a thorough knowledge
of CAPS for English First Additional Language. Always keep this document at
hand when studying this module because we will often refer you to it.

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1.1 INTRODUCTION
The National Curriculum Statement Grades R–12 (NCS Grades R–12) consists
of three documents, namely the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement
CAPS, the National Protocol for Assessment and the National Policy Pertaining
to the Programme and Promotion Requirements of the NCS Grades R–12. In
this module, we will focus on the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement
(CAPS).

1.2 CAPS
In South Africa the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) is the
national curriculum and it is your responsibility to implement it in the classroom.
The CAPS for each subject and phase, contains some background information;
the general aims of the South African curriculum; time allocation for different
phases; content that needs to be covered in each subject and phase; informa-
tion on teaching plans and assessment guidelines for a particular subject. Every
subject in each grade from Grade R–12 thus has a single, comprehensive and
concise CAPS document that provides details on what teachers need to teach
and assess on a grade-by-grade and subject-by-subject basis. It is important
that you familiarise you with the CAPS document for IP English FAL, as you,
as you intend to teach in the Intermediate Phase. Always keep this document
at hand when studying this module because we will often refer you to it.

In the CAPS document, the important role that language plays in the teaching
and learning situation is acknowledged. Language is described as follows:

Language is a tool for thought and communication. It is also a cultural

and aesthetic means commonly shared among a people to make better
sense of the world they live in. Learning to use language effectively
enables learners to acquire knowledge, to express their identity, feelings
and ideas, to interact with others, and to manage their world. It also
provides learners with a rich, powerful and deeply rooted set of images
and ideas that can be used to make their world other than it is, better and
clearer than it is. It is through language that cultural diversity and social
relations are expressed and constructed, and it is through language that
    Z  ;Z   ^`{;|}+

All the language skills to be taught are clearly stated in the CAPS document.
The time allocation for each skill and the basic content are also included.

As an IP teacher, it is important that you know what the learners did in the
Foundation Phase so that you can build on it. It is furthermore important that
you know the CAPS for English FAL for Grade 7 so that you know what your
learners are working towards. This knowledge will help you to pitch your lessons
so that your learners are progressing from Grade 4, 5 and 6 towards Grade 7.

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L E A R N I N G U N I T 1: T h e c u r r i c u l u m a n d a s s e s s m e n t p o l i c y s t a t e m e nt (c a p s)

1.3 LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE FOUNDATION PHASE (GRADES R–3)

In South Africa all learners entering school should be taught in their home
language. For many reasons; however, some non-English-speaking parents
opt to send their children – on entering school for the first time – to schools
where English is the only language of learning and teaching (LoLT). This is
sometimes called the “straight-into-English” process. Many of the learners
struggle because not only do they have to master new skills and subject
content such as reading, writing and mathematics, but they also have to master
a new language. Consequently, these learners often arrive in the IP lacking
the necessary proficiency in their home language and the LoLT (in this case
English). Even though you will be teaching an additional language, you will
also have to consider the learners’ respective home languages and do a lot of
scaffolding to make sure that you accommodate all learners. It might, on the
other hand, be that you are teaching English as an additional language, but
that it is the home language of some of the learners.

Therefore, you need to take note of what learners are taught in Grade R–3 in
both Home Language and First Additional Language so that you can build on
these skills and content in the IP.

1.3.1 First Additional Language teaching in the Foundation Phase

In Grades 1 and 2 learners must spend a minimum of two hours and a maximum
of three hours per week on learning the FAL. In Grade 3 they spend a minimum
of three hours and a maximum of four on learning the FAL.

When teachers introduce English FAL in Grade 1, they need a simple way to
get the idea of an ‘additional language’ across to their young learners. A good
way of doing this is by means of puppets, which can be given names in the
additional language, for example, Peter the Puppet. In the first lesson, the
teacher introduces the puppet and tells the learners that Peter cannot speak their
home language; he can only speak English, so they will have to speak English
to Peter. Peter will then become a permanent feature of the First Additional
Language class. The teacher could introduce a second puppet (Pam the Puppet)
in order to demonstrate interactions in the additional language (e.g. greetings).

In Grade 1, the learners must be exposed to lots of oral language in the form
of stories and classroom instructions. An excellent way for children to acquire
their additional language is to listen to stories. The teacher needs to:

• choose a story with a simple, repetitive structure, which allows for vocabulary
and grammar to be recycled (The Three Little Pigs)
• keep his or her language very simple, speaking slowly but naturally
• use gestures, pictures and real objects to support understanding of the story
• tell the story several times, gradually involving the children more and more,
for example by joining in the refrains (He huffs and he puffs and he blows
the house down).

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Apart from listening to stories, the teacher also uses Big Books to read from. A
Big Book is a large illustrated book with enlarged print that all the learners can
see as he or she reads. This is called ‘shared reading’. One of the advantages
of shared reading is that it is not only an excellent listening activity, but also
develops learners’ emergent literacy.

Apart from listening which is very important when learning an additional

language, the learners must also start speaking. Initially, learners’ spoken
language will be formulaic – memorised songs, action rhymes and poems and
some formulaic language learned as chunks, for example, ‘Good morning,
how are you?’ ‘I’m fine, how are you?’ But gradually, as the children begin to
understand the additional language, they must start communicating by using
only one or two-words, for example, in response to the teacher’s question,
‘Did you like the story,’ a learner answers ‘Yes, I did’ or ‘No, I did not.’ At first,
the learners’ emergent spoken language needs to be scaffolded (modelled and
supported). For example, learners can begin by acting out stories the teacher
has told or read to them, saying some of the dialogue.

A substantial amount of time needs to be devoted to listening and speaking in

Grade 1. This is reduced in Grades 2 and 3 when more reading and writing
is introduced in the FAL. Focused attention must be given to listening and
speaking throughout the Foundation Phase.

Much repetition is done in the Foundation Phase.

Although there is a strong focus on developing oral language in Grades R

and 1, more time is devoted to reading and writing activities in Grades 2
and 3. Reading during these phases consist of shared reading, group-guided
reading, paired and independent reading, teaching phonics, word recognition
and comprehension.

The learners begin to write in their FAL in the third term of Grade 1. In Grade
2, writing in the First Additional Language receives more focus. Writing is
guided; for example, the learners write by using sentence frames such as ‘I like
_______./I don’t like ______.’ In Grade 3, writing becomes more challenging.
With support, learners are expected to write a simple set of instructions and
a personal recount. Together with the teacher (shared writing) they write a
simple story.

Language structure and use also receive some attention in the Foundation Phase
since sound knowledge of vocabulary and grammar provides the foundation
for the development of listening, speaking, reading and writing in the FAL.
In Grades 2 and 3, learners also acquire vocabulary and grammar through
reading English. In Grade 3, there are specific activities focused on language
use. Teachers use strategies such as word walls; the labelling of objects in the
classroom; vocabulary games (word quizzes); independent reading, keeping
personal dictionaries or vocabulary books and using children’s illustrated
dictionaries (CAPS, 2011: 8–17).
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L E A R N I N G U N I T 1: T h e c u r r i c u l u m a n d a s s e s s m e n t p o l i c y s t a t e m e nt (c a p s)

1.4 FIRST ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE INTERMEDIATE

PHASE (GRADE 4–6)
By the time the learners enter the intermediate phase (IP), they should be
reasonably proficient in their First Additional Language as far as interpersonal
and cognitive academic skills are concerned. However, the reality is that many
learners still cannot communicate well in their additional language (English)
at this stage. The challenge in the IP is, therefore, to provide support for these
learners; and provide a curriculum that assists them in meeting the standards
required in further grades. These standards must be such that the learners
can use English at a high level of proficiency to prepare them for further or
higher education or the world of work.

It is for this reason that the cognitive level of English FAL should be on a level
that it may be used as a language of learning and teaching (LoLT). Listening,
speaking and language usage skills will be further developed and refined in the
Intermediate Phase while the learners’ reading and writing skills are developed.

For listening and speaking activities in the FAL Grade 4–6 learners have to do
various forms of oral communication such as conversation, giving directions and
instructions, retelling stories, roleplay, group discussions, short talks, learning
short poems and rhymes.

As part of their reading activities learners in the Intermediate Phase have to

read various forms of texts:

• Stories: contemporary realistic fiction, traditional stories (myths and legends,

folk tales, fables), adventure stories, science fiction, biographies, historical
fiction, plays and poetry
• Information texts: procedures, factual recounts, general knowledge texts,
informative texts, such as reports
• Social texts: invitations, greeting cards, letters and notices
• Media texts: advertisements, newspaper reports, magazine articles, notices,
pamphlets
• Visual literacy: advertising (posters, pamphlets, advertisements), notices,
drawings, photographs, cartoon, comic strip and diagrams/graphs/tables/
charts
• Close reading of texts: comprehension activities, making summaries and so
forth. Extended reading of texts: oral discussions, book reviews, projects
and so forth
• Prepared and unprepared reading aloud

It is a difficult task to put ideas that are in one’s head into words on a page in
one’s home language and even more difficult when one has to find the right
words and write them in a sensible way in an additional language. Thus Grade
4–6 learners have to be well-supported by their teachers when having to do
writing tasks. Cremin and Myhill (2012:40) propose that young learners should
be allowed to ‘orally rehearse’ what they plan to write. They suggest that the
learners do collaborative writing first when starting to write in an additional
language. A writing partner might help an inexperienced young writer by
scaffolding what he or she plans to write. The scaffolding could consist of
providing a word or changing the word order in a sentence. Teachers also

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have a scaffolding role to play when young learners in their classrooms start
writing in an additional language.

Learners in Grades 4–6 have to use words in lists, sentences and paragraphs.
They also have to do creative writing, descriptive writing and they have to write
dialogues. Learners have to understand and use certain language structures
and conventions set out in the CAPS document.

2 Ac tivit y 1b
(1) Study the CAPS document for English First Additional Language in
the Intermediate Phase. (If you do not have a copy yet, download one
without delay from https://www.education.gov.za/Curriculum/Curri
culumAssessmentPolicyStatements(CAPS)/CAPSIntermediate.aspx).
Under ‘Time Allocation’, look at the table setting out the suggestions
for teaching times per week. Do you think sufficient time is allocated
to Language Structures and Use? Why do you say so?

(2) Reflect on the role of the CAPS and then answer the following
questions:

• How can you use your knowledge about what learners have
learnt in HL and FAL in the Foundation Phase when teaching a
FAL in the IP?
• What are the main language teaching approaches that CAPS
recommend?
• What kind of learning and teaching support materials will you
need to teach a FAL in Intermediate Phase?

1.5 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

In this learning unit we have given an overview of what CAPS entails. Make
sure you have achieved the outcomes for this module by explaining what each
of the following documents or concepts entail:

• CAPS Foundation Phase (Home Language Teaching)

• CAPS Foundation Phase (FAL)
• CAPS Intermediate Phase (FAL)
• CAPS Intermediate Phase (HL)

1.6 CONCLUSION
The CAPS document will be the most important guideline for your teaching
practice, so you should ensure that you familiarise yourself with its contents.
In the learning units that follow, you will have the opportunity to increase your
knowledge about issues related to language teaching, such as multilingualism
and teaching principles and about applying strategies to teach the various
language skills identified in the CAPS including listening and speaking, reading
and viewing and writing and presenting.
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LEARNING UNIT
2 2

Additional language learning and teaching

2

WEEK 2–3

Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom.

Joger Bacon

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• outline different views on how language is acquired

• indicate how home language skills may influence the learning of a first additional
language
• discuss input, output and interaction in first additional language learning
• explain current trends in additional language teaching

You have two weeks to study this learning unit.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
In this unit we turn our attention to how an additional language is learned. We
look at a number of language teaching approaches that developed over the
course of many years and how you can use them in your classroom.

3 Ac tivit y 2a
Take a moment to think about your own additional language or languages.
When and why is it necessary for you to use your additional language(s)?
Under what circumstances do you need to use your additional language(s)?
What are your needs when it comes to using an additional language? Now
consider your needs and the situations where you use your additional
language and then decide what the aim of additional language teaching
should be.

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I am sure that you will agree with me when I say that teachers who teach an
additional language, should aim to teach learners to

• listen so that they can understand a home language speaker speaking

• speak the language as well as possible
• understand what they are reading without first translating the work
• write so that they are able to formulate their thoughts logically in the target
language

The correct use of language structures underlies all these activities.

Language teaching focuses primarily on developing learners’ communicative

language ability so that they can interact meaningfully. Although there are
undoubtedly certain parallels between the acquisition (learning) of a home
language and an additional language, the teaching, learning and development of
the additional language involves certain distinctive processes which necessarily
require a unique approach, methodology and assessment.

The teacher should attempt to build on learners’ knowledge of their home

languages (which they can already speak and write). Learners of additional
languages usually (but not always) have little or no knowledge of the additional
language and thus need to be taught the basics of speaking, reading, listening
and writing. The South African situation is unique in many respects. It is not
unusual to find children who can speak more than one language fluently, mainly
because of the multilingual environments in which they are raised but many
of them cannot read and write all the languages they speak. It is important to
remember that the learners of additional languages are not required to achieve
the same level of proficiency than home language learners (unless the additional
language is going to be used as the Language of Learning and Teaching at
some stage — like is the case with English which is the LoLT in South Africa).

As an additional language teacher, you will sometimes be confronted with

a situation where you teach English as a FAL, but it is the home language of
some learners. Some learners will thus be more proficient in the language
than others; so, you will have to vary the level of difficulty of the activities
you present and make use of the home language speakers of English to assist
the other learners.

It is essential that you remember that your learners’ situations may differ radically
from yours. They may have less or much more exposure to their additional
language than you had. Learners in remote geographical areas, for example,
often only know the language they hear at home. In such instances, the teacher
teaching the FAL will have to use relatively simple (elementary) activities in
the class. In urban areas children often know more than one language. You
thus need to thoroughly determine each learner’s situation regarding his or her
additional language and adapt your lesson planning and activities accordingly.

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LEARNING UNIT 2: Additional language learning and teaching

2.2 WHAT CAPS SAYS ABOUT AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE

CAPS defines the term “First Additional Language” as:” a language which is
not a mother tongue but which is used for certain communicative functions in
a society; that is, a medium of learning and teaching in education”; the term
also refers to the specific proficiency levels at which the language is offered
(CAPS 2011:8).

CAPS assumes that First Additional Language learners do not necessarily have
any knowledge of the language when entering school. The focus in the first
few years of school is thus on developing learners’ ability to understand and
speak the language – basic interpersonal communication skills. In Grades 2
and 3 learners start to build literacy on this oral foundation. They also apply
the literacy skills they have already learned in their home language.

In the Intermediate and Senior Phases, learners continue to strengthen their

listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. When teaching English FAL,
you must keep in mind that the majority of children are learning through
the medium of English as the LoLT at this stage and should be getting more
exposure to it. In the instance of English FAL, greater emphasis is thus placed
on using the language for the purposes of thinking and reasoning. This helps
the learners to develop the cognitive academic skills they need to study other
subjects in English.

The challenge in the Intermediate Phase, therefore, is to provide support for

all learners and at the same time provide a curriculum that helps learners to
meet the standards required in further grades. These standards must be such
that the learners can use their additional language at a high level of proficiency
to prepare them for higher education or the world of work. It is for this reason
that the cognitive level of the First Additional Language should be such that
it may be used as a language of learning and teaching. Listening, speaking
and language usage skills will be further developed and refined in the IP by
developing the learners’ reading and writing skills.

2.3 HOW AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE IS ACQUIRED

Do we learn a second (or additional) language like we have learned our first
language? Is there a difference between acquiring an additional language in a
naturalistic setting and learning it in a formal classroom? Is it easier for a child
to learn an additional language than for an adult? I am sure these are just a
few of the questions which you, as a future language teacher, have grappled
with over the years.

4 Ac tivit y 2b
Before we continue, consider the following questions:

• How did you learn your home language (mother tongue)?

• How did you learn your first additional language?
• Compile a list of differences in terms of how you learned your home
language and how you learned your additional languages.
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• How old were you when you first began to learn an additional language?
• Who do you think is best able to learn an additional language: adults
or children? Give a reason for your answer.
• What do you think is the best teaching method when learning an
additional language?

Pose these questions to a few of your friends or colleagues. Then post

your written answers in the relevant discussion space on your e-tutor site.
Compare your own answers with those of other students and see if you
can come to any specific conclusions about language acquisition.

I often pose these questions to people and usually get a variety of diverse
responses about how they learned an additional language. Some people
tell me that they started learning their first additional language at primary
school and their second additional language at high school, but others tell
me that they have picked it up because they played with children who
spoke a different language. They often remember the specific techniques the
teachers used to teach grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary such as drilling
specific language structures; memorising vocabulary and fixed expressions
and weekly spelling tests. They were seldom given the opportunity to apply
their knowledge to written work. Other people have told me that they moved
to new neighbourhoods as young children where nobody spoke the same
home language as they did. Although they struggled for months to learn the
vernacular or colloquial language of the area, they speak the language fluently
today without any accent, despite knowing nothing about the structure and
grammar of the language – speaking the language is automatic and “natural’’.
Some people’s parents enrolled them in Grade 1 in schools where the medium
of instruction was new to them; and although they struggled initially, they are
totally bilingual today. These were the answers I received on my questions. I am
sure you received many other answers, because South Africa is a multilingual
country and people may have acquired a variety of languages simultaneously
by playing with children who spoke a language that differs from their own.

Because of our multilingual society, certain individuals live in communities or

homes where family members or members of the community speak more than
one language and they may acquire two languages simultaneously (Fromkin,
Rodman & Hyams, 2011:357). If a child’s mother speaks IsiXhosa to her and the
father speaks Setswana, the child will acquire the two languages simultaneously.
Or, if the parents speak one language to the child and the grandparents speak
another, the child will simultaneously develop awareness of the systematic
features of each language such as vocabulary, syntax, morphemes and
phonological distinctions. This is referred to as bilingual language acquisition
or bilingualism. Children who acquire an additional language at a young age
seldom have formal knowledge of the language rules that govern the additional
language but are still able to speak it fluently. The fluent form of bilingualism
that they gain in this way is called additive bilingualism. If a child’s additional
language replaces the home language, it is called subtractive bilingualism.
In South Africa, additive bilingualism is favoured and it is acknowledged that
the child’s home language needs to be developed at the same time that the
acquisition of an additional language takes place.

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LEARNING UNIT 2: Additional language learning and teaching

By thinking about how you learned a language and by asking other people
about their experiences, you will be able to learn a lot about the process of
acquiring an additional language. It seems as though there is a difference
between consciously learning a language at school and acquiring a language in
a social environment (neighbourhood, country or school) where the language
is used on a daily basis as a means of communication.

2.3.1 Language acquisition versus language learning

Language acquisition is usually used to refer to the internalisation of a linguistic
system or language. Acquisition refers to the way in which a child learns his
or her home language. Language acquisition is an unconscious process and
occurs as a result of informal learning; if a person acquires something or has
already acquired it, he or she is not always aware that it is happening or has
already happened. Consciously learning a language, in contrast, means that
one has formal knowledge and explicit formal linguistic knowledge of the
language; one consciously learn new words; how to apply the grammar rules
and so forth. The conscious learning of a language usually takes place in formal
language teaching situations (VanPatten & Benati, 2010). However, if an adult
learns a language in a social environment because he or she comes into daily
contact with the language, it is also language acquisition.

It is generally accepted that young children learn (acquire) a new language

naturally and with surprising ease, and that they speak it relatively faultless
without any accent; older learners, in contrast, generally struggle to learn an
additional language and usually speak it with an accent. But is there a “critical
period” for language acquisition?

2.3.2 Is there a critical period for language acquisition?

In her book Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood (1996) wrote:

I don’t know how you manage, Sir, amongst all the foreigners; you never
               
they gabble away like geese, although the children can soon speak well
enough.

Age is a significant factor in SLA. Like in the abstract from Alias Grace, one
often sees that children of immigrants (people who come to live permanently
in another country) or parents moving to an area where another language is
spoken, master the new language long before their parents do. One of the
authors of this guide has personally been in a situation where one of the chil-
dren in an immigrant household was called to act as interpreter, because the
parents could not understand English. It seems that the younger a person is,
the better the chances that he/she will achieve native-like competence in the
language he/she is exposed to.

The critical period hypothesis (CPH), which is linked to the Innatist Theory
(the theory that human beings have an inborn, biological ability to acquire a
language) is a perspective of second language acquisition, that proposes that
human beings are genetically programmed to acquire certain skills during
certain periods in life. Once the “critical period” is over, it is not possible to
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acquire those skills. As far as language is concerned, the critical period during
which a language can be acquired naturally and effortlessly is from birth to
more or less ten years of age when the brain retains its plasticity. The relative
ease with which young children acquire a second language they are exposed
to and their ability to acquire native-like pronunciation, is often used to justify
the existence of the critical period.

The CPH has, however, been severely criticised and this theory is not universally
accepted. Theorists claim that the reason why adults do not acquire a second
language as well as young children do is related to a number of internal and
external factors. Children, for example, have more time to devote to language
learning; they do not experience pressure to speak fluently and accurately
from the beginning; their errors are often overlooked; they are praised for
small efforts and they use simple language. Adults, however, are expected to
use more complex language and to express complicated ideas. Adults also
tend to believe that they cannot learn a new language well. They are easily
embarrassed by their mistakes and they may experience frustration in trying
to express themselves adequately. These negative feelings may affect their
motivation and willingness to use the new language. The conditions for language
learning are thus very different (Lightbown & Spada 2013:93) and the role that
age plays in second language learning is therefore a contentious issue.

Research based on the CPH and personal experience and observation of the
difficulties adults experience when learning a second language, has led to
the belief that second language instruction has the best chance of succeed-
ing if it starts when learners are still young. There are, however, studies that
showed that older learners are more successful than younger learners if second
language development takes place in similar circumstances. This is because
adults make the most of their metalinguistic knowledge, memory strategies,
problem-solving skills and general knowledge when learning a second language
(Lightbown & Spada 2013:93) and they are thus better able to apply language
rules. In addition, adults are often more motivated to learn a second language
and therefore do better than children. It is also speculated that should adults
be exposed to a second language for long enough, they would also acquire
the language without having any knowledge of the language rules.

2.3.3 The role of the first language

When learning a second language it is important that there is a lot of exposure
to the target language, in other words the role of input is important. This,
however, does not imply that the child’s first language can be neglected. On
the contrary, it is of utmost importance that the child’s first language continues
to be used and developed at the same time that the acquisition of a second
language takes place. If their home language is well-developed and continuously
used, it can affect their cognitive development as well as the quality of the
second language in a positive way. It is most likely that children who are not
fluent in their first language will struggle to acquire a second language.

Cummins (1980) coined the concept of common underlying proficiency (CUP)

to explain that the acquisition of a second language is influenced by proficiency
in a first language. This means that when acquiring a second language people

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LEARNING UNIT 2: Additional language learning and teaching

depend on their first language which contains the basic structures and rules of
language. It is used as a resource for learning a second language. The existing
language with its rules and structures are what Cummins refers to as CUP.

The following diagram which is known as Cummins’ dual-iceberg representation

of bilingual proficiency (Cummins 1980) illustrates the way in which two
languages are stored in the brain, using a common underlying system for both
the languages.

S S
F F
 L1  L2

C U   P  

The dual-iceberg representation of bilingual proficiency: Cummins 1980

Cummins explains that the surface features of the first and second language
(illustrated at the tips of the iceberg) which include phonology, syntax and
lexicon are different for the first language and the second language. In other
words, each language will have its own set of phonology, syntax and lexicon.
These features are used for everyday conversation skills. While these features
are separate for each language there is a cognitive proficiency that is common
across the languages (as illustrated at the bottom of the diagram). This common
underlying proficiency makes it possible to transfer academic and literacy
proficiencies between the two languages. In a classroom environment the
transfer of skills, knowledge and concepts can occur by means of the common
underlying proficiency. The degree of transfer that takes place across the
languages will depend on the context of the school environment. In this regard
the school’s motivation and the opportunities that the children are given to
develop both languages will also depend on the degree of transfer that takes
place (Cummins 1980).

Whatever the case may be, when learning a second language the learner has
already acquired at least one language and as such already has knowledge
of language; how language works and what it is used for. Although this pre-
knowledge may be an advantage when learning a second language, the learner
may want to apply the rules of the first language to the second language and this
may result in errors made by second language users that first language learn-
ers will not make. A key concept in the learning of a first additional language
is thus ‘language transfer’, also called ‘cross-linguistic influence’. This occurs
when a learner applies knowledge of the home language to the additional lan-
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guage when speaking or writing. The transfer may have a positive or a negative
influence. An example of positive transfer is where a learner finds a word in
the additional language easy to learn, because it is similar to a word in his or
her home language (examples are ‘book’ and ‘boek’ in English and Afrikaans,
and ngamandla and ngamaanda (very much) in isiXhosa and Tshivenda). An
example of negative transfer is when a learner makes errors because certain
language structures that exist in the additional language do not exist in the
home language (or vice versa). For instance, speakers of Southern African
languages may find it difficult to distinguish between ‘he’ and ‘she’ in English
because there are no similar gender-distinctive pronouns in these languages.
Likewise isiZulu, Sepedi and Afrikaans children who have a double negative
in their home languages, might find it difficult to understand that English do
not make use of double negative.

The cited examples above then calls on teachers to use learners diverse linguistic
resources to identify words which could be similar or different in advance. These
words could be pasted on the wall as a way of reminder to learners when they
are either writing or speaking in class to either use or to avoid them. Depending
on their proficiency levels FAL learners could be encouraged to come up with
such words. Teachers could also encourage learners to play word games using
words which are spelled the same but have different meanings. The use of
African words within the classroom environment will also assist in affirming
learners’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Thus, within the FAL classroom
environments the development of both the English and African languages will
be enhanced. Drawing on learners’ linguistic backgrounds also makes the
learning of a language to be fun and interesting. FAL Teachers knowledge of
the CUP will further enable them to accommodate the use of African languages
within the classroom to scaffold the learning of FAL.

2.3.4 Two important theories on second (additional) language acquisition

Although there are many theories on how a second language is acquired, there
are two theories we would like you to take note of, namely the cognitive-
interactionist theory which consists of the Interaction hypothesis and
the comprehensible output hypothesis.

• Interaction hypothesis

According to this approach, conversational interaction is an important condition

for second language acquisition. There is advancement in second language
learning because of the learner’s exposure to language, production of the
language and the feedback received on the production of language. Language
progress is linked to communication and its effect on language learning.
Interaction researchers looked at the ways in which speakers modify their
speech and interaction patterns to participate in a conversation or make
meaning in a new language.

Comprehensible input is regarded as essential for language acquisition.

The input is made comprehensible through modified interaction. Learners
thus need to interact with other speakers and work with them to reach
mutual comprehension through negotiation of meaning (modified interaction).
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LEARNING UNIT 2: Additional language learning and teaching

Negotiation of meaning is done through comprehension checks, confirmation

checks, requests for clarification or paraphrasing; and this often results in modified
input, in other words, input that has been adjusted to facilitate comprehension.
Modification is done by both speaker and listener. A speaker can, for example,
do a comprehension check by asking, “Do you understand?”, while the listener
can ask for clarification by asking the speaker to repeat. In other words,
“When communication is difficult, interlocutors must ‘negotiate for meaning’,
and this negotiation is seen as an opportunity for language development”
(Lightbown & Spada 2013:114).

Input is received by reading and listening to sentences in a language. If these

sentences are understood, they are stored in the part of the brain that is
responsible for language. The brain can later retrieve these models, build on
them and make new meanings of words. This means that the brain “knows”
that it can take one word in a sentence it has heard and substitute another word
(an equivalent) for it. For example, if it has heard “The cat is under the table”,
it can easily produce “The dog is under the table” or “The book is under the
chair.” (on condition that it has also heard and understood the nouns “dog”,
“book” and “chair”).

As a relevant example, interaction can occur in a classroom setting where

learners interact and role-play ordering food in a restaurant. In this instance,
sentence patterns of requests can be developed and attention can be drawn
to errors made during the dialogue being used. This type of role-play can be
transferred to real-life situations where learners will have to order food in a
restaurant.

The acquisition of additional languages is a very interesting field and I wish I

could deal with it in more detail. Visit your local library or search the internet
for more information about this topic, especially the various theories on an
additional language acquisition.

5 Ac tivit y 2c
Provide your own example of how interaction can occur in an IP classroom
setting through role-play. What input would you provide in such a setting?
What language structures would you teach learners to use during roleplay?

• The comprehensible output hypothesis

Later versions of the interaction hypothesis recognised the importance of the

modified output that learners produce as a result of negotiating meaning.
This focus on output led Merril Swain (1985) to propose the comprehensible
output hypothesis as a complement to the input hypothesis. This hypothesis
was prompted by studies that showed that learners who were immersed in
the language became confident in the language and in using the language
to speak, but they lacked grammatical competence. Children in immersion
programmes receive plenty of comprehensible input and the problem could
thus not be ascribed to a lack of input. This led Swain to the conclusion that
it might be that learners did not have enough opportunity in the classroom
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to talk (to produce output) and that they were not “pushed” (by asking for
clarifications of their utterances) in the output they produced (Ellis & Shintani
2014:207; Wright 2015:53). Thus, although the importance of comprehensible
input is recognised, proponents of this theory argue that input is not sufficient
for acquisition. Output is also required and in fact essential (Nunan 2015:184).

2.3.5 The important role of input, interaction and output in additional

language teaching
Language development cannot take place without interaction. In language peda-
gogy, interaction is mostly seen as a means of increasing student participation,
developing fluency or managing teaching. Ellis and Shintani (2014:223) regard
this as a very restricted view of the role of interaction in language teaching.
According to them, teachers need to realise that ultimately all teaching is inter-
action. Interaction is not only where “learning” occurs but also what prompts
the linguistic behaviour needed for subsequent “development” to take place.

The important role of interaction in acquiring a second language can often

be seen in language teaching pedagogy (Ellis & Shintani 2014:219–222) such
as the following:

• Interaction in the classroom should provide ample opportunities for student

talk. It should be borne in mind that interaction involves listening as well as
speaking. According to the interaction hypothesis, providing opportunities
to talk is not enough. Comprehensible input and output that result from the
negotiation of meaning is also required. Group work is important.
• Interaction not only contributes to fluency but is also a resource for new
language learning. Ellis & Shintani (2014:221–222) explain this as follows:

Cognitive-interactionist theories claim that interaction facilitates the ac-

quisition of new language by inducing learners to notice new linguistic
forms in the input, helping them to map these forms onto the meanings
they wish to express and pushing them to modify their own output to
make it more target-like.

• Student participation and self-reliance are increased by means of group work.

Group work affords learners opportunities for interaction by talking and
listening (input) in the second language. Research based on the interaction
hypothesis revealed that when learners interact in groups and negotiate
meaning (output), they will acquire new language.

Everything that has been discussed about the acquisition of a second or ad-
ditional language thus far needs to be borne in mind, because we need to
use our knowledge about second language acquisition to decide on the best
way to teach our learners.

2.4 HOW CAN I TEACH AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE?

This study guide focuses primarily on the conscious learning of an additional
language in a classroom situation. If English is spoken in the community, you
must use the oral community and the social environment to supplement what
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LEARNING UNIT 2: Additional language learning and teaching

you are doing in the classroom to combine the conscious learning of English
with the informal acquisition of the language. You can do this by giving the
learners tasks to carry out in the community (conduct an interview with a
grandparent or elderly English-speaking person in their neighbourhood to find
out how things have changed since the person was a child).

2.4.1 Shortcomings of traditional methods

In the past, teachers usually taught EFAL by explaining grammar rules to the
learners and drilling words, sentence structures and isolated language points
into them. The learners received lists of words and fixed expressions which
they had to learn by heart. The result of this traditional approach was that the
learners usually knew the grammar rules very well, but the minute they had to
speak to someone in English or when they had to use English in a shop, post
office or other real-life situation, they were unable to do so. They learned how
the language tools worked but were never given the chance to use and apply
these tools in communication situations. Van der Walt (1984:21) points out that
learners who study a language usually want to know how to greet people in
that language; how to introduce someone to others; to warn; persuade; give
advice; ask and give directions and so forth.

We want to emphasise again that most people who are multilingual, achieved
their multilingualism out of need. In South African context most people es-
pecially those residing in multilingual contexts became proficient in various
languages through exposure to the languages concerned. As such teachers
should create language learning environments which reflects the natural way
of acquiring a language. This could be achieved through the use of songs and
dances, rhymes, folklores as well as narratives.

We must therefore include in our teaching the ability to do things with

language and to express meanings in the language. Language must be
seen as interpersonal communication used for a whole range of purposes
and in a wide variety of situations.

Tying in with this, Askes (1992:64) mentions that in his experience learners
know exactly what a noun or a verb is; they know what part of speech the
word “warning’’ is and also what it means, but they are unable to warn others.

6 Ac tivit y 2d
Up to now, I have only explained how additional languages were presented
in the past. You are probably wondering how it is done today. Speak to
some of the teachers at your local primary school and ask them what
methods and activities they use to teach an additional language. If you
have children at school, ask them what they do in the additional language
classroom. Make a list of all the activities.

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2.4.2 Current trends in first additional language teaching

According to Kilfoil and Van der Walt (1997:34), the following is a list of trends
in additional language classrooms:

• There is no one best method of teaching a language. All the approaches

should be tried and the best selected from them.
• The learners are expected to speak more than the teachers.
• Teachers use a wide variety of methods when presenting their lessons and
in exercises, evaluations and for homework.
• Total physical response (discussed in section 3.5) is widely used; it is used
at a more advanced level in higher grades.
• A variety of teaching material is used: CDs, DVDs or internet-based media,
written media, pictures, maps or actual objects.
• Authentic cultural objects are incorporated where possible.
• Gifted children are encouraged and receive more advanced work.
• Interpersonal communication is strongly emphasised.
• Interdisciplinary or content-based approaches are followed.
• Teachers frequently use pair work, group work and cooperative instruction
as well as individualised instruction.
• Lessons are characterised by variation because of the limited concentration
span of some children.
• An informal approach is used. The emphasis is on understanding and
speaking the language.
• Listening activities provide “understandable inputs’’.
• Words and expressions are used in context and not in isolation.
• The initial emphasis is on listening and speaking and then on reading and
writing.
• Associations are made between the additional language and the object,
rather than between the word in the additional language and the equivalent
in the home language.
• Functional communication situations that occur in real life are created
• language structures and functional language usage are practised in these
situations.
• In each lesson previous work is systematically revised and inculcated in
the learners.
• The pace of the lesson is lively and is kept that way by means of timeous
changes and transitions from one activity to the next.
• The learners are encouraged to speak to one another in the additional
language.
• Evaluation is done on a continuous and integrated basis.
• The learners dramatise discussions, songs, poems, stories, historical events
et cetera.

How does this list compare with the list you made in response to activity 2d?
Revise the list, if necessary.

2.4.3 Learners’ preferences

Mischke (2001–2002) sent a questionnaire to 200 students learning Sesotho as
an additional language and received 187 responses. The students were asked
what helped them the most to learn the language. They responded as follows:
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LEARNING UNIT 2: Additional language learning and teaching

Learning activities Students

• roleplay 92
• language games 45
• songs 9
• talking with and listening to other students 187
• memorising conversations or dialogues 43
• getting information from guest speakers 58
• getting information from planned visits 41
• writing a learning diary 41
• learning about the culture 117

Mischke came to the interesting conclusion that learner-learner interaction

had the most value. They also believe that it is important to learn about the
culture of the language. When asked how they would like to be assessed to
determine if they have acquired the language or not, they indicated that they
would prefer to be assessed on their ability to use the language they learned
in real-life situations.

How a method is used in a classroom depends on the individual teacher’s

interpretation of how an additional language should be taught. Some teachers
prefer using one particular method, while others pick and choose from all the
possibilities and thus create their own unique mix.

2.5 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

In this learning unit we have explained theories about additional language
teaching, whether there is a difference between learning and acquiring a
language and the role that age plays. We have also looked at current trends
in additional language teaching.

At the beginning of the learning unit we have mentioned a few learning objec-
tives. By now you must have achieved them. Answer the following questions
without paging back, to make sure that you are on track. If you need to page
back more than twice, I suggest that you work through the learning unit again.

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• What is the difference between consciously learning a language and

language acquisition
• What are the implications of the input-output-interaction hypotheses
for FAL teaching?
• What is the difference between language acquisition and language
learning? Do you support such a distinction? Justify your answer.
• What role does a learner’s home language (first language) play in second
language acquisition?
• What do you regard as the five most important current trends of first
additional language teaching?

2.6 CONCLUSION
It is important that teachers have some background knowledge about how
additional languages are acquired/learned, because it might have an influ-
ence on the way they teach an additional language. The role that age plays
in acquiring an additional language should in particular interest teachers who
are planning to teach in the Intermediate Phase.

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LEARNING UNIT
3 3

Additional language teaching approaches

3

WEEK 4

Learning another language is not only learning different words for the
same things but learning another way to think about things.
Flora Lewis

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• discuss different additional (second) language approaches that developed over

the years
• indicate whether these approaches could still be used today
• explain how you would use these approaches in your classroom

You should spend approximately one week on this learning unit.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
Keep the interaction and comprehensible output hypothesis that we have dis-
cussed in the previous learning units in mind when studying this section on
language teaching methods. Decide which of the methods discussed in this
unit adhere to these two hypotheses.

The discussion in this learning unit is largely based on the works of Brown
(1994), Kilfoil and Van der Walt (2009) and Larsen-Freeman & Anderson
(2015). I am only discussing some of the most important approaches. If you
want to learn more about approaches such as suggestopedia; the silent way;
Community Language Learning (CLL) and so forth, you can consult Larsen-
Freeman and Anderson (2015) Techniques and principles in language teaching.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. You can also watch any of Larsen-Freeman’s
videos on second language teaching in YouTube.

Please note that I often use the word method’ even though it is sometimes an
approach. Communicative language teaching is, for example, not a method
but an approach in which many different methods can be used. Linguists feel
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that teachers should adopt a broad approach to language teaching, rather than
concentrate on specific methods. The use of a specific method could be too
restrictive and narrow.

3.2 THE TRADITIONAL OR GRAMMAR-TRANSLATION METHOD

The traditional method comprises written translations to and from the foreign
language and rules for teaching grammar according to a deductive method
(= moving from the rule to examples). In practice, the grammar translation
method is implemented as follows:

• The learners have to translate a text written in the additional language with
the aid of dictionaries.
• All the “new’’ words are memorised by the learners. Sometimes entire
phrases, sentences or paragraphs are memorised.
• Grammar rules are taught in a deductive manner. The language rule is
formulated and the learners have to learn it by heart. Then it is explained
with the aid of examples and further reinforced by means of grammar
exercises where the rule applies. Exceptions to the rule are memorised.
• Learning and saying tables out loud (such as lists of degrees of comparison
or intensive forms) is common.
• Exercises are mostly written and there is little opportunity for verbal
interaction in the target language.
• The learners receive language instruction in their home language.

The written word and grammatical rules (the form of the language) are much
more important than spoken language in this method. The teacher is seen as
the source of all knowledge.

Do you have any criticisms of this method? Look for the positive and negative
points by referring to the following aspects: the use of dictionaries; the empha-
sis on language rules; the lack of dialogue in the classroom; a lack of variety
in presentation methods; the over-emphasis on written work; the use of the
home language to teach an additional language; the communicative function
of language, et cetera. Do you think that this method have utility value in the
present-day teaching of additional languages? Would you use this method in
your class? Why? Why not?

3.3 THE DIRECT METHOD

By the end of the 19th century many language teachers had realised that
the grammar-translation method was not suitable for teaching an additional
language. They realised that learners should have more opportunities to use
the language practically and that they should learn to speak by speaking
themselves; to understand by listening and to read by reading. According to
the direct method, learners learn the language directly (immediately) in and
through the specific language. If teachers want their learners to learn an ad-
ditional language as a home language, the learners must acquire the quality
of thinking in a foreign language (Kilfoil & Van der Walt 1997:9).
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L E A R N I N G U N I T 3: A d d i t i o n a l l a n g u a g e t e a c h i n g a p p r o a c h e s

The direct method is aimed at developing direct associations between words

and objects in the learner’s brain. This method is based on the assumption
that an additional language should be learned in the same way as the home
language; teaching grammar to children under the age of 11 is thus discouraged
since it is argued that children learn to speak their home language correctly
without being aware of its underlying language structures or grammar rules or
receiving instruction in grammar. Structure and grammar are not important;
the spoken word is primary.

Language lessons are based on situations and topics and teachers use pictures,
models, maps, et cetera. The additional language is used as the medium of
instruction right from the start. The teacher makes use of the immediate en-
vironment by indicating certain objects and then naming them. The teacher
could, for example, use a pair of scissors to cut paper and then say: “Look, I’m
cutting the paper with a pair of scissors.’’ The question-and-answer method is
often used along with pictures. If the teacher shows the learners a picture of
a chair, she could ask: “What is this?’’ to which learners should answer: “This
is a chair.’’ Then the teacher could ask: “What colour is the chair?’’ et cetera.

Grammar is taught inductively, but only once the learners have mastered the
language to a reasonable degree. The learners are then directed inductively
to discover the rules based on their existing language knowledge. There is
continuous repetition in the form of verbal drilling, written reinforcement
and reading activities. This includes activities such as reading out loud and/or
memorising certain passages such as verses, stories and dialogues; compre-
hension tests based on written passages; extended exercises in pronunciation;
phonetic writing and reading followed up by written and oral exercises. There
is a strong emphasis on variation in presentation methods. Methods should
be varied to retain the learners’ interest.

Do you have any criticisms of the direct method? Think about the appropri-
ateness of factors such as the foreign language as a medium of teaching; the
initial lack of formal grammar; the demands made on teachers; the use of
pictures and illustrations and so forth. How does this method compare with
the communicative approach as discussed in section 3.6?

3.4 THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD, BEHAVIOURISTIC OR LISTEN-SPEAK

APPROACH
These methods, which all have the same basis, originated in a period when
behaviourism was a strong focus of psychology. The familiar stimulus-response
exercises are used on a large scale and amplified. Drilling (in the classroom or
in the language laboratory) therefore forms an important component of this
approach. This method is characterised by the presentation of a dialogue from
which certain sentence structures are selected in context and then drilled into
the learners. There are no grammatical explanations and use of the learners’
home language is minimal. This method also utilises roleplay, memorisation
and replacement exercises. Correct pronunciation is emphasised. Simulation
and memorisation of structures play an important role.
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The audio-lingual approach is also known as the listen-speak approach; it is

the general name used for the linguistic approach to language teaching that
emphasises listening (with understanding) and speaking as activities that need
to be acquired before reading (with understanding) and writing are acquired.
Nothing, in terms of this approach, should be read before it is heard and spoken
and nothing is written until it is read (Brown 1994:71).

Linguists who adopt this approach believe that language is a set of habits and
that learners can adopt a language by repeating, memorising and generalising
language structures (Kilfoil & Van der Walt 2009:32). This method is still often
used today and also in language laboratories. The goal is communication and
mastery of the structural framework (word order), but the teacher is the person
who provides the input while learners become passive imitators.

To learn more about the audio-lingual method, please watch the following
online video clip for a demonstration of the audio-lingual method:

‘Audiolingual Method’ by Seval Cebici at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqd7OdJoLn0.

Do you have any criticisms of this approach? Think back to your school days.
Can you remember if your teachers ever used any aspect of the audio-lingual
approach in their teaching?

The audio-lingual approach is still used far more frequently today than people
think, for example via the internet. Teachers may use some of these principles
in the classroom; they should however not use this approach exclusively, be-
cause it does not promote authentic communication.

Behaviourism (on which the audio-lingual approach was based) was criticised
quite extensively, because it was felt that people could decide and think for
themselves and that a person’s learning processes were influenced by feelings.
A person does not just learn through conditioning and by learning habits.
Another factor that caused people to re-think the whole language teaching
situation was multilingualism: “When the demand for multilingualism arose,
language teaching changed. Learner-centred classrooms, in which learners
interact with their peers and facilitator, have become essential, especially in
big classes’’ (Wessels & Van den Berg 1998:73). Current teaching approaches
place great emphasis on communication in the classroom and are based on
the communicative approach (see section 3.6) to language instruction.

3.5 THE TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR)

This method was developed by James Asher and is particularly important
for IP teachers to take note of. This approach requires learners to respond by
using their bodies. They need to perform a physical action to reinforce what is
taught. The main idea behind this approach is that the more frequently some-
thing is repeated, the more easily it is remembered. Imperatives or commands
form the greatest part of the input learners get from their home language and
imperatives are therefore also used to learn another language. In this way, the
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L E A R N I N G U N I T 3: A d d i t i o n a l l a n g u a g e t e a c h i n g a p p r o a c h e s

learner acquires the target language more or less in the same way as the home
language (Kilfoil & Van der Walt 1997:25).

The facilitator utters an instruction, carries it out (or gets a model to do it) and
the learners react by doing the same. At a later stage when the learners are
ready to speak, they give the instructions to their peers and/or the facilitator.

The teacher uses only the target language and actions to show the learners
what to do. At the beginning, the learners are not supposed to speak, they
only react through actions. In this way, comprehension comes before speak-
ing. The learners speak for the first time when giving one another instructions
(Van der Walt, Evans & Kilfoil, 2009:25).

View the following video clip for a demonstration of this approach:

‘Total Physical Response, Foreign Language Demonstration’ by Proliteracy

at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6De52Pzr8c.

Do you think that the TPR approach can be used successfully? Which age group
would benefit most from this approach? How does this approach compare
with the communicative approach?

This approach is the ideal place to start teaching a second additional language
to a class comprising learners with different home languages. The teacher can
easily demonstrate something without having to refer to a specific home lan-
guage. This method is particularly suitable for young learners who are being
introduced to a language for the first time, because it includes a lot of activities
and uses simple instructions.

3.6 COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT)

In the 1970s constructivist principles to learning in particular started to influ-
ence language teaching and this gave rise to the communicative approach
to language learning. Constructivism proposes that people should be active
learners and develop knowledge for themselves (in other words, they construct
their own meaning). It further proposes that the acquisition and refinement of
skills and knowledge take place through interaction between persons and situ-
ations. Constructivism discards conditioning theories that emphasise the role
of the environment in a person’s learning and information processing theories
that place the locus of learning in the mind of the learner and disregard the
context in which learning occurs. Like social-cognitive theory, constructiv-
ism is based on the assumption that persons, behaviours and environments
interact in reciprocal fashion (Schunk 2012:231). Constructivist views about
learning and a shift of focus from the teacher to the learner and from teaching
to learning, all gave rise to a communicative approach to learning. In addition,
the recognition of the crucial role that learners play in their own learning can
clearly be seen in language teaching methodologies that evolved since the 70s
of the previous century and which gave rise to the communicative approach
to language teaching, which is briefly discussed below.
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Wesche (2010:276–277) explains the rationale behind the development

of communicative approaches to language teaching as follows:

When learners are involved in communication, their motivation to

understand and express meaning is high; furthermore, such interaction
 J   ;   Z *    
information at the very moment when the learner is attentive to lan-
guage form or meaning and aware of a knowledge gap. The large body
of research on input and interaction has provided empirical support for
teaching language through communication as well as information on
optimal conditions regarding the kind of language exposure needed to
support L2 acquisition.

The need for effective communication in a second language has led to

a communicative approach which was not a rigidly defined method, but rather
a broad approach which stressed the need to teach communicative competence
rather than linguistic competence. The communicative approach thus starts
from the theory that the primary function of language is to communicate;
and communicative competence is the goal of communicative language
teaching (CLT).

Despite the lack of specific methods and techniques and a prescriptive way
of implementing CLT, there are certain features that teaching activities have
to adhere to in order to be labelled CLT (Brandl 2008:7):

• Activities that facilitate regular interaction among learners to solve problems

and exchange information
• Use of authentic (= as they appear in everyday life situations) texts
and communicative activities, often emphasising links between written
and spoken language (as it happens in real-world situations)
• Learner-centred teaching that takes into account learners’ backgrounds,
language needs and goals; and normally allows learners some creativity
and a role in instructional decisions

Two communicative teaching approaches that are similar but have a different
emphasis are often distinguished. These are the text-based approach and the
task-based approach.

