‘Capitalising on the dullness of the data': A linguistic analysis of a Grade 7 learner's writing

Abstract

The paper discusses the conceptions of language and literacy underpinning writing in current curriculum policy and analyses how the policy is instantiated in the writing of a Grade 7 learner across Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa at a well-resourced school with diverse multilingual learners and well-qualified teachers. This setting was selected in order to examine how language curriculum policy is realised in favourable circumstances. One finding was that literacy practices at the school, in all three languages, privilege grammar exercises and personal, expressive writing. In terms of Cummins's (1984) constructs of Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skill (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP), learners' written competencies in all three languages (most strongly in isiXhosa) are conversational (BICS). The personal expressive texts which predominate in learners' writing have done little to develop a formal, impersonal academic register (CALP). Yet learners need to become familiar with the more abstract impersonal factual genres associated with disciplinary-based knowledge, as Grade 7 is the start of the senior phase of schooling. It is vital that learners achieve grade-level competence in national learning outcome five which states that ‘the learner will be able to use language to think and reason, as well as access, process and use information for learning' (DoE 2002).

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2008, 26(1): 27–42