Hechos Relevantes y Subsecuentes

The methodology adopted for this study entails the examination of three stages of the learner’s writing, in both the biographical recount and the expository genres. The three stages are termed stage one, stage two and stage three, respectively, of the learners’ writing. For the purpose of data collection, writing from two secondary schools in the Cape Peninsula, Bulumko Secondary School in Khayelitsha and Kayamandi Secondary School in Stellenbosch have been included, focussing on the writing in isiXhosa of the grade eleven learners. In all the three stages in each secondary school a class of forty grade 11 learners has been instructed to write essays on both the biographical recount genre and the expository genre. After the learners have written their essays, the effectiveness of the essays have been classified according to the levels of learners’ performance, for the purpose of establishing their writing skills. The essays selected have been categorised according to the good, the middle and the less, or lower, performance in all the three stages of writing of the biographical recount genre and the expository genre, for the essays selected from the three categories. In the stage one writing, the learners wrote about any person they consider to have played a significant role in their lives, or in the community at large. In the stage one writing, learners wrote the biographical recount essay without being taught the genre-based properties of writing. Therefore, in chapter four, where the writing is analysed, these essays are reproduced in their original form.

In the stage two writing, the same grade 11 learners in each high secondary school were instructed to write a biographical recount essay of a person following the same instruction in the stage one. In other words, the grade 11 learners wrote a biographical recount essay

about a person whom they consider being important, or who played a significant role in their lives, or in the community in general. However, in the stage two writing, the learners wrote the biographical recount essay after they have been taught the genre-based properties of writing. The learners were given a choice to write about the same person they chose for the stage one writing, or to choose another person in their biographical recount essays in the stage two writing. Similarly, to the stage one writing, the essays have been categorised according to the learners’ performance for the purpose of the analysis, that is the good, the middle and the less or lower performance respectively.

In the stage three writing, the learners have already been taught in stage two the genre- based properties of writing. On the other hand, the teacher with learners brainstorm, discuss and exchange with each other their views on genre-based properties before the learners engage in the writing in the third stage. All the learners wrote in isiXhosa a biographical recount essay from a grade eleven prescribed textbook about the life history of Steve Bantu Biko employing the genre-based properties of writing. Similarly, to the stages one and two writing, the learners’ written essays will be categorised according to their performance and for the purpose of analysis a random selection of essays will be done in all the three categories of the learners’ written texts.

In the writing of stage one essays of expository genre-texts, the same grade 11 learners who were involved in the writing of the biographical recount writing wrote the expository essay without being taught the genre-based properties of writing. They (learners) wrote an expository essay about the importance of the isiXhosa idiom, “Izandla ziyahlambana” (Each one needs the help of the other). In this stage, the learners wrote the expository essay, invoking their socio-cultural knowledge about idioms as background. In the stage two writing, the learner wrote an expository essay about the concept of “Ubuntu” (Humanity or compassion) as a Xhosa culture concept, invoking their socio-cultural knowledge. In this stage, the learner wrote the essays after they have been taught the genre-based properties for writing an expository essay.

In the stage three writing, the learners already have been taught, in the stage two, the genre-based properties of writing an expository genre. On the other hand, the teacher together with learners brainstormed, discussed and exchanged with each other views on genre-based properties of writing an expository essay before the learners engage in the writing in the third stage. All the learners wrote in isiXhosa an expository essay from a grade eleven prescribed biology textbook on a topic on, “Ukuhla nokunyuka kobuninzi

bendalo” (Some aspects of population dynamics) employing the genre-based properties of writing. Similarly, to the stages one and two, the learners’ written essays will be categorised according to their performance and for the purpose of analysis a random selection of essays will be done in all the three categories of the learners’ written texts. As stated above, all the learners’ essays will be given as written in their original form in chapter 3, however, in the process of analysis some correction will be made.