In the text-based approach, language is always understood as a text. Richards

(2019) explains the approach as follows:

... texts are chosen as the framework for teaching. “Text” here is used
in a special sense to refer to structured sequences of language that are
    @   %  +`   @ ‚Z 
approach, learners in different contexts have to master the use of the
@     ƒ    @ +  @ 
might include, studying in an English medium university, studying in an
English medium primary or secondary school, working in a restaurant,
%*  ;%*  ;  †% Z 
in a housing complex. It is based on an approach to teaching language
which involves:
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L E A R N I N G U N I T 3: A d d i t i o n a l l a n g u a g e t e a c h i n g a p p r o a c h e s

• Teaching explicitly about the structures and grammatical features of spoken

and written texts
• Linking spoken and written texts to the cultural context of their use
• Designing units of work which focus on developing skills in relation to
whole texts
• Providing students with guided practice as they develop language skills for
meaningful communication through whole texts.

In task-based teaching, the focus of the teaching is on tasks rather than texts.
Learners are involved in interactive tasks in the classroom, which often involve
real-life activities or simulations of real-life activities. Language is taught through
the communication that ensues from these tasks. Richards (2005) provides the
following examples of tasks:

• Listing tasks: learners listen to the teacher who reads a list of things and
then have to make lists of the things they will take with them when going
on a beach holiday.
• Sorting and ordering: working in groups, learners list the characteristics of
an ideal holiday and then arrange them in order of importance.
• Comparing: learners compare the advertisements of different supermarkets.
• Problem-solving: learners read a letter in a magazine of someone asking
advice and then suggest solutions to the problem of the person who has
written the letter.
• Sharing personal experiences: learners share their reactions to an ethical
problem (e.g. cheating in tests or examinations).
• Creative tasks: the learners prepare plans for redecorating a house.

Consult the following online reference for more information on the commu-
nicative approach:

Richards, J.C., 2005. Communicative language teaching today. https://

www.professorjackrichards.com/wp-content/uploads/communicative-
language-teaching-today-v2.pdf (accessed 19 February 2019).

In practice, you will find that the communicative approach to language teach-
ing is more challenging than any other approach. The outcomes achieved are,
however, significantly better. This approach requires that you plan thoroughly
and continuously monitor the learners’ progress. The communicative approach
does not mean that you do not teach language structures. Rather, it means
that language structures may not be taught in isolation; they must be taught
in context and there must be a balance between teaching structures and func-
tions. There must be a balance between being fluent and speaking correctly.

One of the problems of the communicative approach is that the learners

progress to a point where they can understand one another but they still
struggle to understand a home language speaker. A key task for the teacher
is to find creative and exciting ways to get the learners to communicate with
home language speakers. It should not be a problem in South Africa to find
home language speakers who are willing to speak to learners on a regular and
informal basis (once a week or twice a month). You should try to convince
the learners that one of the prerequisites for taking the language is that they
have to find a friend or mentor who speaks the language as a home language
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speaker. Give the learners at least one task per month that requires them to
spend time with the home language speaker. You could also encourage them
to make e-mail or whatsapp friends with speakers of the additional language.

3.7 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

In this learning unit we have discussed a number of additional language
approaches that have developed over the years. We are of the opinion that
they could all be used in some way in the additional language classroom as
long as they work and the learners learn to communicate in English as an
additional language.

At the beginning of the learning unit we have mentioned a few learning

objectives. By now you must have achieved them. Answer the following
questions without referring back to the content of the learning unit to make
sure that you are on track. If you must go back more than twice, we suggest
that you work through the learning unit again.

• How would you adapt the language approaches discussed in this learning
unit in your additional language classroom?
• Choose any aspect or any language topic in CAPS and explain how you
will go about to teach it by means of the TPR method?
• What is the core of the communicative approach?
• Do you think Grade 4 to 6 learners are ready for the communicative
approach? Justify your answer.

3.8 CONCLUSION
Additional language teaching approaches will keep on evolving over time
since there is not one best method that suits all learners and all contexts. The
approach or method used is, however, not important as such. What is important
is the communicative functions that the method or approach could bring about.

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LEARNING UNIT
4 4

Language teaching principles

4

WEEK 5–6

To have another language is to possess a second soul

Charlemagne

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• discuss the principles that underlie effective additional language teaching

• explain how you will apply these principles when teaching an additional language
• evaluate the principles and decide which ones you regard as more important
than the others

You should spend at least two weeks studying this learning unit.

4.1 INTRODUCTION
There are a number of principles that underlie all language teaching whether
it be home language or additional language teaching. It is important for you to
take note of these principles since you will have to keep them in mind when
teaching English FAL.

4.2 PRINCIPLE 1: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING MUST

BE INTEGRATED
Language skills are often divided into four sections, as indicated in figure 4.1.
Although this model is oversimplified, you must remember that language
skills cannot be divided into four watertight compartments. It is, however, a
good starting point for a discussion about the integrated approach to language
teaching.

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LANGUAGE SKILLS/MODALITIES

Oral Written

Receptive Receptive

Listening Reading

Thinking

Speaking Writing

Productive Productive

FIGURE 4.1
An analysis of the four language skills/modalities

If you study figure 4.1 thoroughly, you will notice that there is a vertical and
horizontal division. The receptive skills are found in the top two quadrants and
they are responsible for receiving the message (input), that is, understanding
(decoding) the communication. The skills that are required to produce (output)
or convey the message are found in the bottom two quadrants; that is, below
the horizontal line.

The oral skills that comprise two aspects, namely, listening and speaking are
on the left-hand side of the vertical line. Listening is receptive and is also
a part of oral (verbal) communication. Right of the vertical line are reading
and writing; both are written skills. Reading is thus receptive and requires
written communication, while writing is written and productive in nature.

Language teaching (both home language and additional languages) should,

therefore, be based on the principle of integrated language teaching. Integrated
language teaching implies that the four language skills are taught in an integrated
way. There are three reasons for integration. The first reason is that integration
suits the way the brain takes in new information; the brain likes to connect
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LEARNING UNIT 4: Language teaching principles

things. The second reason is that integration reflects the interconnectedness

of things and organisms in the world. The third reason is that the integration
of subjects creates natural opportunities for revising concepts and vocabulary.
Integrated teaching works as follows: When teaching reading, one might start
by reading a short text (a story) and then ask a few questions about it (name
the characters in the story; express feelings about the story) to enhance the
learners’ listening comprehension. Thereafter, you would let the learners read
the story themselves by giving each learner a change to read a paragraph
and do comprehension exercises based on the text, such as discussing new
vocabulary from the read text or by asking them to retell the story in the right
sequence. Written work would entail asking learners to write sentences to
express their feelings about the story and to use punctuation correctly in their
sentences. The same text could be used to teach language structures and
conventions (spelling, punctuation or tenses) that appear in the text.

4.3 PRINCIPLE 2: LANGUAGE TEACHING MUST BE COMMUNICATIVE

A communicative approach suggests that when learning a language, a learner
should have a great deal of exposure to the language and many opportunities
to practice or produce the language by communicating for social and practical
purposes. Language learning should be a natural, informal process carried over
into the classroom where the literacy skills of reading/viewing and writing/
presenting are learned in a ‘natural’ way; in other words, the learners learn
to read by doing a great deal of reading and learn to write by doing a great
deal of writing (CAPS 2011:13).

There is really no such thing as a single communicative method; rather various

techniques are combined in different ways to form different combinations and
each combination can be used to facilitate a communicative approach. Any
method can thus be applied as part of a communicative approach.

The communicative approach has the following characteristics:

• Communication: This is the nucleus. A desire to use the language is the

most important incentive to learn language structures and vocabulary.
You ought to try to create situations in which the learners are motivated
to communicate with one another, with the teacher and eventually with the
wider community. You must create communication situations in the class so
that the learners get the opportunity to really communicate and exchange
information. Try to create real, true-to-life situations through roleplay, for
example group work that is essential; and learner-learner interaction must
be emphasised rather than teacher-learner interaction. The learners must
be given as many opportunities as possible to speak, write and read the
language. The teachers must therefore speak less. Those situations where
the teacher speaks and then expects the learners to repeat after him or her
should not be seen as opportunities for the learners to speak.
• Language and context: language should always be seen in context; that is,
in conjunction with the aim, audience and circumstances.
• Classroom activities: Classroom activities should be learner-centred,
interactive and meaningful to the learners. This is best achieved by working
in pairs or groups. Learners are motivated when they feel that that what
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they are learning has utility value and that it will be useful in their social
and/or professional lives. Learners are thus taught grammar and vocabulary
that is relevant to their everyday lives.
• Resources: The most important requirement for the language material that is
used during the communicative approach to language teaching is that it must
bring about authentic, real and credible language utterances. The learners’
tasks must resemble, as far as possible, the real communication situations
outside the classroom that learners are confronted with. It is also essential
that the language material used falls within the learners’ fields of interest.
• The teacher: The teacher’s role is to organise and facilitate communication
between the learners or between learners and the study material, rather
than to do all the talking. The teacher is, most definitely, not the focus of the
language teaching situation – the learner should be central. The teachers
must concentrate on the learners’ needs; they must also find the most
appropriate way of helping them to communicate in the target language.
The teacher must facilitate; that is, to make things easier for the learners. By
planning suitable activities and situations, the teacher facilitates the learners’
exposure to and communication in the additional language. The teacher
thus brings together the learners and the language in the communicative
situation. The teacher must always ask the following question: “If I were in
the class, would I have enjoyed this form of additional language teaching?’’
• The target language: teachers should create a climate in which learners can
use the target language with purpose, interest and enjoyment. All possible
attempts should be made to create a carefree environment with a low
level of fear, since stress, ridicule and embarrassment can cause “speaking
anxiety” which will inhibit learning. It is totally natural to make mistakes
when mastering a language (just think of all the mistakes a young child
makes when he or she is learning his or her home language). Try not to
rectify each mistake a learner makes since this will undermine his or her
self-confidence. The learners may use their home language to facilitate
activities; find the meaning of a single word or understand a phenomenon.
• Experimenting: teachers should encourage learners to experiment with the
language.
• Another approach to assessment: assessment should focus more on
effective communication than on memorised content of the language itself.
Teachers should evaluate how effectively learners can use their knowledge
and understanding of the language to create meaning. This means that
teachers should place less emphasis on grammatical correctness and more
emphasis on successful communication.
• Methods: Teachers should at all times be aware of and respond to learners’
individual needs, abilities and interests. No specific method can be prescribed
in the communicative approach. A variety of methods and techniques
should be integrated to achieve the greatest success. Resources are used
extensively and the learners participate in roleplay, group work and language
games. You could make use of the following resources in your lessons:
magazines, pictures, newspapers, weather reports, television programmes,
hand puppets, music instruments, overhead projectors, CDs, DVDs, internet
and so forth. Listening activities are very important. The learners should,
for example, be able to repeat a story (event) after they have listened to a
reading or recording of it. Although drilling should not be totally ignored,
it is no longer an essential activity during teaching. Dialogues, replacement
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LEARNING UNIT 4: Language teaching principles

tables, in other words exercises and the close technique may be used, but
with discretion. A dialogue may be learned, adapted and developed in an
unstructured speaking lesson. Remember, that learning a dialogue and the
associated language structure is not communication.

4.4 PRINCIPLE 3: LEARNERS NEED SCAFFOLDING

Scaffolding gives learners an easy and successful entry into the attainment of
a new skill. The teacher initially gives support but then gradually withdraws it
until the learners can manage without help (Wessels, 2013:4). Wessels (2013:4)
refers to Van Lier (1996) when providing the following explanation of scaffolding
in the language classroom:

Firstly, there is continuity when activities are repeated with a variety of

   +‡@ ;     J     J 
over again in many different texts. Secondly, learners receive support
when they work in a safe, but possibly challenging situation where they
may make mistakes. Thirdly,      interaction makes young
children attentive.

Learners often do not have the necessary linguistic tools needed to get their
message across, with the result that the people they converse with must provide
crucial bits of language to get the conversation going. More proficient speakers
will provide assistance in the form of scaffolds that the learner can use. The
following is an example of how a teacher (or native speaker) can provide the
necessary scaffolding to the learner (or the non-native speaker):

Non-native speaker: See!

Native speaker: Look? Look at what?
Non-native speaker (pointing): There.
Native speaker: Oh, I see. It is a spider.
Non-native speaker: Spider.
Native speaker: Yes, it is a spider. And if it bites you it will
sting.

From the above example it is evident that the native speaker fills in what the
non-native speaker cannot do. The non-native speaker is basically speaking
in one-word sentences, and the native speaker is using complete sentences to
provide linguistic information and keep the conversation going.

In a teaching situation, the teacher will initially do most of the work. Thereafter,
the teacher and the learners share responsibility. The teacher will monitor
the learners’ progress and as they become more competent, the teacher will
gradually withdraw the scaffolding.

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4.5 PRINCIPLE 4: LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES IN THE CLASSROOM ARE

BASED ON ACTUAL EVERYDAY SITUATIONS
Because language is always used in a specific situation in real life, classroom
activities ought to imitate real, true-to-life and everyday communication
situations. This means that the language exercise or language activity is placed
in an imaginary true-to-life communication situation (roleplay and simulation
are examples of how this is done) and the learner is then expected to respond
to it by using language. In this way, learners are taught to deal with situations
from real life.

Thus, teachers are required to create opportunities for genuine interaction in

which the learners participate. They do not just sit and listen to the teacher.
We quote from Byrne to explain this concept. She (Byrne, 1988:10) uses the
following headings in her discussion of true-to-life teaching:

• Bring the outside world to the classroom.

• Simulate the outside world in the classroom.
• Escape in imagination from the classroom into the real world.
• Get out of the classroom into the outside world.

Additional language teaching does not focus primarily on the structure of the
language, but rather on what can be done with the language: communicating,
conveying meaning and conversing with people. Language functions such as
arguing, making a promise, convincing someone, congratulating or welcoming
someone or giving directions are emphasised.

4.6 PRINCIPLE 5: LANGUAGE TEACHING IS LEARNER-CENTRED

The communicative approach is essentially learner-centred. The aim is to
motivate learners to learn the target language by building on and expanding
their knowledge and experiences. It is thus necessary for the teacher to know
precisely what each learner’s existing language ability is. The learners must be
actively involved and must be given the opportunity to use the target language
in simulated situations that are based on real life scenarios (going to a doctor,
phoning a friend, recording a voice message on a cell phone, etc.)

4.7 PRINCIPLE 6: REPETITION, REPETITION, REPETITION

Diane Larsen-Freeman (2012:195) who is a well-known scholar in second
language teaching, writes as follows: “‘Repeat after me’ is a familiar language
teacher command. Despite the fact that behaviorism has been largely discredited
as a language learning theory, this refrain endures.” She continues by saying
that, “Certainly, as a language learner I can vouch for a desire to hear my
teacher say something again and again so that I can somehow capture what I
am hearing and hold onto it for a little while. The obvious answer, therefore, is
that repeating something that a teacher has said is an aid to working memory.”

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LEARNING UNIT 4: Language teaching principles

When learning a second language repetition is important, but it should be

“mindful repetition”. Weiler (2018) (https://www.strategiesinlanguagelearn-
ing.com/repetition-in-language-learning/) explains the use of repetition as
follows:

When you are actively engaged in repetition and attentive to your

  ;      %   % 
the results you have achieved. This kind of mindful engaged practice
is what we need to aim towards if we are to maximise our chances of
learning. And we need to turn away from what we can call mindless
repetition. A recent study at the University of Maryland in the US on
babies found that “It’s not necessarily helpful, for example, to just repeat
the word “ball” over and over again, ….. Instead, it is more effective for
a mother to repeat the word in different kinds of sentences so the child
can get used to hearing the word in different contexts.”

To do mindful repetition implies that the learners must be attentive; think about
what they repeat; try to make connections to what is already known and to
think where they can use the word or sentence construction in new situations.

One should also make a distinction between ‘massed repetition’ and ‘spaced
repetition’. With massed repetition a word or sentence construction is repeated
many times by the teacher and learners in a short period of time, such as one
language lesson. This kind of repetition usually assists with comprehension.
Learners will, however, not necessarily remember the word and use it in
future communication (speaking and writing). Spaced repetition is when new
vocabulary or a new sentence construction is repeated by the teacher and
the learners over a longer period of time, such as over a week or two. Spaced
repetition supports acquisition. On a Blog titled “Beyond Language Learning”
(https://beyondlanguagelearning.com/2018/12/24/how-meaningful-repetition-
of-language-supports-comprehension-and-acquisition/?subscribe=success#bl
og_subscription-3) the following is said about the difference between massed
repetition and spaced repetition:

The massed repetition within classes is not necessarily going to directly

lead to acquisition, rather, it’s there to support comprehension. And
better comprehension leads to more acquisition.

Some things may “click” and be picked up almost immediately, but

acquisition of words and structures mainly happens over time through
encountering them in different contexts.

If you search “Beyond Language Learning” on the internet, you will be able to
type in your email address and become a follower. You will get notifications
of useful language-teaching articles.

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No additional language teaching can be done without meaningful and mindful

repetition. Repetition assists with transferring a skill from the conscious to the
subconscious. Through repetition a skill is practiced and rehearsed again and
again over a period of time and becomes easier as a result. As the learners
progress, they do not need to think consciously about a word or sentence
construction, they use it automatically.

4.8 PRINCIPLE 7: DIFFERENTIATION

Every child is unique, just as you and us: your lecturers. Every child brings his
or her experiences, vocabulary and language ability along to the classroom.
Precisely because of their uniqueness, these aspects differ from one learner to
another. Thus, the idea that all learners should do precisely the same exercises
is not valid. Tasks which the learners have to perform should be differentiated
according to their developmental level and degree of readiness for certain
activities.

4.9 PRINCIPLE 8: AUTHENTIC RESOURCE MATERIAL AND TECHNOLOGY

This aspect is closely related to the basing of classroom situations on everyday
real communication situations, because source material and technology form
part of everyday life. It is essential to use contemporary and updated reading,
listening and viewing material. Newspapers, magazines and numerous other
types of general language material such as brochures, advertisements, notices,
maps and graphs, radio and television broadcasts, the internet and so forth,
should be used.

In real life, people are often expected to fill in forms; write an accident report
or write short memoranda to their bosses or colleagues. Alternatively, people
tend to leave personal messages on their voicemail or those of others and use
social media to communicate. These are examples of the types of skills that
ought to be practised in the classroom with the aid of source material and
technology. Although textbooks include all these types of material, they are
second-hand experiences of the authentic material. You should thus try to let
learners experience real newspapers, recipes, brochures and so forth.

4.10 PRINCIPLE 9: PROGRESSION FROM YEAR TO YEAR

Language teachers cannot expect learners to perform the same activities
year after year. They must make provision for essential progression in the
development and degree of difficulty of a specific area of knowledge or language
skill; that is, progression within a specific grade as well as from one grade to
the next. To meet the latter requirement, teachers should thoroughly coordinate
and plan the teaching programmes of the various grades according to CAPS.

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4.11 PRINCIPLE 10: COOPERATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING FORMS THE

BASIS FOR INPUT, INTERACTION AND OUTPUT
The communicative approach is largely based on group work and requires
of learners to work together effectively with other learners in a team, group,
organisation or community. Moreover, active learner participation is regarded
as a crucial part of the learning process and there is a need to move away from
rote learning. Group work, roleplay, games, brainstorming, problem-solving in
groups and project work are thus indispensable to teaching languages because
it creates a platform for language input, interaction and output. When learners
work together in a group to achieve a common goal, namely to practice all
four skills, it is called cooperative learning.

When learners are given the opportunity to work in smaller groups ( between
3 and 7 learners per group) they are able to participate and become actively
involved in the learning event. A learner in a big group might only get one op-
portunity to express an opinion during a lesson, but a learner in a small group
is encouraged to contribute more frequently. Learners support one another
during group work by interacting meaningfully and sharing in decision-making
and responsibility for the end product. It also creates a need to communicate.

7 Ac tivit y 4
(1) Look at the following picture (adapted from Lätti & Gouws 1992).
Decide which one of the lessons is communicative by nature. Give
reasons for your answer.

(2) What other language teaching principles could be identified from

the lesson which could be classified as communicative.

Situation 1: Situation 2:

FIGURE 2.1
Two different approaches to language teaching

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4.12 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

I hope you now have a good idea of the principles that underlie your teaching
of English as a first additional language.

Now, go back to the learning outcomes stated at the beginning of this learn-
ing unit. Have you achieved them? Test yourself by answering the following
questions. Try to answer the questions without referring back to the notes. If
you need to go back more than twice, I suggest that you work through the
learning unit again.

• Identify the five language teaching principles you regard as the most
important.
• Explain why you regard each of these principles as important for teaching
English FAL.
• Explain how you will accommodate each of the ten principles discussed
in this learning unit when teaching English FAL.

4.13 CONCLUSION
Even at its very best, communication in the classroom is a mere shadow
of communication in the real world. Nevertheless, it prepares learners for
the types of situations and circumstances they may come across outside the
classroom. Because the communicative approach recognises the good points
in other methods; uses them and is a combination of other approaches, it of-
fers teachers and learners infinite possibilities.

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LEARNING UNIT
5 5

The listening skill

5

WEEK 7–8

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it

takes to sit down and listen
Winston Churchill

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• explain the content, skills and strategies for listening and speaking in FAL
Intermediate Phase in terms of CAPS
• discuss the listening process
• teach learners to become attentive listeners who can listen with comprehension
• describe the role of the short and long-term memory in teaching listening
• discuss the importance of active listening

It will take you approximately two weeks to achieve these objectives.

5.1 INTRODUCTION
In learning unit 5 and 6 we turn our attention to listening instruction before we
focus on the teaching of speaking skills. Listening and speaking in additional
language teaching in the IP takes up two hours per two-week cycle.

You need to keep in mind that although listening can be taught in isolation by
letting learners do a listening test; listening in real life is seldom separated from
speaking or writing. Although we discuss listening and speaking in different
learning units, the two skills must be integrated when teaching. One cannot
listen if someone else is not talking and one mostly respond verbally when
listening to someone. You therefore have to develop opportunities in class
where learners will be actively involved by interacting and communicating
(listening to and speaking with one another and the teacher) by using the target
language to communicate.

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8 Ac tivit y 5a
Before we continue, we would like you to write brief notes about each of
the following points:

(1) What memories do you have of learning your first or second additional
language? Which of the four skills or modalities (listening, reading,
speaking and writing) did you learn first?

(2) Did you follow a pattern in learning the four language skills (listening,
reading, speaking and writing)?

(3) Do you sometimes find it difficult to follow when someone speaks

to you in a language that is not your home language?

(4) Which language skills are easier for you in your additional language?

(5) Were you taught to listen properly when you were at school?

(6) Are you a good listener? Substantiate your answer.

(7) How does listening to a speaker of your additional language differ

from listening to someone speaking in your first language?

(8) What challenges do you encounter when having to listen to an

additional language speaker?

Listening is usually the first activity in which a child engages and it provides
a veritable foundation when forming the speech habit of a child in later life.
Hugo (2016) states in this regard that literacy starts with listening and speaking.
The ability to listen is also the learning foundation for the development of all
the other language skills (speaking, reading and writing). When an additional
language is learned, listening and speaking are usually taught first followed
by reading and writing. Learners should first of all be taught to listen to and
understand the additional language (English) and then to express themselves,
in other words, speak English (Renukadevi 2014).

We listen to a wide variety of things, for example, what people say during
a conversation; advertisements and announcements; giving information; the
weather forecast on the TV; a play on the radio; music; how to use a cell phone;
directions to a particular place and so forth. Although listening in one’s home
language is easy and often done without much effort, it is not the same for an
additional language. Learners find it difficult to distinguish sounds; put them
together in words; grasp the meaning of the words; string them together to
form a sentence and to comprehend what the speaker is trying to say. Learning
is also very closely related to the ability to listen well. Young learners often
spend many hours passively watching bright images on a television screen
which requires little effort since no specific task is set. They therefore need
to be taught how to listen purposefully. You will have to plan activities which
require active participation on the learners’ part. Listening is a mental process
calling for thought and reaction. It is the process of hearing, recognising and

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L E A R N I N G U N I T 5: T h e l i s te n i n g s k i l l

interpreting or comprehending the spoken language. It is an activity of the

mind and not the ear. Listeners must make an effort to understand what they
hear. Listening is thus more than just hearing.

Look at your answer to question eight above. Do you also find that when
listening to a second language speaker, you struggle to understand if the speaker
uses words or phrases that you do not know? Do you find it difficult to follow
if the person talks fast? Furthermore, do you have a problem to understand
pronunciation of words if the speaker speaks with a foreign accent. Our
learners probably experience the same problems with listening in an additional
language and you will therefore need to focus on that. You must therefore
focus on developing your learners’ listening skills and focus on aspects such
as accent, speed, tone and so forth in your EFAL class.

It is imperative to actively teach listening and speaking because they are

very important for communication. Renukadevi (2014) says that the basis
for communicative competence is listening since it helps the learners to interact
in spoken communication; therefore, additional language learning largely
depends on listening.

5.2 WHAT DOES LISTENING ENTAIL?

We are not born with the ability to speak, read or write, only to hear. Listen is,
however, not the same as hearing. One can, for example, be aware of a sound
in the background. One can perhaps hear the radio play without listening to
what is being said. When people hear their eardrums are vibrating because
of sound waves. Listening, on the other hand, is an active cognitive process.
Listening is receiving the sound waves, paying attention to them, translating
them cognitively and giving meaning to them. The message that is formed in
this way is then internally interpreted by relating it to information that has been
acquired during previous experiences. The message is then stored for retrieval
at a later stage, if necessary. Whereas hearing is just a physical activity where
sound is taken in through the ears; listening includes a cognitive process.
Listening is a skill that needs to be developed, just like all the other skills.

Listening occurs in five stages, as discussed below (Tyagi 2013). Although

hearing might be a passive process, listening is an active process. You will come
across the listening process in TMN3702 as well, but for your convenience,
we are briefly repeating it here:

Stage 1 – HEARING: It is referred to the response caused by sound waves

stimulating the sensory receptors of the ear; it is physical response. Hearing
is the perception of sound waves; one must hear to listen, but one does not
need not listen to hear.

Stage 2 – UNDERSTANDING: This step helps to understand symbols we

have seen and heard, we must analyse the meaning of the stimuli we have
perceived; symbolic stimuli are not only words but also sounds like applause
and sights like a blue uniform. The meanings attached to these symbols are a
function of our past associations and of the context in which the symbols occur.
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For successful interpersonal communication, the listener must understand the

intended meaning and the context assumed by the sender.

Stage 3 – REMEMBERING: Remembering is an important stage in the listening

process because it means that an individual has not only received and interpreted
a message but has also added it to the mind’s storage bank. When listening,
our attention is selective, and so is our memory– what is remembered may
be quite different from what was originally seen or heard.

Stage 4 – EVALUATING: Only active listeners participate in listening at this

stage. At this point the active listener weighs evidence; sorts fact from opinion
and determines the presence or absence of bias or prejudice in a message;
the effective listener makes sure that he or she does not begin this activity
too soon; beginning this stage of the process before a message is completed
requires that one no longer hear and attend to the incoming message, as a
result the listening process ceases.

Stage 5 – RESPONDING: This stage requires that the receiver complete the
process through verbal and/or nonverbal feedback; because the speaker has
no other way to determine if a message has been received. This stage becomes
the only overt means by which the sender may determine the degree of success
in transmitting the message.

For more information you may read this article: www.the-criterion.com/V4/

n1/Babita.pdf

5.3 THE ROLE OF THE SHORT AND LONG-TERM MEMORY IN LISTENING

IN AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE
As can be seen from the above explanation of the stages of listening, it is
a complex cognitive process that involves several mental activities. Turner
(1995:5) explains this process by linking it to the role that the short and long-
term memory play when listening. We:

• take in a ‘stream of sound’ and

• attempt to organise it into segments or chunks in the echoic memory —
that is, to divide the stream of sound into identifiable units of meaning. The
stress and intonation of the speaker usually help with this.
• hold on to the units of meaning in the short-term memory and make more
detailed inspection, seeing the relationship between units; rejecting what
seems redundant and holding on to what seems relevant.
• review what we hear in light of what we already know by referring to the
information we hold in the long-term memory.
• continue to take in more information through the ears
• store the meaning of what we have heard (not the actual words) in the
long-term memory if it seems appropriate.

The processes mentioned above take place simultaneously, not sequentially.

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The short-term memory (STM) has some shortcomings. It can only remember
approximately seven information items. It may be seven numbers that form
a telephone number; or it can be seven objects. The bigger the relationship
between the items, the more the STM can retain. The STM can, however,
retain these items only for a short period of time. To hold on to these items
for a longer period of time, one needs to practice by saying these items out
loud. For example, think how you react when someone gives you a telephone
number to remember and you do not have pen and paper or your cell phone
with you to write it down. One usually says the number out loud or repeats it
a few times. When listening to someone speaking in one’s additional language,
one, however cannot repeat new words out loud, since this activity will distract
one’s attention from the stream of information still being taken in through the
ears. The implication of this is that the teacher must always make sure that
new sounds or words are remembered and send to the long-term memory
before going further. This also implies that teachers should not speak too fast
when speaking in the additional language. Working memory is often used
as a synonym for short-term memory, but there are some researchers who
regard short-term memory and working memory as distinct. The latter regard
the working memory as a memory system that allows for the manipulation
of stored information, whereas short-term memory only refers to short-term
storage of information. We are of the opinion that it is not important to go too
deep into the distinction between short-term memory and working memory,
and therefore prefer to keep it simple, by referring to short-term memory. You
should, however, be aware that whether it is called short-term memory or
working memory, this form of memory definitely has an influence on successful
language (and particular listening) comprehension in an additional language.
Shansan & Tongshun (2007:48) explain this as follows:

From an information-processing point of view, comprehension is subject

to human memory capacity. In language comprehension, human working
memory performs two functions: storage of information for later retrieval,
and processing (Just & Carpenter 1987; 1992). One impressive study,
carried out by Ando et al (1992), investigates the role of a larger working
memory capacity in SLA. The result of the study shows that among
various cognitive and personality factors these children’s working
       ^$}Z  "   
           ^$}
(r = 60) after the instruction. Provided that working memory plays a
crucial role in EFL language comprehension, it may also be important
in EFL listening comprehension. According to Wu (1998), when task
demands are high, due to storage and processing needs, the computation
will slow down, and thus some partial results from working memory
processing may be forgotten. This may account for the fact that EFL
listeners often seem to be able to hear everything, but either forget
what they have heard easily or cannot process what they have heard
into meaning relationships. Accordingly, EFL listening comprehension
depends on the storage and processing of information by the mind.
 ;%* >"‡$  +

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The long-term memory (LTM) does not have the same shortcomings as the STM.
However, if one wants to retrieve information successfully from the LTM at a
later stage, the information should have initially been stored effectively in the
LTM. Effective storing in the LTM depends on how meaningful the information
for the person is and how well it has been integrated and connected with the
existing knowledge in the person’s LTM. Repetition usually helps with fixing
information in the LTM.

The flow between the STM and the LTM is reciprocal. In an effort to understand
what we hear we make use of what we already know (in other words of that
information already stored in the LTM).

So, what are the implications of the above for teaching listening in the IP? The
fact that learners have very little information in their LTM on which they can
rely, when they are at the beginning stages of learning an additional language,
emphasises the importance that teachers must ensure that learners get the
opportunity to listen to something (initially not too long–see the guidelines
in the CAPS for the length of listening texts) and then get the opportunity to
repeat the information; to say it out loud; write it down and ensure that the
information is transferred to the LTM. The more information in the LTM, the
easier the learner would be able to link the new information (vocabulary, etc.)
that he/she hears to what is already known in the LTM. Can you now see why
themes should be chosen from the learners’ everyday life world? It is because
concepts in their life world have already been fixed in their LTM in their mother
tongue or home language. The additional language teacher needs to build on
that which the learner already knows in his home language.

Listening is a very powerful teaching medium. If one thinks about what blind
people can do by merely relying on their listening skills, then one needs not
say anything further about the importance of teaching good listening skills. As
a receptive skill, it is a very important way in which a child learns an additional
language. Byrne (1988:26) says the following in this regard:

… let us agree that listening is a very important classroom activity

because students need to have a good receptive knowledge of a foreign
language. That is, they need to understand very much more than they
can produce (as in the mother tongue). … Only by giving the students a
broad and comfortable foundation in listening and reading can we give
     +

In additional language teaching where the teacher is often not a mother

tongue speaker of the additional language, it is in particularly important to
afford learners the opportunity to listen to mother tongue speakers so that they
can get used to the accent, speed and intonation with which mother tongue
speakers speak a language. Recordings play an important role in this regard.
The teacher should, however, remember that when switching on a recording,
one actually expects of the learners to do something that is very difficult and
which is also not natural – to listen to a speaker they cannot see. The listeners
cannot see the facial expressions, hand movements and body language that
usually help one to understand a spoken message.

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L E A R N I N G U N I T 5: T h e l i s te n i n g s k i l l

Regardless of how we are engaged with listening, it is important to understand

that listening involves more than just hearing the words that are directed at us.
Listening is an active process by which we make sense of, assess and respond
to what we hear. It is a focused, voluntary and purposeful act which requires
motivation and effort. It is active and requires concentrated attention for the
purpose of understanding meaning expressed by the speaker.

5.4 WHAT CAPS SAYS ABOUT LISTENING AND SPEAKING

Before we turn to listening teaching methodology, you first need to familiarise
yourself with what the CAPS prescribes for listening and speaking, because
you will have to teach your learners in terms of the stipulations set out in the
CAPS. It is therefore important to first of all consult the CAPS for English First
Additional Language to see what it says about listening and speaking. If you
do not have a copy of the CAPS yet, you must download it from the following
website:

https://www.education.gov.za/Curriculum/CurriculumAssessmentPolicyState
ments(CAPS)/CAPSIntermediate.aspx).

9 Ac tivit y 5b
Read the part on listening and speaking in section 2.1.2 in the CAPS English
First Additional Language and also section 3.1 since it pertains to listening
and speaking. Thereafter read section 3.2 on the spread of texts across
grades 4–6.

The first guidance provided by the CAPS document on listening and speaking
skills are to remind us that listening and speaking are central to learning in all
subjects. Learners collect and synthesise information; construct knowledge;
solve problems and express ideas and opinions through effective listening and
speaking. Critical listening skills help learners to recognise values and attitudes
embedded in texts and to challenge biased and manipulative language.

CAPS maintains that learners in the Intermediate Phase (IP) use listening and
speaking skills to interact, negotiate and attribute meaning. By building on
skills developed in the Foundation Phase, learners will carry on more sustained
conversations, discussions and short oral presentations. Learners also need a lot
of support in the form of vocabulary building and sentence frames to strengthen
their spoken language skills. In the IP listening and speaking skills need to be
scaffolded (see section 4.4) and you must ensure that you give the learners
activities that will afford them opportunities to listen and speak in English.
Listening should be based on the text types introduced in the Foundation Phase
(stories, personal accounts and instructions) and the text types prescribed for
the IP (factual recounts, different story genres, oral reports, etc).

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The content to be covered in listening and speaking includes listening com-

prehension, different forms of oral communication such as conversations,
directions and instructions, retelling of stories, storytelling, roleplay, group
discussions, short talks, short poems and rhymes and language games. Teach-
ing time includes daily practice of short listening and speaking activities. The
strategies and subskills related to speaking and listening involves:

(1) Listening comprehension and speaking which require learners

• making notes and lists; making summaries; retelling; describing; asking

clarifying questions and expressing opinions
• recalling specific detail; reflecting on values and messages; reflecting on
stereotyping and other biases; and describing and discussing characters, a
story line and setting

(2) Communication for social purposes

• initiating and sustaining conversations

• turn-taking conventions
• sharing ideas and experiences
• encouraging the use of the additional language

(3) Prepared and unprepared short talks

• researching
• organising material coherently
• choosing and developing main ideas and supporting ideas with examples
• correcting the format, vocabulary, language and conventions
• tone of voice, voice projection, pace, eye contact, posture and gestures
• effective introduction and conclusion
• incorporating appropriate visual, audio and/or audio-visual aids such as
charts, posters, drawings/ Incorporate appropriate visual, audio and/or
audio-visual aids such as charts, posters, drawings/ photographs, radio
cassette and so forth

The language skills (listening and speaking, reading and viewing, writing and
presenting and language structures and conventions) are distinguished in the
CAPS for practical purposes; however, the CAPS stipulates that they must
be taught as an integrated whole. Your responsibility is, therefore, to create
opportunities for interaction and language usages. This implies that the speaking
and listening activities that you choose should be based on the different texts
that have been used in the CAPS as a basis for each two-week teaching cycle.

The CAPS promotes the use of themes for each two-week cycle that learners
would find interesting (see section 3.3.1 and 3.3.3 in CAPS 2011:34). Working
with themes during a two-week cycle or for a longer period of time will help
you to link all the teaching and learning activities in a logical way and will also
ensure that everything you teach is done within context. If you, for example,
choose a theme such as “The environment”, vocabulary building will involve
words related to the environment (pollution, sustainable, recycle), the reading
text will be on air pollution or deforestation or climate change; and the listening
text will be a weather forecast on the radio or a radio talk on the use of plastic

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L E A R N I N G U N I T 5: T h e l i s te n i n g s k i l l

and the environment. Another example: Learners will listen to a story and then
read the story. After reading the story, reading must be integrated with writing
by, for example, asking them to write a summary of the story; or they might be
asked to write a letter to one of the characters in the story. Language structures
and conventions also need to be incorporated when teaching listening and
speaking in order to ensure that the learners become fluent in the language.
If you, for example, wish to teach the learners how to use prepositions, you
could read an advert to the learners and then ask them to write down all the
prepositions that they hear in the advert and construct sentences, using the
identified prepositions.

Based on the above explanation of what the CAPS says about listening and
speaking, the following are activities that can be performed in the classroom:

• Listening

Learners should be able to

 experience situations that will help them interpret non-verbal messages

 actively participate in experiences that will improve their listening skills
 listen; look at the speaker; wait their turn to speak and react to instructions
or requests and answer questions
 increase their vocabulary
 improve their auditory memory by trying to repeat what they have heard
 retell stories or give messages
 react to questions by answering what is asked.

• Speaking

Learners’ speech will improve as they practice. Learners should

 experiment with language sounds, rhythm, volume, pitch and words

 describe events or sequences of events
 ask clear questions and respond to the answers they receive
 describe what they see on posters or pictures and tell stories about them
 give messages to other persons
 participate in conversation with other children and adults
 take part in group discussions with other learners
 take part in creative dramatic activities, such as role-play and concerts

10 Ac tivit y 5c
(1) What are the advantages of using themes when teaching listening
and speaking?
(2) How would you integrate the teaching of listening with speaking and
writing?

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(3) Do you think listening can sometimes be taught as a separate activ-

ity? Give reasons for your answer.
(4) What listening and speaking activities would you let learners do in
your classroom?

5.5 LISTENING AS AN ACTIVE PROCESS

As indicated above, listening is an indispensable part of communication and
one of the pillars on which other language skills are built. When we refer to
listening skills, we mean the ability to interpret any aural input with specific
reference to meaningful sounds (communication) in any language that is
understood by us. The listening skill is used far more than any other language
skill. For instance, everywhere people engage in listening on a daily basis at
all times. They spend more of their time on listening to the television, radio,
their friends, their family members than on speaking, reading or writing.

Listening is a mental process calling for thought and reaction. It is the process of
hearing, recognising and interpreting or comprehending the spoken language.
Listening is seen as the process of focusing all attention on a source of sound
in order to hear and pick the information that the sound brings. Note that
listening is not a passive activity; learners have to be active participants. Effective
listening requires the application of considerable listening skills and practice. It
needs to be learned. According to Stewart (2005), listening requires ‘listening
with your heart’ or ‘listening between the lines’. Learners must make an effort
to understand what they hear.

In the preceding sections it has been said repeatedly that listening is the
cornerstone of oral communication but, although at school it is probably the
skill used most often, we cannot take it for granted that the learners know
HOW to listen. They need to be taught. It is thus worth noting that one cannot
just give a listening or speaking assignment and go ahead with assessment.
There must first be “instruction” or teaching before there can be assessment.
Learners must also know in advance exactly how to listen; what they should
listen for and what would be expected of them after the listening lesson. They
also need to know how many times they will be allowed to listen before they
will be given tasks to do.

All sounds convey meaning and affect our emotions in some way; so, the
learners need to be taught

• to listen when people speak, not only to get information but also to establish
a basis for sharing their concerns or trying to understand the way they view
events or situations
• to consider their own thinking process as they listen so that they can improve
their learning ability in all school subjects
• that meaningful listening is not a passive experience and listening well is
their responsibility. In life outside the classroom, listening and speaking
generally happen together as part of the communication process; so, we
must aim to improve a learner’s ability to understand the spoken word; that

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is, continuous speech of a (native) speaker at normal speed in unstructured

situations
• to select the relevant information and focus on key ideas. Effective listening
leads to improved communication
• that we do not only listen to communicate but that listening for aesthetic
reasons helps us to appreciate music, movies and other audio-visual material
and to interact with our spiritual environment. Whether you listen to early
morning bird song; a dramatic oral recital around the fire or the rhythmic beat
of a gumboot dance, you will listen best when what is being heard matters
to you. In other words, when you have a reason or purpose for listening.

5.6 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

In this learning unit we have emphasised that there is a difference between
hearing and listening and that listening is an active process. The listening pro-
cess and the important role that the short and long-term memory play when
listening in one’s additional language have been explained. What CAPS says
about listening and speaking was also discussed.

Now go back to the learning objectives stated at the beginning of this learn-
ing unit. Have you achieved them? Test yourself by answering the following
questions. Try to answer the questions without going back to the notes. If you
need to go back more than twice, I suggest that you work through the learn-
ing unit again.

• What is the difference between hearing and listening?

• Listening is the first skill that learners learn and most of us are born with
the ability to hear. Why then is it necessary to teach listening skills?
• What are the five stages of listening?
• Summarise the most important aspects of listening in an additional
language, as set out in the CAPS for English FAL.

5.7 CONCLUSION
Although most of us are born with the ability to hear, we need to learn how to
listen in an additional language to understand what we are hearing. Listening
is an active process that must be taught actively.

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LEARNING UNIT
6 6

Teaching listening in an additional

6

language

WEEK 9–10

I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me
anything. So, if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening.
Larry King

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• teach learners to become active learners who can listen with comprehension
• list pre-, while and post-listening activities
• discuss listening tasks that learners must be able to perform
• explain the assessment of listening in an additional language

It will take you two weeks to study this learning unit.

6.1 INTRODUCTION
Like all language skills, the teaching of listening involves a pre-, while and
post- stage. In this learning unit we will explain how listening should be taught
in an additional language.

6.2 THE PRESCRIBED LENGTH OF LISTENING TEXTS

Listening texts that first additional learners in the IP are exposed to should
not be too long. According to CAPS (2011:30), the length of texts that first
additional language learners must engage with is as follows:

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L E A R N I N G U N I T 6 : Te a c h i n g l i s te n i n g i n a n a d d i t i o n a l l a n g u a g e

Task Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6

Longer listening comprehension 100–150/up to 100–200/up to 150–250/up to

texts – story, interviews, plays 5 mins 5 mins 5 mins
and news reports

Shorter listening comprehension 40–60 words/ 50–70 words/ 60–80 words/

texts – announcements, 1–2 mins 1–2 mins 1–2 mins
information texts, instructions
and directions

Find suitable texts, read them and record yourself, so that you know whether
you are reading too fast or too slow.

6.3 THE PREPARE-PLAY-LISTEN-CONFIRM-REACT PATTERN

When teaching a home language and additional language, the steps to be fol-
lowed are more or less the same; although, for an additional language much
more emphasis must be placed on the pre-listening activity. This implies that
listening assignments (whether it is listening to stories, poems, weather forecasts
or recipes) must be designed according to a prepare-play-listen-confirm-react
pattern. In other words, learners are prepared for listening by explaining the
new vocabulary they will come across in the listening passage; telling them
what the passage is about; what they need to listen for; and what will be
expected of them afterwards; the text is played (or read) while the learners
listen; after listening, it must be confirmed that they understand what they
are listening to (the text must be read or played again, if necessary); and the
learners must then respond to the passage by performing certain activities such
as repeating what they have heard; retelling the story; identifying the main
message; relating the story to their own lives; discussing the social, moral and
cultural values in the text and so forth. Consult CAPS (2011) for the activities
that learners need to perform.

6.4 PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES (PREPARE)

You should always make a conscious effort to create the right listening atmos-
phere and prepare learners for active listening during the pre-listening phase.

It is necessary to contextualise the text the learners are going to listen to. This
means explaining who is talking (participants); where the conversation takes
place (setting) and what they are talking about (topic). Providing a simple
context will also help the learners know what to expect and which words
and grammatical structures to listen for. Exercises done in class should be
realistic and approximate the type of listening a learner is expected to do in
real life. New vocabulary or vocabulary related to the specific context need
to be clarified beforehand.

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Apart from preparing learners for the listening task and creating the right at-
mosphere for listening, the purpose of the pre-listening activities is further to
provide a context for the listening activity. Peachy (2011) explains this as follows:

When we listen in our everyday lives we hear language within its natural
environment, and that environment gives us a huge amount of informa-
tion about the linguistic content we are likely to hear. Listening to a
recording in a classroom is a very unnatural process. The text has been
taken from its original environment and we need to design tasks that
will help students to contextualise the listening and access their existing
knowledge and expectations to help them understand the text.

The learners should know beforehand that they will have to do something
with that which they have heard at the end of the listening activity. It is fur-
ther important to tell learners beforehand how many times they will be able
to listen to the text; the information they must take note of or whether or not
they may take notes.

The following are possible pre-listening activities:

• The teacher gives learners the title of the listening passage (story, poem,
newspaper article, etc) and asks them to predict the content of the text.
• Unfamiliar words that learners might encounter in the text are explained.
• The teacher explains to learners what the purpose of the listening activity
is (e.g. listen to identify the main characters, listen for the main message,
listen to identify rhyme and rhythm, listen carefully, because I would like
you to retell the story in your own words after you have listened, listen to
distinguish facts from allegations, listen if you can hear any bias in the story,
listen if you can hear who the main character is, listen if you can identify
if there is a first person or third person narrator, etc.)

Learners must be assisted to listen purposefully. There are many different types
of listening tasks – and that is why the teacher’s most important responsibility
is to determine a purpose for each listening assignment. Learners must know
what the listening assignment expects from them. If no purpose is formulated
for the listening task, how would you be able to determine afterwards whether
the learners have learned what they were supposed to learn?

Apart from listening to stories, poems, folklore and songs, learners must also
listen to dialogues between people. Listening to dialogues, news bulletins or
weather forecasts, requires that they must gradually learn to determine what
the speaker intends with his or her communication so that they know HOW
to listen.

In order to assist learners with this orientation and to activate their background
knowledge about the type of text they are going to listen to, you can explain
that they should approach a listening task with the following questions in mind:

• Why should I listen?

• What am I listening to? (a news bulletin, a recipe, a song, a weather forecast,
etc)
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• Why is this communication taking place? (to inform, to influence, to

persuade?)
• Why is something being said?
• What can I do with the information that I obtain?

Prior knowledge of a speaker and the topic has a great influence on the listener.
In order to let learners grasp this notion, you can discuss the above-mentioned
questions with them and then let them do the following two consecutive
exercises:

1. A listening exercise where they are told beforehand who the speaker is,
what he will be speaking about, what the purpose of the listening text is
and what they will need to do after listening to the text.
2. A listening exercise similar to the first one where they don’t get any prior
support. Let them answer questions after each listening session. Learners
can then discuss the different ways in which they have approached the
two different listening tasks.

