A genre-based approach to teaching writing across the curriculum in Siswati in South African schools

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Linguistic scholars have been exploring an effective, contextual and multidisciplinary approach to language education, following the global increase in multilingual societies. This study aims to explore properties of writing related to genre-based literacy in Siswati as a first language for learners in South Africa in a multilingual context. The research is concerned with the properties of writing in Siswati at the high school level and the instruction associated with it. In reality, the educational context of the learners entails that English is the language of instruction or an educational lingua franca in all subjects in schools with learners who have an African language as home language, although English is a second language (L2) for most learners. Therefore, the learners' first language (L1) is only taught as a subject. In this situation, learners and teachers are faced with problems of language (L2) proficiency. According to the South African language policy, all national languages spoken in South Africa should be prioritized in education. This study advances a proposal for a multilingual approach in education through genre-based teaching. Hence, this study presents an investigation of the implementation of genre in the home language classroom context in respect to the textlinguistic features of agricultural sciences genres.The genre-based theoretical framework and related methodology is explored and elaborated in this study with regards to how Siswati first language learners can be taught linguistic skills acquired in their mother tongue Siswati to writing in content subjects, e.g. biology. The methodology of this study involves the translation of six agricultural science texts for Grade 12 which are then analysed according to systemic functional linguistic (SFL) grammar. The study also investigates issues and challenges in multilingualism and Education policy. The findings of this study present support of the view of the transfer of genre-based skills in texts across the curriculum.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University