The use of History texts in isiXhosa for Grade 11 in developing academic writing skills across the curriculum

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The central aim of the study is to present a proposal of how academic literacy development across the curriculum in secondary school can be facilitated through the use of content subject texts in isiXhosa. This is demonstrated by making use of History texts, which can be incorporated in the isiXhosa Home Language (HL) subject for teaching the writing skills of academic texts. The Genre-based approach to literacy development, which has been employed with great success, especially in Australia, over the past thirty years, is assumed in presenting an analysis of the variety of genres exemplified by the History texts. The analyses of genres will be demonstrated by three texts selected from the grade 11 History textbook and the grade 11 assessment question paper, translated into isiXhosa, respectively. For example, genres such as chronological texts in which historical recounts are grouped into and non-chronological genres in which the factorial and consequential explanation genres are grouped under. The schematic structure of the selected genres is identified and related to the language system represented by the systemic functional linguistics. The study makes use of the method of text analysis and written discourse analysis within the genre framework underpinned by systemic functional linguistic for the data collection. The findings demonstrate that that the effective development of knowledge of language in the Home Language class through the use of texts from content subjects can play a crucial role in advancing academic writing skills, for both the Home language and History. Furthermore; the availability of resources in isiXhosa, teachers training and support on the implementation of genre-based approach underpinned by the systemic functional linguistics can enhance the understanding of genres across the curriculum and will in that effect, promote the use of African languages for academic purposes.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University