6.5 WHILE LISTENING (PLAY-LISTEN)

Material should sometimes consist of authentic spoken texts and should not
always be in the form of written passages that are just read aloud. The content
and level should be digestible yet challenging. You can let the textbooks that
are used in your class guide you or select your own material. Spontaneous
speech is preferable since it forces the learner to focus on what is relevant
and to reject redundancy.

If you are to prepare your learners for coping in communicative situations

outside the classroom, you will have to expose them to a variety of listening
situations they are likely to encounter at their age. They will also have to know
how to respond appropriately to the kind of language they will most often
hear. Although you will need to speak a bit slower, try not to be tempted into
simplifying a text too much or speaking too slow and unnatural. Authentic
natural speech in an informal or formal context is best. Perhaps you could even
record some of the conversations and interaction that takes place in your own
classes. Radio and TV adverts, answering machine messages, rhymes/poems
or songs and so forth are suitable for the junior learner. Visual material may
assist comprehension and heighten motivation. It might be necessary to play
the listening text more than once.

The actual reading text should be short, lasting between one and two minutes
and up to five minutes (according to the guidelines specified in CAPS (2011:30).
Refer to section 6.2 above.

Only once learners have been orientated towards the actual listening that is going
to take place, can they listen to the text. While-listening activities include any
task set during the actual listening activity and which requires comprehension
of the listening passage. The purpose is to help learners to focus their attention
on the listening text and to guide the development of their understanding of it.

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There is an endless number of possible activities and the ones that the teacher
will settle on, will chiefly depend on the competency of the learners in the
additional language that is being taught. Remember to explain to learners that
they do not need to understand each and every word in the text that they are
listening to, but that it is important that they get the gist of the message.

Possible activities include:

• Following directions on a map

• Respond to simple oral directions or show understanding of vocabulary
relating to directions (left, right, up, down).
• Identifying the genre (structure and characteristics) of an oral text, in other
words whether it is a weather report, joke, recipe, song, directions, debate,
news bulletin, etc and what features characterize it as a weather report,
song, debate, recipe, etc. (They can use the knowledge they have obtained
during the writing lessons to identify the type of text.)
• Identifying different speakers’ point of view (first or third person) and the
speaker’s opinion or attitude (e.g. biased or using stereotyping)
• Determine whether the speaker (in case of listening to a talk show on the
radio) based his or her ideas on fact or opinion?
• Identify words that are emphasised and recognise the effect of intonation
(e.g. emphasising words to indicate anger, or speaking softer to create a
mood; or how intonation on a different word in a sentence can change
the meaning)
• Drawing conclusions about the passage they have listened to (They can
use the information they have obtained during reading lessons to draw
conclusions.)
• Conclude the story (the teacher reads only the first part of the story and
learners must predict during the post-reading phase what is going to happen
next)
• Listen to a song and identify the rhyme and rhythm in the song
• Identify the purpose of the text (to entertain, to inform, to amuse, to convince,
etc)
• Respond physically to instructions (such as in the TPR approach)
• Describe an object and let learners identify the object described
• Listen for main ideas because they will be expected to retell a story in their
own words after they have listened
• Taking notes during the listening task
• Use notes made while listening to reconstruct the story, or to write about
characters or to identify the central idea

Note-taking skills are important and the learners should not only be taught
how to take notes while listening but also get the opportunity to practice their
note-taking skills while they are listening.

6.6 POST-LISTENING ACTIVITY (CONFIRM AND REACT)

Meaningful follow-up activities give the learners a reason to listen carefully
and – very importantly – to recognise that the information gained during the
listening process is necessary and has utility value. This realisation forms the
basis of the development of good life-long listening skills.

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A listening activity in the classroom, must therefore always be followed up by

an activity in which the learners either respond by answering the sender of
the message; or by answering questions or discussing what they have heard;
answering questions orally or by showing that they have grasped the meaning
of the message by means of a written response. Listening instruction can, for
example, be integrated with the following activities:

• Retell a story it in the right sequence after listening to it

• Name characters in the story correctly
• Express their own feelings and give a personal response to the story they
listened to
• Predict what will happen next after listening to the first part of a story
• Describe the characters after listening to a story
• Identify words that they did not understand while listening to the text
• Listen to a song or poem and identify rhyme and rhythm
• Ask questions to obtain more information about instructions/directions
they listened to
• Play a language game based on the text they listened to
• Identify the object described correctly
• Perform a simple rhyme, poem or song after listening to it
• Describe the event that the listening text reported on
• Use new words learnt from a story or other listening text
• Use a range of vocabulary learnt from the story or other listening text
• Use notes made while listening to the story, to write about characters or to
identify the central idea and so forth
• Answer questions based on the story

Apart from the above list, which is by no means complete, the following activi-
ties can also be done after the actual listening has taken place to ensure that
listening is integrated with the other skills:

• Let the learners work in pairs and quiz one another on what they could
recall (integration with speaking)
• Ask each learner to compose three questions based on the listening passage
and let them select a friend who should answer the questions (this could
be done orally or in writing)
• Find the listening passage in written form and circle all the verbs (integration
with language structures and conventions)
• The learners must summarise what they have heard in three sentences
(integration with writing and viewing)
• Tell the learners that they can ask you any questions about the listening
passage to see if they can “catch you out” for not being able to answer a
question (you can make this a fun activity by promising a sweet or chocolate
to the one who can ask a question that you cannot answer)

When the learners have to answer questions based on the listening passage,
you can sometimes give the answers afterwards, but in some instances you
can reread or replay the listening text and let them check and correct their
own answers.

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Post-listening also provides an opportunity for integrating language structures

and conventions with listening. It could involve vocabulary building or col-
lective nouns or punctuation and so forth. The type of language structure to
be taught would depend on the particular listening text.

11 Ac tivit y 6 a
Write brief notes about each of the following points

• Consult CAPS and explain what kind of listening activities you would
do during an average two-week cycle?
• What makes understanding the spoken word difficult?
• Do visual stimuli assist comprehension? Why do you say so?
• Find a suitable song you would like learners in Grade 5 to listen to. What
pre-listening and post-listening activities would you let the learners do?

6.7 WHAT TO TEACH DURING LISTENING INSTRUCTION

6.7.1 Using stories during listening instruction

Many listening activities mentioned in CAPS refer to stories, for example,
“Choose from contemporary realistic fiction/traditional stories/personal
accounts/adventure/funny/fantasy/real life stories/historical fiction” (CAPS
2011:58). You therefore have to plan activities that are based on stories that
learners can do together. These activities should stimulate the learners’ interest
so they should not be too difficult. Listening to a story; answering questions
about the story and then completing a worksheet can be an exciting activity.
You could, for example, read just a section of the story and let them predict
how the story is going to end; this may stimulate the learners’ interest to such
an extent that they want to read the story themselves.

Tell or read a story to the learners, for example “The Lion and the mouse”.
Encourage them to sit quietly and listen. Ask specific questions afterwards:
Who was the king of all the animals? What did the mouse do to upset the lion?
What did the lion do to show that he would never ever require help from the
mouse? After some time, what happened to the lion? Who came to his rescue?
Learners’ response to these questions will indicate how well they listened.

Here is an activity that should help you to think about using stories in listening
instruction.

The extract is a story about the Lion and the mouse retrieved online from
http://taleswithgigi.com/tale/12/

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The lion and the mouse

A long, long time ago a little mouse was playing and messing around. He was mak-
ing a lot of noise and all of a sudden he woke up the lion, the king of the animals.
“How dare you wake me up?” the lion roared, “I’m going to eat you all up!” And with
that he placed his big paw upon the mouse’s tiny body, so that the poor frightened
little mouse couldn’t move. “Please, forgive me, oh, King of the animals! I didn’t mean
to wake you up. I was just playing! If you let me go now, maybe I can help you one
day!” the mouse squeaked.
This made the lion roar with laughter. “You? Help me? Ha ha ha. You are so small,
how could you help me?” And with that he changed his mind, “Alright, I will let you
go, because you would be such a tiny morsel anyway!”
A few months later the lion was prowling around, taking care of his majestic duties,
when he got caught in a trap.
Luckily, the same little mouse was passing by and saw what had happened. The
king of the animals was in trouble!
He struggled to get free, but the more he tried to free himself, the more he got tan-
gled in the net.
Happy to finally be able to help the lion, the mouse rushed to his aid and started
gnawing through the ropes.
“I didn’t believe you would be able to help me, but I was wrong,” said the lion, when
he was set free by the little mouse. From that day on, the lion and the mouse became
good friends.

12 Ac tivit y 6b
Use the text of The lion and the mouse and plan a listening lesson based
on the text:

• What pre-listening activities will you let learners perform? How would
you make sure that they are motivated to listen and look forward to
what they are going to hear?
• What tasks would you design to help the learners contextualise the
listening and access their existing knowledge and expectations to help
them understand the text?
• What must the learners do while listening?
• What post-listening activities would you let learners do?
• What language structures and conventions would you teach based on
the listening passage?
• How would you integrate this listening lesson with speaking and
writing?

Share your answers with your fellow students in the relevant discussion
space on myUnisa.

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6.7.2 Giving oral directions that learners need to respond to

This activity is based on the TPR method of teaching language. Page to section
3.5 and refresh your memory on what is meant by TPR, before reading any
further.

The learners’ listening skills can be developed by letting them do activities

where they must follow instructions. The following is an exercise that you can
apply in this regard.

Place some objects on a table. Include items such as a chalkboard eraser, a

pencil, a box of crayons, a book and some paper. Call one of the learners to
the front. Give one direction at a time and allow the learner time to complete it.

For example:

• Find the eraser and place it on the chalkboard ledge.

• Find the pencil and place it on my desk.
• Find the box of crayons and place it in the crayon tray.
• Find the book and place it on the reading table.
• Find the paper and place it in the box.

The teacher observes the learners’ performance to see if they understood

the instructions. You can develop your own activities by for example giving
instructions to draw something and then to compare their drawings with the
drawing you used to give instructions.

Another fun way to use the TPR method is to give the learners a number of
instructions in rapid sequence and tell them that they may only react if the
instruction is started by “My cousin, Sipho says.’ The teacher, for example,
says, “My cousin Sipho says, close your eyes” and then all the learners must
close their eyes. Then the teachers says, “Stand up!” but nobody may stand.

6.7.3 Listen and repeat

Repetition is very important when teaching listening and speaking (see section
4.7). You can use the following fun activity to ensure that the learners repeat
in spoken form, what they have heard.

The teacher walks around in the classroom and identifies objects that make
distinct sounds. For example: flick the light switch, open the door. The teacher
performs the action and says: “I am flicking the switch” or “I am opening
the door.”. The children look at it and listen to the sound. Continue in this
manner until you have presented a variety of classroom sounds. The children
then have to close their eyes. The teacher repeats an action and the children
must record in writing what was done, for example, “The teacher opened the
door.” Learners then close their eyes again and the teacher performs the next
activity that must be identified.

You also need to teach new vocabulary during listening by using pictures,
songs and rhymes. You need to point and name various objects on pictures
and let learners repeat after you, first in a group and then individually.
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Learning to sing simple songs is also a form of repetition and an activity that
young learners like. Learning to sing a song helps with pronunciation and
vocabulary building. Learners need to listen to a song repeatedly before they
will be able to sing along. You can also use well-known songs to teach different
functions, such as greeting someone. The music for “Happy birthday to you”,
can be used to teach someone to greet in isiZulu: “Sawubona, yebo, Sawubona,
yebo. Unjani? Ngiyaphila, wena usaphila? Kulungile.” or in Afrikaans: “Goeie
môre, kinders. Goeie môre, Juffrou. Hoe gaan dit vanmôre? Goed dankie,
Juffrou. You can do the same with teaching English phrases by using well-
known songs. (Just for the record: When people wish each other happy
birthday in IsiZulu, they would, sing the first part in English “Happy birthday
to you, happy birthday to you ,happy birthday to you. Ukhul’ ukhule, ukhul’
ukhule, ukhul’ ukhule” which literally means: “Grow up, grow up”).

Songs can often be incorporated in a lesson if you see that the learners are
losing interest or are getting restless. If learners are getting listless, there is
no better way of getting them back on track than by letting them sing a song
in which they need to clap their hands or perform other physical activities.
Remember that songs are specifically effective if they are accompanied by
physical or hand movements. It is important that pronunciation must also get
attention during listening instruction – especially if the teacher is not a home
language speaker.

6.7.4 Controlled dialogue

Learning a new language entails more than just repeating sounds, words or
sentences. It is important for learners to also be able to use longer sentences
and dialogues. Functional language, such as greeting or thanking someone;
asking the time; making a reservation; asking the price of something; or intro-
ducing a person to someone else in an additional language is also important.

To teach these functions you can make use of controlled dialogue, in other
words, learners listen carefully to “model” sentences and then repeat them.
The following is an example of this:

The learners listen to the teacher and talks in a “choir”:

The teacher says: “Class, greet someone in the morning.”

The learners listen to the teacher and say: “Good morning.”
The teacher says: “Ask the person how he is.”
The learners listen to the teacher and say: “How are you?”

The learners then divide into groups of two and the teacher tells them to:

• Pretend that they are meeting one another for the first time.
• Pretend that it is the first of January. What would you say to each other?
• Invite your partner to a party at your house.
• Thank your partner for helping you with something (decide for yourself
what it was).

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13 Ac tivit y 6 c
You could view the following clips to learn more about active listening:

“Active Listening” by Optimal Lifestyle at https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=z_-rNd7h6z8.

“Part 4: Example of a teacher using a radio news broadcast to develop listening

skills” by OER Africa, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxMXl_o5HZ0.

In what ways are the listening activities featured in the videos effective?
How would you use the explanations in the videos in your classroom?

If you do some searching on www.youtube.com, you will see that there are
many video clips with listening activities for learners. If you find any good
activities, share them with your fellow students in the relevant discussion
space on myUnisa.

6.8 ASSESSING LISTENING

When assessing learners’ listening skills, it is important to credit the appropriate
response and not evaluate spelling and grammar. The learners generally fare
well in listening tests and it is not uncommon for several learners to score full
marks with a class average close to 70%.

Learners may be asked to ask themselves the following questions to reflect on

the effectiveness of their own listening:

• Could I identify the main idea of what I’m listening to?

• Did I try to understand how the presentation was organised?
• Did I keep the purpose of listening in mind?

These and other questions can be discussed with your learners after the listen-
ing exercise. Each learner can then evaluate his/her own listening experience.

6.9 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

In this learning unit we have discussed activities that should be carried out
during the pre-listening, while listening and post-listening stages. It has been
emphasised that it is important to spend considerable time on the pre-listening
phase when teaching an additional language.

Now page back to the learning objectives stated at the beginning of this study
unit. Have you achieved them? Test yourself by answering the following ques-
tions. Try to answer the questions without turning back to the notes. If you
need to page back more than twice, we suggest that you work through the
study unit again.

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• What is the prescribed length of texts that learners should listen to in

the IP?
• Make a list of activities that you will let learners do to prepare learners
for the listening task.
• What kind of activities would you let learners perform while they are
listening to a text?
• Make a list of possible activities that learners can perform after they have
listened to a text.
• How would you go about to assess learners’ additional language listening
skills in the IP?

6.10 CONCLUSION
The pre-listening, while listening and post-listening activities that were de-
scribed in this learning unit, must always be integrated with the other language
skills. This implies that the listening activity itself, can become a pre-reading
or even a pre-writing activity. It is important that you integrate the listening
activities with the other skills and with Language Structures and Conventions
as far as possible.

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LEARNING UNIT
7 7

Teaching speaking: Different forms of

7

oral communication

WEEK 11

I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not
sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant
Robert McCloskey

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• discuss the guidelines for speaking as set out in CAPS for English FAL
• discuss the teacher’s and learners’ role in ensuring effective speaking
• describe speaking activities that learners can engage in
• explain non-verbal communication
• discuss communication for social purposes

You need one week to study this learning unit.

7.1 INTRODUCTION
If you ask learners studying an additional language what they expect to gain
from learning the language, they will probably tell you that they would like
to use that language in everyday communication situations. If someone can
speak a language, e.g. isiZulu, we usually say that he knows isiZulu – even if
he can’t read or write isiZulu. Learners should thus get the opportunity to use
the additional language independently and in new situations. Just like listening,
speaking skills must be deliberately taught.

7.2 WHAT CAPS SAYS ABOUT SPEAKING

We have already indicated in learning unit 5 what CAPS says about speaking
and listening. It would be a good idea to page back to this section to refresh
your memory.
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CAPS (2011:15) prescribe different forms of oral communication, such as

conversations, directions and instructions, retelling stories, story-telling, role-
playing, group discussions, short talks, short poems and rhymes and language
games. It further requires that learners’ be taught how to communicate for
social purposes and present prepared and unprepared short talks.

7.3 THE TEACHER’S RESPONSIBILITY IN ENSURING EFFECTIVE

TEACHING OF SPEAKING
Meaningful oral exchange depends on the teacher sharing some of the learner’s
interests. It might mean that you will have to watch a few children’s programmes
on television; probably go to a sports event at school or get involved in some
other children’s activities to be able to elicit responses from the children. Make
it an objective for yourself to:

• watch a children’s programme on television or a family movie on circuit

• go to a rugby, netball, soccer or other sports event that interests your pupils
• visit a shop to see what toys, games and books children of this age are
currently playing with
• find out what music learners’ of this age group listen to

Discuss any of the above with the children in class to start a purposeful dis-
cussion and find out from them what topics they would like to discuss in the
classroom. Write these topics down and be sure to address them during the
course of the year.

7.4 NOTIONS AND FUNCTIONS

Finnocchiaro and Brumfit (1983:91–93) drew language teachers’ attention to
the functional-notional approach to teaching a second (additional) language.
The functional-notional approach led to the communicative approach which
is still very popular today. Notion refers to situations in which one commu-
nicates, whereas function refers to what one wants to do with the language;
that is, give instructions; greet someone; disagree about something and so
forth. In order to make sure that the learners gain experience in real-life com-
munication situations and the use of the functional-notional approach, you
must create everyday communication situations in the classroom and expect
of the learners to act in these situations. Functions that we use language for
and the typical phrase that would be used (and thus taught to learners) are,
for example, the following:

• doing shopping ( asking for a price or where an item could be found)

“Excuse me, how much is this” (singular); “Excuse me, how much are these”
(plural); “Excuse me, on which shelve can I find the coffee and tea?”

• complaining about something

“I think you are being unfair”; “I am afraid I have a complaint about …”; “I
want to complain about …”; “I am angry about … ”

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• disagreeing about something

“I beg to differ”; “I am afraid I don’t agree”; “That is not how I see it”; “On the
contrary”; “Let’s agree to disagree”; “Not necessarily. ”

• apologising for something you did wrong

“I am really sorry”; “It was my fault”; “It won’t happen again”; “How can I
make amends?” “Please accept my apologies. ”

• getting angry about something

“I am up in arms about the situation”; “I can blow a gasket”; “Please, get off
my back”; “I can bite his head off!”

• being surprised about something

“My jaw dropped”; “It happened out of the blue”; “I was caught unawares”;
“It was as if he had dropped a bombshell”; “You could knock me down with
a feather”; “I was struck dumb.”

• refusing to do something
“I would not dream of doing that”; “In your dreams”; “Not in a thousand years”;
“I would rather die.”

• asking someone to do you a favour

“Would you please do me a favour?”; “Could I ask/bother/trouble you to ….?”;
“Would you mind helping me to …?”; “May I please use your ruler?”

After practising the necessary vocabulary and sentence structures to perform

the activities mentioned above by means of controlled listening and speak-
ing activities, the learners should be expected to perform these functions in
simulated situations in the classroom.

Experience in speaking an additional language is an important part of a learner’s

cognitive, social and emotional development. Speaking activities in which
learners are actively involved will give them a clear understanding of social
dynamics. As their fluency improves, so must their confidence to interact.

Examples of classroom activities that would develop learners’ additional

language speaking skills are discussed in the following section:

7.5 SPEAKING ACTIVITIES FOR THE CLASSROOM

A variety of speaking activities should be performed in the classroom. The
learners must talk to one another; give a simple personal recount of an experience
or a factual recount of a news event based on personal experiences; give simple
instructions by using the correct sequence and the command form of the verb;
describe an object by using adjectives; express feelings generated by a story
or poem; take part in roleplay and take part in language games. Reporting
everyday occurrences or retelling a story, movie or television programme must
be done on a regular basis.

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7.5.1 Having conversations

One needs to interact with another person for true communication to happen.
You can let the learners plan an outing or excursion or find a solution for a
problem in a group ( bullying or pollution in their immediate environment,
childhood households, etc.). You can also give the learners a comic strip, the
order of which has been arranged incorrectly and then ask them to discuss the
pictures with one another and agree on the correct order the pictures should
be in. The first group that can give the correct order and also explain (in the
additional language) why it should be in that order, is the winner.

Simulated telephone discussions is a great way of initiating “real-life” discussions.

Learners can use their cell phones (or any other object held against their ears if
they do not have cell phones) to pretend that they are inviting someone to their
birthday party; ask someone’s advice; congratulate someone; thank someone
or explain something. They can also record a message for their cell phone,
should they not be able to answer it: “Hallo, this is Thabo Maseko. I am not
available right now, but please leave your name and number and I will call
you back.” Let them come up with interesting messages – not the normal ones.

7.5.2 Giving directions and instructions and making announcements

Skills in giving directions should be practised. Accuracy, sequence and delivery
should be stressed. The children may give directions for playing games;
performing a science experiment; preparing a certain dish; or give directions
to a learner’s home. Conciseness and clarity of the message are required and
the learners must learn that they need to give instructions in the order that
they must be carried out. Organising a “show and tell” is an excellent way of
teaching learners about giving instructions. Making announcements and asking
for directions are two more examples of oral skills. Announcements (for example
on school activities over the weekend) should be given in a clear, brief and
friendly manner. Information such as the “who, what, when and why” of the
announced matter should be stressed.

A map is very useful to teach listening and speaking. You can get a map from
the internet or you can draw your own. Divide the learners in pairs. Each pair
gets a map of a place. The one learner must give directions to his or her partner
and the partner must follow on the map. In TMN 3702 we have explained
how a map can be used to teach listening and speaking.

7.5.3 Storytelling
Young children love telling stories, especially stories about something that
happened to themselves, their family or other people they know. These stories
are, however, often not ordered very well. They must therefore get a chance
to plan what they want to tell and then be allowed to tell their story to the
whole class.

Learners also love working together to build a story. If they have to do this,
they need to have a group leader (it has to be a different group member every
time that group work is done) who can tell the story the group has built to
the rest of the class. Everybody in the group gets an opportunity to contribute

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something to the story. You can organise this activity as follows: Let the learners
form groups and give them a picture or a number of key words such as “car
with tinted windows, drive very fast, three masked men” with the instruction
that they must make up their own story.

Each learner can be requested to bring his or her favourite toy to school. The
learner must then name the toy; describe how it is used; give reasons why
it is his or her favourite toy and share interesting facts about the toy (was it a
present, from who, when, etc).

7.5.4 Retelling stories

This activity requires of you to integrate listening and speaking. Learners can
be allowed to make notes to help them remember and retell a story. Retelling
a story is a very good way of letting learners learn that something must be
told in the correct order in which it happened.

7.5.5 Roleplay and role cards

Roleplay is a creative approach to understanding problems. It serves as an
avenue to help the learners verbalise their feelings and develop emotional
understanding. Ask the learners to listen to the story below and think about
how they would solve the problem.

Linda and Sue were playing outside. Suddenly they saw a two rand coin. Sue
snatched up the money. “I saw it first,” said Linda. “But I picked it up,” Sue
said. Linda was upset. Sue felt bad.

Engage the learners in discussing the events of the story. Let two learners
roleplay the action of the story and their solution to the problem.

You can create many roleplay situations. It could be situations such as

making a doctor’s appointment, (one learner is the patient, the other the
receptionist); complaining about faulty equipment bought at a shop (one learner
is the customer, the other the shop owner); arriving late at school and being
called in by the principal (one is the principal, the other is the late-comer)
and so forth.

Role cards can also be used as an effective way to bring about oral conversations.
You could, for example, divide learners in groups. Present two learners in the
group each with the following role card:

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Learner 1 Learner 2
You meet a friend. You meet a friend who did some-
(1) Greet him or her enthusiastically thing recently that you are not
happy about.
(3) Comment on his or her reaction and
ask why he or she reacted that way. (2) React rather distantly

(5) Apologise and explain your reaction. (4) Explain why you are unhappy.
(6) Accept or reject the explana-
tion and apology.

More examples of this type of activity are the following:

Learner 1 Learner 2
You are talking to a friend. A friend asks you a favour.
(1) Ask him or her a favour. (2) Refuse.
(3) Ask him or her why he/she does (4) Give reasons for your answer.
not want to do you a favour.

Learner 1 Learner 2
Phone a friend. Try to convince him/ A friend calls you and tries to con-
her to do something for or with you. vince you to do something.
(1) Ask for more information.
(2) Object
(3) Apologise

7.5.6 Language games

Games are usually a popular way to get learners to talk. You can bring an object
to the classroom; or you can use an object that is already in the classroom.
Learners are then divided into groups and they need to come up with five
original uses for the object.

Example: A ruler

They can come up with: A ruler can be used to draw a straight line; scratch
one’s back; measure something; stir coffee if one does not have a teaspoon;
or move something that is out of one’s reach closer.

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14 Ac tivit y 7a
There are many games that can be used to teach speaking. Which games
would you use? Share your ideas on myUnisa.

You can for example play “Who is telling the truth” with learners. Three learn-
ers must come to the front. Each one must tell something about themselves
that the rest of the class may not be aware of. Each learner may then ask a
question to each of the learners in front. The learners in front must answer
and after 10 minutes the class must say who is telling the truth and who not.
We hope you have listed many other games as well.

Quizzes are also a form of game. Each learner gets the opportunity to describe
a place on the school terrain and the other learners must then guess which
place the learner has described.

You probably also know the game It is my secret. This game is particularly
effective when questioning needs to be taught. One learner (the leader) has
to think of an object and the others must try to find out what he or she is
thinking of. The leader who has to answer may only answer with “yes” or
“no”. The other learners thus have to think carefully about how to formulate
the question. Say, for example, that the leader is thinking of a boat. The other
learners can then ask questions such as, “Are you thinking of a live object?”
the leader would answer “no”. Thereafter the learners may continue by asking
a question such as “Can the object move?” Learners have 20 questions to ask.
If they cannot guess after 20 questions, the leader has to say what he or she
was thinking of and is the winner of the game.

Children at this age love riddles and jokes. Setting a riddle to be solved or
telling an appropriate joke is an especially inventive way of winning over a
class at the beginning of the year and can be successfully used to win over
learners with a negative attitude to school. This activity can grab the interest
of these learners and persuade them that school can be fun. Jokes and riddles
can also lead to and encourage reading as the children turn to books to find
new jokes and riddles.

For children to remember a joke it is important that they understand and re-
member what is being said. Telling jokes also helps children to memorise and
understand the sequence of events. Remembering the punch line of a joke
calls for a good memory and a sense of drama.

7.5.7 Short poems and rhymes

The learners can be expected to learn short rhymes by heart and recite them
in class. They can, for example, be expected to learn the following rhyme by
heart:

I wish I were a glow worm,

A glow worm’s never glum.

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‘Cause how can you be grumpy,

when the sun shines out your bum? (Author: Anonomous. Whatsapp
message)

The poem is a bit naughty, but children at this age enjoy this kind of “innocent
naughty”.

Learners can experiment with language sounds, rhythm, volume, pitch and
words.

7.6 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

The different forms of oral communication, as prescribed in CAPS, were
briefly discussed in this learning unit. Ensure that you teach all these forms of
oral communication as part of your listening and speaking programme.

Now go back to the learning outcomes stated at the beginning of this learning
unit. Have you achieved them? Test yourself by answering the following
questions. Try to answer the questions without turning back to the notes. If
you need to go back more than twice, I suggest that you work through the
learning unit again.

• What are the guidelines on teaching speaking given in CAPS?

• How will you ensure that learners get the opportunity to converse with
one another in the target language (English)?
• What does learners learn when they are required to retell stories?
• Discuss different ways in which you can create roleplay activities in your
classroom.
• What language games would you let learners play?

7.7 CONCLUSION
Asking learners individual questions is real language but is very uneconomical,
since some learners in large classes may only get one opportunity per week to
answer. Pair or group work is a more beneficial way of creating opportunities
for learners to use the second language, since each learner actually speaks
several times in even a very short pair work activity. There is a small role for
chorus work in the additional language to accustom the mouths of the learners
to new words repeated a few times, but if you really want to motivate your
learners to talk, let them use language in a natural way: speaking to others.
Oral activities should be part of an integrated literacy programme and not
isolated. Teachers should plan different activities to help the learners develop
speaking skills.

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LEARNING UNIT
8 8

Teaching speaking: Communication for

8

social purposes

WEEK 12

Words carry power, therefore before you speak out, speak in...
and test your words!
Israelmore Ayivor

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• discuss communication for social purposes

• explain how non-verbal messages can convey meaning

You need one week to work through this learning unit.

8.1 INTRODUCTION
The CAPS refers to “Communication for social purposes” and list the following
under these headings:

• initiating and sustaining conversations

• turn-taking conventions
• sharing ideas and experiences
• encouraging use of additional languages
Many forms of using the spoken word are suggested in the various textbooks,
for example, singing songs, repeating rhymes, chorus work, mimicking dialogues
and so forth. It is important to remember that one does not improve one’s
knowledge of a language by only practising sounds, phrases and sentences.

You will realise that one needs to interact with another person for
true communication to happen. Speaking to someone who does not know
what you are going to say until you have said it and whose reply is just as
uncertain to you, constitutes real talking This is also how language is used
naturally.
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8.2 INITIATING AND SUSTAINING CONVERSATIONS

Conversation is a social construct and one needs to know how to start and
sustain a conversation. You can explain to the learners that communication is
like a ball game. If you have the ball, you need to throw it to the other person
(initiate the discussion), the other person must then throw the ball back to
you (sustain the conversation). You must then throw it back to that person
or to someone else, depending on how many people are taking part in the
conversation.

You can teach the learners a number of tips in which they can initiate a
conversation (throw the ball) but it is important that you also teach them the
phrases that they need to do that. In this instance, the notion would refer to
the specific situation in which the conversation will take place (at the clinic,
meeting someone that you have not seen for a long time, etc.) while the function
will be to start or sustain the conversation.

• Introduce yourself (“Hallo, I am Ntabiseng, Asnath’s cousin.”)

• Ask about the person’s live and wellbeing (“Good morning, how are you?”
“It is good to see you again”. “What have you been up to since the last
time I saw you?”)
• Talk about news and recent events (“Have you seen on TV how dry it is in
the Northern Cape?”)
• Show concern for and interest in the person (“I am so sorry, I have learnt
about your loss. How are you coping? Is there anything that I can do to
help?”)

8.3 TURN-TAKING CONVENTIONS

The learners must learn that it is important to listen to what the other person
is saying and that it is rude to interrupt someone. They can be referred to the
ball-throwing again. One may not talk while the other person has the ball.
You must, however, teach the learners that they may use words and phrases
while someone else is talking to show that they are actively listening: “wow”,
“that’s cool”, “never!”, “really?” and so forth.

Ending a conversation properly is just as important as starting a conversation.

Teach the learners that they cannot just say “goodbye” and walk away from
a conversation. Teach them phrases such as “Well, I really need to be going
now or I will be late for my netball practice”; “It was good talking to you, but
I need to run now.”

They must also be on the lookout for other people’s body language and be aware
that someone else may want to end a conversation. If the other person keeps
on checking the time, it is a sure sign that he or she needs the conversation
to end. Teach the learners that if something like this happens, they can, for
example, say, “Is it ok to keep talking, or are you needed somewhere else?”

It is usually satisfying to speak to someone who listens attentively to what

you are saying and who indicates that he or she is listening. Learners must be
taught to listen actively. Active listening is particularly useful when you are not
sure that you understand what the other person means or when you want to
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confirm that you have heard correctly. Active listening means that the listener
repeats or confirms what he or she has heard (Peace & Garner 1986:38, 39).

Peace and Garner (1986) give the following example of active listening:

Suna: I will never find work again.

Marie: You are really frustrated (active listening).
Suna: Yes. I fill in an application form everywhere I go and everyone tells me
they will contact me. But I never hear anything.
Marie: So, you feel that you are being kept dangling (active listening).

Pesce https://busyteacher.org/20571-7-turn-taking-strategies-boost-student-
speaking.html suggest that learners should be taught the following to ensure
that the conversation flows during a discussion that takes place in an additional
language:

• Asking questions

When you ask someone a direct question, you’re forcing them to take their turn.

Pesce gives the following example to show how questions can get a conversation
going:

One great strategy is to divide students into pairs to discuss a topic and instruct
them to do the following: one student has to get the ball rolling with his/her
opinion, then ask his/her partner a question. Say the topic is “Cell Phone Use
– How much is too much?”
S1: The first thing I do after I wake up is check my phone. How about you?
S2: First, I have breakfast and turn on my computer, then I turn on
my phone. Do you check your phone for messages all the time?
S1: Constantly! I can’t stop checking messages! How many messages do you
think you send per day? Etc…

• Use conjunctions

By using conjunctions, learners are forced to use longer turns to speak. You
need to write a list of conjunctions such as however, on the contrary, in fact,
as a result, etc on the board and request learners to say something, and to then
add a sentence to what they have said, by using a conjunction.

• Teach phrases for agreeing/ disagreeing/ asking for or giving opinions

We have already discussed this aspect under “Notions and functions” (section
7.4).

• Teach fillers for pauses

Long silences are often scary for additional language learners. To avoid this,
they can be taught that they can use fillers such as “Let me see…”; “Let me
think…”; “The thing is …”; “What I mean is …”
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• Fluency is more important than correctness

It is more important for learners to get the message across, than to use perfectly
correct language, but taking so long to think and using so many “uhm, uhm”
that the message is lost in the process. Don’t interrupt learners with correc-
tions. You could rather do that at the end of the conversation, by suggesting
ideas for improvement.

8.4 TEACHING NON-VERBAL LANGUAGE

Nonverbal communication can expand the learners’ understanding of the total
range of message sending. In the process the learners will be able to increase
their effectiveness as communicators and as interpreters of this important kind
of communication.

Body language that indicates that you are listening (e.g. nodding, eye contact,
concentration on what the speaker is saying) is an important part of listening
activities that learners must practice.

By the time additional language learners reach the intermediate phase they
should be able to:

• identify non-verbal messages and symbols

• interpret the meaning of non-verbal messages and symbols
• demonstrate the ability to interpret non-verbal messages through pictures
• identify body movements as a means of non-verbal communication
• demonstrate the use of body language as a means of non-verbal communication
• demonstrate good dramatisation techniques
• identify meanings conveyed by facial expressions
• identify messages conveyed by sins
• identify messages conveyed by symbols
8.4.1 Interpreting non-verbal messages
Define the word “message” as facts or ideas you want others to understand.
Explain to the learners that pictures can be used to send messages. Display
four magazine pictures of people conveying messages.

Examples of pictures:

• two children whispering

• a baby crying
• two boys talking
• a group of children playing football

Ask the learners to tell the message the persons in the pictures are trying to
convey.

Sample questions:

• What message do you think these people are trying to convey?

• Can you tell from their faces what they are thinking?
• Can you tell from their faces how they are feeling?
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• Can you give me some words to tell how they might feel?
• What does the people’s body language tell you about the situation or their
feelings?

8.4.2 Identifying body movements as a means of non-

verbal communication
Explain to the learners that messages can be sent to others without talking. Also
explain that we sometimes use our bodies to send messages. Demonstrate the
following gestures and have learners interpret their meaning.

• nodding – yes
• shaking the head – no
• beckoning – come here
• lifting the shoulders – I don’t know

Let the learners think of other ways of using body language to send messages.
Let them demonstrate body movements that send messages. Let their classmates
interpret the messages of each body movement presented.

More body movements are for example:

• finger on lips – be quiet

• hand covering ears – don’t want to listen or it’s too noisy
• raising one arm – stop
• waving – goodbye

8.4.3 Conveying meanings through facial expressions

Explain to the learners that messages can be sent through facial expressions.
“Sometimes we can look at a person’s face and tell how that individual feels.
Facial expressions can let others know whether a person is happy, sad, angry,
surprised or frightened.” Learners look at the teacher’s face. The teacher portrays
the facial expressions listed below and let the learners interpret the meaning,
then the learners portray the facial expressions and the teacher interprets the
meaning.

Suggested facial expressions:

• happiness
• sadness
• anger
• fear
• surprise
• sleepiness

8.4.4 Using tone of voice to convey meaning

Emphasising certain words in a sentence can convey different meanings.
You can, for example, let learners say the following sentence repeatedly,
but emphasise a different word every time. They must then explain how the
meaning is altered every time the emphasis is on a different word:
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– You think I saw the monster. (You are the one who thinks it is true.)
– You think I saw the monster. (This is what you believe, but you do not have
any proof.)
– You think I saw the monster. (Maybe someone did see the monster, but it
was not me.)
– You think I saw the monster. (I did something in relation to the monster,
such as drawing it or dreaming about it, but I may not have seen it.)
– You think I saw the monster. (I saw something, but it may not have been
the monster.)

You can do the same with sentences such as “I said she may consider a new
hair style” or “I don’t think she must be appointed as head girl”.

8.5 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

We have explained in this learning unit that language should be used for social
purposes and that non-verbal language can play a big role when communicating.
Now that you know how important non-verbal language is, you will hopefully
take it into consideration with your own teaching.

Now go back to the learning objectives stated at the beginning of this learning
unit. Have you achieved them? Test yourself by answering the following
questions. Try to answer the questions without turning back to the notes. If
you need to go back more than twice, we suggest that you work through the
learning unit again.

• What do you need to teach the learners so that they are able to communicate
for social purposes?
• CAPS requires that you encourage the use of the additional language.
How would you do that?
• How would you teach turn-taking conventions?
• How can non-verbal language influence a message?
• How can stress in a sentence change the meaning of a sentence?

8.6 CONCLUSION
Listening and speaking are central to learning and are important to the indi-
vidual in all areas of life. Mastering the complex art of communication in an
additional language opens up further opportunities for personal growth. As the
maxim says: “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” Providing
learners with opportunities to speak in their additional language will not only
help them to improve their language skills, but will also help them to think
more deeply and communicate more effectively.
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LEARNING UNIT
9 9

Teaching speaking: Prepared and

9

unprepared short talks

WEEK 13–14

It takes one hour of preparation for each minute of presentation time.

Wayne Burgraff

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• explain how learners should be prepared to plan and prepare a short talk
• discuss relaxing exercises before presenting a speech

You need to spend at least two weeks working through this learning unit.

9.1 INTRODUCTION
The CAPS make provision for prepared and unprepared short talks (CAPS
2011:15) and in this learning unit, we focus on these two aspects. You need
to keep in mind that you cannot just give learners a topic and expect them to
prepare a talk on the specific topic. You need to teach them, not only how to
prepare a talk or speech, but also how to present it.

Keep in mind that if one learner gets an opportunity to present a prepared

speech of approximately two minutes in front of the class, it means that a
maximum of 15 learners per period will get the opportunity to speak. If the
learners are, however, divided into groups and have to discuss a topic with
one another, many learners will get the opportunity during one period to use
the language and to test their speaking skills in the particular language. The
learners thus still prepare a speech or argument or talk at home, but instead
of delivering it in front of the whole class, it is delivered in a small group. If
the purpose of the group meeting is to discuss a particular topic, one of the
group members can get the opportunity at the end of the period to relay to
the whole class what has been discussed in their group.
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As an adult, have you ever had to deliver a speech in front of an audience? If

you have, you will know that speaking in public is something that not all of us
enjoy and it often makes people hesitant and self-conscious when they have
to speak in front of other people. Learners thus need to get the opportunity
to speak in front of other people from a very young age. This can be done by
organising debates, speaking in groups on a specific topic (each one in the
group talks on a different aspect of the topic) and prepared and unprepared
short talks.

9.2 SELECTING TOPICS

One of the first things that learners have to do in real life, whenever they get
into an unfamiliar situation (e.g. university, work, etc) is to introduce themselves
and tell other people a bit about themselves. It is thus a good idea to make
the first topic for the year, “Introducing myself”. Although it sounds like a fairly
simple topic, you will have to assist learners during the pre-speaking phase to
plan their speech by brainstorming ideas, drawing a mind map, interviewing
each other, etc.

Other topics that learners may like to prepare short talks on are:

• sport (cricket, football, hockey, athletics, etc.)

• my favourite movie/TV star
• a local hero
• my pet
• my favourite musician/band
• my best friend/cousin/nephew/niece
• the best day of my life

It is clear that learners will have to do some research for some of the topics (my
favourite movie star; local hero and favourite musician or band) before they
can prepare the speech. When preparing a talk on a pet or the sport activi-
ties that they are involved it, it is, however, not necessary to do research first.

9.3 PRE-SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

When teaching learners to prepare a speech, you must first get them to answer
the following questions:

• Who is the target group?

• What kind of speech do I have to prepare (e.g. formal, informal, a report
or telling a story)?
• What do I want to achieve with my speech (e.g. inform or entertain)?

9.3.1 Do vocabulary exercises

Once learners have established who the target group will be, what type of
speech they will have to deliver and what they want to achieve with the speech,
you should do some fun and challenging vocabulary-building exercises with
the learners. Learners need vocabulary related to their topic to be able to
prepare thoroughly for their speech.
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If you take, for example, the topic “My best friend/cousin/nephew/niece”, you
will need to make sure that they do have the necessary vocabulary to talk
about that person. You can for example make a list of words such as

• Characteristics/traits: kind, funny, sense of humour, integrity, etc.

• Appearance: fat, chubby, skinny, slim, short, tall, average height, beautiful,
etc.

Ask learners to suggest words that they would like to use in their home languages
and then look up the English words in a dictionary and add them to the list.

9.3.2 Explaining the structure of a speech

You also need to explain to learners that a speech usually has a beginning,
a middle and an end. It can also be called a head, body and tail. Show the
learners a picture of a kitten with a tail curling upwards towards its head to
explain that the tail must always keep the head in mind and that one may
even refer back to the head when dealing with the tail. It is a good idea to
find examples of good speeches on YouTube and show them to learners. They
can then discuss in groups why a speech is considered good or bad, before
they need to prepare their own speech.

9.3.3 Brainstorming ideas

During the planning of a speech, you can make use of brainstorming. Brain-
storming can also be used to do vocabulary building. The learners can brain-
storm what they think should be included in the beginning, middle and end
of a speech on a specific topic. Remember that the topic must be related to
the theme that you are covering in the two-week cycle.

Paul, Ponniah, Seah and Keng (1994:175) explain how brainstorming needs
to be done:

– Several “buzz groups” are formed or the whole class can do brainstorming
as one “buzz group”.
– In five or ten minutes, learners must think about all the words (or ideas)
related to the topic and make a list of as many ideas as possible.
– To encourage creative thinking, no idea mentioned must be judged as
good or bad.
– All ideas must be written down without comment.
– Everyone in the group must be actively involved.
– At this point quantity is more important than quality.
– Learners must feel free to suggest any idea, even if it seems stupid or
crazy.
– Learners try to build on or add ideas suggested by others.
– When the ideas have dried up, the words are sifted. Words which are not
suitable are crossed out.
– The remaining words are then arranged in related categories. The learners
can then use these words when they tackle the preparation of their short
talk.
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9.3.4 Organising material coherently

The learners can be helped during the pre-speaking phase; in other words,
to organise their material coherently when planning and preparing their talk.
Drawing a mind map will assist learners with this, but it will also help if you
let them understand that – just like writing an essay – each section they are
going to talk about should be centered around one specific idea. You can
teach them to use words such as, “My first reason for saying this is that my
cousin always…”, “secondly…”, “thirdly…”, “In summary” or “To sum up…”, “I
therefore, repeat that ….”

They can also be requested to arrange their story under the headings (remem-
ber the picture of the kitten):

• Beginning (head of the kitten)

• Middle (body of the kitten)
• Conclusion (tail of the kitten

9.4 THE SPEAKING STAGE

Remember that learners prepared and unprepared short talks must be really
“short” at this stage. According to CAPS (2011:30), “Oral creative texts, e.g.
recounts, retelling or telling stories, short talks” should be one minute in length
in grade 4 and 5 and 1–2 minutes in Grade 6.

9.4.1 Guidelines for presenting a prepared short talk

Explain to the learners that the following guidelines for speeches should be
used when presenting their speech (Smit 2000:116–117) and make sure that
they practice these points:

(1) Speak enthusiastically with self-confidence and conviction and with an

attitude of “I want to say something and I will say it.”
(2) Speak directly to the audience and make eye contact with them. Do not
refer to your cards too often (learners should preferably write the key words
of their speech on small cards instead of reading it from an A4 page).
(3) Give your speech a structure. Start with an introduction that will interest
the audience; give a short outline of your speech; name the main ideas you
will discuss; expand on the main ideas and end with a striking conclusion.
(4) Use an appropriate tone of voice. Emphasise certain words and ideas;
make use of facial expressions and do not use your hands too often. Use
expressions such as, “Let us look at ...., for example”; “My understanding
is ... ”; “I am convinced that ...” Give practical examples so that the audi-
ence can follow you.
(5) Use the latest information in the media, newspapers, on the radio, televi-
sion and the internet.

Most people are tense when speaking in front of others. If you teach your
learners at a young age to control their tension, it will help them for the rest
of their lives. Let the learners do the following exercises, recommended by
Liz Banks (2009) at the beginning of a prepared speech:

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• Take a couple of slow deep breaths, breathing in through the nose (NOT
the mouth) and slowly out through the nose. This helps to control their
nervous energy and slows them down before they start.
• Clench and stretch their hands and then shake them out. This helps to release
tension and control any fidgeting/gestures that can occur when nervous.
• Imagine chewing a very large toffee to exercise facial muscles and reduce
any tension in the face.

Bear in mind that the atmosphere in your classroom will determine whether
the learners are more or less tense in your presence.

9.4.2 Incorporating appropriate visual, audio and/or audiovisual aids

Visual and audio-visual aids often help with the presentation of talks. A mistake
that learners often make when they are allowed to use visual aids, such as
power point presentations (PPPs), is to write everything on the slides and then
to read from the slides. You will thus have to teach the learners that the slides
may not be too crowded (busy) and that they should actually only contain key
words or visuals depicting what the learner wants to bring across with his or
her talk. Using PPPs is the most common way of incorporating visual, audio
and audio-visual aids, but they can also use pictures, charts, posters, draw-
ings, photographs or other forms of visual media or recordings on their smart
phones when presenting their talks – as long as these are visible and audible
to the whole class. Pictures such as charts, posters, drawings and photographs
could easily be copied onto a slide when making Power Point Presentations.
If you do not have access to electricity or data projectors at your school, you
should allow the learners to make posters on any kind of cardboard box they
could find and use that when presenting a short talk.

When teaching learners how to make a Power Point Presentation (PPP); or

to make posters on any type of cardboard, you need to remind them of the
following ten design principles:

• Less is more! This is the first principle to remember when doing a PPP.
• It is better to keep the background simple and consistent in all slides rather
than changing the background in each slide. Changing backgrounds can
easily confuse and distract the audience.
• Slides should not be too cluttered. Too many multimedia in one slide can
distract the audience from the actual message they are trying to convey.
Avoid flashy images and noisy animation effects unless it relates directly to
the slide. Do not overuse special effects. They should always ask themselves
first if these special effects will enhance the listener’s experience.
• When using graphs, tables, charts, figures and so forth in a slide, they should
be clearly labelled.
• There should be no more than five lines written on a slide with no more
than seven to eight words per line and the font should not be smaller than
size 24. People read faster than you can talk; and if you write down every
word you are going to say on the slide your audience’s attention will be
split between what you are saying and what they are reading. Developing
“text-heavy” (busy) slides should thus be avoided.
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• The learners should rather stick to standard fonts and not use different
(difficult to read) fonts or colours that would make the slide too busy to
follow. It should be easy to read the slides.
• The writing on the slide should not be in more than four different colours.
• Consistency is important. This means the same font should be used for all
headings and other content.
• Avoid writing everything in capital letters (unless it is in a heading).
• They should be advised to choose photos, animation, music, other sounds
and images wisely. Teach them to always ask themselves whether these
things will really enhance the presentation or whether they could be left
out. Also advise them to include one or two large images rather than many
small ones.

