The personal perspective essay in Xhosa as reflection of the writing competence of grade 12 learners

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:This study explores a theoretical framework of language competence with reference to theteaching and learning of writing in Xhosa grade 12. The teaching of writing attempts todevelop writing skills and to assist learners to see writing as a process involving variousstages such as thinking, researching, planning, writing and re-writing. Furthermore, thisstudy aims at demonstrating how to develop the learners to express themselves in aformally ordered way, as required in a given context for a specific purpose and audience.The study is strongly influenced by two approaches, one associated with the processes ofwriting, and the other called the genre approach, but the study also draws on a number ofwriting models. Examples of written essays by the learners of Xhosa in grade 12 arepresented and analysed. This study examines four essays, each for which propertiesrelating to the language competence component is analysed according to the questionsposed by Grabe and Kaplan (1996). Writing is one of the most important communicativeskills in life of the individual and it is an integral part of the school curriculum. This studyconcludes with some recommendations, which might help to solve certain problemsrelating to essay writing in the teaching of languages in Curriculum 2005 ..

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University