Teaching strategies for the promotion of creative writing in English first additional language at Grade 11 in rural schools.

Abstract

This study explores the English First Additional Language (EFAL) teaching strategies used by teachers to promote Creative writing at Grade 11 rural schools. Both international and local literature indicated some challenges facing EFAL teachers in teaching Creative writing in rural schools. Strategies such as process-based, known to unknown and codeswitching approaches are vital to promote Creative writing to second language learners. Therefore, the study is framed by three questions: what are teachers’ teaching strategies in the promotion of Creative writing at Grade 11 rural schools; what are some of the challenges facing EFAL teachers in the promotion of Creative writing; and what are the successes of teachers in promoting and teaching Grade 11 EFAL Creative writing? This is a Qualitative case study of three high schools located in the rural areas within the same District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal. Three Grade 11 teachers, were purposively selected through their professional experiences in teaching EFAL. One-on-one semistructured interviews and lesson observations were used to generate data, which was analysed thematically. Subthemes included: teaching strategies such as process-based, known to unknown and code-switching; challenges such as lack of understanding language by the learners, insufficient resources, limited time allocation by CAPS document for EFAL Creative writing, CAPS documents that are not detailed enough, and learners who do not do homework; and successes such as the use of additional resources, activation of learner prior knowledge, and teachers being able to accommodate learners as per their learning capabilities. Interpretive paradigms underpinned this research study. The findings clearly indicated that some contextual factors from the rural schools negatively affect the EFAL teachers, but that they were able to succeed due to their professional experiences, for instance, collecting other materials to sustain the available teaching resources. The study further suggests that the curriculum designers must include teaching strategies in the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) document and the policy designers to gazette using code-switching in class.