You can liaise with teachers teaching other subjects such as natural sciences and
technology, or social sciences to find suitable topics. If the natural sciences and
technology teacher is, for example, teaching the life cycle of insects, you can
let the learners make a PPP on this topic and present it in the language class.

9.5 THE POST-SPEAKING PHASE

Recordings can be used successfully for post-speaking activities. Learners can
analyse their progress by listening to recordings of their own presentations.
Learners are not always willing to take part in this kind of self-assessment, so
let them listen to themselves in private. By listening to a recording of their
own talk, learners can reduce or eliminate their shortcomings and plan how
to improve.

15 Ac tivit y 9a
Have you ever recorded yourself while delivering a short talk, while teach-
ing or while speaking to someone. Next time you do any of these activities,
use your smart phone to record yourself and listen to yourself (in private).
You will be surprised at what you learn about your own speaking habits.

Make sure that you also let learners get the opportunity to listen to themselves
speaking.

You need to treat the post-speaking phase with a lot of care. If you criticise
sensitive learners in front of their peers, they will be reluctant (often for the
rest of their lives) to talk in front of an audience. Therefore make sure that you
provide constructive feedback and that you critisise where criticism is due, but
that you also praise learners for the smallest thing they have done correctly.

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9.6 UNPREPARED SHORT TALKS

Apart from prepared short talks, learners must also be exposed to unprepared
short talks, where they are given a topic and have to speak spontaneously on
the topic for one minute. Unprepared short talks require language proficiency
and presence of mind. Unlike normal conversation, there is no time to
think of a response, no break and no clue from the listeners. In addition,
the speaker must stand before an audience and speak, formulating ideas
and presenting them logically instantly. All this requires confidence and
familiarity with a wide range of vocabulary and structures (Open Resources
for English Language Teaching, Module 2, page 30 http://orelt.col.org/
module/2-speaking-better-communication).

Before you can require of the learners to do unprepared talks, you need to
demonstrate to them how it should be done. Let one of the learners give you
a topic to speak on and show them that when doing an unprepared talk, you
also make use of an introduction, middle and conclusion.

Encourage the shy and quieter learners to do unprepared talks and make sure
that you appreciate their efforts, even if they say only a few sentences and do
so in halting and incorrect English. If you let them do this several times during
the year, your learners’ speaking skills are bound to improve and you will note
that their confidence increases as well.

Give your students the following guidelines when they have to do unprepared
short talks:

• Define the topic.

• Give examples.
• Mention one or more characteristic of the topic.
• Say why it is good/bad/important.
• “Buy” yourself time by using expressions to:

– Introduce the topic: “My topic today is…”; “I’d like to begin by…. ”
– Keep people interested: “What is interesting about this is…”; “I think the
audience would be interested to know that… ”
– Give illustrations: “For example…”; “For instance…”; “A good example of
this is… ”
– Emphasise: “An important thing about this is…”; “Let me emphasise that…”
– Conclude: “In the end…”; “I’d like to end by…”; “In conclusion…”
– Use good pronunciation. Do not run over your words and avoid an artificial
accent. A natural and clear pronunciation impresses people (Resources
for English Language Teaching, Module 2, page 39 http://orelt.col.org/
module/2-speaking-better-communication).

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9.7 TOLERATING ERRORS

Language errors are a sign of experimentation and experimentation promotes
language learning. Learners learning in their home language naturally correct
themselves since they are increasingly exposed to more correctly used language
in the real world. It is therefore best for you to concentrate on using correct
language. The learners will make less mistakes in due course.

In fact, aggressive efforts to eliminate errors have the effect of slowing down
language learning and may even stop it altogether. Language errors should
therefore be treated as a natural part of using only a partial version of a new
language. As the mind revises the partial versions the errors disappear.

This does not mean that errors should be ignored altogether. What it means is
that you should respond to content and then model the correct form as an echo.

For example:

Teacher: And how much money have you saved, Mandla?

Mandla: I’m save, is four rand.
Teacher: You have saved four rand? Wow! You’re a rich fellow, Mandla! You
have saved four rand!

The human mind is designed to learn language and good teachers avoid what
interferes with this process. Therefore, they avoid anything that causes fear,
anxiety, stress and tension in their learners – fear of failure, making mistakes,
punishment or ridicule. This is why it is counterproductive to focus on errors.
Learners who are worried about making mistakes do not think about what
they want to say.

Successful modern approaches to language learning emphasise language games

and other language learning activities. These activities reduce tension and
allow the learners the freedom to experiment with different ways of expressing
meaning. Some teachers worry that the learners might make mistakes during
pair work that will not be corrected. Yes, they will make mistakes, but this is no
reason to avoid pair work. It is more important that they get the opportunity to
use the language by talking to their peers. Learners also feel more comfortable
talking to their peers, than talking to you or other adults.

9.8 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

The framework used for all the language activities consist of a pre-activity, the
actual activity and a post-activity. You need to follow this method when teach-
ing all the language skills. You will note that we also emphasise this framework
in the rest of the learning units.

Now go back to the learning objectives stated at the beginning of this learning
unit. Have you achieved them? Test yourself by answering the following
questions. Try to answer the questions without referring back to the notes. If
you need to go back more than twice, we suggest that you work through the
learning unit again.
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• Make a list of five topics on which you think learners would like to do
short prepared talks.
• How would you assist the learners in preparing for their short talk?
• What relaxing exercises would you teach the learners to do before they
present a prepared or unprepared talk?
• How would you treat the learners’ errors when they are speaking?

9.9 CONCLUSION
We hope that you now have the knowledge you would need to apply different
methods when developing learners’ listening and speaking skills. You must
be able to purposefully teach the learners listening and speaking skills for
different purposes, audiences and situations. With regard to the learner’s ability
to comprehend the spoken word, you will have to focus on using meaningful
language. This means that listening to a page being read from a textbook
is not as meaningful to the second language learner as hearing a simple,
familiar story. Linguistics calls this “comprehensible input”. Initially you may
use a simplified form of the target language until the learner’s language ability
improves. Thereafter, you will find yourself using more complicated structures
and vocabulary. The language use will also be a little more complicated
than anything the learner has come across before. Here we refer to language
that is “roughly tuned”. This means language that is meaningful but not too
challenging. It is understood by the learners and helps to increase their ability
at the same time.

It does not matter if the learners are silent in the beginning since they are
accepting and processing the new sounds and meanings. Fulfilment of the
language learning only happens when learners start expressing themselves in
their own words as the need to do so arises.

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LEARNING UNIT
10 10

Teaching reading and viewing: Getting

10

ready to read

WEEK 15–16

To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over

wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and
the fruits of many inquiries.
AC Grayling

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• discuss what the CAPS says about reading and viewing in an additional language.
• explain how to ensure that learners are ready to read
• discuss different methods of teaching formal reading

10.1 INTRODUCTION
Reading is a very important part of the language acquisition process. On the
one hand, it strengthens vocabulary and language structures that have already
been learned; on the other hand, it brings learners in contact with unfamiliar
words and language structures they have never encountered before. The
learners should experience reading right from the beginning as an enjoyable
and useful activity that holds more than just linguistic value. To instil such an
attitude in the learners, the reading activities must force learners to use their
problem-solving skills when reading or reacting to something that they have
read (by for example entering a competition after they have read the rules for
entering).

When formal teaching of reading in the additional language starts in Grade 4,

the learners can already read quite well in their home language. Their eye span
is developed sufficiently and they know the different sounds in their mother
tongue. It is also possible that some learners already have a reading vocabu-
lary, because they were introduced to incidental reading during story reading
and naming objects in the classroom in the foundation phase. It might also
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be that the learners have come across advertisements, labels, notice boards
and cooking directions on food products in the additional language. In other
words, they have learned to read by incidental reading. The teacher must
build on the ability of the learners when teaching reading in the additional
language. She could, for example, read a paragraph slowly and ask the learn-
ers to follow in their own books.

It is a fact that learners with a better ability to speak the additional language
and repeat what they have heard, will also be better readers.

Keep in mind that it might be possible that learners in Grade 4 will enter your
classroom with very little or no exposure to English. You might get a group
of learners who still need a lot of support. We will therefore briefly look at
methods to ensure that readers are ready to read in English.

10.2 READINESS TO READ

You must support the learners’ incidental or informal way of reading and make
sure that they are prepared for reading in an additional language. The learners’
reading readiness can be supported by doing the following:

(a) Label or provide English captions for all the pictures and objects in your
classroom

Examples of word cards/labels in the classroom. For example, on a theme

such as “My school”:

– Attach labels to objects in the classroom.

– Ask the learners to put the word labels on the correct objects.
– Add simple phrases to increase the reading experience.
– Let the learners match words and phrases.
– Let the learners read the words and phrases.

Remember that the way in which you display word cards and labels is important;
write large letters and clearly display them. This will help the learners to read
better.

(b) A word frieze

How to make a word frieze

– Draw or paste a picture of an object on an A4 sheet.

– Print the name underneath the picture.
– Choose words that differ from the home language, but which have equiva-
lent meanings to establish new concepts in the additional language.
– Pin these words and pictures to the READING WALL for learners to read.
– Print a matching word on a separate card and let the learners match the
words to the pictures.
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(c) Matching pictures to action words

How to make a word frieze with action words

– Make a set of pictures and matching words.

– Cut them out and put them into envelopes. Separate the words and the
pictures.
– Play the game in pairs.
– Pictures and words are placed face up between the two players.
– They match words to pictures.
– The learners can also make a sentence using the word or ask a question
and give instructions based on the actions.

(d) Sentences on flash cards with matching pictures

To make flash cards with matching pictures, you need to draw pictures based
on the content of the theme to be used in the classroom. For example, illustrate
(find pictures) of activities that the learners do at home and print the sentence
describing the activity below the picture.

How to use sentences on flash cards with matching pictures.

– The learners work in pairs and read these sentences. Allow the learners
to read the charts to their friends.
– Make matching sentence flash cards on a separate piece of paper and
let the learners match the sentences and arrange them in the correct
sequence. They can then check their sequence with the chart.

He is playing with a toy car. She is reading a book.

They are walking. He is sitting on the floor.

– This can be followed up by a discussion.

– You can print well-known rhymes and songs on charts for the learners to
read.
– This type of exercise should receive plenty of attention

(e) Reading games: Snap (words and pictures) and other games

To play “snap”, you need to make two packs of word cards. Use words from
the vocabulary of the language themes and write them on individual word
cards. Illustrate the words by using simple pictures. Duplicate these cards. Use
these cards to play the game “Snap”.

Window floor table chair

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Store the cards in an envelope and use them over and over again.

Also use sorting exercises with picture and word cards: the learners must
group all word families together; group all the words that start and end with
the same letter together; or put words in categories fruit, cutlery, furniture,
body parts, etc.

Play a sequence game. This game could be based on a story or an activity.

Use the oral story of the language theme. Write key sentences on strips of
paper or cardboard and place them in one pile. Get matching picture cards
and spread them out. Player one picks up the key sentence and reads it to the
group. Player two picks up the corresponding picture and adds it to the written
sentence. Reading and discussion thus become an integrated activity. After
the players have gone through the sentences like this, the group discusses the
sequence of the story or activity. The group members place the sentences in
the correct sequence and each member of the group reads one sentence. End
with the whole group reading the story in unison.

Play treasure hunt by hiding something (you can hide it symbolically) and
then give the learners written clues. They must then follow the clues to find
the hidden treasure.

(f) Pictures

Graphics and pictorial materials (pictures, graphs and tables) can be valuable
sources for reading. These materials provide information (which would normally
need a long explanation) in a concise and easy understandable way. The
following are the most common:

Pictures

One of the first graphic interpretation skills a learner learns is the ability to
interpret a picture. You can use pictures to explain concepts, ask a question,
start a conversation, stimulate interest in a new topic and to take the place of
an actual experience (a visit to the beach).

Make sure that there are pictures on the wall in your classroom that represent
the sound of every letter of the alphabet.

Exercises to encourage the interpretation of pictures

 The children name the items in the pictures.

 A
 sk the children to study a picture. For example, a picture of children
playing in water.
 Ask the children what is happening and what may happen next.
 T
 he children draw a picture and then tell you or other children the “story”
of the picture.

Bring pictures, realia (real life objects) and posters dealing with work to be
read and label them (if the learners have to read a story about the three little
pigs, make sure that you have labelled pictures of a pig, a house, straw, bricks,
a wolf, etc. on the walls).
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Graphs and pictorial graphs

Graphs visually explain information that young learners might otherwise find
confusing. An example of a pictorial graph could be a weather chart.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Put similar charts of numbers, seasons, names of months or days of the week
in the additional language on the walls in the classroom.

(g) Books

The best reason for introducing learners to books in the additional language is
that they enjoy them. Learners can learn a great deal from looking at books.
Books help to develop their visual understanding and their ability to notice
detail. Books are a very valuable resource when developing language skills.
Books encourage learners to communicate.

Books broaden their horizons by stimulating their imagination; helping them

to make sense of situations they have experienced and introducing them to
new ones. Books also explain how other people feel and behave.

The learners must develop a desire to read. The teachers should try to make
reading times enjoyable, comfortable and stress-free because the learners must
feel secure and confident about learning new skills.
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Make sure you include the following:

Picture books

Nursery rhymes and action rhyme books

Story books with pictures / illustrated story books (Talking about pictures in
books will naturally lead to reading stories. Choose stories with few words
and many pictures that tell a story. Stories which repeat catchy, rhythmical
phrases over and over again give learners something to listen for and enjoy
even if they cannot really follow the story line.)

Information books (Learners need to realise that books are a source of factual
information. Choose books according to the themes (zoos, farms, colours,
shapes, sizes or vehicles).

Your own home-made books (Make a book by punching holes in pieces of

cardboard and threading them together with string, wool or ribbon. Select
pictures and items that match the themes and paste them in the book. Write
a word/sentence beneath each picture. Two examples of books you can make
are an alphabet scrapbook and a book about a rhyme or a song. Alphabet
scrapbooks are made by writing a letter at the top of each page of a scrapbook.
Collect pictures of objects that begin with those letters and stick them on the
appropriate pages. Write the names of the objects underneath.)

Rhymes and songs (write a well-known song or nursery rhyme–one that all
of them already know–on the board; or make a Big Book for the song and
let the learners sing the song while you point to the words they are singing.

Important points to remember about the introductory reading phase:

• Shared reading (where the caring adult and the learner look at a book
together) is important.
• The teacher reads the book aloud while the learner looks at the pictures.
• The teacher draws the learners’ attention to detail and they discuss it.
• The learners become aware of the relationship between the pictures, the
words on the page and the spoken word.
• The learners gradually begin to recognise letters and words that look alike.
• The learners often pretend to “read”.

If you realise that the learners are not yet ready for reading in the second
language, you can do a few exercises with them. However, remember that
these exercises should only be done if the learners are not yet ready for reading
in the second language; or if they have done very little learning of English in
the past.

Start with a few exercises with beginning, middle and end sounds. The learners
must be able to recognise the beginning, middle and end sounds in words.
If you are teaching Afrikaans, you can, for example, give them the following
exercise to do:

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Find the words that fit:

A Mas Tam Kos Vas Dak Hek

E Kees Dit Het Hok Vet Man

I Wil Sal Met Stil Dit Binne

O Mak Sop Vol Boor Hek Vul

Even if you do not know Afrikaans at all, you should be able to understand
the gist of this type of exercise that can be given. It works like this: the teacher
reads the sound in the first column and the learners repeat it. Thereafter she
reads the words in the first row and the learners repeat by saying each word
out loud. The learners must then identify words with an “a” sound. The process
is then repeated with the other sounds. This exercise can be changed to make
provision for beginning and end sounds. The learners can, for example, be
shown a picture and then be expected to identify all the items on the picture
starting with an “s” or that end with an “s”.

After you have practiced the sounds of the additional language with the learn-
ers, you can do similar word exercises. Use your own initiative with these
kinds of exercises. You can, for example, write a few words on the board; give
the learners a few old magazines and then ask them to find pictures in the
magazines of the words on the board. It might also be a good idea to ask for
advice from the Foundation Phase (FP) teachers, because they will have many
reading preparation exercises for FP learners that you can adapt for IP learners.

10.3 DIFFERENT METHODS OF TEACHING FORMAL READING

Formal reading instruction is characterised by a basic reader and supplemen-
tary reading material. Formal reading follows preparatory reading. The aim of
second language reading at this level is to guide the learner towards reading
independently. There are various approaches to and methods of teaching for-
mal reading. The following is a list of the approaches most commonly used:

• The alphabet approach: where learners learn the letters of the alphabet. This
is difficult in English where different sounds are represented by one letter.
• The phonics approach: where learners first sound the letters of the additional
language and then combine sounds to form words. Phonics focuses on
the individual parts or letters and their sounds that combine to form a
word, in other words, part-to-whole processing of a text. Students learn to
use decoding or the process of sounding out words to begin to read and
understand new words. For example, to sound out the word “hat”, one
would begin with the letter H and the sound it makes then move on to A
and finish with T to form the word hat (Study.com).
• The look-and-say approach: where learners are taught to immediately say
the whole word without being able to spell it. To ensure the learning of
meaning, these words are mostly accompanied by pictures. The words are
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used in phases and sentences as soon as possible. Attention to detail (the

letters and syllables which make up the word) is left for later.
• The whole word approach: this is a synonym for the look-and-say approach.
In other words, it is a method that teaches learners to read by introducing
them to whole units without analysing the parts of the word. The learners
are taught to “sight read” words; that is, to be able to pronounce a whole
word as a single unit. Whole word instruction means that the learner
must associate objects with printed words. By continuous and repeated
exposure to words, especially in meaningful contexts, the expectation is
that learners read the words without consciously paying attention to the
letters and syllables that make up the word. The idea behind the whole
word approach is that the learners could learn to recognise words through
repeated exposure without paying direct attention to the sub-word parts, like
in the phonics approach to reading. Whereas the whole word approach is a
“whole- to-part” method, phonics is a “part-to-whole” method of teaching
learners to read.
• The sentence approach: based on the notion that the sentence is important
and not the word or letter, because the sentence expresses a comprehensible
idea. According to this method, many sentences that describe actions are
taught to learners. The learners are expected to distinguish the sentences
from one another in any form that they may appear (as sentences on cards
or on the writing board). Words that are often repeated are isolated and
learned based on their appearance (what they look like). Later on the learners’
attention is drawn to the sounds and then they must use their knowledge
of sounds to identify new words and sentences.
• The language experience approach uses a student’s own language and
grammar to create reading materials. In simple terms, they tell you a story
and you write it down for them to read. The learner’s own story is then used
by discussing it with the learner, reading the story to the learner and then
reading it together; point out unusual words; cut out the first sentence and
ask the learner to read it. When the learner seems to be confident when
reading the sentence, it is cut into individual words. The words are then
mixed up to see if the learner can put them together to form the sentence.
• the syllabic approach is an approach to reading which uses syllable
recognition as the primary word attack skill. This approach is mostly used
in Malawi and Zambia and it seems as though it is mostly used to teach
African languages.
• the eclectic (combined) approach: an approach where the different
approaches are used alternatively depending on the situation and the
group of learners. It depends on what works best in a particular situation.

Each of the methods mentioned above has its advantages and disadvantages.
Teachers must select a specific method or approach at a specific time based
on an analysis of the situation. No two students will learn to read in exactly
the same way; thus, remaining flexible in your approach is key. It can be
useful to combine methods, teach strategies and provide the right classroom
atmosphere to make reading easy and enjoyable. Remember that motivation
plays an important role. Try to be patient to avoid any negative associations
with reading, learning and school.
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Most schools use a combined (eclectic) approach. You can combine methods
by playing games that involve recognition of whole words, single letters or
letter combinations (-ing, -gh) when introducing second language reading.
You can also combine the different methods by for example first let the learn-
ers “read” a full sentence with an accompanying picture. This helps them to
immediately pay attention to the meaning of a full-length sentence and as a
result they can “read” the sentence with the right intonation. This is possible
because the sentence means something to them – it is not just a sentence out
of context. Once the learners have learned the sentence and can recognise it,
the sentence is divided into words and the learners are expected to identify the
individual words. Only after this has been done, the sounds are attended to.

This combined method consists of four main phases, namely the preparation
phase, class reading, group reading and independent (silent reading).

10.3.1 The preparation phase

The preparation phase means that learners do not start immediately by reading
a long text; they rather start reading by means of flash cards, short sentences,
word recognition and recognition of sounds.

You will have to use your own discretion to decide how much emphasis you
want to put on the preparation phase and for what period of time you want
to prepare the readers. It might be for a very short period of time or for a
longer period. It would depend on the learners’ reading competence in their
home language and their exposure to English in the Foundation Phase. You
will realise that the learners are ready for longer reading exercises when they
become bored with preparatory activities.

10.3.2 Class reading

Class reading follows the preparation phase and the purpose thereof is to
prepare learners to read independently. The teacher must make sure that all
the learners are taking part in the reading during the class reading session. The
learners do better when they share the reading period, than when working on
their own. When doing class reading each learner is individually occupied.

The class reading exercise usually consist of a paragraph or a short story of

approximately 10 lines. It should preferably be written on the writing board
for all learners to see. The story can be shown on the white wall for all to see
if you are lucky enough to have a data projector. Most of the words in the
story should be known by the learners.

The learners softly read the paragraph while the teacher points with her
ruler to each word that is being read. The teacher then reads the paragraph
out loud while once again pointing to all the words. The teacher points to a
sentence and ask a specific learner to read the sentence. While the learner is
reading (the teacher is still pointing with the ruler) the other learners have to
follow. Some learners are asked to read sentences and others to read words.
The teacher can also ask the learners to find a word in the paragraph with the
same meaning as a specific word; or to find a word that means the opposite
of a specific word.
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During class reading, reading aloud and silent reading are done simultane-
ously, because while one learner is reading out loud, the other needs to follow
by reading silently. If a learner struggles to read, you need to attend to the
problem there and then or pay individual attention to the learner at a later
stage. You can use your own initiative to make class reading interesting and
fun. A competition between the girls and the boys in the classroom is always
very effective.

Once you are certain that all the learners in the class can read the paragraph,
you can integrate the teaching of language structures and conventions when
teaching reading. Reading activities such as the following could be done:

• Draw learners’ attention to the language structures that are used in the
paragraph or story, for example past tense, that is why the verb is written
“went”.
• Single out certain words and explain their meaning, pronunciation and
spelling. Pay specific attention to exceptions to a rule.
• Pay attention to emphasis on certain syllables.
• Let the learners read the sentences in negative form (the wolf did not blow
over the house); or let them form questions based on the paragraph (Did
the wolf blow the house over?) They can also rephrase sentences by using
different pronouns (He blew over the house, she blew over the house, you
blew over the house, they blew over the house, etc).
• Give instructions and ask questions such as the following:

– Which word tells you that …

– Give a word that has the same meaning as …

The learners must practice reading the paragraph at home and in the next
lesson they must get the opportunity to read it out loud in the classroom. The
teacher must evaluate their reading so that he or she can divide learners into
reading groups.

10.3.3 Group reading

This aspect of reading instruction provides for differentiation. After you have
practiced class reading for approximately two months, you will have a good
idea of which learners are good readers, which ones are average and which
ones need more reading support.

The learners are then divided into groups according to their reading ability.
There are two methods according to which this can be done.

Method A

You can adapt the learners’ reading material according to their reading
ability. Each group can read according to its own tempo. Each learner gets
the opportunity to read aloud to one another in the group. The teacher spends
time with each group and the learners also get the opportunity to read aloud
to the teacher. The more advanced group can continue on their own; find
advanced reading material and also be encouraged to bring their own reading
material to read from. You must provide reading material to the average group
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and if they want to move on to more advanced reading, they must be allowed
to do so. The slow and incompetent readers must receive sufficient attention;
and you must assist them in improving their reading ability. You will probably
spend the most time with this group while they are reading.

Method B

Some teachers prefer to prepare group reading for the whole class. The learn-
ers read from their class readers and all groups read the same passage or
story. The teacher first explains unfamiliar words to the whole class. Then she
reads the story to the class while the learners follow in their readers and make
sure that they can pronounce the words correctly. The teacher then asks a
few questions to ensure that the learners understand the story correctly. Each
learner then gets an opportunity to read a section of the story to his or her
group members. The teacher must pay specific attention to the group with the
slow or incompetent readers.

After group reading has taken place, the teacher can give a cloze technique
exercise to complete. The more advanced readers must get a more difficult
exercise than the slow readers. For the good readers every fifth word in the
passage can be left out, while every ninth word can be left out for slow read-
ers. Remember that an average mark of 40% or lower for a cloze technique
exercise is an indication that the exercise was too difficult for the group of
learners. Note that teachers should not just mark a word incorrect simply be-
cause the learner has not given the identical word found in the original text.
If the word makes sense, it should be taken as correct.

The group reading technique has many advantages. In a classroom with many
learners, it is often impossible for a teacher to give each learner a chance to
read out loud. If a class is divided into groups and the learners are expected
to read to one other in a group, while the teacher walks from group to group
to monitor the reading, a large number of learners get the opportunity to read
during each lesson. It is not necessary for the teacher to listen to all the learn-
ers in one lesson, he or she just needs to ensure that he or she listens to all
learners’ reading over a period of time.

In a group where all readers are more or less on the same level, the poor readers
are not exposed to the better readers’ ridicule or impatience; and therefore
they read with more confidence. Similarly, the good readers are not held back
by the slower readers and can as a result read more advanced material.

You are advised to sometimes change the groups so that there are good, av-
erage and poor learners in one group. The good readers can then assist the
poor readers.

10.4 PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH LOUD READING

There are certain problems associated with loud reading you need to take
note of. You should first of all understand that learners usually struggle to read
something if they do not understand what they are reading. You can therefore
explain beforehand what the story or reading text is all about; you can also
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explain difficult and unfamiliar words and make sure the learners know how to
pronounce unfamiliar words that they will come across in the reading passage.
You can call learners to your desk to read aloud while other learners are busy
with a writing exercise. You must also model reading from time to time so that
the learners understand how to use intonation and projection. The implication
is that they will have to copy you.

Problems that you may encounter are:

- Word-for-word reading: This is because the learner still sounds out words
and does not see the word or sentence as a whole. The problem can be
overcome by writing sentences on flash cards. Show each card to them for a
few seconds and then take it away. The learner must then try to say the whole
sentence. The “brush-and-tin” method can also be used. The teacher stands in
the back of the class where the learners cannot see her. While all the learners
are reading aloud, the teacher suddenly hits a tin with the brush. The learners
must then look up immediately and say the next word without looking at the
text. The words that they must be able to say, must be gradually increased to
up to four words. The learners can also read to the end of a sentence. Hit the
tin and then ask the learners what the first word of the next sentence is.

- Hesitate to pronounce a word: The teacher must first of all determine if

the reading material is not too difficult, because it may make the learners feel
tense. When the learners are tensed up, they will hesitate to say a word. The
problem can be overcome by doing a lot of word recognition exercises. Use a
piece of carton and cut out a window as big as the average word. The carton
is then moved randomly over a page and the learner must read the word that
is not covered by the window immediately, without hesitating. Hesitating is
sometimes just a bad habit.

- Words are left out or added: the cause of this problem is incorrect eye
movement. The “brush-and-tin” method can also be used effectively to solve
this problem. The learner who makes this kind of mistake does not know how
he or she reads. Let him or her read and record it on your cell phone. Play it
back to the learner.

- Incorrect pronunciation: this problem can be ascribed to poor knowledge

of sounds. Do pronunciation exercises and make sure that the learners get the
opportunity to listen to home language speakers of English (especially if you
are not an English HL speaker).

10.5 INDEPENDENT READING (SILENT READING)

The ultimate purpose of silent reading is that the learners will be able to read
independently, that they will develop a love for reading and that they would
like to read. Encourage the learners to read and also suggest good books in the
additional language you think they would enjoy. This implies that you should
be familiar with English books that are suitable for learners in the IP. Can you
mention a few books?

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10.6 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

You only need to prepare learners who are not yet ready to read in English
FAL. If they are ready to read English, it is not necessary do the preparatory
exercises discussed in this unit. Class reading, group reading and independent
reading must however be practised, even if learners are ready to read English.

At the beginning of the learning unit we have mentioned a few learning

objectives. By now you must have achieved them. Answer the following
questions without going back to make sure that you are on track. If you need
to go back more than twice, I suggest that you work through the learning unit
again.

• Why is it important that learners are ready to read in their additional

language before reading is taught actively?
• How would you ensure readiness to read?
• Which of the two methods of loud reading do you prefer? Justify your
answer.
• What problems could learners experience when reading out loud?
• Which of the methods of teaching formal reading do you prefer? Justify
your answer.

10.7 CONCLUSION
In this learning unit we have explained the importance of being ready to read
in the additional language. Although the learners are supposed to be ready
when entering the Intermediate Phase, they are very often not sufficiently
prepared to read in their additional language; and if this is the case, you will
have to do some exercises to ensure their readiness. You should also know
how to let them do as much loud reading as possible, but also allow them to
do silent reading.

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LEARNING UNIT
11 11

A framework for teaching reading and

11

viewing

WEEK 17–18

You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax,
all you need is a book
Dr Seuss

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• discuss pre-reading activities you will let the learners do

• explain what you will expect from learners while they are reading the text
• discuss post-reading activities
• describe reading and viewing strategies that you will let learners do

You need to spend two weeks on studying this learning unit.

11.1 INTRODUCTION
You have probably noted that CAPS (2011:10–11) prescribes that the reading
process of pre-reading, reading and post-reading should be followed when
teaching reading. We suggest that you refresh your memory by consulting CAPS.

The three stages have been discussed in detail in the study guide for TMN3702
and we repeat only the most important aspects here. To fully understand the
different activities that can be performed during each stage, you can rely on
TMN3702.

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11.2 PRE-READING ACTIVITIES

First of all, readers should orientate themselves to the text. This involves

• activating prior (background) knowledge

• looking at the source, author and publication date
• reading the first and last paragraphs of a section
• making connections to what they already know
• making predictions: What will the story be about? Are there clues that help
me to predict what is going to happen? What will I learn from this story/
reading passage?

Good readers do not start off by reading word for word, they first use a
number of orientation strategies, activating their prior knowledge to help them
understand the text. Because set readings (texts) at school are often presented
in isolation from their source (we tend to use a newspaper report, not the
entire newspaper, when we wish to discuss newspaper reports), extra attention
should be paid to orientating learners to the text. This includes the following:

• Let the learners closely examine the text features such as the title, author,
year of publication, source and table of content and do a quick scan of
certain sections (scanning is discussed later in this learning unit).
• Draw the learners’ attention to the text structure such as lists, sequential
order, description, procedures, main points and supporting points and
narrative sequence.
• Help the learners to examine the type of paper used and the number and
nature of illustrations (photographs, sketches, graphs, chart and diagrams);
the layout; headings and subheadings; numbering and format; font and the
use of columns (or not).

All of the above immediately provide a good deal of information. It tells the
reader what kind of text it is (advertisement, information text, recipe, report,
etc.); indicate how the text should be read (in detail or just scanned for main
ideas) and create considerable expectations about the text (what can be
expected from a text such as this).

A very popular pre-reading activity is to give the learners the title of the story
and then let them guess what is going to happen in a story with such a title.
They can then indicate afterwards whether their expectations were met and
whether they were right or wrong with their predictions.

11.3 WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

Reading with comprehension is very important; and it is your task to make sure
that all learners understand what they are reading during the while-reading
phase. They will need help with aspects such as (1) continuously checking
for understanding; (2) using contextual clues to find meaning versus using a
dictionary to find the meaning of a word; (3) using phonics or word-attack
skills to find the meaning of a word; (4) identifying how the text is structured/
organised; (5) considering persuasive and emotive language; (6) distinguishing
between facts and opinions; (7) making inferences; (8) identifying and evaluating
the register of a text; (9) understanding denotation and connotation; (10)
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identifying graphical techniques, such as colour, design, lettering, choice of

images and layout; and (11) using metacognition for improved comprehension.
(Each of these aspects has been discussed in detail in TMN3702. You can study
them if you want more information on while-reading activities. It doesn’t matter
whether you do so during this year or next year – as long as you learn about
while-reading activities before you start teaching.)

11.4 POST-READING ACTIVITIES

During post-reading activities, learners must reflect on the text they have read
and do certain activities. During this phase reading can be integrated with
writing and speaking.

After reading, you should let the learners pause for a moment and ask them-
selves the following questions:

• What is the text about? What is the main topic and the central idea?
• Have the questions I had beforehand been answered by the text? What do
I know now that I did not know before?
• Do I have any other questions about the text? Are there things that I still
do not understand?
• Do I agree with the author’s view; or do I have a different opinion? Do I
still have the same view as I had before I read the text?
• Do I understand the purpose of this particular type of text (to entertain,
inform, humour)?
• Is the author reliable (an expert) and serious about the subject?

The CAPS (2011:11) prescribes “Understanding – confirm your understanding

of the text” as one of the post-reading activities. One way in which under-
standing can be confirmed is to let the learners retell or summarise the story
they read. Retelling a story in their own words clears up language issues
and challenges the learners to aim for complete retention when reading. By
making a summary the learners can distinguish between the main ideas and
minor details. If you require of the learners to make a summary, you need to
tell them beforehand to note the main ideas or events. They could even put
a small piece of paper in the book to bookmark a main idea. When retelling
the story, the learners should focus only on the important points and support
them with relevant details.

An important part of post-reading activities is to let the learners link the text
to real-life experiences, other texts or prior knowledge. It helps them to per-
sonalise the information when applying the text to their own experiences and
knowledge. It also helps them to remember information better when applying
it to their lives. You can let them answer the following questions as part of
post-reading activities:

• Is the subject familiar? Do the characters resemble familiar people?

• Is the style or genre familiar? Does it resemble other texts such as television
shows, movies and games?
• Indicate some similarities between the current text and my experiences,
knowledge or other texts?
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The reading process, as set out in the preceding section, should be used when
teaching non-literary and literary texts (stories, folk tales, poetry and plays).
The reading process, as it applies to poetry and stories, have been explained
in detail in TMN3702 and we will therefore not be repeated it in this module.

11.5 READING AND VIEWING STRATEGIES

The English First Additional Language CAPS prescribes the following:

• skimming for main ideas

• scanning for supporting details
• inferring meaning of unfamiliar words and images by using word attack
skills and contextual clues
• rereading
• making notes (main and supporting ideas)
• summarising main and supporting ideas in point form/paragraph as per
required length
• clarifying
• making inferences
• explaining writer’s point of view
• drawing conclusions/own opinion

Although most of the aspects mentioned above were discussed in TMN3702, we

repeat the discussion of some of them here for the sake of comprehensiveness.

11.5.1 Skimming for main ideas

You are able to read faster when you do skim reading than when doing speed-
reading because you deliberately leave out sections (Du Toit et al 1995).

One of the demands that our rushed, modern life makes on readers is that
they should be able to extract the essence (what is most important) from a text.
For instance, a director, journalist, doctor, member of parliament, consultant,
teacher, minister of religion, scientist or engineer – to mention but a few
examples – needs to grasp the gist (essence) of a report, memorandum, article
or newspaper report quickly and within a limited time frame (which is usually
far too short). Thus, a lack of time forces people to skimread.

Skimming is a highly specialised reading skill that entails far more than merely
rapid reading. Skimming is not a lazy reader’s technique. On the contrary,
it is the pre-eminent characteristic of a good reader. It is a technique during
which we do not read every word, but our eyes glide fleetingly across the
text, stopping only to read certain indicators, such as headings, subheadings,
introductory and summarising paragraphs and key concepts. We skim far better
if we have formulated certain questions for ourselves in advance. Skimming is
usually done with the aim of gaining a preview, overview or revising.

In the instance of normal reading, the vertical span (the number of lines the
eyes are able to take in) is approximately six lines, whereas skimmers are
usually able to use the full vertical width of their visual span; they allow their
eyes to pass fleetingly over a page in a few seconds, like five or six seconds.
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Skimming exercises may be done as follows:

• Distribute copies of a text to the class. The text should be long enough
and suited for a specific purpose (a preview, an overview or revision) and
should be at the comprehension level of the class.

We recommend the following guidelines:

• Explain what skimming is and when it is necessary to skim (e.g. the table of
contents of a book to ascertain whether the book contains the information
that we seek).
• Give appropriate hints, such as the following:
– When skimming to gain a preview, first read the title and the subheadings;
explore the first and last paragraphs; focus on the introductory sentences
of paragraphs, and so forth.
– When skimming to gain an overview, skim the table of contents,
foreword or introduction and read the first sentences of paragraphs
– or the first and last paragraphs of chapters. Read the headings and
subheadings; read across examples and illustrations; and pay attention
to everything that stands out – such as a sentence written in upper
case, italics or in bold font.
– When skimming to revise take note of the headings, subheadings,
definitions and text that is underlined, printed in bold or italics or
indented.

• Give the learners clear instructions, such as that they must begin when you
give a signal, that the time will be recorded (tell them how much time will
be allowed – this is determined by the developmental level and skimming
proficiency) of the class and that they will have to write down what they
have skimmed or answer questions on the text afterwards.
• If the learners have to make a summary, after the skimming exercise, provide
them with a memorandum so that they can evaluate their skimming.
• Remember that you may use the study material from the learners’ other
learning areas during the reading lessons, including for skimming exercises.

11.5.2 Scanning for supporting details

“This is the fastest kind of reading you can do. When you scan, you pay no
attention to anything other than a particular item you are looking for. You run
your eyes quickly over the text, only stopping when you find what you want.
You then pay careful attention to that item’’ (Du Toit et al 1995:12).

Skimming entails rapidly ascertaining the main ideas in a set reading, whereas
scanning is a technique used to find specific facts and details related to the
preconceived aim. Individual readers usually know precisely what they are
searching for and let their eyes pass swiftly over all the other items without
really looking at them, until they find what they are looking for. People use
this technique when, for example, they are looking for a telephone number
in the telephone directory or items in classified advertisements. When we
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wish to find something specific in a bulky report (when a reader of an article

about the presidents of the USA is interested only in the dates during which
each president was in office), we would also make use of scanning to obtain
the necessary information.

Scanning exercises may be tackled as follows:

• From a particular reading exercise, you could choose certain information

for the learners to look for such as the names of specific people, dates
mentioned, figures given or a specific statement made.
• Explain to the learners that when scanning they must constantly keep in
mind the shape of what they are looking for. For example, is it a figure; one
word; a price; a word beginning with a capital letter; a date; an unfamiliar
word or a long word or a sentence?
• Scanning exercises may be practised regularly in class by, for example,
using classified advertisements and letting the learners look for the prices of
goods or telephone numbers. Contact lists on cell phones and dictionaries
could also be used regularly for this purpose.

11.5.3 Inferring meaning of unfamiliar words by using word attack skills

and contextual clues
Phonics, or word attack skills, are important during any reading programme,
especially for young learners. Word-attack strategies help learners to decode,
pronounce and understand unfamiliar words. Learners learn to “attack” a word,
each part of a word or from a different angle. If the learners struggle with a
word, you can teach them to look for clues from pictures (are there people,
actions or objects in the picture that give them a clue to make sense of the
word?) or sound out each letter of the word. They may also look for familiar
chunks of words. They can, for example, analyse the word “personality”
by breaking it down into “personal” and then “person”. Words can also be
broken up into parts by letting learners use affixes or syllables to guide them.
For example, they can use their knowledge of the prefix “dis” to figure out
what “discharge” means. Teach the learners to reread a sentence if they do
not understand it after the first reading. You can also explain to them that if
they do not understand a word, they can keep on reading to see if the word is
perhaps repeated later in the text. They can then compare the second sentence
in which the word is used with the first and ask themselves what word might
make sense in both sentences.

A good reader always tries to deduce the meaning of an unfamiliar word from
the context of the text or sentence in which the word appears. The learners
should, therefore, be given opportunities to practice this technique. A useful
technique is the cloze technique refer to section 10.3.3).

11.5.4 Making inferences

Inferencing is an important reading strategy that learners must learn. Tell them
that inferencing is like making an educated guess, in other words, a guess
based on observations and a logical conclusion about what is happening in
the text they are reading. It is almost like “reading between the lines”. When
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making inferences, one is not stating the obvious; but actually going beyond
the obvious. If someone comes to school wearing a Mamelodi Sundowns
T-shirt, the obvious fact would be that the person is wearing a Mamelodi
Sundowns T-shirt. But learners will probably also guess, or infer, that the
person is a Mamelodi Sundowns supporter. Or if a friend comes to school on
crutches, you would infer that she/he was injured in some kind of accident.
Of course, our inferences could be wrong. The fact that a person was wearing
a Mamelodi Sundowns T-shirt might be because it was a gift from a brother
and it was the only clean shirt he/she had in his/her cupboard. Or the friend
on clutches might have had an operation.

11.5.5 Identifying main and supporting ideas and using them to make a
summary in point or paragraph format
Vener (2002) explains how to find the main idea of a paragraph by giving a
number of examples. Study his article Finding the main idea at https://www.
landmarkoutreach.org/strategies/finding-main-idea/.

According to Vener (2002) the main idea is the gist of the paragraph. It is the
most important thought about the topic. The main idea might be in different
places in a paragraph. Vener (2002) uses the following example to explain
how the topic and main idea need to be determined:

First find the topic and then look for the main idea.

Summer is a wonderful time to spend at West Beach. It is a beach with light-

colored, soft sand. The coastline goes on for a long way and many people
enjoy walking along it. Children like to play in the surf and walk along the
rocks that are visible at low tide. This is a fun beach for people of all ages.

In this paragraph:

• the topic is West Beach

• the main idea (what the writer is saying about the topic) is that summer is
a wonderful time at West Beach

16 Ac tivit y 11a
Use the explanation by Vener (2002) to identify the topic, main and support-
ing ideas. Use a red pen and circle the main idea and underline the details.

Proficient students may monitor their understanding of a text by summarising

as they read. They understand that if they can write a one- or two-sentence
summary of each paragraph after reading it, then that is a good sign that they
have correctly understood it. If they cannot summarize the main idea of the
paragraph, they know that comprehension has broken down and they need
to use fix-up strategies to repair understanding.

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11.5.6 Making notes (main and supporting ideas)

According to Nothling (1988:10–11), notes and summaries are two consecutive
phases of the same cognitive process. Since making notes is a central rather
than a coincidental part of study activities, much attention should be paid to
it when teaching a language. While reading a text, learners can make notes by

• underlining the main ideas (learners usually tend to underline too much –
they must be given exercises on a regular basis where they are expected
to underline only the most important points)
• drawing lines in the margin next to the main ideas
• making asterisks in the margin to indicate central points
• numbering the main ideas and details
• circling key words, phases or clauses
• writing key words in the margin
• highlighting

To make a summary, learners should start by doing an exploratory reading

of the reading passage to form a general impression followed by a careful
reading combined with making notes (as indicated above).

The notes that are made, may then be arranged and processed into a summary.

11.5.7 Drawing conclusions/own opinion

The ability to draw conclusions and form an opinion about the text indicates
that that reader has understood the text and engaged with the text. The ability
to draw conclusions and form an opinion about the text is important, even
for young learners, for developing reading comprehension and higher order
thinking skills. If you want to develop the learners’ ability to draw conclusions
and form their own opinion about texts, you should structure suitable activi-
ties. When it comes to forming an opinion about the text, you could ask the
learners the following questions during the post-reading stage:

– How did you feel when you read this text?

– Do you agree or disagree with the author? Explain why.
– Would you want to read this text again? Explain your answer.
– Did you like the story? If yes, explain why. If no, explain why you did not
like the story.

You can develop your own questions in such a manner that it engages the
learners to come to a general opinion of the text.

In order to teach the learners how to draw conclusions from the text they have
read, you need to explain to them that conclusions are opinions or judgements
that are based on what happened or what was discussed in a specific text.
Drawing conclusions and making inferences (refer to section 11.5.4) are usually
closely related. Students must, however, understand that they must always be
able to provide evidence to support their conclusions. If someone, for example,
wears a thick jacket, a beanie and boots, one can conclude that the story is
taking place in the winter.

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17 Ac tivit y 11b
The following Youtube video has been watched more than 100 000 times
and received many likes. It is only four and a half minutes in length and
provides a clear explanation of how conclusions could be drawn:

Drawing Conclusions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_S1pkkN81s

I hope you have enjoyed watching this youtube video. Did you notice from
the examples given how the main facts that the author shares and what we
already know can be used to draw a conclusion. The video also cautions about
jumping to conclusions without knowing the full facts. The explanation by the
young learner at the end of the video was also very informative. You can use
this example to let your own learners explain how they came to conclusions.

11.6 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

In this learning unit we have explained the framework that can be used for
teaching any kind of reading, whether it is reading literary texts or non-literary
texts.

At the beginning of the learning unit we have mentioned a few learning

objectives. By now you must have achieved them. Answer the following
questions without going back to the learning objectives to make sure that you
are on track. If you need to go back more than twice, I suggest that you work
through the learning unit again.

• How would you orientate learners to the reading task?

• What kind of activities would you expect of learners while they are reading
a text?
• How would you integrate post-reading activities with other language skills?
• How would you teach learners to skim and scan?
• How would you assist learners in making notes while reading?

11.7 CONCLUSION
The main reason for teaching young learners to read is the development of
reading and comprehension skills that will help them to effectively interpret
and apply meaning to the written word. When young learners master these
skills, they can use the reading process for independent learning, for pleasure,
for studying, or both.

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LEARNING UNIT
12 12

Teaching reading and viewing: Different

12

types of texts

WEEK 19–20

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.

Margaret Fuller

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• discuss the text features of literary text

• discuss non-literary texts
• explain the teaching of visual texts

You will have to spend a full two weeks studying this learning unit.

12.1 INTRODUCTION
The CAPS prescribes literary as well as non-literary text types. Under literary
text types, the following are listed:

• Stories: contemporary realistic fiction, traditional stories (myths and legends,

folk tales, fables), adventure stories, science fiction, biographies, historical
fiction
• Plays
• Poetry

The following text types that are listed can be regarded as non-literary
(transactional) texts:

• Information texts: procedures, factual recounts, general knowledge texts,

informative texts, such as reports.
• Social texts: invitations, greeting cards, letters and notices
• Media texts: advertisements, newspaper reports, magazine articles, notices
and pamphlets.
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• Visual literacy: advertising: (posters, pamphlets, advertisements), notices,

drawings, photographs, cartoon, comic strip and diagrammes /graphs/
tables/ charts.

In order to teach the learners to read these types of texts, you must know
the features of each type of text. We assume that you have dealt with this
information in your content modules, but we are briefly going to refresh your
memory of a few key concepts.

12.2 GUIDELINES TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN TEACHING THE READING OF

LITERARY TEXTS
There are a few guidelines that you must keep in mind when teaching the
reading of literary texts. You will note that these guidelines relate to the content
indicated in the two-weekly lesson plans (CAPS 2011, Section 3.4).

• Create a love for reading in your learners

Through the teaching of short stories, folklore, myths, legends, fables, plays
and poetry, you should aim to develop a love of reading in your learners. Every
literary text activates an emotional and intellectual response in the reader.
Stories, plays and poems speak to the heart and the brain of the learner. They
must get the opportunity to express their responses to and feelings about the
text. Experiencing the text (a reader-directed approach) should thus precede
studying the text (a text-centred approach). Simply answering questions on a
literary text and studying literary concepts does not cultivate a love of reading
in learners.

