UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA
College of Education
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
HED4807: Teaching English
First Additional Language
Assignment 4 | Semester 2, 2026
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
HED4807
Module Code:
Teaching English First Additional Language
Module Name:
Process Writing, Assessment for Learning,
Essay Topic: Vygotsky’s ZPD and Indigenous Knowledge
Systems in a Grade 8/9 FAL Classroom
Assignment 4
Assignment Number:
10 September 2026
Due Date:
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for HED4807, UNISA 2026
,UNISA | HED4807 Process Writing, ZPD and Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Introduction
The narrative essay is the writing genre selected for this discussion of a Grade 8 or Grade 9
First Additional Language (FAL) classroom. Narrative writing allows learners to draw on per-
sonal, family and community experience while they develop vocabulary, sentence construc-
tion, sequencing, paragraphing and audience awareness. A topic such as “A lesson I learned
from an elder in my community” suits this genre particularly well because it links language de-
velopment directly to Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), oral tradition and learners’ lived
experience.
This assignment treats the process approach to writing, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, scaf-
folding and Assessment for Learning (AfL) as interconnected elements of a single pedagog-
ical system rather than as separate techniques. Question 1 analyses how the drafting and
revising stages of process writing move learners through the Zone of Proximal Development
(ZPD) and reflects critically on how process writing and AfL align with IKS. Question 2 argues
that AfL is fundamental to, rather than separate from, teaching. Question 3 describes three
AfL strategies and traces how the evidence each generates shapes subsequent teaching.
Question 4 examines the relationship between scaffolding and the ZPD in a writing lesson,
demonstrates how mediation supports drafting and revising, and proposes three original
scaffolding strategies for a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) to use.
Page 2 of 17
, UNISA | HED4807 Process Writing, ZPD and Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Question 1: Genre Selection, Drafting and Revising Through the ZPD, and Alignment with
Indigenous Knowledge Systems
1.1 Genre and Rationale
The narrative essay, built around the topic “A lesson I learned from an elder in my community”,
is the genre selected for this Grade 8/9 FAL lesson. The process approach to writing treats
a text as a recursive product of planning, drafting, sharing, revising, editing and publishing,
rather than as a single correct artefact produced in one attempt (Keen, 2022). This stands
in contrast to a product-oriented approach, in which learners reproduce the features of a
model text and are assessed almost exclusively on the finished product. Process pedagogy
instead recognises that competent writers arrive at meaning through successive attempts
and responses to feedback, and that drafting, discussion and revision are what allow a text to
improve (Patthey-Chavez, Matsumura and Valdés, 2004).
Before any English is written, learners discuss memories involving grandparents, parents
or community elders: a traditional story, a farming practice, a ceremony, a proverb, an envi-
ronmental practice. This oral preparation supplies meaningful content before learners face
the additional burden of composing that content in an additional language. The lesson can
then proceed through five broad stages: planning and oral preparation, first drafting, peer
and teacher response, revision, and editing and publication. Because learners are engaged
in genuine communication about something they already understand, linguistic development
takes place inside a task that has authentic purpose rather than being reduced to a decontex-
tualised grammar exercise.
1.2 Drafting as a Zone of Proximal Development Activity
Vygotsky (1978) defines the ZPD as the distance between what a learner can do indepen-
dently and what the same learner can do with the guidance of a teacher or a more capable
peer. This distinction matters in an FAL classroom because a learner may hold a rich, cul-
turally significant story in an African home language yet struggle to express the same idea
accurately in English. The difficulty does not indicate an absence of ideas; it indicates a short-
age of English vocabulary, grammatical resources, organisational strategy or confidence. The
teacher’s task during drafting is therefore not to hunt for errors but to identify what the learner
can already do unaided and what assistance would allow the learner to complete the next
Page 3 of 17
College of Education
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
HED4807: Teaching English
First Additional Language
Assignment 4 | Semester 2, 2026
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
HED4807
Module Code:
Teaching English First Additional Language
Module Name:
Process Writing, Assessment for Learning,
Essay Topic: Vygotsky’s ZPD and Indigenous Knowledge
Systems in a Grade 8/9 FAL Classroom
Assignment 4
Assignment Number:
10 September 2026
Due Date:
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for HED4807, UNISA 2026
,UNISA | HED4807 Process Writing, ZPD and Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Introduction
The narrative essay is the writing genre selected for this discussion of a Grade 8 or Grade 9
First Additional Language (FAL) classroom. Narrative writing allows learners to draw on per-
sonal, family and community experience while they develop vocabulary, sentence construc-
tion, sequencing, paragraphing and audience awareness. A topic such as “A lesson I learned
from an elder in my community” suits this genre particularly well because it links language de-
velopment directly to Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), oral tradition and learners’ lived
experience.
This assignment treats the process approach to writing, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, scaf-
folding and Assessment for Learning (AfL) as interconnected elements of a single pedagog-
ical system rather than as separate techniques. Question 1 analyses how the drafting and
revising stages of process writing move learners through the Zone of Proximal Development
(ZPD) and reflects critically on how process writing and AfL align with IKS. Question 2 argues
that AfL is fundamental to, rather than separate from, teaching. Question 3 describes three
AfL strategies and traces how the evidence each generates shapes subsequent teaching.
Question 4 examines the relationship between scaffolding and the ZPD in a writing lesson,
demonstrates how mediation supports drafting and revising, and proposes three original
scaffolding strategies for a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) to use.
Page 2 of 17
, UNISA | HED4807 Process Writing, ZPD and Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Question 1: Genre Selection, Drafting and Revising Through the ZPD, and Alignment with
Indigenous Knowledge Systems
1.1 Genre and Rationale
The narrative essay, built around the topic “A lesson I learned from an elder in my community”,
is the genre selected for this Grade 8/9 FAL lesson. The process approach to writing treats
a text as a recursive product of planning, drafting, sharing, revising, editing and publishing,
rather than as a single correct artefact produced in one attempt (Keen, 2022). This stands
in contrast to a product-oriented approach, in which learners reproduce the features of a
model text and are assessed almost exclusively on the finished product. Process pedagogy
instead recognises that competent writers arrive at meaning through successive attempts
and responses to feedback, and that drafting, discussion and revision are what allow a text to
improve (Patthey-Chavez, Matsumura and Valdés, 2004).
Before any English is written, learners discuss memories involving grandparents, parents
or community elders: a traditional story, a farming practice, a ceremony, a proverb, an envi-
ronmental practice. This oral preparation supplies meaningful content before learners face
the additional burden of composing that content in an additional language. The lesson can
then proceed through five broad stages: planning and oral preparation, first drafting, peer
and teacher response, revision, and editing and publication. Because learners are engaged
in genuine communication about something they already understand, linguistic development
takes place inside a task that has authentic purpose rather than being reduced to a decontex-
tualised grammar exercise.
1.2 Drafting as a Zone of Proximal Development Activity
Vygotsky (1978) defines the ZPD as the distance between what a learner can do indepen-
dently and what the same learner can do with the guidance of a teacher or a more capable
peer. This distinction matters in an FAL classroom because a learner may hold a rich, cul-
turally significant story in an African home language yet struggle to express the same idea
accurately in English. The difficulty does not indicate an absence of ideas; it indicates a short-
age of English vocabulary, grammatical resources, organisational strategy or confidence. The
teacher’s task during drafting is therefore not to hunt for errors but to identify what the learner
can already do unaided and what assistance would allow the learner to complete the next
Page 3 of 17