• Keep a balance between a text-centred and a reader-directed approach

In a text-centred approach, the text is studied for its own sake. In a reader-
directed approach, the reader’s experience and what the text means to him
or her personally is taken into account, so that the reader’s experience of the
text becomes the main component. Interpretation might differ from reader to
reader, because readers bring all sorts of things from their personal knowledge
and experience to bear on the text. Think for example how a learner who is
bullied at school, will read a story in which the main character is bullied, as
opposed to a learner who is doing the bullying. Learners should, however,
also acquire knowledge of the key features of a story or play, such as plot,
setting, characterisation, similes, background, setting, theme, etc during the
post-reading phase by studying the features of the text.

• Extension of vocabulary is an important part of reading in an additional

language

Extending and strengthening learners’ vocabulary should be done on a regular

basis. Explain the meaning of unfamiliar words or let learners work out the
meaning of unfamiliar words from the context.
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• Learners should often get the opportunity to read a story aloud

Reading a story out loud in an additional language is an important part of

learning the language.

12.3 TEACHING LITERARY TEXTS: STORIES AND PLAYS

According to CAPS, stories include contemporary realistic fiction, traditional
stories such as myths and legends, folk tales and fables; adventure stories, sci-
ence fiction, biographies and historical fiction. Irrespective of the type of story,
the framework of pre-reading, while reading and post-reading will be the same.

To be able to come up with the right pre-reading, reading and doing post-
reading activities, it is important that you know the features of the different
types of stories. We will therefore spend some time on the stories mentioned
in CAPS, before turning to the key features of stories.

12.3.1 Contemporary realistic fiction

Contemporary realistic fiction is stories that are believable and play of in the
modern world. The characters are real-world people who are involved in
realistic events, events that could or are likely to happen. Characters, for ex-
ample, have to deal with real-life issues such as the death of a parent, divorce
or bullying. The story usually takes place in the present time and may or may
not include reference to pop culture and events of the day. The story is how-
ever fictional, in other words, it is not true and just the product of someone’s
imagination.

12.3.2 Traditional stories

Traditional stories include myths and legends, folk tales or fairy tales and fables.

• Folktales

A folk tale is a well-known, old story that has been told over and over often
delivered in speech form from one generation to another over many, many
years. The author is not known and there are usually many different versions
of the same folktale. Folktales were usually told orally and it was seen as an
important way of passing down information from older to younger people.

Each human society has its own folktales; and if you want to know more
about your heritage, read the folktales from the country where your great-
great-grandparents come from. This is so because the word “folk” comes from
the German word “volk” which means “people”. Fairy tales and ghost stories
are types of folk tales, but they are also closely related to many storytelling
traditions such as fables, legends (and even urban legends) and myths. The
well-known fairy tales by Grimm can be cited as an example of folk tales.
Folk tales grew out of the imagination of the people of a specific country. Just
like fables, folk tales often contain a moral lesson, this usually becomes clear
at the end of the story.
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Recurring themes are found in folk tales, irrespective of the country in which it
originated. Consider some folk tales or fairy tales you may be familiar with as
an example. Some recurring themes in these probably include the following:

Coming of age. A young boy or girl suffers hardships and becomes more mature
and wiser as a result; or becomes a hero or prince or princess.

Cleverness. This is often a tool for those with less power to outwit those with
more power. For example, a cunning jackal outwits a lion; or the tortoise
outwits the hare to win the race.

Transformation. A beast or a frog is actually a prince who has been transformed

and is finally restored to his original form; a beggar at the gate is actually a
king in disguise; a sheep is revealed as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The lesson
here is not to take anything at face value.

• Fables

A fable is a short story in a descriptive (telling) or poetry format, usually with

a very clear “didactic” or educational intention. You can explain to the learn-
ers that this is because a fable is intended to provide a moral story. A fables is
often a light, humorous story or a satire. Fables often use animals as the main
characters. These animals have human characteristics, such as the ability to
speak; and they usually depict the strengths and weaknesses of people. Ani-
mals are thus personified. These animals are usually placed in a problematic
situation caused by a character trait of weakness (jealousy, vanity, laziness).
The solving of the problem always serves to teach the reader a moral lesson.
Once you have explained these characteristics of a fable to the learners, you
can ask them to find their own fables or refer to fables that their parents or
grandparents have told them. They can then read a fable in class and explain
why this text could be classified as a fable. Well-known South African fables
are the numerous stories about Jackal and the Wolf, Why the Cheetah’s Cheeks
are Stained, Why the Warthog Goes About on His Knees. Aesop’s fables are
also well-known.

• Myths

A myth is not necessarily a true event or story, but rather a story based on tradi-
tion or legend which has a deep symbolic meaning. Some myths are very old
(sometimes thousands of years old) and can be found in almost every culture in
the world. The best-known myths are the ones from Ancient Greece, Ancient
Rome, the Norse people or from Northern Europe. A story from the Greek
mythology that is well-known is The Minotaur, while the story of Romulus
and Remus (the two boys that were raised by a wolf) is a well-known Roman
myth. Myths usually have heroes or heroines who are either gods or people
with extraordinary strength or power, sometimes super power. They mostly
have to go on a journey to outwit or to battle with a beast or monster. Gods
and monsters are the main characters in most myths.
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• Legends

Similar to myths, legends tell us how a hero or heroine solves a problem or

beats the bad character in the story.

A legend is an old and semi-true story. It does have a little bit of truth in it
and might be based on a real event, person or historic event from a long time
ago, but it has been exaggerated with time. Some legends are world famous,
for example the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table or
Robin Hood or The Loch Ness Monster, but others are only known locally.
A legend has important meaning and symbolism for the culture in which it
originates. The heroes in a legend are usually courageous, strong and clever
(sometimes all three). One sometimes, but not always, finds magical people in
legends such as wizards, witches, fairies, giants, mermaids, dragons or knights,
which may either be good or bad.

Myths, legends, folktales and fables were told because of a lack of written
texts. That is why they were told in oral form from one generation to the other.
Stories were told to pass on history and knowledge and to make sure that the
stories of courageous heroes were not forgotten by future generations. Fables,
myths and folktales were also used to convey values and virtues and how one
should act in difficult situations to the community. It was a way of providing
moral guidance to members of the community. A myth is, for example, often
used to explain that one’s own stupidity, greed, dishonesty or negligence can
lead to embarrassment or humiliation. Folktales were also often used to ex-
plain things that people did not understand such as an eclipse, a full moon or
the change of seasons. But let us not forget that the main reason why stories
were told in the past was to entertain. It is still the main reason for telling and
reading stories.

Although we do not pass stories on around the campfire anymore – like our
forefathers used to do – we can still use myths, legends and folktales in our
classrooms. These stories have survived for many years because they are grip-
ping and part of our history; therefore, we also need to pass them on to our
children. They can be used in many ways in the classroom, specifically in the
language classroom.

18 Ac tivit y 12a
How would you use folktales, myths, legends and fables in the language
classroom?

The biggest advantage of folktales, myths, legends and fables is that they are
usually simple stories written in simple, concrete understandable language.
They also mostly follow a chronological order. These types of stories are
usually accompanied by artworks. It might thus be easy to present the story
through illustrations that may assist learners in understanding the story and
simultaneously building vocabulary. I will explain how these types of stories
could be used by indicating what can be done in the first column and how it
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corresponds with what CAPS says, in the second column. I have referred to
only one or two references in CAPS, there are, however, many others.

How to use myths, legends, Guidelines in CAPS

fables and so forth in the lan-
guage classroom

Use the story to do vocabulary • Discusses new vocabulary

building. from the read text (page 38)

Use the pictures or illustrations in • Pre-reading: predicts from the

the book. title and pictures (page 47)

They are usually structured chron- • Tells events in sequence

ologically which makes them easy (page 67)
to follow. Many stories are pre- • Discusses events in the story
dictable; so, the story can be used ^ #}‹Œ    ƒ
to let learners predict or guess of events (page 50)
what is coming next. • Uses reading strategies, e.g.
making predictions (page 50)

Stereotypes are often used in the • Œ      ^ }
stories; so, you can use it to ex-
plain to learners by means of the
story what “stereotyping” means.

Myths, legends, folk tales and fa- • Explains the moral of the story
bles often contain a message or a (page 44)
moral. You can use this to explain • Explains the main message
to the learners what is meant by (page 55)
the theme of stories and the les-
son or moral message.

These types of stories are part • Indigenous knowledge systems:

of our cultural history and the acknowledging the rich history
learners can be requested to and heritage of this country
find fables, legends, folk tales or as important contributors to
myths from their own culture and nurturing the values contained
present them to the class during in the Constitution (page 5).
speaking lessons. • Tells a story (page 69).
• Tells and retells story (page 76).

Learners can be requested to read • Reads aloud with appropriate

the stories out loud; or they can  ;> 
be asked to dramatise the events expression (page 62).
in the story. • Reads aloud with expression,
showing understanding (page
82).

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How to use myths, legends, Guidelines in CAPS

fables and so forth in the lan-
guage classroom

• Reads aloud, using proper

pronunciation, pacing and
volume (page 66).

As the stories usually deal with • Œ     [ 

fundamental human themes and message of the story (page
dilemmas, such as jealousy, the 64). Discuss ethical, social and
stories can be used to develop critical issues in a story (page
learners’ critical thinking skills. 69).

Sources consulted: http://myths.e2bn.org/teachers/info307-how-can-they-be-used-in-the-

classroom.html; http://myths.e2bn.org/teachers/; https://www.teachin-
gideas.co.uk/sites/default/files/storytimemythsandlegendsresourcepack.pdf

12.3.3 Adventure stories

Adventure stories are fictional stories that usually happen outside an ordinary
person’s life. These stories are usually characterised by adventure, danger and
physical action. There is usually a strong, courageous hero who saves other
characters from dangerous situations. Events usually follow each other in a
fast pace and usually centres on a main character who finds himself or herself
in a dangerous situation.

19 Ac tivit y 12b
The following youTube video has been watched more than 17 000 times.
It explains the structure of adventure stories and we would like to encour-
age you to watch it. It will just take two minutes.

Elements of adventure stories (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

wxhO0uJDBtY)

The video refers to the eight features of adventure stories. Did you recognise
those eight features from adventure stories that you read when you were a
child? Something that we find interesting in the video is that the hero often
starts out as a shy person and then becomes a strong heroic person at the
end. There is, in other words, a change in the main character. I never noticed
that as a child, but now that I am thinking back to the adventure stories that I
read as a child, I realise that it is in fact true.

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12.3.4 Science fiction

“Science fiction is a genre of fiction in which the stories often tell about science and
technology of the future. It is important to note that science fiction has a
relationship with the principles of science—these stories involve partially true,
partially fictitious laws or theories of science.”(http://www.readwritethink.
org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson927/SciFiDefinition.pdf). The setting
of science fiction texts is often outer space, a different world, an imaginary
world or a different universe. The Harry Potter and the Hunger Games series
are well-known examples of science fiction. We hope you are familiar with
these series.

12.3.5 Biographies
A biography is a story about a person’s life written by someone else. South
African readers are very fond of the biographies of political leaders such as
the late former President Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Steve Biko. By
letting learners read biographies, they also gain insight into the history of this
country.

12.3.6 Historical fiction

The setting in historical fiction is important as the fictional story is usually
set against the backdrop of a well-known historical event, such as WWII or
Apartheid.

12.3.7 Plays
A play is also known as a drama. The word drama comes from the Greek
word drama which means to act. It thus tells a story by depicting people’s
actions (which includes words). In a play a story (it could be any type of story
that has been discussed so far) is told, not in a traditional way but by means
of the acts and words of people. What happened is not told in the story as if
it happened in the past, it is rather portrayed as something that happens right
in front of the reader (or viewer) by letting characters talk to one another.

You can start teaching plays by telling learners that dramatic events are part of
our daily lives. Let them imagine a discussion between a teacher and a parent
whose child has been caught smoking on the school ground. Let one of them
be the teacher, the other one the parent and a third learner the child. They
can act out the discussion between the three during the speaking lesson. This
can also serve as a pre-reading activity for teaching a play or drama.

The best way of teaching a play (or a drama) is to combine it with the teaching
of dialogues during Language Structure and Conventions. Learners must
understand that dialogue is the main ingredient of a play. A play is meant to
be read by different people; therefore, you can assign different characters to
different learners and let them read the play. The same key features that can
be found in stories, namely characterisation, setting, story line, theme and
message must also be discussed when teaching plays. These key features are
discussed in subsequent sections.
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Irrespective whether the story is contemporary, realistic fiction, an adventure

story, science fiction, a traditional story or a play, the story will be made up of
certain key elements or features. These key features and how to teach them
are discussed below.

12.4 KEY FEATURES OF A TEXT

As far as stories and plays are concerned, CAPS prescribes that learners be
introduced to the following key features:

• story line
• characters
• background, setting and plot
• text structure and format

We have also analysed the content and teaching plans for Grade 4–6 (section
3.4 in CAPS) and found that the following should, among others, form part of
the teaching of literary texts, such as stories and plays:

• explanation of opinions and feelings about the story (with reasons)

• moral of the story
• identification of stereotypes
• identification of the message of the story
• ethical and social issues in the story or play
• cause and effect
• the sequence of events in a story or a play
• new vocabulary
• doing a role play based on the story
• analysing the punctuation and format of a play
• acts out certain sections in a play
• characters, setting and action in a play
• the format of a play
• dialogue in a play
• connection between the story or play and own personal life

12.4.1 Teaching learners to understand the plot of a story

The logical question that is usually asked in relation to a story is, “What
happens in the story?’’ After all, that is what fiction (i.e. a representation of
something imaginary that has happened, as in narratives and stories) is about,
namely recounting imaginary events. However, it is not so easy to answer this
question because authors do not always relate a story from beginning to end
in chronological order (i.e. as it takes place in time sequence).

The important thing here is how the different events influence the characters in
the story. For instance, the events can usually be ascribed to a specific cause,
which could lead to a certain effect, such as conflict.

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The plot may be determined by letting the learners set up a timeline, such as
the following:

Beginning ..................................Middle .................................. End

The plot of a story tells us why certain events occur, what has caused the
event and how these events, in turn, give rise to other events. A table depict-
ing the events, causes and results could be drawn up to help the learners to
understand the plot. Example:

Event Cause Result

You could supply some of the information in a table like this and then ask the
learners to complete the table.

Another way in which you could teach plot is by reading the story up to a
point and then ask the learners to predict how the story will continue.

Rebecca Ray suggests that one uses the word STORY, to discuss the plot as
follows:

S: The Setting, in other words, the time and place of the story – a farm, modern
day.

T: Talking character, means the learners must determine who the main character
in the story is –Thabo is the main character who has just been given a small
puppy.

O: Oops, there is a problem – while Thabo is playing football with his friends
and brothers, the puppy falls into the dam.

R: How the problem is resolved –Thabo breaks a branch off a tree and uses
it to help the puppy to swim to the side of the dam.

Y: Yes. Problem solved – the puppy is tired but happy and licks Thabo’s face.

Adapted from: https://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboards/rebeccaray/

s-t-o-r-y-teaching-the-parts-of-plot-grades-2–6

Plot can also be taught by letting the learners complete the following questions
based on the story:

(1) Where does the story take place?

(2) Who is the main character?
(3) What does the main character want?
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(4) What is the problem the main character has to deal with?
(5) How is the problem solved?
(6) What happened after the problem was solved?

12.4.2 Teaching characters and characterisation

Stories are about people. It is about how they behave under different
circumstances, how they interact with other people, what types of personalities
they have, what they do and think and how other people see them. This means
that we need to get to know the characters in a story well. Most people are
interested in what other people do, how they behave and why they act the way
they do. Therefore, we are usually also interested in the motives or reasons for
their behaviour. The way a character is depicted in a story, will let the reader
believe in the character, as it will make a life-like person of the character.

Initially, at the beginning of Grade 4, learners only need to be able to identify

the main character and make a list of all the other characters. As they progress,
they also need to be able to give reasons for characters’ actions and be able
to discuss the features of characters. This implies they need to be able to an-
swer more complex questions such as “Why couldn’t ….”, “What caused …”
and “How do you think …” about the characters and their actions. They also
need to describe characters’ feelings and talk about reasons for their actions.

We generally get to know the individual characters in a book in the following

ways:

• what the narrator says about them (e.g. intelligent, attractive appearance)
• what other characters say and think of them
• what the characters themselves say, how they treat others, how other people
behave towards them, and how they cope with conflict situations
• the characters’ external appearance, the way they dress, their educational
background, their position in society, and so on

One way of dealing with characterisation in a class would be to use mind maps.
A mind map begins with a circle in the centre of the page, in which the name
of the main character is written. Then the names of the other characters are
written (in circles) all around that of the main character, and lines are drawn to
link them. The type of relationship (e.g. mother, girlfriend, colleague) between
the characters is indicated (in writing) on the straight lines.

By means of a table such as the following, learners may also be helped

to compile a complete character sketch of a character:

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How do we get to Quotation and page What do we deduce

know the character? reference from this (what
characteristics does
he or she have)?

What the narrator says

about him or her

What he/she says

about himself/herself

What he or she does

What others say about

him or her

Behaviour towards and

conflict with others

Etc

Learners could be asked to draw a character or to cut a picture of someone

who makes them think of a specific character out of a magazine. It is important
for learners to form a “picture’’ of a specific character.

The following are teaching activities that you can use to teach character and
characterisation:

(1) The learners compile questions that they would like to put to the characters.
(2) Each of the learners is assigned a role to portray. Some of the other learners
play the parts of reporters who are required to conduct interviews with
the characters.
(3) The learners write diary entries that the characters would have made.
(4) The learners write letters to the characters, questioning their motives and
behaviour.
(5) The learners represent the characters in conflict situations.
(6) The learners speculate on reasons for some of the characters’ behaviour.
(7) One or more of the learners play(s) the part of one or two characters.
The learners conduct a phone-in programme in which the characters are
questioned. A variation on this activity is for you to play the caller, who
asks questions to the different characters.
(8) The teacher compiles a questionnaire for the learners to answer from the
point of view of a specific character.

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12.4.3 Teaching background and setting

“Setting’’ refers to the “when” and the “where” of the story. It refers to the place
where the story takes place as well as the time (contemporary or historic) in
which the story takes place. The setting creates atmosphere in the story and is
often an important factor in the story (think of a story in which drought influ-
ences the characters’ lives). The time frame in which the story takes place, will
also determine the characters’ actions. If it is historic fiction, the characters will,
for example, not be using cell phones. Gay Miller (https://bookunitsteacher.com/
wp/?p=405) gives the following ideas for teaching setting:

- Ask students to discuss where and when a specific type of story would
take place, e.g.
  |   ‹  
Fairy tales: Fictional world; the past (often “A long, long time ago” or
“once upon a time”)
‘    |   ‹ 
Myth: heaven and earth: past

Once learners have done this activity, they need to provide a vivid image
of the setting, by writing down what a character might hear, see, smell and
taste in such an environment. If there are pictures available in the book,
these pictures can be analysed to determine in what ways the setting (time
and place) is depicted by the picture. Learners can for example look at the
clothes the characters in the picture are wearing, what the landscape (e.g. sea
side, mountainous area, a forest or city) looks like, etc. The pictures can also
be used to build vocabulary, especially if all objects in the picture are identi-
fied and labelled. Learners need to understand that the setting can influence
characters as well as the plot of the story. They can for example be asked to
explain how a setting in a dark forest or a setting in the countryside can effect
themselves externally and internally – they can then extrapolate these feelings
to the characters in the story.

The following teaching activities can also be employed to teach the background
and setting of a story or play:

(1) Learners are asked to draw the scene where the story or play is enacted.
(2) Learners are asked to compile a table in which they show the similarities
and differences between the physical space in which they live and that
which is depicted in the story or play.
(3) Ask the learners to extract everything in the story that is typical of a
particular space, such as Africa, Western society, South African people,
townships or military life.

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12.4.4 Teaching theme and message

Life–in all its variety and with all its problems, ideas and events, serves as
a theme for stories and plays. Life’s events and all that accompany them of-
ten make a deep impression on us. Examples of such events/issues are the
fragmentation of families, bullying, a parent who loses his/her job, teenage
pregnancies or striving to conserve nature. The list goes on and on. Artists
(including authors/poets/playwrights) often feel these things more intensely,
which compels them to express their feelings in their art. This is how a work
of art gets a theme.

Viljoen (1996:24) explains a theme by using the example of a patchwork quilt:

the quilt is often made by repeating variations of a small pattern to make a
larger pattern.

Theme, then, is a repeated pattern within a work made up of parts, such

     %*ƒ +Œ  ’ ''    
idea or pattern of ideas that is repeated throughout the story. An idea
cannot be seen or touched; it is not a person, an event or an object.
Rather, theme is usually expressed by means of an abstract noun (the
name of something that cannot be perceived with the senses).

Examples of such abstract nouns are love, failure, guilt, patience, jealousy,
bravery, perseverance and nonacceptance or denial of something. Once an
abstract noun has been identified, the word (sometimes it may be two or three
words) could be used to formulate a sentence that relates to the perspective,
moral, lesson or message that the author wants us to understand. The theme
is sometimes called the “central idea” of the story. If “jealousy” is for example
the abstract noun, the theme could be something like “people would often
disadvantage themselves because of their jealousy of other people”. Remember
that a theme is always in the form of a sentence – not just one word.

When searching for the theme of a work, it is advisable to start by looking

for an abstract noun that could describe the story and then see whether the
theme may be generalised. Let the learners remove the characters’ names
and replace them with “he’’ or “she’’. Is the theme still valid in general human
circumstances?

When discussing the theme with the learners, you should remember the
following:

• A story sometimes has more than one theme.

• There is no “right’’ or “wrong’’ answer to the question of what the theme
of the story is. Learners may differ in their views of what the theme is,
provided they are able to substantiate their viewpoint.
• The theme of the story is not necessarily a miniature lesson that the writer
wishes to teach the learner about how to live. Viljoen (1996:121) explains
this point:

`            J ^++    

J};                % 
live. The novel does not contain lessons for the reader to learn from. By
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   %     ;Z Z  

we have been stimulated to think more about certain themes and topics,
not because the novel or short story makes moral points or instructs us.

• A theme does not announce itself – we have to discover the theme of a

story for ourselves.

20 Ac tivit y 12c
The following youTube video has been watched more than 780 000 times:

The only way you will ever need to teach theme (https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=9H6GCe7hmmA)

The video is only seven minutes in length and contains fun exercises (like
writing the theme on a piece of paper, crumbling it and throwing it to
other learners to add to what has been written) to determine the theme.

The author of the video makes an interesting distinction between topic and
theme. According to her, aspects such as “love”, “protection” and “danger”
are not themes as such, but rather topics. There are many videos on finding
the theme of a story on youTube. It would be worth your while to watch one
or two of them.

Brainstorming can be used very effectively to teach the theme of a story or

play. When teaching folk tales, it is important to let the learners brainstorm
the message that the story is trying to convey.

21 Ac tivit y 12d
The following fairy tales or myths all have very clear themes or messages.
Complete the following table for each of the stories. We have completed
the first one.

Story Abstract Formulation of Events in story

noun theme to justify the
identified theme

Cinderella Good versus Good will Cinderella who

evil always in the was good and
end triumph kind wins the
over evil. heart of the
prince and the
evils stepsisters
were snubbed.

Little Red
Riding
Hood

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The ugly
duckling

The race
between
the hare
and the
tortoise.

Why the
cheetah’s
cheeks are
stained.

If you want to teach key features of a text, you can use a dice to play a
game with the learners. It works as follows: The learners work in groups
of six. Each group has a dice and each learner gets an opportunity to
throw the dice. If the dice lands on 1, the learner who threw the dice must
explain what the story is about and the group must discuss the story. The
next learner then gets a chance to throw the dice. Each number on the
dice represents a key feature of the text that the group must discuss, for
example, 2 represents the main character and his or her characteristics; 3
represents the plot; 4 represents the setting and so forth.

12.5 TEACHING POETRY

The CAPS prescribes the teaching of literal meaning, figurative meaning, theme
and message, imagery (such as simile and personification), word choice, tone,
emotional responses and sound devices (alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc) as
part of poetry lessons.

A poet can play with words and mental images and this often determines the
structure of the poem. Structural elements can, in fact, be compared with play:
metre and rhyme have a close relationship with dance; and a metaphor can
be seen as role-play. Onomatopoeia also has to do with imitation. The fact
that poetry can be compared to play means that learners should enjoy poetry;
but, obviously, the degree to which they enjoy it depends on how you, the
teacher, present it. A poem should always be read out loud so that the word
play becomes clear.

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12.5.1 Teaching sound devices in poetry

Poetry is not just about content; an important characteristic of poetry is the
relationship between form (structure) and content. This means that the structure
of the poem (words, sounds, metre, images, rhyme, repetition) often reflects
the content of the poem. The poem is given a specific structure which supple-
ments, substantiates or supports the content. There is thus a balance between
the content and the form or structure so that together they form a whole.

• Alliteration, assonance and consonance

The relationship between content and structure has implications for teaching
poetry and for setting questions on a poem. Structure cannot – and may
not – be taught as a separate entity; it must be taught only with reference
to the meaning of the poem. The focus must be on the functional use of the
structural elements. You should thus not ask the learners to identify alliteration
or assonance without also asking them to find a link between the structural
elements and the content of the poem.

There is a close link between alliteration, assonance and consonance, so much

so that assonance and consonance are sometimes called subsets of alliteration.
Whereas alliteration is the repetition of a consonant sound (please note that it
is about the sound and not the letter) at the beginning of a word, consonance
refers to repetition of the same sound, but not necessarily at the beginning of a
word. Assonance refers to the repetition of the same vowel sounds. By letting
the learners first say a tong twister such as the following, you can explain the
three concepts to learners before giving them a poem to illustrate the use of
alliteration, consonance and assonance: “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
peppers”. This tong twister contains an example of alliteration with p (almost all
words start with a “p”); consonance by means of c, k, p and r; and assonance
with various pronunciations of e and i.

• Refrain

A refrain in poetry is a word, line, group of lines or even a stanza that is repeated
at different intervals in the poem. One often hears refrains in songs (which
is actually also poetry). As have been said before, repetition is an important
sound device in poetry.

• Rhyme and rhythm

Before teaching rhythm in a poem, you can first let the leaners drum a certain
beat with their fingers on their desks or clap their hands in a specific rhythm;
they usually enjoy this kind of activity. You can then explain that poets use
the same regular beats to create rhythm in a poem. Rhythm can be generated
by repetition of words, phrases, lines or sentences in a poem. It also becomes
clear by saying certain words louder than others; or by holding certain words
longer than others. Stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem will thus influ-
ence the rhythm; therefore, it is important to read a poem out loud to learners.
You must also read it with the right tone and intonation.

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When teaching rhyme, you can do a number of pre-reading activities in which

leaners, for example, are given two lists of words and are then expected to
link the words that sound similar. They must be made aware that it is about
the sound and not the spelling of the word as can be seen from the following
example.

Draw a line to connect the words that rhyme:

Worm Squeak

Cooler Seen

Note Hare

Blessed Hand

Canoe Squirm

Peak Shape

Trampoline Best

Bear Ruler

Tape Boat

Land Too

• Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia refers to a word that actually represents the sound that it

makes. One can almost hear that sound when reading the word. Examples
of onomatopoeia are words such as splash, honk, hiss, miaow and cuckoo.
Learners in the Intermediate Phase love playing around with sounds and they
can be requested to make up their own onomatopoeia once they know what
it means. Onomatopoeia can also be used to make phonics fun.

The following excerpts from two poems (The Rollercoaster and Swish went
the fish) by Kelly Roper (see https://childrens-books.lovetoknow.com/Ono-
matopoeia_Poems_for_Children for the complete poems as well as examples
of more poems with onomatopoeia in it.)

The Rollercoaster
Clickity-clackety, clickity-clackety,
The rollercoaster went up the track.

Swish Went the Fish

Swish, swish, swish,
Went the little goldfish
As he swam around his bowl.
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12.5.2 Following the reading framework when teaching poetry

Poetry can be taught by following the reading process that was discussed in
learning unit 11. You can adapt it slightly to teach a poem, but whatever you
do, start with a pre-reading activity followed by a while-reading activity to be
performed during the actual reading of the poem and end with post-reading
activities. Once you understand this model and have tested it in the classroom,
you will find that you (and your learners) will really enjoy reading poetry.

12.5.3 A few concluding remarks about the teaching of poetry

• Always remember that poetry is about sound. Read the poem with the
necessary intonation and feelings to the learners before they see the text.
Rhyme, alliteration and assonance can take their rightful place only when
the poem is heard. You might even need to reread the poem to the learners.
After you have read the poem, you may wish to divide the learners into
pairs so that each learner gets the opportunity to read the poem aloud to
his or her partner.
• Guard against always using the question-answer method – learners will
eventually start to think that poetry appreciation merely involves someone
asking them questions, to which they need to respond. These learners will
soon develop an aversion to reading poetry.
• Get the learners to make a collage of the poem.
• Delete the title of the poem and get the learners to provide a title.
• Allow the learners to write their own poetry. You can first provide them
with a frame for doing so and then later on, let them write on their own.
This activity should best be left for Grade 6 learners.
• Get the learners to arrange the poems that they have done during the year,
in order of their liking (from the poem they liked most to the poem they
liked least). Let them then give reasons for their first and last choice. You
can also let learners establish how many other learners rated a specific
poem first or last.
• After a poem has been discussed, it should always be read a second time.

12.6 NON-LITERARY (TRANSACTIONAL) TEXTS

When teaching non-literay texts, you need to follow the framework for teaching
reading, in other words you need to do pre-reading activities, reading activi-
ties and post-reading activities. It is important to first let learners read different
types of texts before they an be expected to write the particular text. In other
words you must let learners read different types of invitations, before they can
write their own invitation. If you want them to design an advertisement you
need to let them read a lot of different types of advertisements.

CAPS (2011:24–29) gives an explanation of the purpose, text structure and

language features of each of the different types of texts learners need to read.

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12.7 VISUAL LITERACY

Visual literacy is all about the interpretation of visual images. The basic elements
of visual literacy include the following (Gosher 2000:106–111):

• Composition. This refers to the clever placement of figures or objects inside

a frame.
• The use of colour. Colour can be divided into two groups, namely warm
and cold. Red, orange and yellow are warm colours, while blue radiates
coldness. Moods, emotions and feelings can also be depicted by means
of colours: red, for example, can signify danger or anger, while yellow
suggests joy and warmth.
• Lines. Lines can suggest movement. Horizontal lines usually demonstrate
peace, balance and stability. Vertical lines indicate strength or spirituality,
while diagonal lines look dynamic and give a feeling of energy.
• Texture. This refers to what an object feels like. A visual representation can
easily represent a particular texture – such as the soft skin of a baby’s face
or the wrinkled face of an old person.
• Type of shot. In a film or a television programme, a wide shot will provide an
overhead view and sketch the scene, while a close-up will aim to highlight
something, accentuate the dramatic impact of something or indicate the
importance of something.
• Focus. Focus can be soft (hazy) in order to create a romantic atmosphere
or to create a mysterious, dream-like effect. Sharp focus, on the other
hand, portrays reality and creates a feeling of honesty, clarity, openness
and truth. Sometimes part of a picture or photograph is in sharp focus and
the rest is hazy. This is normally done to emphasise one part of the picture
or photograph.

Incorporate pictures, photographs and other visual material in class frequently

and analyse them with reference to the above-mentioned elements. Whenever
you use a photograph or picture, ask questions such as the following:

• What did your eyes focus on first of all?

• What did you focus on next?
• Which part of the photograph/picture is in sharp focus and which parts are
fainter? What atmosphere does this create?
• What do you learn from the body language of the people in the picture?
• How are lines and texture used in this picture/photograph to create
atmosphere/help to convey the message?
• What is the message conveyed by the photograph?

When comic strips or cartoons are discussed, it is important to be on the

lookout for stereotyping, caricatures and body language.

A comic strip is a series of drawings or a single drawing that normally tells a story
or comments on everyday social events. According to Gosher (2000:111), comic
strips or cartoons have the following characteristics:

• They are used for satirical purposes.

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• The movements and postures of the figures in the comic strip normally
also communicate meaning that is not expressed in words – this is called
body language.
• The topic is often human peculiarities and behaviour, public figures, politics,
fashion, sports, etc. They are usually humorous.
• Some cartoons get their point across in the drawing alone, while others
have captions or use dialogue in speech bubbles.
• Punctuation is used in clever, creative ways.
• Movement is often depicted by means of vertical, bent or diagonal lines.
Quick actions are portrayed through broken lines, or by letting someone
escape the frame of the strip.
• Cartoons and comic strips make ample use of caricatures and stereotyping.

A caricature is a drawing in which a person or action is represented in an

exaggerated way.

Stereotyping is usually based on prejudice and many people fall into the trap
of stereotyping. Pronouncements that lump everyone together in one group
and generalise about them may be described as stereotyping.

22 Ac tivit y 12d
Find a few examples of cartoons and comic strips that you could use in
your class. They must be suitable for learners in Grades 4–6. The cartoons
or comic strips must display the following:

• a caricature
• commentary on a social event (that IP learners would be aware of)
• stereotyping
• clever use of punctuation
• depiction of movement

Explain how you would use these cartoons or comic strips in your classroom.

12.8 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

At the beginning of the learning unit we have mentioned a few learning
objectives. By now you must have achieved them. Answer the following
questions without going back to make sure that you are on track. If you need
to go back more than twice, I suggest that you work through the learning unit
again.

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• What guidelines would you keep in mind when teaching literary texts?
• How would you go about teaching the plot of a text?
• What is meant by the “background and setting” of a text?
• How would you teach learners to understand the characters in a text?
• Why is it important to create a love for reading in learners? How would
you go about to do that?

12.9 CONCLUSION
The comprehensive aim of reading instruction is to develop independent,
lifelong readers by teaching them techniques and strategies that will develop
their general reading skills to the extent that they can read for enjoyment and
appreciation; and/or with a view to gain insight, understanding and precise
judgement; regardless of whether it is in their first or an additional language.

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LEARNING UNIT
13 13

Teaching writing and presenting:

13

Introduction

WEEK 21–22

I write what I like.

Steve Biko

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• clarify the content, strategies and sub-skills for writing and presenting as set out
in CAPS for English FAL in the Intermediate Phase
• explain that writing is a process and guide learners through the writing process
• discuss a variety of activities that may be used in writing instruction and apply
these in a practical teaching context

13.1 INTRODUCTION
Of all the language skills, writing is probably the most difficult. Most learners
struggle to write in their home language; even more in their additional language.
The reason for the challenging nature of written work in an additional language
probably lies in its tendency to feature more complex language than oral
language: vocabulary is more varied and syntax is more complex and the
range of clauses and tenses used is wider. In addition, learners have to do a
lot of things at the same time when writing. They must organise their ideas;
decide how to structure their text and what (correct) vocabulary and language
structures must be used.

You should remember that writing, specifically in the instance of additional

languages, plays a very important role in the process of language acquisition
because writing strengthens the learners’ existing knowledge of grammatical
structures, spelling, expressions and vocabulary and gives them the opportunity
to apply their knowledge. It is your task, as a teacher, to provide the additional
language learners with the linguistic tools they need (vocabulary, language
structures and conventions, spelling rules) to complete the writing task.
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The learners must thus be provided with the skills needed to write in their
additional language. Although learners transfer some of the writing skills they
have acquired in their home language to their additional language, they need
the necessary vocabulary, language structures and conventions to be able to
write effectively in their additional language. Initial teaching of writing in an
additional language in the Intermediate Phase (IP) will therefore use many
pre-writing activities to help learners build the necessary vocabulary. Writing
frames must also be used to provide them with the necessary linguistic and
structural support.

In this learning unit we will introduce you to different methods that will help
your learners to write different kinds of factual and imaginative texts for a wide
range of purposes. When working through this learning unit, you will realise
that explicit pedagogy in grammar and vocabulary is required to achieve
proficiency in writing. A teacher must show patience and empathy for the
learners’ writing problems and writing anxiety. Teachers must also provide
careful support and structured guidance if they want to succeed in making
writing instruction a successful and enjoyable experience.

13.2 WHAT CAPS SAYS ABOUT THE TEACHING OF WRITING AND

PRESENTING
Before we explain what the teaching of writing entails, you first need to
familiarise yourself with the guidelines that CAPS give regarding writing and
presenting in English FAL in the IP.

23 Ac tivit y 13a
Read section 2.1.2 on Writing and Presenting in CAPS English FAL (2011:11–
12) to see how important CAPS regards writing and presenting, what the
writing process entails and what opportunities learners should have to put
the writing process into practice. Then study section 3.1 in CAPS (2011:18)
for an explanation of the content, strategies and sub-skills that need to
be addressed when teaching writing and presenting. You also need to
study section 3.2.2 in CAPS thoroughly. This section sets out the range
of text types that learners should be taught to write in Grades 4–6. Also
familiarise yourself with the length of texts that must be produced by first
additional language (FAL) learners.

CAPS makes it clear that writing is important and that writing should be
done on a regular basis. Writing should also be seen as communication
and therefore it is important that learners should understand that writing is
always done with an audience in mind. At the heart of communication is the
intention to say something to someone. As soon as language is considered
independently of its communicative function, learners struggle to conceive of
the purpose of producing it. Learners need to learn to write clearly, logically
and concisely in order to communicate effectively. Without a perception of
writing as communication, this is impossible to achieve.
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Because learners who need to write in their additional language initially need
a lot of scaffolding (see section 4.4). Learners must therefore initially use
writing frames as support and gradually learn to write independently. Writing
activities in the additional language should preferably be based on actual
experiences, for example where the learners live, their environment, what they
play, where they go and what they are interested in. They also need to employ
the writing process to produce well-organised, grammatically correct written
texts. This implies that they need to decide on the purpose and audience of a
text, brainstorm ideas, do research on a topic if necessary, write a first draft,
read the first draft, rewrite the draft and in the end produce a neat, legible,
edited final version.

The types of content that need to be covered include word writing, such as
making lists, sentences and paragraph writing. Learners also need to write
different types of creative pieces (descriptions of people, places, animals, etc,
narratives such as stories, personal accounts, short poems, dialogues, etc) as
well as transactional texts (notes, messages, letters, greeting cards, posters,
notices, news reports, etc). By speaking to your learners about their experiences
of texts and about the relationship between the writer and the reader, you will
be able to show them why writing is important.

You should be able to assist learners to identify the purpose, text structure and
language features of each type of text that learners need to be able to write
(CAPS, section 3.2.2). You should therefore know the features of each of these
types of text. It is also important that you are able to write each of these types
of text as you cannot teach learners to do something if you yourself can’t do
it. You probably noted that the length of texts differs from grade to grade and
also between the types of text. Because the length of texts is such an important
aspect to keep in mind when teaching writing, we have copied section 3.2.3
in the CAPS (2011:30) below:

Task Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6

Paragraph 30–40 words 40–50 words 50–60 words

words
4–5 sentences 5–6 sentences 6–8 sentences
sentences

Written creative At least 50 At least 100 At least 150

and information words words words
texts, e.g. re-
1–2 paragraphs 2–4 paragraphs 3–5 paragraphs
counts, stories,
reports

Longer transac- Content only 60–80 words 80–100 words

tional texts, e.g.
40–60 words
letters

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Task Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6

Shorter texts, 20–30 words 30–40 40–60

e.g.
30–40 words 40–50 words 50–60 words
messages, notes
diary entries,
descriptions, etc

Summaries 30–40 words 40–50 words 60–70 words

from 100 from 120 from 180

24 Ac tivit y 13b

Read the following paragraph from Hinkel’s (2006:125) article and then
answer the questions that follow:

… the current approaches for teaching L2 writing to school-age children

are similarly based on the premise that learners need to attain fundamental
proficiency in spelling and in letter and word recognition, followed by a
focus on the syntactic parsing of morphemes, phrases, and sentences (e.g.,
Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, 2000). During the subsequent stages of learners’
writing development, more complex tasks are introduced to include emo-
tive (or personal) writing, for example, narratives that tell about personal
experiences, letters to friends, and diaries. Then instruction begins to
advance to school-based writing, usually integrated with reading as well
as with grammar and vocabulary learning (Adger, Snow, & Christian, 2002;
Birch, 2005; Schleppegrell, 2004).

(1) How does the above paragraph link with what CAPS says about writing
and presenting?

(2) What do you think is meant by “school-based writing”?

(3) Where must one start when teaching writing in the IP?

(4) What is the most important point that Hinkel wants to bring home in
this paragraph?

(5) This question is NOT based on the above-mentioned paragraph: Find

texts of many different lengths (e.g. 50 words, 100 words and 150 words)
to get an idea of how long learners’ written works should be and file
them in your teacher’s resource file.

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According to Wright (2015:234), learners in the IP have a limited ability to use

the English language to express ideas in writing and to engage meaningfully
in writing assignments appropriate for their grade level. They communicate
best when topics are highly familiar and concrete and require simple, high-
frequency English.

13.3 WRITING IS COMMUNICATION

Learners should understand right from the start that writing is communication.
One writes so that another person can read. Too often the communication
function of writing is not acknowledged and therefore it is important that learn-
ers read each other’s work and that their work is presented to someone in the
end. It can be read to the class, or learners’ written work can be posted on
the notice board (wall) in your class or be published in the school newspaper.

By getting the learners to fill in forms, make birthday cards for their friends
(after they have studied a couple of examples), compile lists of things that
they must remember (shopping lists, to-do lists), design a shopping bag for a
particular shop, write personal messages for their cell phone greeting or write
short messages and answers to each other, you will teach learners that the
purpose of writing is to communicate.

You can for example let learners do the following:

Take a sheet of A4 paper and cut it into four squares (you will need a square
for each learner in your class). Write each learner’s name on the back of the
square. Give each learner a square with someone else’s name on it and ask
him/her to write a short note/message to the person whose name is on the
back. The person who receives the message must then write back. You can
let them do this activity to practise a certain language convention, such as
asking questions, that start with “May I please…” or “Would you please…”,
etc. Learners will enjoy this activity, which might look as follows:

Dear Sipho Dear Tinswalo

May I please borrow your Asnath is using my ruler at
ruler. I forgot mine at home. the moment. Please ask her
if you can use it when she is
done.
Regards
Tinswalo
Regards
Sipho

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13.4 STARTING AT WORD LEVEL

You will need to integrate the teaching of writing with the teaching of language
structures and conventions. If learners do not have the necessary vocabulary
and grammar knowledge, they will not have the necessary “tools” to write a
sentence. The best way to do vocabulary building is to make use of themes and
teach all the vocabulary related to that theme that learners may need to write
sentences and paragraphs. If you, for example, want learners to write about
a sports event that they have attended, you need to do vocabulary related to
sport, e.g. tennis, court, race, field, track, game, catch, defence, equipment,
ball, arena, coach, referee, medal, helmet, gymnastics, team, stadium, winning,
tie, World Cup, marathon, etc.

The building of vocabulary is important when teaching writing. Keep in mind

that vocabulary should not be taught as loose-standing items, but in context
and in sentences. You can ensure that vocabulary is learnt in context by using
themes or by making use of pictures. By helping learners to label all items
in a picture and then placing the picture where everybody can see it (even
on the classroom door so that they see it every day when they come into the
classroom), vocabulary building is done in context.

13.4.1 Word walls in the additional language classroom

A word wall is a wall display of words arranged alphabetically under each letter
in a font that is large enough for learners to read from their desks. The lists
should contain words that learners ask for or use most frequently when they are
writing or which they struggle to spell, such as always, about, again, because,
blue, brother, cousin, difference, every, extremely, etc. The word wall should
be built up throughout the year. As words are added, you need to discuss the
meaning of the words with the learners and let them help place the words in
the proper place. You can use Prestik, Velcro or magnets to fix the words to
the wall. In such a way words can be added and placed in alphabetical order
if necessary. It is also advisable to write words on colourful paper, so that if a
learner for example asks how to spell “difference”, you can tell him: “It is on
the word wall, the blue card under the letter D.” This way you can also let
learners play games with the words, where you expect them to quickly find
and remove a word from the wall, group words based on sematic properties
and put them back in their correct locations according to alphabetical order.

13.4.2 Thematic word charts

Thematic word charts contain words that relate to the theme being studied
in class or to a special occasion, such as an upcoming event. Thematic word
charts contain words that learners are likely to use in their writing. You can
make the word charts a lot of fun if you design the chart in the shape of
something representative of the theme. If the theme for the week is, for example,
“Vehicles”, you can cut the chart in the shape of a car and then add words
such as “windows”, “steering wheel”, “mirror”, “tyre”, “engine”, “bumper”, etc
to the chart (Wright 2015:245).
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You will find a variety of vocabulary building exercises in the learners’ textbooks.
These exercises are usually integrated with reading. The following are examples
of the type of exercises found in the textbooks:

• Find words in the story that was read with meanings similar to the following
words: ….
• Fill in the degrees of comparison of the following words that you have come
across in the story that you have read: …
• Imagine you are XXX (a character in the story). Write down a number of
words to describe how you felt when the monster ….
• What do you think the monster that XXX (character in the story) was afraid
of, looked like? Draw a picture of the monster and describe it, using as
many adjectives as possible.
13.4.3 Recording of words and their meanings in a personal dictionary
CAPS (2011) requires learners to keep personal dictionaries in which they
record words and their meanings. CAPS (2011:33) indicates that learners
should create a personal dictionary. They can do this by labelling the pages
of a scrapbook and entering newly learnt words and their meanings in their
personal dictionary. They can also make drawings to illustrate the word and
use the word in a sentence to indicate that they understand the meaning of
the word. If you study CAPS carefully, you will notice that “Recording words
and their meanings in a personal dictionary” is an activity that needs to
be completed during each two-week cycle.

13.5 TEACHING SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION

13.5.1 Writing simple sentences

Words are combined to form sentences. Before learners can learn how to
write paragraphs, they need to be able to write sentences. They need to learn
that words follow each other in a particular sequence and that that sequence
may differ from their home (first) language. Learners must initially be taught
to formulate simple sentences which they could combine by means of con-
junctions to form longer and more complex sentences. Teaching grammar is
thus important.

Learners will need to receive a lot of guidance when learning how to write
sentences, as will be explained in the subsequent section.

13.5.2 Guided writing

Guided writing is an effective way to provide scaffolding and to address the
learners’ needs when teaching writing.

Wright (2015:237) explains that he has used writing in his classroom, because
he noted that many of his learners were not making use of adjectives with the
result that their writing was very bland. He therefore created a guided writing
activity on adjectives. Their theme for the month was animals. Wright goes
on the explain that he had made a table with the learners’ help, that looks
like the one that can be seen in Figure 13.1. He went about as follows: First he
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had learners brainstorm a list of animals and then a list of words that could be
used to describe these animals (adjectives). Then they brainstormed a list of
things these animals could do (verbs) and lastly the places where they might
do these things. While they brainstormed these words, they talked about each
one to make sure everyone understood them. This process helped the learners
to learn vocabulary in a meaningful context.

Once their chart was completed, Wright called on one student to choose one
animal and put a sticky note by its name (e.g., monkey). Next, students chose
three adjectives from their list to describe the monkey (e.g., hairy, playful and
wild) and then a verb (e.g., swings), and finally the place (e.g., jungle). With
all the choices marked, they read the full sentence that was made: “The hairy,
playful, wild monkey swings in the jungle.”

Wright (2015:238) says that at that stage the learners were anxious to create
more sentences to read. They came up with very creative sentences such
as “The yellow, dangerous, slimy snake crawls in the forest” and “The hairy,
ugly, smelly dog sleeps in the house.” Once the learners completed a few
sentences, they were sent to their desks to write their own sentences from the
table. Everyone, even the reluctant writers quickly filled up their papers with
sentences. When they finished, they read them to each other or to the whole
class. They kept the table up for several weeks for learners to read and refer
to when doing their own writing.

Adjective Animal Verb Preposition Place

hairy bird runs house

yellow dog swings jungle
beautiful monkey jumps cage
fluffy cat eats zoo
white horse crawls water
The dangerous turtle sings field
in the
ugly cow sleeps farm
slimy scorpion flies park
playful spider drives barn
smelly snake bites forest
wild shark plays lake

FIGURE 13.1
Animal adjectives poster (Wright 2015:239)

Apart from a guided exercise such as the one described by Wright, you can
do various other exercises with learners to teach them how to form sentences.
The following are a few ideas of activities that can be used:
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• Jumble the words in a sentence and let learners place the words in the
correct order to form a sentence, e.g.:

monster were afraid we of the

cupboard out it the of jumped

You can make it easier by giving the first and last word of each sentence and
then let learners complete the sentence by writing down the missing words, e.g.:

We monster.

It cupboard.

• Give learners a number of sentences and a number of pictures showing

activities and then let learners write the correct sentence next to the picture.
• Give the first part of a sentence and let learners complete the sentences, e.g.
“If you eat too many sweets, you will …..”, OR “If my mother has money
she will ….”
• Give learners a simple sentence and then ask them to elaborate on the
sentence, e.g.: “The man is walking.” Now ask questions such as, is the
man tall or short? Learners respond by writing: “The tall (or short) man is
walking.” Then ask: “Is he walking slowly or fast?” Learners respond by
writing “The tall man is walking fast.” Your next question is, “Where is he
walking?” Learners decide where he is walking and write the sentence:
“The tall man is walking fast on the pavement.” You can continue asking
questions such as “Why is he walking on the pavement?”, “Where is he
going?”, “When is he walking?” etc.

13.5.3 Teaching the four types of sentences

Learners should be taught at an early stage that there are four basic types of
sentences and that every type of sentence has a different function and demands
a different kind of final punctuation mark, as can be seen in the table below.
Source: Adapted from https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/sentence/type.
htm

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Form Function Example Punctuation

sentence

1 Declarative statement: Zandile likes .

It tells us Thabo.
something

2 Interrogative question: Does Zandile ?

It asks us like Thabo?
something

3 Imperative command: It Stop! ! or.

tells us to do Close the
something door.

4 exclamative exclamation: What a funny !

It expresses story he told!
surprise

Think of creative ways to teach the different types of sentences. When teaching
learners how to ask questions, you can for example tell them that the answer
is “Five” and that they need to formulate as many questions as possible that
will have “Five” as the answer.

13.5.4 Teaching learners to combine sentences

Once learners are able to write simple sentences, they need to be taught
to combine these sentences by using conjunctions. They can start by joining
sentences with and, before, when, but, and although, before moving on to
more complex ways of combining sentences.

Also explain to learners that sentences need to follow each other in a logical
way. This can become a fun exercise if you let learners read the following
sentences and then expect them to indicate why these sentences might be
problematic:

Church Bulletin Board

The following appeared in church bulletins or were announced at church
services:
Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things
not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
Miss Charlene Mason sang, “I will not pass this way again”, giving obvious
pleasure to the congregation.
For those of you have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

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13.6 TEACHING LEARNERS HOW TO WRITE PARAGRAPHS

Once learners know how to write sentences, they need to be taught how to
organise sentences to form good paragraphs. All stories, books, letters etc
consist of paragraphs. If learners know how to write good paragraphs, they
will eventually be able to write good longer texts.

A paragraph is not just a lot of loose-standing sentences. A paragraph forms a

unit which deals with one topic. You need to teach learners that if you want
to write about another topic, you need to start with a new paragraph.

To teach learners why sentences in a paragraph should be written in a specific

order, make them aware of certain logical links between sentences, such as
it, they, his, first, thereafter, earlier, later, at last etc. They should understand
that these links show the relationship between sentences and also serve as
links between sentences (Lätti & Gouws1992:130).

Mixing up the order of sentences and letting learners arrange the sentences
in the correct order, such as in the following exercise, will assist learners to
understand that a paragraph has a certain structure.

(a) Unfortunately, it is very far from school.

(b) They stay in a big, double-storey house.
(c) Vimbi and Asnath have four children.
(d) But in the afternoons, Asnath needs to fetch them there.
(e) Fortunately, the children can go there by bus in the mornings.

The correct order is:

Vimbi and Asnath have four children. They stay in a big, double-storey house.
Unfortunately, it is very far from school. Fortunately, the children can go to
school by bus in the mornings. But in the afternoons, Asnath needs to fetch
them there.

The teacher and learners can now work together to decide why the paragraph
is structured in this particular way, e.g.:

Sentence (c) must be first, because it introduces the topic. It is the topic sentence
because it contains the main idea of the paragraph. Sentence (b) should follow
sentence (c). The clue here is “They” which refers to Vimbi and Asnath and
the four children. Sentence (a) should be the third sentence, because the word
“it” refers to “the house” mentioned in sentence (b). Sentence (e) now follows,
because “there” refers to school. Sentence (d) follows sentence (e) because
mornings come before afternoons (Lätti & Gouws1992:130).

Learners need to start by writing sentences and paragraphs before they can
write longer texts. We have explained in the guide for Home Language teaching
(TMN3702) how to teach learners to combine sentences step by step in order
to write a paragraph. We are repeating the explanation here, as this method
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works well when teaching learners how to write a paragraph, whether in the
home language or the additional language:

Let learners start with a simple sentence that contains a subject–verb combination.
They need to know that the subject describes who or what the sentence is
about and the verb describes the action. Once you have identified a simple
sentence, for example “The boy ran”, you must help learners to understand
that we can add details by answering the following questions:

• Where?
• When?
• How?
• Why?

From the example sentence above, we know the subject is “the boy” and the
verb is “ran”, but we are missing details that can provide a better understanding
of the boy for our readers. Where was the boy? When and how did he run?
Why was he running? Where is the boy running to? These are questions you
can ask learners to elicit ideas and phrases that could be incorporated into
your simple sentence, thus expanding it into a more complex and detailed one.

Let learners practise writing simple sentences and then expanding them into
more comprehensive sentences. Once they know how to formulate sentences,
they need to understand that new sentences can be added or existing sentences
can be combined to form a paragraph, which should have one main idea or
topic.

The learners can be taught to write a paragraph by using a journey (or a cat)
as a metaphor:

Discuss the three main components of a paragraph (or story), namely:

(a) the introduction (beginning of the journey, or the head of the kitten)
(b) the internal or supporting information (the stops along the way or the
body of the kitten)
(c) the conclusion (the destination or the tail of the kitten)

Then ask the learners to write a topic sentence that clearly indicates what the
whole paragraph is going to be about. Get the learners to compose several
supporting sentences that give more information about the topic. Lastly, help
the learners to write a concluding sentence that restates the topic sentence. If
you use a picture of a cat to explain this, the kitten can have a long tail that
curls towards the head of the kitten.

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FIGURE 13.1
Using a kitten to explain the structure of a paragraph

FIGURE 13.2
Using a journey to explain the structure of a story (Artist: Nadia Nel)

You can also use the four-square writing technique. The advantages of using
this technique are that it makes learners’ writing more focused, it helps them
to organise ideas and to elaborate on them by adding details, as well as
emphasising transitions and scaffolding the writing process. This technique
can be used for writing paragraphs, but can be adapted and used when
teaching learners to write longer texts as well. The technique works as follows
(you need to demonstrate writing your own paragraph as you go along)
(English Department Curriculum Standards Office, http://www.edu.gov.qa/Ar/
SECInstitutes/EducationInstitute/CS/English/Coordinators%20Meetings/13.pdf):

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(1) Take an A4 piece of paper and fold it into four.

(2) Draw a square in the middle and tell learners that you are going to teach
them to write a paragraph on their country. Write a topic sentence in the
square, for example “South Africa is a wonderful country.” Explain to
learners that this sentence must prepare the reader for what the paragraph
is going to be about. It must tie all four squares together.
(3) Add three supporting sentences about South Africa, one in each square.
The sentence in the first square must be an opening supportive sentence
and the sentence in the last square must be a summary sentence, which
must preferably be about feelings or emotions. Learners must fill in their
squares for the part of the country they want to write about.

South Africa has many beautiful South Africa is called the Rainbow
natural wonders Nation

South Africa is a wonderful country

South Africa has nine provinces I like South Africa very much

Add three supporting sentences ( one in

each box). The fourth box should be a feeling
sentence that sums up the other three. All
sentences should support the main topic in
the centre.

FIGURE 13.3
Planning to write a paragraph

(4) Next add detail to the sentences in the four squares. Show learners how
you do it for your own paragraph on South Africa, but they must do it
on their A4 papers for their own paragraph on South Africa or any other
topic (e.g. My favourite animal).

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South Africa has many beautiful South Africa is called the Rainbow
natural wonders Nation
x South Africa is rich in founa x There are people of many
and flora. different cultures living in
x The country is known for the South Africa.
Kruger National Park and the x People wear different kinds
Big Five. of clothes and speak different
languages.

South Africa is a wonderful country

South Africa has nine provinces I like South Africa very much
x Each province has something
different to offer.
x Tourists like to visit the
Western Cape and Kwa Zulu
Add a detail in each box to tell more about
Natal.
the supporting sentence.

FIGURE 13.4
Planning to write a paragraph – extending ideas

(5) Finally, transfer the paragraph to lined paper.

Once the learners have elaborated on their sentences in the four squares, they
can provide a heading for the paragraph and transfer it from their A4 paper
to their exercise books. If they wish, they can substitute pronouns for nouns,
replace certain vocabulary with other terms and add transition words before
transferring their paragraphs from their squares to their books. Therefore, it
is a good idea to teach them some of the following transition words: and,
in addition to, furthermore, moreover, besides, then, too, also, both … and,
another, equally important, first, second, again, further, last, finally, not only,
… but also, as well as, in the second place, next, likewise, similarly, in fact, as
a result, consequently, in the same way, for example, for instance.

           

particular known for the Kruger National Park and the Big Five. South
Africa is often called the “rainbow nation”, because there are people
from many different cultures living in South Africa. This is evident from
the many different languages spoken by the people of the country. There
are nine provinces in South Africa. Each province has something different
to offer and that is why millions of tourists visit our country every year.
I like South Africa very much.

This is a very mechanical way of teaching learners to write, but it is a good

way of teaching them that each paragraph, whether on its own or as part of a
longer piece of writing, must have one central idea or topic.

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When learners understand that a paragraph must have just one topic sentence
and that all the sentences in the paragraph must relate to the topic, you can
give them a few examples of good paragraphs and ask them to identify the
topic sentence and the supporting sentences in the paragraph. They can also
be asked to formulate a possible heading for the paragraph.

13.7 WRITING CREATIVE AND INFORMATION TEXTS AND LONGER

TRANSACTIONAL TEXTS
Creative texts are, for example, descriptions of people, places, objects or ani-
mals, writing a personal account of events or experiences, writing a poem etc.
Information texts are texts that are used in other subjects, while transactional
texts are texts such as a book review, a curriculum vitae, an invitation etc. As
we have already said, you need to familiarise yourself with the purpose, text
structure and language features of each of these types of text before you will
be able to teach learners how to write these texts.

25 Ac tivit y 13c
Consult the CAPS (2011:24–29) to see what type of written texts learners
need to produce in the IP. Select any five of these types, find a text of
each type that you have chosen that would be suitable for English FAL IP
learners and then complete the following table:

Type of text What is the Who is Identify What are

purpose of the target the style the language
the text? group? (formal/ features used
informal) in the text
that typify
the type of
text.
Reading
text 1:
Type:

Reading
text 2:
Type:

Reading
text 3:
Type:

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Type of text What is the Who is Identify What are

purpose of the target the style the language
the text? group? (formal/ features used
informal) in the text
that typify
the type of
text.
Reading
text 4:
Type:

Reading
text 5:
Type:

It is very important that you use examples of each type of text during the
reading lesson, so that learners will know what the format of the texts must
be when they have to write a similar text during the writing lesson. Make sure
that you file the texts that you have used to do Activity 13c in your teacher’s
resource file.

13.7.1 Using writing frames

Learners need a lot of scaffolding when learning to write and apart from guided
writing, writing frames can also be used to provide the necessary scaffolding.
Writing frames assist learners to write because they are not confronted by a
blank sheet of paper – a particularly daunting experience for learners who
start writing in their additional language. The frame also gives learners the
necessary structure of a text (e.g. a friendly letter or a recipe) so that they are
familiar with the structure if they need to write this type of text on their own
at a later stage.

The advantages of using a writing frame are (www.teachingexpertise.com):

• A writing frame is more inviting than a blank page.

• A writing frame breaks down the task into a series of steps.
• A writing frame can offer prompts and specific suggestions for vocabulary
to use.
• A writing frame makes the purpose of writing clear.

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Writing frames work as follows:

If your topic for the two-week cycle is “music”, you can let learners pretend that
they need to be master of ceremonies for a music event (this is an authentic,
real-life activity and will tickle their interest) and that they need to prepare for
the evening by writing an opening address to welcome the audience and the
guests present at the function. The artist must also be introduced and his/her
achievements highlighted.

26 Ac tivit y 13d
(1) What would the purpose of the above writing activity be?

(2) Who would be the audience?

(3) What brainstorming activity can be done before having to write the
welcoming address?

Learners can be guided (scaffolded) to write the welcoming address by giving

them the following frame (adapted from Paul, Ponniah, Seah and Keng, 1994).

Action Your response

Formal welcoming of Ladies and gentleman ...................……

audience: …………………………… of the school
band.

Explain the reasons for the The purpose of this show is to …………
show to the audience: …...................……………….. and to give
them the opportunity to ………………..…
……………………………………………………
…………......................................................

Introduce the artist to the Our guest artist who will be performing
audience: with the band for tonight’s show, is ……
……….......................................................
............…….……………….. is famous
nationally and internationally for ………
………………….....................................….
………………………………………………….

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Action Your response

She is also known for ……………………...

.............................................................…..

We are proud to …………………………....

………………………………………………….

Ladies and gentleman, ……………’s first

number is ……………………………………..

Writing frames are an indispensable tool in any additional language teacher’s

repertoire of activities for developing learners’ writing skills. You can use
writing frames to develop specific skills as well as an understanding of the
language appropriate to different genres (e.g. formal versus informal) (www.
teachingexpertise.com).

Before you let learners of an additional language write a letter completely on

their own, you can use the following writing frame to guide them to write the
letter. The learners have to use the frame to write a letter to a friend in another
town or township. Apart from the standard form – date, address, salutation,
conclusion and the address on the envelope – the question of content is
important. Examples are essential (in other words show them a few examples
of friendly letters or email letters before letting them write one themselves).
Take care that you do not spend so much time on the structure of the letter that
you neglect to teach the learners how to write the content (tone and register).
In the case of an email letter, the address and date won’t be necessary.

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…………………………………. (Address)
……………………………………………..
……………………………………………..
……………………………………… (Date)

Dear ....................................

I am so excited, because my parents have given me permission to invite

you to go on holiday with us in December. We are going ......................
.........................................................................................................................
................................ .We plan to do ................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................during
the holiday.

All you need to bring with you ......................................................................

...................................................................................................................... . If
you are able to go with us, we will be leaving the day the schools close.
I really hope that you will be able to go with us. Please ............................
..........................................................................................................................

Best wishes
………………………….

13.8 MODELLING WRITING TO THE LEARNERS

Learners learn best that writing is a process and that one needs to revise what
one writes if the teacher models this for them (Wright 2015:236).

You can start with a sentence or a short paragraph because modelled writing
should be kept brief. You should focus on the key skills that you want your
learners to learn and use in their own writing. You can model writing by, for
example, writing the following sentence on the board:

I saw a good movie yestirday.

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Now tell learners that you really loved the movie and that – on second thoughts
– the movie was not just “good”, it was “awesome”. You need to cross out
“good” and replace it with “awesome”. Then you continue by saying, “Oh, and
now I need to change a to an because awesome begins with a vowel. “I saw
an awesome movie.” You can continue working with the sentence, by saying,
“Perhaps people would like to know where I saw the movie, so I need to tell
them that I saw it on TV.” You then need to add on TV to the sentence. You
can then tell the learners that you now note that you have spelled “yesterday”
incorrectly. Now correct the spelling of the word. Then explain to them that
to make this sentence sound more like how you would say it in an excited
way, you are going to change the full stop to an exclamation mark, so now
your sentence reads:

I saw an awesome movie on TV yesterday!

It is a myth to assume that the writing process is so tidy and orderly. It is not.
It’s a mess. The stages overlap so that it is sometimes difficult to tell these
seemingly “discrete” steps apart. The writing process is recursive, which means
that it doubles back on itself, so that invention (or a complete change) can
occur even while the writer is editing the final draft.

The end product (the completed text) is important, but the process learners
follow to get the completed texts is just as important. Process writing involves
guiding learners through the writing process in stages, helping them to focus
first on ideas and to take care of corrections related to grammar, spelling and
mechanics towards the end. Process writing usually follows five steps or stages,
namely, prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. According to Wright
(2015:242), these stages were identified in the 1970s when writing research
began on how successful writers produce a text from its conceptualisation to
its final publication. It was found that successful writers concentrate first on
their ideas rather than worrying about having perfect spelling, grammar and
mechanics.

13.9 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

At the beginning of the learning unit we have mentioned a few learning
objectives. By now you must have achieved them. Answer the following
questions without paging back, to make sure that you are on track. If you need
to page back more than twice, I suggest that you work through the learning
unit again.

• How would you teach learners to write a paragraph?

• Why is it important to make use of writing frames to assist learners with
writing in their additional language?
• How would you teach learners by modelling writing?
• How would you teach learners to combine sentences when writing
paragraphs?

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13.10 CONCLUSION
In this learning unit we have explained that writing in one’s additional language
is not easy; and that teachers should start at word level and then teach sentences
before teaching the learners how to write paragraphs. If they know the format
of a paragraph they can use that knowledge to write longer texts, because all
texts have an introduction (head of the kitten), middle (body of the kitten) and
conclusion (tail of the kitten).

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14 LEARNING UNIT 14

Teaching writing and presenting: The

14

writing process

WEEK 23–24

Language is very difficult to put into words.

Voltaire

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• describe the writing process

• explain how learners can be orientated to the writing task
• discuss writing of the first draft
• discuss editing, proofreading and presenting

14.1 INTRODUCTION
Most people conceive of writing as linear and sees the end product as the
most important part of writing. Although the end product is important, the
process of getting at that end product is just as important! In the past – certainly
when we were still at school – the emphasis was on the finished product
and our generation learners were assessed on our ability to adhere to writing
conventions such as spelling, grammar and punctuation. Very little attention
was given to the thinking and decision-making processes we followed to get to
the end product. We were mostly given a number of topics and then instructed
to write an essay (or letter) consisting of a specific number of words. We were
not prepared for the writing task at hand at all.

Fortunately, this way of teaching writing has changed and currently the preferred
approach to the teaching of writing is to focus on writing as a process and
not just as a grammatically correct end product. In this unit we focus on the
process approach to teaching writing
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14.2 PLANNING/PRE-WRITING
Learners first need to be oriented to the writing task. During this first stage,
learners get ideas for what to write in their paragraph or essay. They determine
the purpose of the writing and who the audience will be (e.g. My purpose is
to tell you about my puppy that I got for my birthday and my audience is my
teacher and my classmates.) They decide what the main idea will be and what
supporting details they want to include.

The following activities can be done during the pre-writing phase:

• Vocabulary build-up. Learners need the necessary vocabulary that relates

to the topic they need to write about before they can start writing. You can
build on their home language to do vocabulary build-up. In other words,
they brainstorm (see the next point) words related to the topic in their home
language. Students who do know the English equivalent of the particular
word can tell the rest of the class what the word is in English, or you can
tell them, or they can look up the word in a dictionary. These words are
displayed on the board or on a wall chart. Kilfoil and Van der Walt (1997:254)
believe that teachers should differentiate between learners who use their
home language to plan and organise and those learners who first write in
their home language and then translate word for word. The latter group
requires lots of help and guidance with grammar until they can write in
their additional language from scratch.
• Brainstorming. Vocabulary build-up can be done by means of brainstorming
but brainstorming can also be used to come up with ideas on what to write
about. How to do brainstorming has been explained in section 9.3.3.

When having to describe people, you can, for example, let learners first
brainstorm the features of the person that will be described and then brainstorm
words to describe each feature, for example:

– Age: young, old, middle aged, spring chicken, etc

– Face: slant eyes, a fair complexion, a scar on the left cheek, etc
– Build: well-built, chubby, like a giant, etc
– Hair: curly, bald, long, braids, etc
– Good qualities: polite, willing to help, friendly, wise, etc
– Bad qualities: arrogant, cruel, loud, impatient, etc

27 Ac tivit y 14 a
Read the following scenario and then answer the questions:

Mr Majeke writes the following in big letters on the chalkboard: “Cultural

differences!” He asks the learners to think of words they would use in a
paragraph about this topic. The learners sit absolutely quiet and no one
utters a single word. He then asks them to divide into groups and to compile
a list of words in their groups. When he gets to the one group, he finds that
they have compiled a long list of words but about three-quarters of them
are in their home language. He is furious and shouts the learners. Only one
or two of the other groups have managed to come up with some words.
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(1) Why do you think the learners were so unwilling to participate in the
brainstorming session?
(2) Do you think that learners should be allowed to use their home lan-
guage during brainstorming?
(3) What would you do if you were Mr Majeke?

• Abc associations: Learners can also form abc associations with the topic:
each letter of the alphabet is used as the first letter of a word which is
related to the topic, e.g. when having to write a description of someone,
the following can be done:

– a = age
– b = buck teeth; brown hair; bald
– c = courteous
– d = diligent

• Word chains: Another useful planning technique is to make a word chain

or mind map for the topic. It works as follows:

– The theme about which the learners have to write is written in the middle
of the chalkboard.
– Then words which are related to the theme and which justify a paragraph
are written down.
– Each word is then expanded on as in the example below.

clever eyes

likes
reading
traits looks hair

caring
MY BEST
FRIEND

Thandi
share
sit together
everything
at school
lives near
me

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• Interviews: Interviews as a pre-writing activity are very useful to get ideas

for the writing exercise. They are also beneficial because they ensure that
writing and speaking are integrated. This activity works as follows: Learners
work in groups or pairs. Zandile says the following to the members of her
group or a classmate: “I have to write an essay about my best friend. Ask
me some questions that will help me to develop some ideas for my essay.”
• Explaining the structure and language features of a specific type of text:
Once you are sure that learners have the necessary vocabulary and ideas
to write a specific type of text on a specific topic, you need to make sure
that they know the structure of the text as well as the language features. If
learners, for example, need to write an invitation, they need to know that
an invitation may take the form of a personal letter or that an invitation card
may be used. Learners must know that an invitation includes the following
(see CAPS, 2011:26):

• nature of the event

• where it will take place
• date and time
• may include dress code
• name of invitee
• may include RSVP
• may have a visual, design element

Learners must also understand that the style of the invitation can be formal or
informal. They also need to understand that it is generally concise (brief and
to the point) and makes use of conventional phrases, such as “I would like
to invite you …”, “You are cordially invited to …”, “Please join us for …” etc.

The best way of explaining the features of a text to learners is by means of

examples. If you show them an example of a few invitations (during the reading
lesson) and discuss the features of invitations by means of the examples to
them, they will be better equipped to write invitations of their own.

You should start collecting invitations and add them to your teacher’s resource
file, so that you have them ready when you start teaching next year. In fact, you
have to have many examples of different types of text in your teacher resource
file. You need to consult your CAPS to see what kind of examples you will
need to show to learners when teaching writing. While there will be one or
two examples in the textbook that the learners will be using, you should keep
in mind that the material in the textbook is not authentic material. Learners
need to see authentic advertisements, invitations, curriculum vitae, official
letters, procedures, advertisements, posters, recipes, instructions, book or film
reviews, newspaper and magazine articles etc before they can be expected to
write these kinds of texts themselves.

14.3 WRITING THE FIRST DRAFT

Once the pre-writing has been done, learners should get their ideas on paper
as quickly as possible. For successful writing, it is important that learners realise
the importance of multiple drafts. First drafts are usually messy and learners
should understand this! (You can show this to them by model writing.) They

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should be encouraged to mind their spelling and grammar (language structures)

but they should not spend too much time worrying about it – it is only the first
draft and not cast in stone. They can still make changes to and do corrections
in follow-up drafts.

Learners could be helped during the drafting stage by doing the following
(Maxwell, Meiser & McKnight 2011:119):

• Always refer to the writing as “drafts”. Asking if a learner is on a second or

third draft helps to create the idea of having to write multiple drafts. The
version that the learner submits is then called the “final draft”, because no
piece of writing is really ever “finished”.
• Drafting does not have to move from beginning to end. Maxwell et al
(2011:119) explain that “[a]t one time or another, we all stare at a blank
sheet of paper not knowing where to start … By encouraging students
not to start at the beginning, we can help students overcome that writing
block”. If learners understand that they can write down their ideas in their
first draft because they will be allowed to change them in later drafts, it
makes it easier for them.

During the drafting phase, you need to make sure that learners understand that
different types of text demand different writing styles, e.g. direct speech for
dialogues, labels and captions for diagrams, numbering of steps for instructions
etc. You need to study CAPS (2011:24–29) to see what the features of the
different types of text are. As has already been explained, the best way to
teach learners this aspect of writing is to let them read a number of examples
of the same type of text and let them discover the features of the specific type
of text by themselves. If learners, for example, need to write a dialogue, you
will need to teach them how to write dialogue, which punctuation marks to
use, turn-taking etc. You also need to give learners different exercises where
they need to distinguish between formal and informal language before they
can be expected to use formal and informal language when writing.

14.4 REVISING AND IMPROVING THE DRAFT

Once the first draft has been written, learners need to read over their first draft
and even discuss it with their peers or with a friend. They may want to move
sentences around to better organise their main and supporting ideas. They
may decide to add more detail, to remove some sentences, to change words
or to correct spelling and grammar. At this stage, learners need a lot of support
from their peers or the teacher. This step is not just a case of “proofreading”
the initial text; rather, it is a case of reconsidering and re-evaluating that which
has been written. It is sometimes necessary to put the text aside for a day or
two before it is revised.

This phase actually needs to be actively taught because young learners are
often unwilling or reluctant to change and rewrite their work. According to
Soven (1999:44–45), there are a number of reasons for this:

• Writing is hard work and it is painful to rewrite sentences that were written
with so much effort.

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• Beginner writers seldom want to read through their own work. They usually
say that because their work is so poor, they hate having to read it themselves,
or that their first attempt was their best attempt.
• Beginner writers seldom know what to look for when they reread their work.
• Beginner writers are hesitant to ask friends to help them with their revision.

Classmates can be asked to revise each other’s work. They must be divided
into groups to read their drafts aloud to each other and give feedback to their
group members. When drafts are first shared in writing groups or with the
teacher, no one but the writer actually sees the draft – it is not given to group
members or the teacher to read. Authors read their drafts out loud to their peers,
so that no one is embarrassed by errors or poor handwriting. If your classes
are not too big, learners can meet on an individual basis with you to read their
drafts and discuss their writing. They may ask questions about their writing and
receive feedback for improvement. For example, suppose a learner wrote, “I
got a new puppy. He is very naughty.” You could prompt for more details by
asking, “What colour is your puppy?”, “What is his name?”, “Why do you say
he is naughty?” After listening to the learner’s responses, you can say, “Those
are great details! Why don’t you add that to your writing?” (Wright 2015:243).

Multiple drafts are needed for learners to improve their writing.

You should, however, keep in mind that in the classroom, it is impossible to

let all writing go through every stage of the writing process. To get better at
writing, learners need to practise their writing skills. While it is important to
practise, revising each and every written text takes time and time is usually in
short supply in any classroom. If all writing assignments go through the entire
process, you will not be able to teach learners how to write the different kind
of texts that CAPS prescribe. You should thus be sure that learners understand
the writing process and that they need to go through the process (plan, draft,
revise, edit), but it is not necessary to let them formally go through these steps
– you won’t have time during the year to do so. It must become second nature
to them and they need to go through these steps without being told to do so.
Something else that you need to keep in mind is that revision of work at the
lower levels of additional language acquisition tends to be on the word level.
More proficient learners tend to revise longer chunks. You should therefore
not become despondent if your Grade 4 learners struggle to revise and tend
to revise only at word level.

The revision stage starts with the author. Although learners need help from
the teacher and their peers, they first need to read their own work with a criti-
cal eye. Reading the text themselves is an important step before getting help
from others. Learners should read what they have written aloud because that
helps them to hear redundancies, omissions and incorrect word choices. Only
once they have read the written text themselves and have made corrections
may they read to their classmates or the teacher. It is important that they do
not read their friend’s papers silently; they should rather listen carefully as the
author reads. The listeners should then respond with suggestions for improving
the writing (Maxwell et al 2011:120–121).

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Having peers respond to an author’s writing has, according to Maxwell et al

(2011:121), the following challenges:

The first time the teacher tries response groups in class, they may not work.
One problem is that learners will not stay on the task of talking about their
papers, which is a natural outcome when friends meet together. A second
problem is that learners often are overly pleasant to each other. They tell each
other how wonderful everyone’s writing is, which is no help at all. Again this
is not surprising, because everyone has to read his or her paper aloud and no
one wants to be too critical. To make response groups work, teachers need
to provide scaffolding through the use of response sheets or some form of
written response.

The following is an example of a response sheet that learners could complete

after they have listened to a classmate’s work:

RESPONSE SHEET

Writer’s name: ………………………………………………………………………….

I think the best part of your essay is: ………………………………………………

I think you could change the following: …………………………………………

I think you should add the following: ……………………………………………

I do not understand: ……………………………………………………………………

You are good at: ……………………………………………………………………….

……………………………………………………………………. was very effective.

It is important that you comment positively about the smallest revision. You
should also try to isolate just a few aspects that must be taken into consideration
during revision rather than asking the learners to revise entire essays. Focus,
for example, on revising the introduction and conclusion in one lesson and
other aspects in other lessons.

14.5 EDITING STAGE

Once learners have a draft that they feel satisfied with and in which they feel
that the main idea and supporting details are present and well organised, and
that the draft meets its purpose and is directed at a specific audience, they
focus on editing for correct spelling, mechanics and grammar. Learners must
first do their best to find errors and correct them themselves, before turning
to their peers or the teacher.

One needs to decide how learners should go about doing corrections and
how much they need to correct.

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Many learners do not leave the editing until the end. They tend to edit as they
go along and pick up incorrect spelling or word order.

14.6 PROOFREADING AND PRESENTING

The last phase is to proofread the final written work before submitting
(presenting) it to the teacher for assessment. The learner needs to present a
neat legible final version.

Presenting the final product can also be done in the following ways:

• The work can be read to learners in other classes or pinned to the notice
boards.
• Arrange a “show” of learners’ work where it is put on display for the rest
of the school to see.
• Hold a “Young Authors’ Day” for the whole school where learners can
display their work or read it aloud.
• Encourage learners to submit work for publication in the school newspaper
(Petty, Petty & Salzer 1994:256).

14.7 USING TECHNOLOGY WHEN TEACHING WRITING

14.7.1 Word processing

When writing on a computer, the writing process is less linear than on paper
because the learners can easily revise and edit as they are writing the first
draft. When using a word processing program, such as Microsoft Word, to
write on a computer, the learners should be taught to take advantage of the
ease of editing as they go along. They should also be taught to make full use
of spell checkers, electronic dictionaries, thesauruses and translation tools. It is
also easy for teachers to give comprehensive feedback by using the comment
feature and the track changes feature to indicate spelling mistakes if the learners
submit work in electronic format.

14.7.2 Multimedia presentations

The learners should also be expected to use multimedia presentation programs,
such as PowerPoint, when learning to write. PowerPoint presentations allow
learners to include sound, images, animations and music to illustrate what
they know or have learnt about a specific topic in class. PowerPoint presenta-
tions can be integrated with speaking if the learners are expected to make the
PowerPoint part of writing and then present what they have written during a
speaking lesson.

14.7.3 Txtng r 4 2mrw & 2day

With the growing use of new technologies and cell phone messages, you
will need to address the writing in these contexts because it might differ from
“standard” writing taught in our schools. If learners write “txtng r 4 2day &
2mrw” (texting are for today and tomorrow) it shows how people are creating
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a more efficient writing system for smaller screens and keyboards on handheld
devices. You might see some new abbreviations in your learners’ work,
such as “lol” (laughing out loud) or “lmk” (let me know) or “iow” (in other
words). They might even use emoticons in their writing (e.g. smiley faces)
that are used in text environments in the same way that paralinguistic clues
(e.g. facial expressions, gestures) are used in spoken language to clarify the
intended meanings of spoken words and phrases. The reality is that this type
of written discourse is used and that we need to address it in the classroom.
You can, for example, teach learners the meanings of :-) for happy, :-( for sad
:-O for being surprised or shocked, :-@ for screaming and ;-) for winking. New
abbreviations, emoticons and other shortcuts become available on a regular
basis and are used not only by our learners but by many adults as well. Wright
(2015:252–253) rightly asks, “What should teachers do about this trend?” and
then goes on to explain as follows:

First, although some consider what young people are doing to written
standard English language an abomination, it is important to remember
that languages are constantly changing … We may be seeing another
phase in a natural progression of language, for language is changed by
   Z    %       
within their socio-cultural contexts. Crystal (2008), in his book txtng:
The Gr8 Deb8, argues that “texting may be a new phenomenon, but
its linguistic processes are centuries old” (p. 27). For example, changes
in spelling, and even the use of initialisms in written and spoken form
for common phrases have been around for many years – soldiers pay for
schools with a GI bill, we get an IT specialist to help with our comput-
ers, we eat BLT sandwiches for lunch, when a friend is upset, we offer
a little TLC, we add a P.S. at the end of letters and e-mails, and we rely
on the FBI and CIA to keep us safe. Crystal notes that IOU originates
from at least 1618. Omission of vowels and other letters in texting lan-
guage is also nothing new. After all, what are contractions (e.g. cannot
= can’t)? And consider the long use of Mr., Mrs., Ms., dept., cm., ft. and
kg. Crystal notes that Partridge’s Dictionary of Abbreviations, published
in 1942, long before the texting phenomenon, includes entries such as
difclt^  };gd (good), btwn (between) and mtg (meeting).

Wright (2015:253) further explains that emoticons and emoji images are opening
up new ways of conveying meaning in written English.

Although we should acknowledge that this type of writing is used, learners

should understand that these types of writing are acceptable in certain
contexts, but that standard English is essential for achievement in school and
in the workplace. One can use sms language or emoticons or emoji images
when communicating informally with friends, but in formal correspondence
formal language should be used. Wright (2015:253) concludes his discussion
by stating: “Native English speakers may have little difficulty “code switching”
between these various forms of nonstandard and standard language, but ELLs
may be less clear about appropriate boundaries and will need instruction to
help them develop the correct forms to use in formal writing.”

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You can assist your additional language learners with this process by giving
them a lots of texting codes and requesting them to rewrite them in standard
English.

28 Ac tivit y 5
Rewrite the following texting messages in standard English:

2F4U: BFF:
FYI: BTA:
LOL: F2F:
2N8: G2CU:
^5: CU:
L8R: RU:
ANY1: L8:
B4:

How would you use this kind of exercise in your English first additional
language class?

14.8 MAKING WRITING FUN

You can make writing fun by showing learners the following document and
then discuss with them what is wrong with the writing.

How to write good

(1) Avoid alliteration. Always.
(2) Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
(3) Avoid clichés like the plague. They are old hat.
(4) Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
(5) Be more or less specific.
(6) Writers should never generalise.
Seven. Be consistent.
(8) Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary, it is
highly superfluous.
(9) Who needs rhetorical questions?
(10) Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

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14.9 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

In this learning unit we have explained the writing process and how learners
need to go through the different phases when writing. They cannot be given
a topic and asked to write an essay.

Now page back to the learning objectives stated at the beginning of this learn-
ing unit. Have you achieved them? Test yourself by answering the following
questions. Try to answer the questions without turning back to see if you are
on track. If you need to page back more than twice, we suggest that you work
through the learning unit again.

• Briefly explain what the writing process entails.

• What kind of activities would you let learners do to prepare them for the
writing task?
• How would you use sms language to teach writing?
• What is meant by multimedia texts and what would you teach learners
about multimedia texts?

14.10 CONCLUSION
At the beginning of the learning unit on teaching writing we have explained
that writing is a difficult skill to master. If you make writing fun for learners
and give them topics that they will enjoy writing about, you are halfway there.
Remember that the message that learners are trying to convey with their writing
(in other words the communication function of their writing) is just as important
as the way in which they say it. It is not always wise to focus on the technical
aspects (spelling, sentence construction etc) only and to neglect the message
of the text in the process.

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15 LEARNING UNIT 15

Teaching language structures and

15

conventions: Background

WEEK 25

The past is always tense, the future perfect.

Zadie Smith

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• teach language structures and conventions in context when language skills are
taught
• plan and present lessons on language structure and language conventions using
an appropriate approach
• adapt your teaching of language structure and language conventions to
accommodate learners’ different home languages

15.1 INTRODUCTION
This unit deals with the teaching of language structures and language conventions.
You will use a variety of texts to help learners explore, experiment and master
features of language structures, as well as to understand the way language is
used to build meaning and to facilitate conversation. Language structures and
conventions should be taught in context as other language skills (listening,
speaking, writing and reading) are taught and developed.

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15.2 WHAT CAPS SAYS ABOUT LANGUAGE STRUCTURES AND

CONVENTIONS

29 Ac tivit y 15a
As with all the other learning units, you first need to consult CAPS to
familiarise yourself with the requirements for teaching language structures
and conventions.

• Read the section under the heading Language Structures and

Conventions on page 12 of CAPS.
• Then read 2.1.3 Language teaching approaches, to see what
approaches you need to use when teaching a language.
• Familiarise yourself with the time allocated per two-week cycle for
formal practice.
• Lastly read pages 18 to 21 to see what content needs to be covered in
the IP. Pay attention to vocabulary development and the teaching of
spelling and spelling rules.

Knowledge about language structures and conventions in English is a prerequisite

for being able to listen, speak, read and write in English. Without this knowledge,
learners will not be able to assign meaning to verbal and written communication
and to accurately facilitate social interaction. A good knowledge of vocabulary
and grammatical structures is essential in providing the foundation for the
development of competence in the first additional language.

CAPS emphasises that additional language learners must master language

structures and conventions in order to develop a shared language for talking
about language (that is, a meta-language). They should become empowered to
use the meta-language to evaluate texts in terms of meaning, effectiveness and
accuracy. Ensure that your teaching plans and texts contain a list of language
structures and conventions that should be covered in the grade you teach.
Additional language learners will also use this knowledge to experiment with
language and to see how a text and its context are related. You will thus have
to use a variety of texts so that learners can use them to extend their use of
vocabulary and correctly apply their understanding of language structures and
conventions. CAPS prescribes a text-based and communicative approach, which
emphasises the use of texts to teach language structures and conventions in
context and never as isolated vocabulary or grammar rules.

Learners are required to build on words and grammatical structures they learnt in
the Foundation Phase and continue to explore the way their additional language
works. When selecting listening and reading texts for each two-week cycle, you
therefore need to make sure that they contain some of the language items you
want to cover. CAPS demand that you create activities related to these texts
that will enable learners to use these items in context. Similarly, the writing
texts must include some of the language items. Give your learners guidance
on appropriate and correct usage of these items. CAPS further recommend
that you select some of the items your learners have difficulty with and give
them formal practice.
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In the IP, thirty minutes per week is set aside for formal instruction and prac-
tice in language structures and conventions. This, however, does not imply
that ONLY thirty minutes per week are dedicated to this topic – it is actually
much more. As you go along and teach reading, you will for example point
out and explain a particular language structure as it appears in the text and
then expect learners to practise the use thereof when writing sentences or
paragraphs. Language structures and conventions are thus taught in context
and in an integrated way by using the reading or listening texts that learners
are dealing with. There is also time allocated for formal practice.

The content that should be covered under language structures and conventions
includes 15 components that should be covered within specific time frames.
The list includes nouns, determiners, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, tense, modals,
adverbs, prepositions, connecting words, sentence structure, punctuation,
vocabulary development, spelling and spelling rules. (CAPS 2011:18–21).

15.3 LANGUAGE STUDY IN CONTEXT

As stated in CAPS, language study is best done in context. This means that
the language aspect that the teacher is teaching is part of the text that learners
are producing by speaking or writing. Learners could also engage in language
study while listening or reading. In order to understand how language study
needs to be done, it is important to revisit the issue of comprehensible input
and output (also page back to section 2.3.4 and read it again).

15.3.1 Comprehensible input and output

Comprehensible input is language input that can be understood by listeners
despite them not understanding all the words and structures in it. Krashen (1981)
states that comprehensible input refers to messages that people understand
when acquiring a second language. It specifically helps the learners to acquire
a second language through meaningful interaction, which is different from
learning a second language consciously through formal instructions. Giving
learners this kind of input helps them to acquire language naturally. You can, for
example, give your learners a text to read and when they understand the text in
the target language (in this case English), they are exposed to comprehensible
input. The language skills that are engaged here are listening and reading. It is
essential that you know the level of your learners very well in order to choose
suitable texts (comprehensible input).

Speaking and writing are meant to produce comprehensible output, which

involves messages that can be understood by other people. Note that when
learners produce comprehensible output, their acquisition of a language is
facilitated. As much as scaffolding is needed for comprehensible input, equal
opportunities should also be created to develop the learners’ ability to respond
(comprehensible output) and interact accurately and appropriately in English.

The cognitive-interactionist theory which consists of the interaction hypothesis

and the comprehensible output hypothesis has already been discussed in
section 2.3.4. Go back to refresh your memory.
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Using a variety of sources such as books, newspapers and periodicals to

expose learners to a range of grammatical structures and words amounts to
giving them comprehensible input and promotes a better understanding of
language usage in learners.

15.4 COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Remember that one not only has to create the wish to communicate, but also
the need to use various language structures. Shrum and Glisan (1994:91) have
the following to say in this regard:

However, we need to remember that grammatical structures by themselves

are rather useless. Like road signs, grammatical structures take on
meaning only if they are situated in a context and in connected discourse.
Furthermore, Krashen (1982) reminds us that grammatical structures
will become internalized only if the learners are placed in a situation
in which they need to use the structures for communicative purposes.
Consequently, an important role of the teacher is to create learning
situations in which the students feel a need to exploit the grammar in
order to comprehend and communicate in the target language.

”Communicative competence” is a term that was initially coined by the

sociolinguist, Dell Hymes, as an alternative for Chomsky’s “linguistic competence”.
According to Brandl (2008:278), communicative competence proposes that
proficiency in a target language entails more than knowledge of grammar and
vocabulary (Chomsky’s “linguistic competence”).

Communicative competence implies (Saville-Troike 1996:363):

Knowledge and expectations of who may or may not speak in certain

settings, when to remain silent, whom one may speak to, how one may
talk to persons of different status and roles, what nonverbal behaviours
are appropriate in various contexts, what the routines for turn-taking are
in conversations, how to ask for and give information, how to request,
how to offer or decline assistance or cooperation, how to give com-
mands, how to enforce discipline, and the like – in short, everything
involving the use of language and other communicative dimensions in
particular social settings.

Canale and Swain (1980) identified four areas of communicative competence,

namely, grammatical competence (also referred to as linguistic competence),
sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence.
Each of these concepts that teachers should extend in the classroom is explained
below.

• Linguistic (grammatical) competence

In order to use the target language, the learners must have knowledge of
grammar and vocabulary; in other words, they must know how to correctly
apply grammar rules. The teacher’s task is to do pre-communicative accuracy
exercises and provide remedial feedback after communicative activities.
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• Sociolinguistic competence

An understanding of the social context in which communication takes place is

important as it assists with the appropriate use of language in different contexts.
Sociolinguistic competence thus refers to knowing what to say in what context
and what not to say; or how to speak in one context as opposed to another.
What a first language speaker would regard as rude or impolite; when to use
formal language; when informal language is acceptable and what tone to use
when speaking to others are all examples of sociolinguistic competence.

• Discourse competence

There are certain rules of cohesion and coherence that apply in formal and
informal communication. These rules help to hold the communication together
in a meaningful way. Discourse competence will, for example, assist learners
in managing turn taking.

• Strategic competence

The ability to manipulate language to meet communicative goals refers to a

learner’s strategic competence. It is the ability to convey meaning in a variety
of ways. If someone is, for example, unable to produce the exact word, he or
she can employ certain coping strategies such as rephrasing, literal translation
or miming to compensate. Teachers should actively teach strategic competence
by encouraging the learners to use alternative ways of saying something. Strat-
egies that learners can use include compensatory strategies such as guessing
based on the knowledge the learner already has; or on the context in which
the communication is taking place, social strategies, such as asking for help
or metacognition.

It is important for learners to increasingly develop competency in all four areas

as they increase their proficiency skills. However, learners, require more at-
tention to the development of linguistic competence at the beginning stages
of learning a second language (Brandl 2008:278).

15.5 TEACHING LANGUAGE STRUCTURES

CAPS indicates the language structures that the IP learners should learn;
however, many teachers are not sure of how to teach them effectively. There
is no single best way of teaching language structures; teachers must therefore
consider varied methods and various approaches to teaching them. Choose
an approach that will be suitable for the specific language structure to be
taught and learnt.

Additional language learners should be guided to develop correct language

usage; and the focus should be on competent and meaningful use of the in-
flections and forms (language) that they are encountering. It is imperative to
note that abstract description of language structures should be avoided. It is
your responsibility as the teacher to ensure that you engage the learners in the
practice and application of language structures. It is your duty to create learn-
ing experiences that will engage the learners in practising language structures
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and ensure active participation in the lesson. This ensures that the learners
do not only engage in memorising the language structures and the rules, but
also become aware of those rules by using the actual language in real social
situations. The communicative approach is the relevant approach in teaching
the language structures, since it places emphasis on social communication
skills. It should be noted that teaching language structures in isolation should
be avoided because it can result in boredom and may ruin the motivation
to language learning. This implies that you, the teacher, must engage the
learners by using appropriate language exercises so that they will eventually
master language structures. Always remember that your learners will acquire
a good command of language through reading, speaking and writing.

15.5.1 Grammatical forms

In the IP, the language of teaching and learning for many learners is the language
that is not spoken at home. Consequently, learners struggle to think and com-
municate in English or any additional language. McKay (2014 identifies the
following grammatical areas that are challenging to learners:

• the use of prepositions

• degrees of comparison
• the use of punctuation
• figures of speech
• direct and indirect speech
• the use of the past tense
• sentence construction
• the use of personal pronouns

Pay special attention to these problematic areas in your teaching activities,

as pointed out by McKay, so that the learners may be exposed to correct
grammatical forms. Note that grammar rules should not be drilled. In order
for your learners to be able to understand and express themselves in the
target language, you are bound to assist them by enhancing their listening,
speaking and language usage skills. The overall purpose is to model language
proficiency; support your learners and expose them to a relevant, correct and
joyful engagement with the additional language.

15.5.2 Grammatical markers in additional language learning

Grammatical markers are letters used for the inflection of verbs to indicate
tense, forming adverbs and the affixes to change the form and meaning of
words. VanPatten (2004a) mentions that additional language learners often
miss the importance of grammatical markers in input and prioritise meaning
rather than form. This is because the learners concentrate on the content words
to access meaning and totally ignore the grammatical markers.

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15.6 APPROACHES FOR FACILITATING LEARNING EXPERIENCES FOCUSED

ON LANGUAGE STRUCTURES
We have already mentioned that there is not one specific approach that must
be used to teach language structures and conventions. We live in a post-
method era, which means that you may use whatever methods work for your
context and learners. Some of the approaches that can be used in isolation or
in combination, are the following (Hugo 2016:108–109):

15.6.1 The deductive approach (rule-driven learning)

Learners learn the rule and then they are exposed to examples where the rule
is applied. You can, for example, explain the rule of “Nouns that end in s, ch
or x get es in the plural” to learners. Once you have explained the rule, you
can show them some examples to illustrate this rule, for example

gas – gases; class – classes; glass – glasses; bus – buses

coach – coaches; arch – arches; beach – beaches; bench – benches

dash – dashes; dish – dishes; fish – fishes; brush – brushes; flash – flashes

box – boxes; tax – taxes; suffix – suffixes; fox – foxes

15.6.2 The inductive approach (rule-discovery learning)

This is the opposite of the deductive approach. The learners get many examples
to figure out the rule for themselves. If you, for example, want to teach them
when to use ible and when to use able, you can give them the following
examples:

read – readable; comfort – comfortable; fashion – fashionable; transfer

– transferable

possible; terrible; horrible; feasible; tangible

The learners must then use the examples to formulate the following rule: the
suffix –able is used when the root word is a complete word, for example,
read, comfort and fashion; and the suffix –ible is used when adding it to a
root word that cannot stand on its own.

15.6.3 The functional-notional approach

Functions and notions have already been explained in section 7.4; please
read it again.

When designing a lesson, you can choose a real-life situation as your “notion”
(agreeing or disagreeing with someone – something that often happens in
real life) and then teach the learners the corresponding functions so that they
are able to communicate in a situation where they need to agree or disagree
with someone. You can then teach them phrases such as, “Yes, I agree, that is
100% correct.”; “That is fine with me.” ; “That is a good idea.” to agree. You
can also teach them that they can use phrases such as, “That may not be a
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good idea.” “I don’t quite agree.”; “No, I disagree.”; “That’s not right.”; “That
won’t do”, when they want to disagree.

A real-life situation, such as buying something in a shop, may be chosen to

teach a number of functions. They can, for example, be taught that when a
customer wants to get the attention (function) of the shopkeeper in a shop
(notion) he or she can use a phrase, such as, “Excuse me…”; or if they want
to ask a price (function) of a single item, they can ask: “How much is this?”
However, when they want the price of more than one item, they need to say:
“How much are these?” When being polite to the shopkeeper, they need to
say, “I will take these, thank you.” In case they want to negotiate, they can
say: ”It seems a little expensive.”; “That sounds a bit high.”; “Could you please
give me a discount?”. If the customer is not buying, he or she can say: “I will
think about it.” (https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Notional-functional_approach).

Function also involves certain expressions such as, “I quite agree.”; “That’s
right.”; “Indeed.”; “I believe so”; “of course.” In order to express agreement or
surprise (function), expressions such as, “What a surprise.”; “How surprising.”;
“Fancy that.”; “I am surprised”, can be used. Other similar examples of function
can be found at the following website (to express gratitude or a lack of surprise
or offering an apology, or accepting an apology):

https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/pearson-test-of-english/
pte-general-guides/functions-notions-level-2.pdf

15.6.4 Teaching grammar through texts

The starting point for teaching grammar is simplified, authentic texts.
The complexity of the texts depends on the level of the learners. You can use
the text not only to teach reading, but also a specific language structure or
conventions (the use of punctuation marks, past tense, adjectives, homonyms
etc).

15.6.5 Teaching grammar through stories

A great way to explain grammar is by using stories, because stories are tradi-
tional to most cultures and may therefore be less threatening than academic
texts. In addition, stories are fun and there is often a lot of repetition in stories
that can be used to teach a specific grammatical structure.

15.6.6 Teaching grammar through songs, poems and rhymes

Children love singing songs and listening to poems and rhymes and they can
therefore be used to teach language structure and conventions. Simpson (2015)
shares the following regarding the use of songs:

(1) Listen to the song.

(2) Ask some questions about the title.
(3) Listen to the song again, this time with lyrics in written format.
(4) Focus on a particular verb tense or aspect of grammar.
(5) Focus on vocabulary, idioms and expressions.
(6) Round things off with some creativity.
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Simpson (2015) explains that creativity is an important part of maintaining

motivation, but it should not be limited to the teaching approach. Depending
on the learners’ age, language level, cultural specifics and so forth, you
can decide to finish things off with an activity that stimulates creative
thought (Simpson 2015 https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/
how-use-songs-english-language-classroom.

15.7 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

At the beginning of the learning unit we have mentioned a few learning
objectives. By now you must have achieved them. Answer the following
questions without going back to make sure that you are on track. If you need
to go back more than twice, I suggest that you work through the learning unit
again.

• What does the fact that language structures and conventions must be
taught in context mean?
• Discuss communicative competence.
• Why is communicative competence the aim of all language teaching?
• What is the difference between inductive and deductive language
teaching?
• Name a song that can be used to teach language structures and
conventions? Which language structure would you teach by means of
this song?

15.8 CONCLUSION
In this learning unit we have explained that new language structures should
always be taught in context. This implies that you must simulate certain situations
in the classroom that represent real-life situations and that the learners must be
able to function in these situations. The goal of teaching language structures
and conventions is communicative competence.

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LEARNING UNIT
16 16

Teaching language structures and

16

conventions: Different methods

WEEK 26–27

A synonym is a word you use when you can’t spell the other one.
Baltasar Gracián

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• explain the use of a text-based approach to teach English

• describe the PPP approach to teaching an additional language
• explain how to handle mistakes made by learners

16.1 INTRODUCTION
You should always keep input-interaction-output in mind when teaching
language structires and conventions. It is in other words not enough to provide
input only, learners should also be able to interact with other people and in
the process produce language (output) that others would understand.

16.2 USING A TEXT-BASED APPROACH TO TEACH ENGLISH FAL

CAPS prescribes that a text-based approach should be followed when teaching
FAL. This implies that learners must understand how texts work so that they
themselves can produce different kinds of texts.

The text-based approach, however, also implies that texts should be used
to provide the necessary context when teaching language structures and
conventions. This is in line with the whole language approach, which sees
language as a whole entity, advocating that reading, writing, speaking and
listening should be integrated when learnt. When teaching grammar, one
needs to understand that words, phrases or sentences are not linguistic islands
unto themselves; on the contrary, these linguistic elements only gain meaning
when they are placed in context and when used in conjunction with the
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whole. Once learners experience the whole, they are better prepared to deal
with the analysis of the parts. Moghadam and Reza Adel (2011) concur and
maintain that linguistic skills and communicative abilities should be brought
into close association with each other and interwoven during instruction.
The skills include knowledge of vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, syntax,
meaning and usage.

It is important to initiate every lesson, whether it is on the teaching of an

additional or a home language, with an authentic piece of language. It should
be a written text that forms a whole and not merely a number of separate
sentences taken out of context. This text may be a story, poem, review or
newspaper or magazine article – as long as it forms a logical whole. It may
even be something to which the learners have to listen such as a movie, play, a
taped radio advertisement, or a videoed TV advertisement or conversation. The
language structure which is to be discussed should preferably be introduced
in your lead up so that learners have some idea of what they will be dealing
with (without it being spelled out).

By starting the lesson with a complete text (e.g. a story, song, poem, fairy
tale or magazine or newspaper article), the teacher initiates the explanation
of the language structure by introducing the learners to it in the discourse.
This is to their advantage because it gives the learners a “feeling” of what is
to come. In this way, the functional meaning of the grammatical structures are
highlighted even before the learners’ attention is drawn to them. Starting with
the whole instead of with the parts (words or sentences), learners are given the
opportunity to use language in a functional and focused manner in integrated
discourse. Therefore, from the very start of the lesson, the teacher and learners
are using language authentically. Once the text or other feedback is provided
to the learners, the teacher explains the text with the aid of pictures, the total
physical response method (TPR) or role-playing to help them understand the
text. The learners are drawn into the text by questions and other activities. At
this stage the emphasis is on the meaning of the text.

Once the learners (whether it is a reading or listening piece) understand the text,
their attention can be drawn to the various linguistic elements and language
structures in the text. Here the teacher may use a wide variety of methods such
as giving explanations, asking questions about language structures in the text
and using the total physical response, the writing board and data projector.
Once the specific language structure has been explained in enough detail,
and the learners have internalised it, they must be given the opportunity to
practise using it in a communicative situation. At this point the emphasis is
on the transfer of meaning and not on a demonstration of their knowledge of
language rules.

Remember, if you fill the learners’ heads with grammar rules, they will come to
think in terms of grammar rules. However, if you confront them with language
use in real-life situations, their thinking will be focused on using language in
real life.

The teaching of language structure and the teaching of conventions are listed
separately in the curriculum, but it does not mean that they should be taught
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and assessed separately in the classroom. They must be seen as guidelines

for the teacher on what the learners should be able to apply throughout the
speaking, writing and reading programmes.

Here we would like to reiterate that you should not be under the impression
that explaining language and spelling rules, purposeful vocabulary building,
etc is completely taboo. What we are merely trying to show you is that they
should not be taught in such a formal manner as almost a “subject” on their
own. For example, one should not devote an entire lesson to nouns or a specific
spelling rule. The old days of walking into the classroom and announcing that,
“Today we are going to learn about verbs”, are over. Language teaching must
be derived from reading (or even listening). When you are reading a piece of
writing or dealing with a report, advertisement, article, short story, novel or any
other document, and you come across several good examples of punctuation
for example, you should use the opportunity to discuss them in context. By
“context” I mean that you should deal with the punctuation as it appears in
the text. Do not try to cover all the punctuation marks at once. If a specific
punctuation mark does not come up, leave it until you find it somewhere else
at which time you can then explain it to the learners.

Punctuation is not something you can cover in a single lesson – it needs to be

reinforced over and over again! Sawyer, Watson and Adams (1989) conducted
an experiment in which they taught one group of learners (Group A) drills
and similar exercises while another group (Group B) had to complete various
writing tasks three times a week in hour-long sessions. On the average, Group
B could identify 8,66 types of punctuation, while Group A could only define
3,85 types of punctuation. What was more, Group B, the writing group, was
often able to cite what punctuation sign had been used, even if they could
not give the reasons why it had been used.

Revision must be done on a regular basis. When, for example, you do a poem
which contains certain language structures that you have already covered,
you could briefly revise them by asking a few questions about the language
structures – even if your main focus is a poetry lesson.

16.3 THE PPP APPROACH TO TEACHING AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE

The PPP approach is the acronym for presentation, practice and production.
It is an approach followed when presenting a new language, practising it and
then applying or using it in communicative situations. Cajkler and Addelman
(2000:33) explain it thus:

(1) The presentation stage: getting the language in.

(2) The practice stage: keeping it there.
(3) The production (communication) stage: getting the language out.

A fourth stage, namely, that of revision and recycling can be added (Cajkler &
Addelman 2000:33): “Revision may occur when an initial introduction fails to
offer a guiding model to learners, while a presentation may be a re-cycling of
old language. Inadequate performance by pupils at the communication stage
suggests the need for revision.”
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16.3.1 The presentation stage

The presentation stage is phase 1 of the PPP approach and comprises the
presentation of new language material or the recycling of “old” language. It
also involves the building of a situation (e.g. reading a story or being in a doc-
tor’s consulting rooms, or having to call for a dentist appointment) requiring
natural or logical use of the new language. When the “situation” is recognised
and understood by learners, they will start instinctively to build a conceptual
understanding of the meaning behind the new language. This could be pic-
tures, flash cards, body language, a dialogue or longer text. It is followed by
an instance where the teacher uses clear examples to enable learners to see
correct usage. Lastly, the teacher needs to confirm that presentation is suc-
cessful and that the learners understand the new words.

16.3.2 The practice stage of the PPP approach

This stage fully reinforces the new language. This is where teachers are likely
to insert worksheets or games. Once the new language material has been pre-
sented to the learners, they must be given every opportunity possible to practise
what they have learnt. It is important that practice activities are appropriate to
language being learnt and the level and competence of the learners. The more
opportunities they have to practise what they have learnt and to make it their
own (a habit), the more they will develop their self-confidence. During this
stage, the teacher gives them a lot of guidance and ensures that every learner
gets the opportunity to practise the new language structure with his or her help
and guidance. The teacher should, however, be careful not to give too much
help and to correct mistakes too frequently because, in some cases, this may
be counterproductive (learners may become too scared to open their mouths
in case they make a mistake). Games are always a fun option when it comes
to practice and they are the preferred drills in FAL classes.

Cajkler and Addelman (2000:34) explain that the practice stage can be divided
into two parts, namely, controlled exercise and guided practice:

Controlled-practice activities seek a near perfect rendering of the language

presented and the teacher monitors and corrects. Sufficient practice is given to
allow learners to get it right. Perhaps the simplest form of controlled practice
is repetition – learning by saying what a teacher or tape has said, for example.

During guided practice, teacher control or support relaxes as activities begin

to move towards the communicative end of the spectrum by offering greater
opportunities for learning by doing. The emphasis begins to change from get-
ting the form right to getting a message across.

At this stage, the teacher monitors the situation carefully and decides which
stage to introduce next, that is, revision/repetition or communication.

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16.3.3 The production phase

The third and final phase of the PPP approach is production in which the
learners engage in meaningful, interactive tasks, the success of which depends
on the need that has been created to communicate. Successful production is
a clear indication that the learners have made the transition from “learners”
of the language to “users” of the language. The emphasis is on the reception
and transmission of language, and communicating effectively irrespective of
sporadic language errors. At this point, the teacher’s input should be minimal
and he or she should intervene only if communication (oral or written) comes
to a complete standstill. This is done to ensure that learners get over their fear
of using the language.

The principle of gradually giving less support applies to all the stages of the
process. Cajkler and Addelman (2000:33) point out that the stages create
a framework within which to work but that they may often run together.
Therefore, there is not always a clear distinction between guided practice
and communication.

Although the PPP approach has been criticised because the PPP model con-
siders language as a sum of smaller bits that can be taught separately, and
that it limits learners’ encounters with learning opportunities by presenting
small chunks of language to learners, the PPP approach is very useful during
the initial stages of additional language learning. It is, however, important that
the production phase of this approach gets the necessary emphasis and that
learners do get the opportunity to use the knowledge which they have gained
by practising the language to produce new language.

Above and beyond the PPP approach as discussed above, Pachler and Field
(1997:147–160) suggest four stages, namely, the input stage, during which a new
theme is introduced, the explanation stage during which the learners’ attention
is focused on a new language structure, the habit-forming stage during which
the new language structure is practised, and the communicative application
stage during which the learners use the language in authentic communicative
situations. The names of the various stages speak for themselves, and therefore
it is unnecessary to discuss each of them in detail here. I would, however,
like to focus briefly on one interesting observation made by Pachler and Field
(1997:61–62). As can be seen from the lists below, they hold that not all of
the activities used in practising an additional language (in the habit-forming
phase) are equally valuable:

Pupil activities of low value

(1) Choral/individual repetition.

(2) Reading aloud from textbook.
(3) Reading out dialogues/role-plays.
(4) Translating.
(5) Copying from board/book.
(6) Word searches.

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Pupil activities of mixed value

(1) Doing drill-like activities.

(2) Pupil–pupil dialogue.
(3) Receiving grammatical explanations.

Pupil activities of high value

(1) Listening to the target language.

(2) Replying to questions in the target language.
(3) Asking questions in the target language.
(4) Engaging in dramatic activities.
(5) Increasing active/passive vocabulary.
(6) Reading silently.
(7) Relating language to social/cultural context.
(8) Doing written work of an error-avoiding nature.

If learners feel as if they are being kept busy with meaningless activities that
they won’t be able to apply in their real lives, they will not have any desire
to communicate. To create the desire to communicate in a learner, he or she
must feel the need to give or acquire information. One can establish this need
artificially in the classroom by creating an information gap. One person has
information that another person wants. For example, if one asks for someone
else’s opinion, and one does not know what their answer is going to be, there
is an information gap.

16.4 USING GAMES TO TEACH LANGUAGE STRUCTURE AND

CONVENTIONS
For example, if the language structure that must be applied is how to ask
questions, the teacher can play the “alibi” game with the learners. This works as
follows: The teacher sketches a scenario like the following: “Last night someone
broke into Mrs Mbeki’s house and stole all her jewellery. Two suspects were
arrested near the scene.”

The teacher then chooses two of the learners to be the suspects. (The teacher
may also choose to divide more suspects into pairs.) The two suspects must
then be given the chance to get together to come up with an alibi, while
the rest of the class draws up a list of questions to ask the suspects. The one
suspect then leaves the classroom while the class questions the other suspect.
The aim is to get information that proves that the two suspects’ answers are
inconsistent. The class takes down the suspect’s answers. The second suspect
then comes in and is also questioned. The learners compare the answers
and point out inconsistencies. The class then has to draw up a report on the
information they have gathered and recommend whether to prosecute the
suspects or to release them.

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By introducing an activity based on an authentic situation the learners are

given the opportunity to gather information, to use it and to apply a specific
language structure repeatedly, without getting bored or the lesson turning
into a drill session. You will find that learners also generate their own form of
language use.

30 Ac tivit y 16 a
Which of the above methods did your own language teachers use? Which
of these methods might you have used in any teaching you have done? Do
you agree with their classification as low value, mixed value and high value?

If you have internet access, you can watch the first five minutes of the
following video clip for more background on PPP, ESA (engage, study and
activate) and TBL (task-based learning): Methodology PPP ESA TBL by Pierce
Wang at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdjnRNi-n6Q.

You can also do your own internet search for examples of PPP lessons,
both on www.youtube.com and on the internet in general.

You can see that there are thus many different approaches that one may follow
in presenting language structure and conventions. You will have to decide for
yourself which one you prefer, whether you are going to combine them or
even whether you are going to use one in some circumstances and another in
others. I would, for example, use the PPP approach when learners are making
their very first acquaintance with an additional language. Thereafter, as they
become more familiar with the language, I would gradually begin applying the
whole language approach and the implementation of other communicative
language teaching principles. You may test the different approaches in practice
and decide which one or ones work the best for you.

Now let us focus on the grammar knowledge that a teacher should have.
Grammar actually comprises three dimensions: morpho-syntaxis (form),
semantics (meaning) and pragmatics (use). These dimensions are interdependent
and the one influences the other. Take, for example, the active and passive
voice. Although they are usually described as morpho-syntactic, they offer a
unique perspective on the way in which the speaker evaluates a particular
situation. In (1) “The robbers robbed the bank” and (2) “The bank was robbed
by the robbers”, it becomes clear that in (1) the emphasis is on the robbers and
in (2) the emphasis is on the bank. One could therefore say that the passive
has a pragmatic meaning, since it indicates what the focus of the discussion
or statement is.

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16.5 TEACHING SPELLING

31 Ac tivit y 16b
Answer the following questions and share them with your fellow students
in the discussion forum.

(1) While you were still at school, were you required to write spelling tests
every week?
(2) Do you think that today’s children cannot spell as well as we used to
spell? Why do you say so and what do you think might be the reasons?
(3) Is it necessary to place a lot of emphasis on learning to spell correctly if
we can make use of all kinds of spell checkers when working on word
processors (computers)?
(4) Do you think it is a good idea or not to give learners lists of difficult
words to learn and then let them write a spelling test on those words?
Justify your answer.
(5) Find a short text and select words for learners to spell. Jumble the
letters so learners will know meanings of the words and, lastly, write
how learners should find the words in the text.

Spelling is important and in spite of the many spell checkers that are available,
learners should learn to spell correctly because it aids reading and helps cement
the connection that is shared between sounds and letters. Learners who feel
confident with letters and word patterns are able to read and comprehend
more complex texts. In addition, learners need to know how to spell, to be able
to choose the correct alternative when using a spell checker (e.g. compliment
and complement or principal and principle).

Spelling is an integral part of the language programme and should not be

taught in isolation. It should be taught continuously and progressively. Spelling
words must be selected from material that learners know, e.g. stories, poems.
Learners benefit and feel content when they spell correctly the words that they
have read and discussed. As such, they will use the words with confidence
when they are required to write on a specific topic. Spelling can be taught
daily for three to five minutes of the school day. You can use a picture or mime
to illustrate the meaning of the words. In order to help learners to remember
the spelling of words, you can use a chant or learners can come up with their
own ways. Another strategy is to use a coded alphabet to encourage learners
to look closely at the spelling of words. You can use games to encourage your
learners to spell.

Spelling comes naturally to some learners the more they learn about the
language, but other learners need to learn consciously to spell correctly. In the
initial stage of the teaching of an additional language, too much emphasis on
the correct spelling of words may discourage learners from using the language
or expressing themselves in it.
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Spelling should be continuously evaluated in the learners’ compositions, answers

to literature studies, silent reading tests and integrated language learning, but
short tests and dictations should also be given regularly. Examples of spelling
should not be evaluated in isolation but in the context of the sentences in
which they appear.

The following are general hints on teaching spelling:

(1) One should preferably work inductively. If one guides learners to discover
the underlying spelling rule or principle, they will remember it better than
if they are given a long list of examples of the spelling rule to memorise.
(2) When dealing with a particular spelling rule, learners should be encouraged
to give as many of their own examples as possible.
(3) As many of the senses must be used to learn the correct spelling as possible.
Spelling cannot be taught meaningfully without the learners being able
to remember the written image, the sound image and the meaning of the
word.
(4) It is often confusing to spell out a word letter by letter. Allow the learners
to spell out the word syllable by syllable, for example in-te-rest-ing rather
than i-n-t-e-r-e-s-t-i-n-g.
(5) Repetition is crucial. You should continuously revise material already
dealt with and when a specific word comes up once again, remind the
learners of the relevant spelling principle.
(6) Dictionaries and vocabulary lists should be available and the learners
should use them frequently. Learners should constantly check their own
spelling when they are in any doubt at all.

Although these tips are specifically given for teaching a home language,
they can be used equally well in the case of an additional language. When
teaching spelling in an additional language, you should bear the following in
mind (Jacobs 1992:72):

• Remember that a poor speller is not someone who spells difficult words
incorrectly, but someone who spells everyday words incorrectly.
• Learners must be taught how to look at words in a special way. It is not
enough merely to listen to or read a word in order to learn to spell it. Learners
should learn to look at a word in order to uncover certain letter sequences.

16.5.1 Ways of making spelling interesting

When I was still teaching, I used to make spelling fun. When I talked to learn-
ers, I sometimes used to say, “You need to do this immediately with two “m’s
and one d”. Children started to mimic me by asking, “Mam, must we immedi-
ately, with two m’s and one d, do this work?” It became fun when I (and them)
used phrases such as “I am disappointed with two p’s, in what you have done
here.” or “I will be grateful with an e and one l if you will now pay attention.”

You can also let learners play lots of spelling games. Hands-on games are
a great way to move beyond repetitive drills and memorisation – activities
which are usually associated with the learning of spelling – so kids can have
fun and learn to spell at the same time. If learners are focused on achieving a
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goal, such as helping their team win, they may be more motivated to engage
with the material and are more likely to learn a word’s spelling incidentally.

Scrabble is a good choice as learners need to assemble words to get the most
points. You can also do crosswords or play hangman. You can even expect
learners to collect words that they have seen on T-shirts or other clothes and
see who can collect the most words.

16.5.2 List of words commonly misspelt

The following is a list of words commonly misspelt. It would be a good idea to
make a wall chart of these words and put them on display in your classroom
(Phytian 1985:117–119):

absence across address appearance acquire

annual asically believe because business

benefitted committee committed choose chose

daily decisions definite different discipline

eight exercise exceed favourite forty

fulfil fortunately gauge grammar guard

grateful height holiday humour install

immediately interested jewellery knowledge liaison

leisure loose lose maintain medicine

miniature mischief necessary ninth neighbour

occurred omit occasion precede parallel

privilege queue receipt receive recognise

strength succeed surprise truly twelfth

unnecessary vicious weird woollen

16.5.3 The CAT-CALL method

The CAT-CALL method is derived from the words copy, apply, tear, colour,
another, left, learnt (Wessels & Van den Berg 1998:105). This method is very
useful where learners find the spelling of a particular word very difficult.

C – Copy: Learners copy down the word from the textbook, dictionary
or board.
A – Apply: They apply it in a sentence.
T – Tear: They break the word down into its syllables.
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C – Colour: They write out the word in a pen or pencil of another colour.
A – Another: They write out the word in another way, for example in print,
italics or in capitals.
L – Left Right-handed learners write out the word with their left hand
and vice-versa.
L – Learnt: Can I spell the word now? The learners test themselves. For
example:

impatient

C impatient
A She is so impatient, she never waits for anything!
T im-pa-tient
C impatient
A impatient
L impatient
$   –

When teaching spelling, you can encourage learners to use brightly coloured
crayons, markers and chalk.

16.5.4 Look, close, write and check

Learners may also be taught the following way of learning spelling:

• Look: Learners take a good look at the words to try to remember how to
spell them.
• Close: They close up the words so that they can’t see them.
• Write: They write out the words and read them out softly to themselves.
• Check/revise: They check what they have written. If they have misspelt
any of them, they should not simply write them out correctly but should
go through the whole process again.

16.5.5 Make learning spelling a game

The teacher writes out ten difficult words on the chalkboard related to the
theme they are working on, and gives the learners about a minute to look at
the words and particularly the way they are spelt.

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Shopping barcode basket

cash change cashier buys

browse package wrap

FIGURE 16.1
A spelling game

Choose words that are related to a specific theme and that the learners are
familiar with, or will be coming across soon. You explain that you are going
to erase one of the words and that your learners will have to write that word
down themselves. Then you proceed to erase words at random and the
learners write down the words as they are rubbed out. This continues until
every last word has been erased. The learners then work in groups of three
or so to compare their spelling. They help each other and make corrections as
they think necessary. They then look up the words in a dictionary and mark
each other’s work.

16.5.6 Spelling and repetition

Spelling is information that we store in the brain as procedural knowledge.
This means it becomes automatic only after a person builds up extensive
contact through repeated exposure to a word in reading and writing. It is thus
important that learners come across certain words repeatedly, because that
would help with “automation” – in other words they spell the word correctly
without even thinking of the spelling. That’s because the more you hear, see
and use a word, the more active it becomes in memory. Once we know how
to spell a word, it is mostly something we do automatically. And if we know
the meaning we will use the word without thinking.

16.5.7 Spelling and reading

There is a close relationship between spelling and reading as spelling tends
to enhance learners’ reading proficiency. The more learners read, the more
their spelling will improve. Spelling also contributes to children’s ability to
pronounce words correctly and decode unknown words.
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Once your learners have read a piece of writing, you may ask them to go back
and circle the words that they think are difficult to spell. Then you discuss
these words with them and try to establish why your learners think they are
difficult to spell. You can then let them practise the spelling of these words by
employing any of the methods discussed above.

16.5.8 Assessment and spelling

Learners who are not proficient in their home language tend to have spelling
challenges in writing in their additional language. Find out from the other
teachers if this is indeed the case and keep this in mind when assessing such
learners’ work. These learners should be given extra spelling instruction.

It is advisable to make a list of the words that your learners spell wrongly while
you are correcting their work. After a month or so see whether you can group
these words together. Are there certain sounds that they spell incorrectly? Are
there words that they confuse (e.g. desert, dessert)? Pay specific attention to
the problem areas that you have identified from their work.

Ask yourself the following question: Are my learners aware of their spelling
problems? If they are writing about something, you may, for example, ask
them to underline those words which they are not sure how to spell. You can
then ask them to go and check their spelling in the dictionary. This activity
should tell you a lot about the learners’ spelling ability and need for guidance.
Learners who underline a lot of words are clearly unsure about spelling and
require extra exercises and help.

16.5.9 Using dictionaries in teaching spelling

When learners are having a difficult time in spelling certain words, you should
not interrupt by writing the correct word or teaching them spelling rules. En-
courage learners to look up difficult words in the dictionary. In this way they
will learn to solve spelling problems on their own and the writing process will
be interrupted as little as possible. The ability to use a dictionary is a very
important skill they are required to master as it also helps them to spell cor-
rectly. Therefore, allow your learners to use the dictionary in their language
activities. In the following section, I shall give you a few ideas on how to use
the dictionary.

A good dictionary has a wealth of useful information and contains far more
than merely spelling and the meaning of words.

32 Ac tivit y 16b
• Answer the following questions and you can share your answers with
your fellow students on the discussion forum.
• What type of dictionary do you have?
• Why should you teach your learners to use a dictionary?
• What are the main uses of a dictionary?
• What information can be found in a good dictionary?
• How does one decide on the suitability of a dictionary?
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Being able to use a dictionary properly is one of the most useful skills you
can help your learners acquire. Improving vocabulary, building other parts of
speech from a given word, checking spelling, pronunciation, looking up the
correct idiom – all these functions are made possible by a good dictionary.
Some even have information relating to weights and measures, capitals and
major cities of the world, gemstones, the history of countries and grammar
guidelines.

When you empower your learners to use a dictionary quickly and effectively,
you enable them to become independent readers and users of language. A
tricky matter arises when dealing with a second language: should one invest
in a mono- or bilingual dictionary?

Take a look around in the bookshops or contact a representative of a publisher

for advice on what is available for second language learners. There are several
very good learner dictionaries around, some specifically designed for the
younger age group.

A learner dictionary is a monolingual dictionary which is simple but detailed

enough for a second language speaker. If at all affordable, buy a bilingual
pocket dictionary just for quick reference purposes, usually to establish correct
spelling or translate words from the first language.

As the learner’s academic career progresses, one would hope that their range
of resource material extends to include both bilingual and monolingual dic-
tionaries and even a thesaurus. (A thesaurus is a book that gives you lists of
synonyms or related meanings for a word. It does not provide definitions and
explanations but is useful when looking for another word or one to fit the
exact register or context of your communication.)

The advantages of owning a small, inexpensive dictionary must be emphasised.

There are several school dictionaries on the market, some tailor-made for
each phase. Many are attractively illustrated while others seem big and more
“academic”. So how does one go about choosing a suitable dictionary?

The following pointers are taken from Barbara Hollingworth’s Teach English
well (1984:174):

• Are the cover and the dictionary pages reasonably durable?

• Will the book fit the average pocket or school satchel?
• Is the print large enough?
• Are the word definitions suitable? They must not be too complicated nor
over simplified. Are the definitions comprehensive?
• Will the phonetic system of pronunciation used be understood? The
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) or a modified form is the most common
system although not necessarily the most suitable.
• Are stress marks given?
• Is there a reasonable number of small illustrations?
• Is the relevant part of speech shown after the headword?
• Are the principal parts shown after irregular verbs?
• Are there any other features that make one dictionary more useful than
another?
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For instance, some dictionaries include useful lists of common abbreviations,

irregular verbs and idiomatic expressions. Others distinguish between British
and American spelling.

33 Ac tivit y 16 c
(1) Summarise the section on “Teaching spelling and using dictionaries”
in half a page.

(2) Watch the following online videos and answer the questions that
follow:

• “5th Grade Visualisation Spelling Lesson” by Steven Haas at https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxQ-4Jxk4To
• “Spelling list 4” by LogicofEnglish at https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=8TnQJo38x4Q (you only need to watch 5 minutes).

(2.1) What do you think are the advantages and the disadvantages
of the teaching methods demonstrated in these clips? Could
you adapt any of these techniques for your own purposes?

(2.2) Also find some more internet resources on teaching spelling

and post them in the relevant Discussions space of your e-tutor
site.

16.5.10 Why it is so difficult to teach English spelling

Spelling is one of those skills that a lot of people find challenging to master. This
is particularly true if English isn’t your first language. One of the main reasons
spelling is so hard to learn is that English is a highly irregular language. It has
borrowed words from many other tongues and anglicised their spelling in an
inconsistent way. In addition, there are almost twice as many sounds as letters!
An f is used in fire-truck, but ph is used in phone! The initial sound in kick is
k, but the same sound is spelled with a ck at the end of the word. Similarly
the same letters can represent different sounds. The pronunciation of c in face
is soft, but the c in car is hard. This means that learners would find it difficult
to write a word if they haven’t seen its written form before.

Spelling rules such as “i before e except after c” do exist in English, as in the

words receive and receipt. But there are also plenty of exceptions to these
rules, such as in species and science. Moreover, knowing a rule doesn’t always
mean you can operationalise it in an automatic fashion when you need to write
words quickly and accurately, for example during interviews, sales meetings
or timed assessments.

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The funny poem such as the one provided at

http://spellingsociety.org/uploaded_misc/poems-online-misc-1419940069.pdf

can be used when teaching spelling to help learners to understand that they
need to be able to spell correctly, because a spell checker on their “pea sea”,
will not help them with spelling. You can give them the poem and then ex-
pect them to rewrite it by using the correct spelling of words. If you go to the
website indicated above you will notice that Margo Roark, improvised on an
initial poem with this title that was written by Jerrold H Zar.

I have copied only the first four lines here. You can read the rest of the poem,
Candidate for a pullet surprise” on the internet page provided.

“Eye halve a spelling checker

It came with my pea sea

It plainly marques for my revue

Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.”

Margo Roark

You can find the complete poem and other similar texts at the following website:

http://spellingsociety.org/uploaded_misc/poems-online-misc-1419940069.pdf

16.5.11 Capitalising on the peculiarities of English

One often comes across newspapers or WhatsApp messages where peculiarities
about the English language are highlighted. It is fun to discuss these things
with learners in the classroom. The following are a few of these which I have
gathered over the years. I suggest that you start gathering your own list and
include them in your teacher’s resource file.

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English is a funny language

An oxymoron is usually defined as a phrase in which two words of contradictory
meaning are brought together:
(1) Clearly misunderstood
(2) Act naturally
(3) Exact estimate
(4) Small crowd
(5) Pretty ugly
(6) Only choice
(7) Found missing
(8) Seriously funny
(9) Original copies

When you are bored, just think about the things in English that don’t
make sense
(1) If poison expires is it more poisonous or is it no longer poisonous?
(2) Which letter is silent in the word “scent”? The s or the c?
(3) Why is the letter w in English called double u? Shouldn’t it be called
double v?
(4) The word “swims” upside down, is still “swims”.
(5) 100 years ago everyone owned a horse and only the rich had cars. Today
everyone has cars and only the rich own horses.
(6) If you replace “W” with “T” in “What, Where and When”, you get the
answer to each one of them.
(7) Wonder why the word “funeral” starts with FUN?
(8) Why isn’t a fireman called a “water-man”?
(9) If money doesn’t grow on trees, how come banks have branches.
(10) If a vegetarian eats vegetable, what does a humanitarian eat?
(11) Why are goods sent by ship called “cargo” and those sent by truck
“shipment”?
(12) Why do we put cups in the dishwasher and dishes in the cupboard?
(13) How come noses run and feet smell?
(14) What are you vacating when you go on vacation?
(15) Why is it called “rush hour” when traffic moves at its slowest then?

The above are only two examples of ways you can make the teaching of
language structures and conventions interesting.

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34 Ac tivit y 16 d
Find similar phrases or specific characteristics of English that can be used
to make the teaching of English language structures and conventions fun
and place them in your teacher’s resource file.

16.6 TEACHING VOCABULARY

Vocabulary growth is of the utmost importance in language learning. In
additional language teaching, it is imperative that learners comprehend the
new words and concepts that are encountered in the various texts and are able
to use the new words meaningfully. It is your task as the teacher to immerse
learners in words so that they can expand their vocabulary and interact in
the language they are learning. You also have to provide support to help your
learners understand new vocabulary and concepts. Here is some of the support
you can use to help learners understand new words that they can use in their
daily utterances.

• Use shorter sentences, speak in the present tense and do not use idiomatic
expressions.
• Ensure that learners understand when words are explained.
• Ask learners to complete sentences or definitions
• Use pictures or visual aids to explain new words and concepts.

It is difficult for additional language learners to assimilate new words in their

frame of reference when they have no relevance to their current understanding.
However, learning should be facilitated in a situation where vocabulary
expansion is aimed at lexical and oral proficiency. The strategies for vocabulary
expansion are explicit vocabulary learning and implicit vocabulary learning.

In explicit vocabulary learning, unfamiliar words in a text selected for reading

are explained and learners consolidate a new understanding. Explicit vocabulary
learning is intentional and mind-mapping, finding synonyms and clarifying
definitions are some of the means used to enhance it.

By implicit vocabulary learning is meant that learners acquire the meaning

of the word unintentionally and incidentally. Learners learn vocabulary by
reading a lot and form memory representations of words. Although implicit
vocabulary learning is important, one needs to keep in mind that some learn-
ers do not read outside of the classroom. Explicit teaching of vocabulary is
therefore important.

16.6.1 Vocabulary should be taught actively.

Although teaching vocabulary is not the only key to using language successfully,
it is essential to teach vocabulary actively. In the case of learners of an additional
language, vocabulary is especially important. Even if the learner has the recipe
(the language structure), without the ingredients (vocabulary) he or she won’t
be able to cook anything! The teacher therefore needs to create a balance
between language structure and vocabulary.
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It is easy to become bored with learning vocabulary. Think of interesting ways

in which to extend vocabulary. Learners enjoy crossword puzzles, quizzes
and competitions. The best thing to do is to integrate vocabulary with the
rest of the lesson and to teach new words as they come up in the work the
learners are doing.

On the question of the words that learners should be learning, keep the
following recommendations made by Kilfoil and Van der Walt (1997:187) in
mind:

Relevant factors in learning new vocabulary are

• how frequently the word occurs

• whether the word relates to a concept or a group of concepts the learners
already has
• how important it is for the learners to understand and use the word
• whether they have a real need to use a word in order to communicate or
understand communication

Words that fall into these categories are most easily learnt.

16.6.2 Refrain from giving learners long lists of vocabulary to learn and
rather teach vocabulary in context and let them built their own
vocabulary lists.
Research has shown that learners must come across a new word several times
before it becomes part of their vocabulary and they will use it themselves.
Therefore, one does not achieve much by introducing new words every day
– one probably simply overwhelms them like this!

In the real world, one does not learn new words from a long alphabetical
list. One learns new vocabulary by reading, talking to people or using new
words in a specific writing exercise. Long lists of vocabulary put learners off
– they are artificial and seem unrelated to real language usage. Words mean
different things in different contexts, and these meanings cannot be conveyed
in vocabulary lists. New words must be dealt with in context. If you are busy
with a specific theme, you can give the learners a list of words related to that
theme and ask them to use at least five of these words in a writing exercise
on that theme. Obviously, there may also be a disadvantage to this approach.
What do you suppose it is?

Yes, you’re right! The message that the learner is trying to convey in the writing
task may be lost if it becomes more important for him or her to use the five
words than to put across the actual message.

16.6.3 Make the most of new words in texts to extend the learners’
vocabulary.
I have already discussed “context”. The learner can understand the true meaning
of a word only if it is given in context. The most practical way in which to
extend vocabulary is therefore to use vocabulary in a specific text. One must,
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however, be careful not to consider the vocabulary to be more important than

the text as a whole.

One of the best times to extend vocabulary is when teaching reading. It is

sometimes advisable to teach the new words before the learners actually come
across the words in the text, but at other times words may be clarified when
learners come across them in a text.

16.6.4 Let learners first guess the meaning of words they don’t know.
It is often possible to derive the meaning of a word from its context and learners
should be encouraged to do so – before they go to look up the meaning of
the word in the dictionary. You can make a game of this: let them first guess
the meaning of the word and then ask them to go and look up its meaning up
in the dictionary to see whether they were right.

16.6.5 Encourage learners to use dictionaries.

The dictionary is a critical element of any language class. By training learners
to use the dictionary, you are developing their independence and establishing
the habit of looking up new words. If one uses the correct dictionary, learners
will also get information on when, where and how a particular word should
be used.

16.6.6 Extend vocabulary by means of word building.

Knowing how words are formed (e.g. compounds, the use of affixes etc) and
exploring the relationships between words (e.g. synonyms and antonyms) can
help learners to work out the meaning of new words, providing that they know
the meaning of the root word or part of word. If, for example, learners know
that the prefix “mis” means wrong, the chances are good that they will be able
to work out the meaning of words like misinform, misjudge or misinterpret
from the context of the text.

The same applies to the relationships between words. Some learners find it
easier to learn a word if they can associate it with another word (an antonym
or synonym).

16.7 DEALING WITH MISTAKES

People learn by making mistakes; therefore, making mistakes is an unavoidable
and essential part of learning any language – especially an additional language.
It is only by making mistakes and hearing the correct form that learners can
develop an understanding of how language functions. It is important for teachers
to create opportunities so that learners are able to achieve language proficiency
and use it creatively. The more opportunities learners get, the more mistakes
they will make – therefore you as the teacher must think very carefully about
how to respond to mistakes.

The internalisation (i.e. to make something one’s own, to understand it and

to use it) of a new language structure takes time. Therefore, teachers cannot

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expect that correcting mistakes will yield immediate results. Even learners
on an advanced level make mistakes. Correcting learners constantly will not
produce learners who don’t make mistakes. Truth be told, placing too much
emphasis on correcting errors may be counter-productive because it will
discourage learners from using the language and experimenting with new
language structures and vocabulary. However, the fact of the matter is that
mistakes cannot be ignored – they must be pointed out to learners. The secret
is to limit corrections to a few at a time and to decide when it is appropriate
to point them out and when it is not.

You can sometimes correct mistakes subtly by doing, for example, the following:

Learner: “Ma’am, yesterday the childrens in Mrs Gumbo’s class go to the place
where they keep animals in cages.”

Teacher: “Oh, and what kind of animals did the children see at the zoo?”

By doing this, you are acknowledging the message conveyed and correcting
the language usage at the same time.

Remember the following when pointing out mistakes:

• If you keep on interrupting speakers to correct them, they will soon become
too afraid to talk.
• Point out only a few mistakes at a time – no one likes to get back work that
looks like a bloodbath. Try to mark with a pencil.
• If everyone in your class has the same home language, they will probably
all make the same type of mistakes. You can then play the “mistake-of-the-
week” game with them. Choose a mistake that most of them make and then
explain it to them, putting the correct version on the board or on a special
place on the classroom wall. The learners must then try not to make that
mistake the next week. A game like this makes them aware of a specific
error and encourages them to avoid making it (Littlejohn & Hicks 2003).
• You can discuss mistakes you have come across at the end of the lesson
without dwelling on who made them.

16.8 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

Kilfoil and Van der Walt (1997:78) summarise the latest trends in teaching
language structure and use as follows:

Clearly the teacher can no longer grab just any structure, make a few disjointed
sentences to demonstrate its working and give similar sentences for homework.
The lesson on a specific grammatical point must be a tight unit of functional
language use in a realistic setting to which the teacher should adhere when
providing additional examples or material.

Now turn back to the learning objectives for this learning unit and ask yourself
whether you have achieved them. Test yourself by answering the following
questions without paging back:
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• Discuss at least two ways in which teachers can go about making the
teaching of language structures and conventions interesting for learners.
• Which of the methods discussed for the teaching of spelling do you prefer?
Discuss the method and give reasons for your choice.
• What advice would you give an inexperienced colleague on teaching
vocabulary?
• How would you use dictionaries in your class?
• Explain by means of examples how you would use the PPP approach to
teach the past tense.

16.9 CONCLUSION
An understanding and knowledge of language structures are key factors in
effective communication. There should always be a balance between mean-
ing and form. Language structures should not be taught as isolated rules and
the communicative objective must always be taken into account. There is
no specific method that can be prescribed to teach language structures and
conventions. You must take the objectives you want to achieve, the content
that you want to teach; the language level of the learners; their age and your
personality into consideration when deciding which method to use. You must
choose the method that works best for your specific class.

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LEARNING UNIT
17 17

17 Lesson planning and preparation

WEEK 28

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Alan Lakein

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• do long- and short-term lesson planning and preparation

• formulate learning objectives
• explain the different phases of a lesson

17.1 INTRODUCTION
It is vital that you give serious thought to what you would like to happen during
each meeting with your learners. Not only do you need to plan for each and
every activity that you are going to do or expect your learners to perform,
but also for questions you are going to ask and how you are going to assess
learners to see whether they have learnt what you wanted them to learn. In
this learning unit we discuss lesson planning, preparation and in the last unit
we will look at assessment.

You will also learn about lesson planning and preparation and assessment
in your other modules (Teacher as Manager [BTE2601], Curriculum Studies
[CUS3701], Assessment in Education [AED3701]). You need to study this learning
unit in conjunction with these units as we are only giving a short overview of
lesson planning, preparation and assessment here.

Please note that there is a difference between planning and preparation. Your
task is not done once you have planned all the activities for your lesson. You
also need to prepare, in other words develop worksheets, do a PowerPoint
presentation, find pictures that can be used, make wall charts or write down
questions you are going to ask as part of formative assessment.
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It is your task as a teacher to see to it that the learning content is presented in

an orderly and logical way. Remember that it is often the teaching-learning
approach that is followed – and not the learning content as such – that ensures
effective learning. All teachers use the same curriculum (CAPS) and most
learners use the same textbook (often the Platinum series), yet some learners
learn more than others. The reason for this is because of the way in which
different teachers plan and present their lessons. The same lesson content can
be presented in an interesting and innovative way, or in a boring, impractical
and hopeless way. The has the following implication: if you as a teacher are
innovative and creative, a boring topic could be made fun and presented in
an enjoyable lesson!

The textbook is a useful aid, especially when you are dealing with difficult
language structures like the infinitive or indirect speech, but you need not
use it day in and day out. The best textbooks are those that give guidance on
how to teach language in a communicative way and that integrate the teach-
ing of language with listening, speaking and writing. And the best teachers
are those who use the textbook but also plan for activities that do not form
part of the textbook.

17.2 WHAT CAPS SAYS ABOUT LESSON PLANNING

As with all the other units, the starting point for this unit is the CAPS. If you
read through CAPS you will notice that you need to plan for a two-week cycle,
as a variety of texts have been selected for each two-week period and you
need to work with these texts during that period.

35 Ac tivit y 17a
Read everything in section 3.3 (3.3.1–3.3.5) in the CAPS FAL for English.

The teaching plans indicate the minimum content to be covered every two
weeks per term. Note that it is not necessary to cover the content in the
sequence indicated in the CAPS – it is only an indication of how long it might
take to cover certain content. You need to use the teaching plan, the textbooks
that your school is using and your teacher resource file to prepare your work
schedules – in other words what you are going to do and cover during each
of the lessons in the two-week cycle. It is important to note that CAPS also
recommend that you use content and concepts that are contextual to your
environment. In other words, you need to keep in mind that you are teaching
in a rural or urban area, that you are teaching in a specific province where there
are specific natural wonders, interesting sites to see or other things that are
unique to the environment. If you are, for example, teaching near the Kruger
National Park, you can use the Park as a context for your teaching.

We hope you have noted by now how texts need to be used. The same text
(story) that you will use for learners to listen to a story will be used during
the reading and viewing class to read the story. The same story will then be
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used to do a writing activity (such as letting them write a letter to one of the
characters in the story, or to write an alternative ending for the story).

It works best if you work with themes. You can select a theme (e.g. music or
pets, etc) and do all activities related to these themes. Vocabulary building
will, for example, be done based on the theme and using texts that are about
the theme provides you with the opportunity to do language structures and
conventions in context.

Learners must be exposed to different kinds of texts throughout the year. They
first need to engage with the different texts orally and in reading before they
can be expected to produce similar texts. In most cases the listening/speaking
text will be used to prepare the learners for the reading and writing activity,
but it could also be done the other way round. In other words, the texts should
first be read and then listening and speaking activities should follow from the
reading activity. Keep in mind that learners’ listening skills are more developed
than their reading skills, therefore the listening texts should mostly be more
difficult than the reading text.

Ensure that you are familiar with the type of texts prescribed and recom-
mended (CAPS, section 3.3.3). Note the important role of extended reading
(texts chosen from the reader/readers/other books) that will support the texts
read in the prescribed section.

Language structures and conventions will get attention during the process of
engaging with the texts. The following example is given in the CAPS (2011:32):

If a story is being done, learners will naturally use the simple past tense
and will read texts using this tense. However, it is also important that
activities be developed that focus on particular language structures
in context. Choose items from the “Language Structures and Conven-
tions” section to teach learners language that appears naturally in the
focus text and in an order that supports a natural and logical approach
to language acquisition. Not all items must be taught within that given
cycle but ensure that all the items listed in the overview are covered by
the end of the year.

17.3 THE NATURE OF PLANNING AND PREPARATION

Note that there is a difference between planning and preparation – they are
not the same.

Planning involves, firstly, long-term planning for a term or year. You will need
to decide what to do during each two-week cycle and what you are planning
to teach and assess in each cycle. This includes what content you will cover
when teaching each of the four language skills. You will also decide on the
activities to be done during the pre-planning and in class, as well as the post-
activities for each skill. (Note: Some of the provincial departments of education
have their own templates for doing long-term planning and we will give you
some examples from the Gauteng Department of Education [GDE] in this unit.)
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Planning also involves short-term planning. When doing short-term planning,

you will need to decide on the objectives of the specific lesson, what part of
the textbook you are going to deal with, which activities you are going to in-
corporate, what additional work you are going to add and how both informal
and formal assessment will be done.

Preparation, in contrast, is a result of planning and is more practical. Preparation

has to do with the application of the planning process and involves organising
the learning material, preparing media (e.g. making posters or a PowerPoint
presentation), compiling worksheets to be completed, making recordings for
listening exercises and formulating questions based on the recorded piece,
duplicating suitable visual material for each learner, identifying difficult
vocabulary in a reading text and deciding how you are going to teach these
difficult words or terms to the learners, preparing questions to ask learners,
preparing the answers to homework assignments learners were given the
previous day or week and deciding on new homework exercises, among
other things.

Each school has its own way of planning, so we will give you only some broad
guidelines, which should help you to adapt to your future school’s way of
planning. Let’s first look at long-term planning:

• First familiarise yourself with the time available for teaching English additional
language and the time to be allocated to each of the skills in a two-week
cycle, as well as per term.
• Consult the CAPS to see what needs to be covered in each skill.
• Consult the CAPS to see how texts should be spread across the two-week
cycles, the term and the year.
• Consult the textbook to see what themes are addressed.
• Now decide on the activities and tasks you wish to include.
• Plan how you are going to assess (including both informal and formal
assessment). Remember that the last two weeks of a term are usually used
for assessment.

Note the following important points:

• The teaching plan indicates the minimum content you should cover every
two weeks per term. You do not have to cover all the content prescribed
over a two-week cycle. The sequence of the content listed is not prescribed
and the time given is an approximate indication of how long it could take
to cover the content. Therefore, you need not follow the plan precisely.
You will find that you will sometimes have to deviate from your plan – this
is a reality.
• As a teacher, you should design your lesson plans from your textbook and
from any other relevant sources and teach the content per term, using an
appropriate sequence and pace. You are also encouraged to use content
or concepts that are relevant to the learners’ environment (as prescribed
in the CAPS [2011:31]).
• Construct activities that are meaningful to learners and that relate to the texts
they are studying in the two-week cycle. More activities should be done as
learners make progress from Grade 4 through to Grade 6. Carefully select
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which language rules you will explain to learners and make sure that they
get ample opportunities to practise these rules when teaching language
structures and conventions. Note that there is a specific time allocated
for teaching language structures and conventions, but that the teaching
thereof should also be done during the teaching of the four skills. Teaching
should thus integrate all the language skills and language structures, since
they are interrelated. All of these should be taught in context and should
preferably be based on a text (note that a text could be a listening passage
or a written text).

17.4 LONG-TERM PLANNING: THE ANNUAL TEACHING PLAN (ATP)

The following is an example of an annual teaching plan developed by the
Gauteng Department of Education for Term 1–4, Grade 6. You must use this
annual teaching plan when doing your short-term planning for each two-week
cycle. Pay attention to the number of activities required for each two-week
cycle.

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Annual teaching plan (GDE)

TABLE 17.1

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17.5 SHORT-TERM PANNING

As we have already indicated, you need to use the annual teaching plan to
do short-term planning for a two-week cycle. The following is an example of
planning for a two-week cycle, as it is done at Doringkloof Primary in Pre-
toria. (Permission kindly granted by Ms Christine de Villiers and Ms Leandra
Oosthuizen to use the examples.)

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TABLE 17.2
Planning for a two-week cycle (Doringkloof Primary School)

LESSON PLAN

TERM 3

THEME 10: PEOPLE WE ADMIRE DATE: 9–19 July 2019

SUBJECT: English First Additional Language GRADE: 5X

DURATION: Week 1 and 2

SKILLS
Language
Listening Reading and Writing and
structures and
and Speaking Viewing Presenting
Conventions
™Do daily ™Read a true ™Write events in Spelling and punctuation.
listening and story about a sequence, rewrite a
speaking miner called story. ™Spell correctly using a
practice. Richard ™Use correct gram- personal dictionary.
™Talk about Simelane. mar, spelling and ™Words starting with “g”
photographs of ™Do a compre- format. can sound like “j” before
well-known or hension on the ™Records words and i, e, y.
heroic people story. meanings in own
to introduce the ™Practice reading personal dictionary. Work with words and
theme. the story aloud. sentences.
™Listen to ™Do a word
descriptions of puzzle using ™Subject verb concord.
people and take vocabulary from ™Personal pronouns.
notes. Grade 5. ™Comparative adjectives.
™Give a personal ™Read inde- ™Verb “to be”.
recount. pendently or in
Vocabulary in context.
pairs.
™Words taken from shared
or individually read text.

Learner’s Book (pp. 85–94),

Teacher’s Guide (pp. 113–125),

RESOURCES Class dictionaries

Personal dictionaries

Books from book corner.

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LEARNING
TEACHING METHODS/APPROACH
ACTIVITIES
PERIOD 1 School Holiday!

PERIOD 2 School Holiday!

PERIOD 3 Learners complete Talk about a photograph (page 86).

Learners complete Listen to descriptions of people (page 86) After you listen
PERIOD 4 and Work with words and sentences (page 86) in their Book 2s.
Learners complete Listen to and give a personal recount (page 87). They
PERIOD 5 also complete Work with words and sentences (page 87) in their Book 2s.
Learners do Read a true story about a South African hero (pages
PERIOD 6 88–89) After you read, numbers 1–8.
Learners do Work with words and sentences (page 90) numbers 1–3 and
PERIOD 7 Spelling (page 90) numbers 1 and 2 in their Book 2s..

PERIOD 8 New words from Theme 10 are written down into their Personal Dictionaries.

Learners also paste their Spelling words for Term 3 paper into their Book
PERIOD 9 2s. They need to study for their Spelling Test 1 they are writing on Tues-
day 23 July 2019.

PERIOD 10 Learners receive new Department Book for Term 3 and 4.

Learners complete Language Focus (page 91) numbers 1–3 in their
PERIOD 11 Book 2s.
Learners complete Rewrite a story in your own words (pages 92–93) in their
PERIOD 12 Book 2s.
Learners complete Rewrite a story in your own words (pages 92–93) in their
PERIOD 13 Book 2s.

PERIOD 14 Learners do Summarise a paragraph (page 93) in their Book 2s.

PERIOD 15 Learners do Summarise a paragraph (page 93) in their Book 2s.

PERIOD 16 Learners complete Revision (page 94) numbers 1–4.

PERIOD 17 Learners complete Revision (page 94) numbers 1–4.

PERIOD 18 Learners complete Revision (page 94) numbers 1–4.

New words from Theme 12 are written down into their Personal Dictionaries.
PERIOD 19 Learners also make new divider for Theme 12: Animals and the environment.
New words from Theme 12 are written down into their Personal Dictionaries.
PERIOD 20 Learners also make new divider for Theme 12: Animals and the environment.

DEPARTMENT BOOK:
Learners receive their Department Book for Term 3 and 4.

      

           

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REINFORCEMENT

EXPANDED OPPORTUNITIES
ASSESSMENT

TYPES OF ASSESSMENT:
Independent Reading: Learners read from their
Informal assessment: Platinum reader or from their class reader.

Informal assessment takes place on a In the Learner’s Book 2 they have a Book Log paper to
daily basis. record books and the amount of pages they have read.
This motivates the learners to read often as they might
stand a chance to win the Reading Trophy at the end
of the year.
INCLUSIVITY:
x Create a safe working environment.
x Praise whenever possible and make positive comments; notice positive behaviour.
x Create a positive atmosphere of mutual respect and trust in my classroom, with
ground rules.
x Develop a team relationship between the learner, educator, parent or anyone working
towards the success of the learners.
x Encourage learners to understand themselves better.
x              
x Allow learners to help each other.

TEACHER REFLECTION:

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

The above is an example of the lesson planning form. The following is a lesson
plan which shows how Ms Oosthuizen made notes about her teaching activities
and reflected on her teaching:

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TABLE 17.3
Example of teacher’s reflective notes

Example 1: Reflections on ATP.

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Example 2: Reflections and comments on individual lessons

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36 Ac tivit y 17b
Use the template that Ms Oosthuisen used to plan for a two-week cycle
(Table 7.2), choose the first two weeks of Term 1 for English FAL, Grade 5
and plan your teaching for the first two weeks of the year. If you do this
planning well, you will be well prepared for the first two weeks when you
start teaching in future.

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17.6 USING THE LESSON PLAN TO DO PREPARATION

Your plan for each two-week cycle will tell you what you need to do during
each period, but you also need to plan and prepare at the micro level for
each of these periods or lessons. It is important that you decide before each
lesson what the learners should learn and how they should learn it. You must,
therefore, decide before the lesson what the learners should know and what
they should be able to do by the end of a lesson, as well as how you will make
sure that they learn what you want them to learn.

Rosenshine and Stevens (in Cole & Chan 1994:100) maintain that a teacher
doing micro-planning (lesson planning) should plan to

• start the lesson with a brief overview of the content already taught, create
an expectancy in the learners about the new content and explain the
conditions that apply in a specific lesson
• give a short explanation of the lesson objectives that learners are expected
to achieve, so that learners know exactly what is expected of them
• present new content in small bites to give learners regular opportunities to
practise their skills and to apply their knowledge
• give clear and detailed instructions, demonstrations and explanations
• give all learners the opportunity to become actively involved in learning
events
• assess continuously during teaching (e.g. by regularly asking critical questions
and giving instructions) to check whether learners have acquired and
understood the information they need to achieve the lesson objectives; it
is preferable to get feedback from all learners
• guide (help) learners to apply knowledge, particularly during the first phase
of any task, and check whether they apply this knowledge correctly
• present feedback systematically and clear up any misconceptions immediately

A number of different authors have compiled guidelines for the presentation

of lessons and many of these guidelines are similar. Most of these authors
emphasise the importance of learners being given the opportunity to apply
new knowledge and skills – preferably independently and in new situations.
The PPP approach makes provision for application.

Teaching cannot be done haphazardly – you must ensure that teaching is done
in a logical and systematic way.

17.6.1 Have clear objectives in mind

It is important that you first of all determine exactly what you want learners to
be able to do, know and understand by the end of the lesson. It is therefore
very important that each lesson have a carefully formulated objective so that
the teacher and learners know exactly what should be achieved in the lesson.
Lesson objectives refer to the goals that should be reached in a specific lesson.
It is advisable that you write them down when you first start teaching (i.e. when
you are still an inexperienced teacher). Lesson objectives are very specific,
clear and unambiguous. The lesson objectives should also contain action
words (verbs) or measurable activities (i.e. the teacher and learners need to
know exactly what must be achieved).
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Here are some examples of lesson objectives:

• By the end of the lesson, learners must be able to write clear instructions
on how to make a cup of tea.
• By the end of the lesson, learners will be able to identify nouns in a text.
• By the end of the lesson, learners will be able to discuss the characteristics
of a fable and identify these characteristics in the fable entitled “The thirsty
crow”.

Lesson objectives should be assessable, that is, the teacher must be able
to determine whether learners have achieved the lesson objectives. If your
objective is “By the end of the lesson learners should understand what a noun
is”, it would be difficult to assess. If the objective is that “learners will be able
to identify nouns in a text”, they can be given a text, requested to identify the
nouns and then they can be assessed to determine whether they are able to
do so.

Lesson objectives should preferably be formulated so that learners are required

to achieve different cognitive skills (e.g. comprehension, application, evaluation).

17.6.2 Phases in the presentation of a lesson

The following phases indicate the course of a lesson in the classroom. Although
we should always adapt to circumstances and be as creative as possible, a
basic lesson structure is usually evident: an introductory phase, a central or
middle phase and a conclusion.

• The introductory phase of a lesson

The way you, as the teacher, begin the lesson usually determines whether
the learners pay attention or lose interest. It is thus essential that you gain the
learners attention in the first couple of minutes and explain what is expected
of them. You should therefore try to think of ways to make your lessons as
interesting as possible.

You should take learners’ prior knowledge (of the content) into account and
involve learners in the learning material by doing activities that interest them. If
the lesson can be linked to a previous lesson, try to determine what the learn-
ers still remember from that lesson. Also try to link the new learning material
with the learners’ prior knowledge or experience.

When you start planning a lesson, it is a good idea to make a list of the possible
ways a specific lesson could be presented – make the list as complete as
possible. Then try to think of interesting and original ways to present the lesson
and prepare your lesson with these ideas in mind. Remember, those ideas
that worked ten years ago when you were still at school will not necessarily
work today. South Africa has changed immensely and we must take this into
consideration when we plan our lessons. Although we still follow certain
basic educational principles, our presentation should be new and stimulating.

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When, during the introductory phase of the lesson, you check the previous
day’s homework, you will be able to determine how much the learners are
able to remember. If you detect gaps in the learners’ knowledge, you could
revise the previous day’s lesson.

Teachers should always ask themselves the following questions when planning
the introductory phase of a lesson:

• How can I determine, in the introductory phase of my lesson, what the

learners know about the new learning content?
• When I start my lesson, how can I link the learning content to the learners’
experiences?
• How can I use the introduction to build a bridge between the learners’
prior knowledge and the new learning content?
• How can I stimulate the learners’ interest in the new learning material and
motivate them to use the language as effectively as possible?
• What is the best way to help learners understand the lesson objectives –
either in a direct way or by implication or suggestion – so that they will
want to achieve the objectives?

Research has shown that learners study better when faced with a problem.
During a skim-reading lesson, for example, you may present the following
scenario:

You have been wrongly detained by the police and you have received a thick
pile of documents containing the so-called charges against you. You know
that these charges are not true, but you cannot defend yourself until you know
exactly what these charges entail. How would you quickly ascertain what
these documents contain before you are locked up?

You will often do pre-activities during the introductory phase of a lesson.

Depending on the theme that you are dealing with during the two-week cycle,
you could, for example, start a lesson by letting learners discuss in groups or
in pairs what they regard as the difference between a house and a home. Or
you could show them a picture of children doing something dangerous (e.g.
playing with firecrackers) and ask them to draw up a list of the advice they
would give these children.

• The middle phase: presentation of the learning material

This phase represents the biggest part of the lesson and it is here that the
learning material is presented in a logical and systematic fashion. During this
phase, you will incorporate the text (reading or listening), focus on vocabulary
building (you need to do this in all lessons), teach a certain language structure or
convention and then let the learners apply (transfer) their knowledge to a new
situation and make sure that they understand (you need to check comprehension
on a regular basis).

If you realise that the learners do not understand the material, you must change
direction immediately – there is no point in continuing as planned. You must
either change the method of presentation or repeat the previous lesson.
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A wide variety of methods and media may be used. Formative assessment

(continuous assessment) should be done.

It is important that teachers provide learners with continuous feedback on

their progress. During this phase, you should implement everything you know
about teaching in order to present a successful lesson – learners need to learn
something. To achieve this, you need to keep the following in mind:

• effective questioning
• active learner participation
• working in groups, pairs or individually
• feedback
• facilitation and direct explanations when necessary
• exercising control
• participating actively in interesting activities
• maintaining the correct tempo
• using markers (e.g. listen carefully to the following explanation; write this
down; pay attention to the following steps; in contrast to what has been
said thus far; …)
• using appropriate examples and effective media
• using effective methods of presentation
• using humour

When presenting new learning content, you should use the most appropriate
methods, teaching media, explanations, demonstrations and questions.

To prevent a class from becoming unruly, you must know exactly what you
want to achieve, how much time is available for the activities, what the learn-
ers must do and how they can be motivated to pay attention.

It is important to keep learners busy. If you keep learners busy, they won’t
have time to be naughty or become unruly. They must apply new insights and
knowledge as soon as they acquire them. As soon as you have explained the
meaning of new words, for example, the learners must be given the opportunity
to use those words meaningfully in sentences. It is sometimes necessary for
teachers to stand back and allow the learners to find the answers themselves,
but at other times teachers may be required to give more explicit explanations.

• Conclusion of the lesson

The conclusion of the lesson should, like the introduction and the middle phase,
be planned in detail. The conclusion should not consist only of a few quick
words intended to bring the lesson to a close. Curzon (1990:245) maintains
that a conclusion should consist of the following:

` J          ^++

strengthening of what has been taught), assimilation and retention and
ought to include a revision (perhaps in the form of question and answer),
a summary of which can be presented visually. A link with the next
lesson in the overall scheme of work can be provided, for example, by
the setting of homework which should be seen as a preparation for that
lesson, or by the announcement of the next lesson’s title.
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It is necessary, in the last phase of the lesson, to consolidate and revise. Although
there are different ways to do this (e.g. through questions, worksheets, an oral
summary, a written summary or transparency), the most important points in
the lesson should be briefly repeated.

Assessment plays a very important role in the conclusion of a lesson for the
following reasons:

• It provides the teacher with the necessary feedback on what the learners have
achieved and what learning material should be presented next. Assessment
enables the teacher to determine whether the learners have achieved the
outcomes.
• Assessment provides learners with the necessary feedback so that they can
determine their successes and failures.
• It helps the teacher to understand learners, their abilities and their needs.
• Assessment encourages and motivates learners. Learners may be tested orally
to determine whether they understand the broad outlines of the lesson. The
teacher is able to establish if any part of the lesson was unclear and, if so,
to clarify it immediately.

Assessment may be done orally or in writing; alternatively, you could give the
learners a homework assignment that will be marked the following day. Be
selective in the homework assignments you give learners. Always ask yourself
if it is necessary for learners to complete the assignment at home. You should
also ensure that the homework assignments have clear lesson outcomes.

Homework assignments are ideal for reinforcing existing knowledge. Homework

should consist of activities that learners can complete on their own. The activi-
ties should be logical extensions of work done in the classroom and should
also allow learners to apply the knowledge learnt in class to new situations.
(Be aware that parents often do children’s homework for them and that – if
you give a written assignment for homework – you might end up assessing
the parent’s work!)

• Reflection

Every teacher should assess himself or herself after completing a lesson. Assess
yourself by asking yourself the following questions:

• How do I feel about the lesson – satisfied or dissatisfied? Why?

• What contributed to the success or failure of the lesson?
• What would I change if I have to present this lesson again?
• Which of the lesson objectives did the learners achieve?
• Which of the lesson objectives did the learners not achieve?
• What was the atmosphere like in class – tense, relaxed, supportive or
restrictive?
• Were there any signs of tension or bad behaviour? Why?
• How much did the learners participate? How can I improve this?
• Which learners performed well and which did not? How can this be
addressed?
• Were there any learners who did not learn anything? What can I do to
help them?

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• Were the learners motivated to learn? If not, what should I have done to
motivate them?
• Did the learners express their opinions? If not, what can I do to ensure that
they do in future?

37 Ac tivit y 17c
Consult your planning for the two-week cycle that you did previously.
Focus on one specific lesson that you will need to plan and prepare. Do
the following:

• Formulate two objectives for the lesson.

• Explain what you will do during the introductory phase of the lesson
to get the learners’ attention.
• List three activities that you will let learners do during the middle
phase of the lesson.

Watch the following lesson on YouTube and answer the two questions
that follow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5WOptpiG0o&list=PL61ED7D7BBE
FBC1C3&index=24

• Identify the introductory phase, middle phase and conclusion.

• Indicate whether you think the lesson was presented in an effective
way. Justify your opinion.
If necessary, make suggestions for improving the lesson.

17.6.3 Lesson preparation template

The following template is commonly used in schools to do preparation for
a specific lesson. Each school has its own way of planning lessons and you
might find when you start teaching that the school uses either this template
or a modification of it.

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TABLE 17.4
Example of a lesson preparation template

Lesson plan

Subject: Theme: Grade: Date:

Learning objectives

1.
2.
3.
4.

Lesson objectives (what the learners should be able to do at the end of the lesson)

1.
2.
3.

Sources and resources (media)

Activities and methods

Phase Learner activities Teacher activities/

methods

Introduction:
Middle:
Conclusion:

Assessment

Assessment table:

Homework assignment

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38 Ac tivit y 17d
Choose any two-week cycle in CAPS. Focus on a particular lesson (e.g.
reading and viewing or writing and presenting) and plan the specific les-
son on the lesson planning form provided on the previous page. If you
are already teaching and your school is using a different template to plan,
you may use your school’s template.

17.7 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

At the beginning of the learning unit we have mentioned a few learning objec-
tives. By now you must have achieved them. Answer the following questions
without paging back, to make sure that you are on track. If you need to page
back more than twice, I suggest that you work through the learning unit again.

• Why do you think it is necessary to do long-term planning?

• What does short-term planning entail?
• What are the three phases of a lesson?
• Choose and two-week cycle in CAPS and formulate objectives for the
different lessons in that cycle.

17.8 CONCLUSION
As a beginning teacher, you will have to plan thoroughly, but as you get more
experienced, your planning will become more naturally and you won’t have
to write everything down like at the beginning stages of your career.

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LEARNING UNIT
18 18

18 Assessment

WEEK 29

Learners need endless feedback more than they need endless teaching.
Grant Wiggins

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Once you have worked through this study unit, you should be able to:

• explain the different types of assessment

• describe the levels of assessment
• discuss the use of rubrics to assess writing

18.1 INTRODUCTION
Assessment is an important way of revealing the learners’ progress to both the
learners, teachers and parents.

18.2 PLANNING FOR AND CONDUCTING ASSESSMENT

When planning and preparing for teaching, you also need to plan and prepare
for assessment at the same time. Assessment is not a once-off activity such
as writing a test or an examination. It is continuous and ongoing and should
be done in different ways (baseline, formative or summative, etc) at different
stages of the learning process.

Some of the information provided in this section is similar to the information in

TMN3702 (Teaching a Home Language in the IP). This is because the principles
of assessment are the same irrespective of whether you are teaching a home
language or an additional language.

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18.3 WHAT CAPS SAYS ABOUT ASSESSMENT

CAPS is very specific about how and when assessment needs to be done.

39 Ac tivit y 18 a
Study CAPS (2011), section 4. Read the introduction before familiarising
yourself with how formal or daily assessment needs to be done. Then
make sure that you understand how to do formal assessment, what the
different types of formal assessment entail and how the cognitive levels
must be taken into consideration when doing assessment. Then study
section 4.4 (The programme of assessment) and familiarise yourself with
the different tasks that need to be performed in each term for each of
the different grades. Study the guidelines for school-based assessments
and examinations for each of the grades and then acquaint yourself with
the format of examination papers (CAPS 2011:105–107). Lastly, study the
guidelines for recording and reporting and how moderation needs to be
done.

18.3.1 Assessment of languages

Learners’ listening skills, oral competence, ability to answer questions,
participation in discussions and writing skills should be observed in an informal
way on a daily basis.

When assessing reading, it is important to assess learners’ understanding of

what they are reading and not just their ability to recognise or decode words.
Assessment of reading should therefore take place regularly and should not
be a once-off event. Formal reading assessment should focus on reading
aloud, as well as activities that help you to determine how much the learner
has understood when, for example, reading a story or answering questions.

Assessment of written work will focus primarily on the learner’s ability to convey
meaning, as well as how correctly they have written correct language structures
and conventions, spelling and punctuation, for example. All assessment should
recognise that language learning is a process and that learners will not produce
a completely correct piece of work the first time around. Therefore, the various
stages in the writing process should also be assessed.

When giving a formal assessment task, there will be a focus on a particular

skill, for example listening and speaking or reading and writing. However,
because language learning is an integrated process, more than one skill will
be used. The language structures and conventions should be assessed in
context. Furthermore, assessment should entail not only written work but
should also allow for practical and oral work. It is important to assess what
learners understand and apply, not what they can memorise, so it is necessary
to assess in context as much as possible. Learners may, for example, be able
to spell all words correctly during the weekly spelling test on Friday, but are
they able to use and spell those words correctly when writing a story?
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18.3.2 Types of assessment

Assessment should be both informal and formal. Informal assessment is also
called formative assessment or assessment for learning, while formal assess-
ment is also known as summative assessment or assessment of learning.

• Informal assessment tasks (assessment for learning)

The purpose of assessment for learning, or informal assessment, is to collect

information about a learner’s achievement on a regular basis and to use this to
improve his or her learning. Assessment for learning (or informal assessment)
can be done through observations, discussions, practical demonstrations,
learner–teacher conferences, informal classroom interactions, homework
exercises, regular spelling tests, reading aloud and other forms of assessment.
Learners should receive feedback based on informal assessments, but it is not
necessary to record these types of assessments. If you wish to keep your own
informal records of how learners are progressing, you are welcome to do so.
Nevertheless, these results should not be taken into consideration for promo-
tion and certification purposes.

• Formal assessment tasks (assessment of learning)

Formal assessment tasks must be marked and formally recorded, as well

as moderated for the purpose of quality assurance and the maintenance
of high standards. Examples of formal assessments are tests, examinations,
practical tasks, projects, oral presentations, demonstrations (e.g. retelling a story,
doing a role-play), performances (e.g. acting out a story), essays, participation
in oral tasks (e.g. dialogues, conversations and discussions), written tasks
(e.g. completing a worksheet, writing paragraphs or other types of texts) etc.

In formal assessments, you need to make use of memoranda, rubrics, checklists

and rating scales. You also need to choose the correct assessment tool for the
type of activity. A rubric would, for example, be better suited to assessing a
creative writing piece, while a memorandum would be better suited to marking
a spelling test or a reading comprehension activity.

Formal assessment tasks must assess a range of aspects of the language skills
so that the key aspects will be assessed over the course of the term or the year.
Before you can do formal assessment of reading aloud, writing a summary or
an essay etc, you must make sure that the learner has been assessed informally
in these areas (i.e. reading aloud, writing a summary or an essay etc) and has
received appropriate feedback.

The formal Programme of Assessment for Grades 4–6 comprises of seven (7)
tasks which make up 75% of the promotion mark and one end-of-the-year
examination for the final 25%.

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The formal assessment requirements for First Additional Language are as follows:

• Two formal assessment tasks to be completed during each of the first three
terms AND one in the fourth term. One of the tasks must be a mid-year
examination.
• The total number of formal tasks should be seven. These seven formal
assessment tasks make up 75% of the total mark for First Additional Language
in Grades 4, 5 and 6. This formal assessment mark will include the mid-
year examination.
• The first formal assessment task in each term should be done by the middle
of the term, that is, week 5. The second formal assessment task in each
term should be done towards the end of the term.
• There will be an examination at the year-end which will count for 25% of
the mark.
• Each formal assessment task should be made up of activities that assess
Listening and Speaking, Reading and Viewing, Writing and Presenting, and
Language Structures and Conventions, and should take place over a period
of days. Language Structures and Conventions should be assessed in context.
• Formal assessment tasks must assess a range of aspects of the language skills
so that key aspects will be assessed over the course of the term and the
year. Ensure that these aspects have been informally assessed and feedback
given to the learner before they are formally assessed.
• All assessment in the IP is internal.

18.4 AT WHAT LEVELS SHOULD LEARNERS BE ASSESSED?

There has been a meaningful change in assessment and the tendency is now to
assess not only knowledge and understanding, but also higher-order thinking
skills, such as the ability to analyse and evaluate. The following table makes
a distinction between lower-order, middle-order and higher-order thinking.
Also look at the examples of questions and possible activities set out in the
table. The verbs that are given may be used to ensure that the specific level
of thinking is used.

A variety of types of questions, such as multiple-choice, cloze, comparison

and direct questions, should be used.

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TABLE 18.1
Assessing all levels of thinking

Level of thinking Verbs Examples of Possible activities

questions

Lower order Tell, list, describe, How many charac- List the most impor-
Ask learners to name, find, spell, ters ...? tant events in the
recall information. memorise, order, Who did ...? book.
The focus is on the define Give synonyms for
Name the ...
facts learners have ...
learnt previously. Where does it take
place?
Spell the word
“immediately”.
Where did the boy
disappear to?

Middle order Explain, give What are the In your own words,
Ask learners to examples, compare, differences ...
show understand- translate, illustrate, between ...? Explain the reasons
ing and to apply apply, use, tell me What is the main why Thabo ran
their knowledge. about idea? away.
Which word best Tell the story in
fits this sentence? your own words.
Which word in the
passage indicates
that ...?

Higher order Distinguish, What would Design an adver-

Ask learners to design, develop, happen if ...? tisement for ...
predict, plan, Is there a better Conduct a debate
• analyse the assume, combine,
information they solution? If so, what about the free
summarise, judge, is it? provision of HIV/
have received debate, justify,
• generate new Do you think it is a AIDS medicine – is
criticise it a good or bad
ideas good idea to …?
• judge or give idea?
How would you
their own views feel if ...? Explain why it is a
good/substandard
What is your book.
opinion of ...?
Give five criteria for
Imagine you are writing a review.
Thabo. What
would ...?

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You will be astonished to see how quickly learners adapt to answering higher-
order questions. These types of questions encourage learners to make judgements/
evaluations, give their views, give reasons for their statements/comments, see
relationships between things, find solutions to problems, create new ideas
and make predictions. These types of skills are essential for everyday life and
should receive specific attention in the classroom.

Learners can be stimulated to think at different levels. For example, show them
a picture depicting a street in Johannesburg immediately after a robbery has
taken place. Then ask the following questions (adapted from Martin & Miller
1999:14):

• Lower-order questions (check knowledge and test insight): What do you

see in the picture? Where does this scene take place?
• Middle-order questions (application of knowledge): Name some other
places that look like this? Why are there so many policemen in the picture?
• Higher-order questions: What would have happened if there had been no
policemen present? What could be done in future to prevent situations like
the one illustrated in the picture? Would you like to live in a city like this
or would you rather stay in the country? Give a reason for your answer.

Apart from stimulating the various levels of thinking, questions like these can
also provide information about a learner’s language skills. The answer to the
first question (What do you see in the picture?) will, for example, provide
a great deal of information about the learner’s vocabulary (or lack thereof),
while the answer to a question such as “What would have happened if there
had been no policemen present?” will provide information about the learner’s
ability to indicate the relationship between cause and effect.

Remember that learners must be taught how to answer higher-order questions.

You cannot confront them with this type of question for the first time during
assessment.

Table 18.2 is an extension and refinement of table 18.1 and provides guide-
lines for the types of questions to be set when assessing listening, reading and
viewing and literature. It also indicates the percentage of questions that needs
to be asked at each level. It is known as Barrett’s taxonomy.

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TABLE 18.2
Barrett’s taxonomy for assessment (CAPS 2011:91–92)

Cognitive level Activity Percentage

Literal Questions that deal with information explicitly 20%

(Level 1) stated in the text.
• Name the things/people/places/elements …
• State the facts/reasons/points/ideas …
• Identify the reasons/persons/causes …
• List the points/facts/names/reasons …
• Describe the place/person/character ...
• Relate the incident/episode/experience …

Reorganisation Questions that require analysis, synthesis or 20%

(Level 2) organisation of information explicitly stated in the
text.
• Summarise the main points/ideas/pros/cons …
• Group the common elements/factors …
• State the similarities/differences …
• Give an outline of …

Inference Questions that require a candidate’s engagement 40%

(Level 3) with information explicitly stated in the text in
terms of his/her personal experience.
• Explain the main idea …
• Compare the ideas/attitudes/actions …
• What is the writer’s (or character’s) intention /
attitude/motivation/reason …
• Explain the cause/effect of …
• What does an action/comment/attitude (etc)
reveal about the narrator/writer/character …
• How does the metaphor/simile/image affect
your understanding …
• What, do you think, will be the outcome/effect
(etc) of an action/a situation …

Evaluation These questions deal with judgements concerning 20%

(Level 4) value and worth. These include judgements
(Levels 4 & 5)
regarding reality, credibility, facts and opinions,
validity, logic and reasoning, and issues such as
the desirability and acceptability of decisions and
actions in terms of moral values.
• Do you think that what transpires is credible/
realistic/possible …?
• Is the writer’s argument valid/logical/conclusive
…

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Cognitive level Activity Percentage

• Discuss/comment critically on the action/

intention/motive/attitude/suggestion/
implication …
• Do you agree with the view/statement/
observation/interpretation that …
• In your view, is the writer/narrator/character
\    [ J   —
(Substantiate your response/Give reasons for
your answer.)
• Is the character’s attitude/behaviour/action
\  Z  Z ˜™J  
for your answer.
• What does a character’s actions/attitude(s)/
motives … show about him/her in the context
of universal values?
• Discuss critically/comment on the value
judgements made in the text.

Appreciation These questions are intended to assess the

(Level 5) psychological and aesthetic impact of the text on
the candidate. They focus on emotional responses
to the content, identification with characters or
incidents, and reactions to the writer’s use of
language (such as word choice and imagery).
• Discuss your response to the text/incident/
  [> [ +
• Do you empathise with the character? What
action/decision would you have taken if you
had been in the same situation?
• Discuss/comment on the writer’s use of
language …
• Discuss the effectiveness of the writer’s style/
introduction/conclusion/imagery/metaphors/
use of poetic techniques/literary devices …

18.5 ASSESSING DIFFERENT LANGUAGE SKILLS

18.5.1 Using rubrics to assess reading and writing

Rubrics are used to assess a variety of learners’ work. Rubrics are mostly used
to assess reading aloud, speaking and shorter and longer writing pieces (e.g.
stories, instructions, poems, advertisements). To assess language structures and
conventions, or listening or reading comprehension, however, a memorandum
would be more suitable.

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Most of the textbooks provide rubrics that can be used but you can also consult
the internet for a variety of different rubrics that can be used – either as is or
with certain adaptations.

The following rubric can be used to assess reading aloud:

TABLE 18.3
Rubric for assessing reading aloud

Criteria for Not achieved Partially Achieved Exceeded

reading achieved requirements

Reads fluently

Pronunciation
correct

Interpretative
reading

Reads audibly
and clearly

Keeps eye
contact with the
audience

Effective
variation of
reading tempo

Shows under-
standing of what
is being read

Assessed by: Date:

Comments:

Source: Beeld 2003:3

When assessing writing, the writing process – and not only the end product –
must be assessed. The rubric in table 18.4 is used by Ms Christine de Villiers
at Doringkloof Primary to assess not only the product but the process (first
category) as well.

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TABLE 18.4
Assessment rubric for assessing a narrative essay

Category 3 2 1

Writing process Learner devotes Learner devotes Learner devotes

a lot of time and some time and little time and
effort to the writing effort to the writing effort to the writing
process (mind map, process but was process.
first draft, editing not thorough. Does
and improvements enough to get by.
and a neat legible
final draft). Works
hard to make the
story wonderful.

Introduction First paragraph A catchy beginning No attempt was

has a “grabber” or was attempted made to catch the
catchy beginning. but was confusing reader’s attention in
rather than catchy. the first paragraph.

Organisation The story is well There is some kind The story is a

organised. One of organisation. little hard to
idea or scene One idea or scene follow. Ideas and
follows another in may seem out of scenes seem to be
a logical sequence place. Transitions randomly arranged.
with clear are sometimes not
transitions. clear.

Setting Many vivid, Some vivid descrip- The reader has

descriptive words tive words are used trouble figuring out
are used to tell to tell the audience when and where
where and when when and where the story took
the story took the story took place place. No details
place. but the author does supplied.
not supply enough
detail.

Dialogue There is an There is too much There is not

appropriate amount dialogue in this enough dialogue
of dialogue to bring story but it is clear in this story and it
the characters which character is is not always clear
to life and it is speaking. Direct which character is
always clear speech rules speaking. Direct
which character is are mostly used speech rules
speaking. Direct correctly. are mostly used
speech rules are incorrectly.
used correctly.

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Category 3 2 1

Spelling, There are a There are some There are many

punctuation and few spelling or spelling or spelling and
vocabulary punctuation punctuation punctuation errors
errors in the final errors in the final in the final draft.
draft. Very good draft. Some good Learner uses very
vocabulary used. vocabulary is used. basic vocabulary or
uses words in the
wrong context.

Idioms/figurative Very good use of Very little use of

language figurative language. figurative language.

Total: /20

The criteria used during assessment are listed vertically in the far left-hand
column. These criteria must be given to learners beforehand so that they
know what you will be looking at when assessing their essays. The mark is
also indicated in the bottom row – in this case, a total of 20 marks can be
obtained. The rest of the columns contain descriptions of the learner’s work
and the teacher should decide which description best reflects the specific
learner’s work.

Different rubrics need to be used for different writing activities. For example, a
rubric that is used to assess a story cannot be used to assess an advertisement
or an instructional text (e.g. how to make a sandwich). If the textbook that is
used at the school where you teach does not contain a rubric for a specific
activity, you must find a suitable rubric on the internet or develop your
own. For example, the following is a rubric that is used by Ms Christine de
Villiers at Doringkloof Primary to assess a transactional text in which learners
had to write instructions to show the Grade 2 class how to do something
practical. Note how the format of the rubric in table 18.5 differs from the one in
table 18.4. Also look at the provision made on the rubric for assessing the
writing process.

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TABLE 18.5
Writing instructions and rubric for assessing an instructional text

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18.6 EXAMPLE OF ASSESSMENT IN COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE

TEACHING
The best way to explain how written assessment should be done in language
teaching is to show you two examination papers. The first examination paper is
content driven and only tests ready knowledge; it also uses unrelated sentences
that have been taken totally out of context. Most of us wrote these types of
examinations at school, but this is an example of what an examination paper
should not look like! The second examination paper is based on a commu-
nicative approach. This paper tests the learners’ ability to use language and
their ability to communicate.

Now study the following examples of two different examination papers:

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EXAMINATION PAPER 1
Section A: Reading
Read the following passage and then answer the questions that follow:

FACTORS DETERMINING NEWS VALUE

Four main factors determine the value of news.

The reader wants his news to be new. That is why he buys his paper or listens to
the broadcast. The miracle of present-day communication frequently makes the
announcement of the news almost coincide with the instant of its happening.

The reader finds more interest in a minor event close at hand than in a more
important event miles away. James Gordon Benner, Jr, when he first published
his Paris Edition of the Herald, gave his reporters this principle in the epigram,
“A dead dog in the Rue de Louvre (the paper’s address) is of more concern than
a flood in China.” Today news of purely local concern is the bedrock on which
the publishers of American newspapers outside of the largest cities build their
circulation, and surveys show that news of international importance, except
major events, is of interest to only 10 per cent of readers in large communities
and to so small a proportion of readers in the small cities that no percentage
figures have been worked out.

The very small and the very large attract attention. We find interest in minuteness
as well as in magnitude – but chiefly in magnitude. Accordingly, when we hear
of an accident or a catastrophe, we ask for the number of lives lost and the
extent of the damage done. We want to know the amount of the philanthropist’s
bequest and the dimensions of the new airliner.

Is the news reported important or in any way significant? We might naturally

think that this factor should head our list, but news practice decrees otherwise,
for the touchstone, as noted before, is interest. The trivial story, if imbued with
interest, frequently ranks in newsworthiness above announcements which are
important and significant, but dull. This is no new thing. Away, back in 51
BC Cicero complained that his professional news correspondent was giving
him too much of sporting events and not enough about the political situation.
Editors get the same complaint today from their thoughtful readers. They know
they can’t satisfy everyone. They know, also, that “interesting” news, which
encompasses much that is trivial, attracts the mass audience, while the merely
important is addressed to a small public. Nevertheless, the better papers and
the better newscasts seek to give news that holds significance and importance
in its proper place and treatment.
Source: Van Schalkwyk 1986:672–673

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(1) List (using only one word for each) the four factors which determine
the value of news. (4)
(2) What is meant by “the miracle of present-day communication”? (2)
(3) Which sentence tells us that big events usually interest people more
than small events? (2)
(4) What does BC stand for? (1)
(5) What kind of news did Cicero prefer? (1)
(6) What is meant by “trivial news”? (2)
(7) Find a word in the passage that means the same as each of the following
phrases:
(a) person employed by the newspaper to report on distant events
(b) number of people living in the same locality
(c) sudden, widespread disaster
(d) pointed saying or mode of expression (4)

(8) What kind of complaints do editors get from their thoughtful

readers? (1)

Section B: Language structures and conventions

Question 1 Give antonyms for the following words:

(a) permanent
(b) respect (2)

Question 2 Choose the correct word:

(a) They had to return to their/there house.

(b) His childish/childlike behaviour shows his spiteful nature. (2)

Question 3 Write the following sentences in the passive voice:

(a) The secretary compiled the minutes.

(b) Someone told me to hand you this book. (2)

Question 4 What is the plural of the following words:

(a) echo
(b) father-in-law
(c) leaf
(d) foot (4)

Question 5 Write the words in brackets in the correct form:

(a) The girl is (poor) dressed.

(b) The books are arranged in (chronologic) order. (2)

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Section C: Writing

Write an essay of approximately 300 words about one of the following topics:

(1) Our violent age

(2) A holiday on the farm
(3) My hero
(4) A day I will never forget
(5) A thunder storm (20)

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EXAMINATION PAPER 2
Question 1

Look at the picture of the two children whose parents have left them alone.
What advice would you give them (name three things)? (3)

Source: http://www.dc-ct.com/#/1/5

Question 2

It happens more and more frequently that parents leave their children alone
at home when they go to work. What should these children know? Read the
following extract and find out!

Many children come from homes where both parents work or where children have had to take
responsibility for the home as both parents have died of Aids. Increasing urbanisation means that
the extended family is no longer available to provide support and rising costs have made it almost
impossible to afford help – many children are thus left alone in the afternoons.
These children – and any other children who are left alone at home – need to be taught some
essential safety measures. Safety is not just being aware of the possibility of robbers breaking into
the house, but also includes being able to use electrical appliances and other potentially dangerous
agents safely. This means that children need to know what to do in the case of an accident.
Children who are left alone should know their own address and telephone number, as well as their
parents’ names, employers, work addresses and work telephone numbers. Emergency numbers
such as the fire brigade, police, flying squad, family doctor as well as the telephone numbers of
two adults who live close by should be placed in a prominent place in the home in case children
need to call somebody and their parents are not available.
Children who arrive home alone must be vigilant. They should never enter the house if the door is
ajar, if windows are broken or if any strange things are evident (e.g. a strange noise coming from
the house). Rather, they should go to a neighbour to call their parents or the police.
If a stranger calls, children should handle the call in such a way that the caller does not know that
the children are alone. The child could say the following as an example: “My mom/dad is busy and
is unable to come to the telephone right now. May I take a message?”

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(2.1) Each paragraph in the passage can be given a heading which indicates
what the paragraph is about. I have included all the necessary headings
below, but they are in the incorrect order. Give each paragraph the
correct heading. (5)

(a) Be clever!
(b) What children should know
(c) Be aware of safety measures
(d) Alone at home
(e) Be on the lookout for strange things

(2.2) The passage ends very abruptly. Write an appropriate conclusion. (4)
(2.3) Give the passage an appropriate heading. (1)

(2.4) Why do you think children should not enter a house if they see a broken
window? (2)

(2.5) Are the following statements true or false. Give reasons for your answers:
(4)
(a) Children should memorise telephone numbers.
(b) If parents cannot be reached in an emergency, children should call
the police.

Question 3

(3.1) Find the words in the text that fit each of the descriptions below and
write them down. (6)

(a) to be aware of
(b) it is not very far
(c) the chance of becoming

(3.2) Give the singular of each of the following words: (3)

(a) adults
(b) names
(c) neighbours

Question 4

How would you paraphrase the last two sentences? Start with: The child could
say, for example, that ... (3)

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Question 5

You and your brother are alone at home. Complete the following list of things
that you should and should not do. (6)

Situation What you should do What you should not

do

There is a fire in the

house.

As you return from

school, you see that
the door is slightly
ajar.

Your brother fell and

there is blood stream-
ing from the wound
on his head.

Question 6

In each case, ask two different questions to which you will receive the following
answers: (4)

(a) Their parents’ names and telephone numbers at work (two questions).
(b) If the door to the house is ajar (two questions).

Question 7

Look at the following pictures.

(7.1) Imagine you are a reporter who saw everything happening or found out
what happened during an interview. Write a short article for the local
newspaper. Give your article a striking heading.

OR

(7.2) Imagine you are the boy in the picture. Write a letter to your cousin in
which you tell him about the close shave you had. (10)

Source: Adapted from Paul, Ponniah, Seah & Keng, 1994: 1–4.

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40 Ac tivit y 7f
Write comments on the two examination papers. Which of the two papers
do you prefer? Why?

The first question paper is an example of a typical content-driven paper.

The learners must know the language structure and conventions and be
able to apply it in unrelated sentences. The question is then whether they
will be able to use the structures in everyday life. The second question
paper is clearly aimed at communication. The second paper does not aim
to test the learners’ ability to answer language questions correctly, but
rather to see what they are able to do with the language, that is, whether
they are able to communicate or not.

We believe that there are five main differences between the two question
papers:

(1) They are divided into separate sections. If you look at the first question
paper, it is very clear that language skills are regarded as a separate entity.
There is a clear distinction between reading, language structures and
conventions and writing. There is no indication that skills are integrated.
The second question paper also does not really integrate the skills, but
each skill flows easily into the next. The questions are all based on the
same context. The passage is primarily used to assess reading, but language
structure is also assessed. The questions aim to test the learner’s ability to
use the language (communicate) and not his or her knowledge of language
structures. The writing task is also related to the text.
(2) Lower and higher-order skills. The first question paper basically tests
lower-order skills. The second question paper aims to test the learners’
ability to use language in communicative situations; in other words it tests
the learner’s ability to apply what he/she knows.
(3) A close relationship between items. The passage in the first question paper
is used only to test reading comprehension; the questions about language
structures and conventions are based on unrelated sentences. The topics
learners must write about have no context. The second question paper’s
questions are all based on a particular theme and are set within a particular
context. The questions about language structure are based on the text and
aim to test learners’ ability to use language in communicative situations.
(4) Topics for written tasks. The topics given in the first question paper are
unrelated, artificial, very broad and do not allow learners to write about
real-life situations (i.e. they are not authentic); they have no target group
and do not create a desire to communicate. These types of topics are
repeated time and time again in question papers – so much so, that learners
are able to rote learn and regurgitate them in examinations. The topics in
the second question paper are aimed at a specific target group, place the
learners in a particular situation, create the desire to communicate, are
set within a specific context and give learners a framework within which
they can work. Young learners, particularly additional language learners
in the intermediate phase, need such a framework. Each picture can be
translated into a paragraph.

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(5) Authentic assessment. Although learners should be given the opportunity

to write creative and descriptive essays (as is expected in the first question
paper), it is unlikely that they will ever write such essays outside the
classroom (unless they pursue a writing career). The writing section in
the second question paper is more functional and tests writing skills and
not just a good imagination. The second question paper also moves away
from the traditional “essay and letter” question paper, to an approach
where writing tasks take real life into consideration – they place learners
in authentic, real-life situation (e.g. conducting an interview).

18.7 OVERVIEW OF THE LEARNING UNIT

We hope that you now have the knowledge and skills you need to do long-
and short-term planning for teaching, learning and assessment.

If you are able to answer the following questions, you have mastered this
learning unit:

• Why is it necessary to plan for assessment?

• Why is assessment necessary?
• At what levels of thinking should learners be assessed?
• What are the advantages of using rubrics when assessing writing?
• Why is feed back an important part of assessment?

18.8 CONCLUSION
Each province and school has its own policy and guidelines for planning and
preparation. Your planning (both long- and short-term) and preparation will
thus need to be in accordance with these policies. However, by keeping in
mind the guidelines provided in this learning unit, you will be able to do any
type of planning. When planning, you need to plan for assessment as well.
Assessment forms an integral part of teaching and it must be done continuously
to determine whether you and the learners are on the right track.

Remember, you are not the only one assessing: Your learners also assess you
as a teacher and a person, as well as your teaching skills, your ability to convey
information clearly, your patience and your willingness to help them. As teach-
ers, we are seldom aware of our learners’ opinion of us and so we should ask
them to do an assessment of our abilities and skills from time to time.

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CONCLUDING REMARKS
We hope that this module has whet your appetite for language teaching and that
you are looking forward to trying out and applying all the ideas you have come
across in this study guide when you start your teaching career. Teaching a
language requires a lot of hard work and hours and hours of preparation and
assessment, but it is a rewarding experience to see your learners grow and to
know that you are responsible for that growth. We hope you will become a
passionate and enthusiastic teacher.

Good luck with your studies.

Your lecturers

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