UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA (UNISA)
College of Education
⋄
Process Writing, Assessment for Learning,
Vygotsky’s ZPD and Indigenous Knowledge
Systems in a Grade 8/9 FAL Classroom
Assignment 4 — 2026
⋄
Module Code: HED4807
Module Name: Teaching English First Additional Language
Assignment No.: Assignment 4
Due Date: 10 September 2026
Semester: Semester 2, 2026
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for HED4807
at the University of South Africa.
,UNISA | HED4807 Process Writing, ZPD and IKS in the FAL Classroom
Question 1: Genre Selection, the Process Approach and Movement Through the ZPD
A suitable genre for a Grade 8 or Grade 9 First Additional Language (FAL) classroom is the
narrative essay, because narrative writing draws on personal, family and community expe-
riences while developing vocabulary, sentence construction, sequencing, paragraphing and
audience awareness. A topic such as “A lesson I learned from an elder in my community” con-
nects language learning directly with Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), oral tradition and
learners’ lived experiences, giving learners meaningful content to work with before they are
asked to produce an extended English text.
The process approach to writing treats composition as a recursive activity moving through
planning, drafting, sharing, revising, editing and publishing, rather than the production of
a single correct final text. Research on process writing stresses drafting, discussion, revi-
sion and the treatment of emerging texts as improvable rather than finished objects (Keen,
2022; Patthey-Chavez, Matsumura and Valdés, 2004). This stands in contrast to a product
approach, in which learners reproduce the features of a model text and are assessed mainly
on the completed product. For the chosen topic, the sequence would run through five broad
stages: oral preparation and planning, first drafting, peer and teacher response, revision, and
editing and publication. Before writing, learners discuss experiences involving grandparents,
community leaders or other knowledgeable adults, recalling a traditional story, farming prac-
tice, ceremony, proverb or environmental lesson, so that linguistic development takes place
while learners are engaged in genuinely meaningful communication.
1.1 Drafting and Revising as Movement Through the ZPD
Vygotsky (1978) defines the Zone of Proximal Development as the distance between what
a learner can accomplish independently and what the same learner can accomplish with
adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers. This distinction matters in an
FAL classroom because a learner may hold an interesting story in an African home language
but struggle to express the same ideas accurately in English. The difficulty does not mean
the learner lacks the underlying ideas; it usually means the learner lacks sufficient English
vocabulary, grammatical control, organisational strategy or confidence to transform those
ideas into extended written text. The teacher’s task is therefore not simply to locate errors,
but to identify what the learner can already do and what assistance would allow the learner to
perform the next level of the task.
Page 1 of 16
, UNISA | HED4807 Process Writing, ZPD and IKS in the FAL Classroom
During drafting, learners externalise ideas that are still incomplete. A learner may write: “My
grandmother teach me how to plant maize. She say we must look at the rain.” The sequence
of events and the culturally meaningful idea have been communicated successfully, even
though subject-verb agreement, tense and reported speech remain unstable. A product-
oriented response would simply supply the corrected sentence. A sociocultural response
instead uses mediation: the teacher asks what happens to teach when the action is being
described as something that happened in the past, and the learner is guided, through ques-
tioning and reformulation, to produce taught independently. This reflects the principle that
development can occur through guided participation before a learner has full independent
control of the linguistic form (Vygotsky, 1978).
Revision is particularly compatible with the ZPD because the first draft becomes a media-
tional object around which learners and the teacher interact. A learner who writes “My grand-
father told me a story. It was about a boy. The boy was very clever. He helped his family. The
story was good” has produced grammatically sound sentences but has not yet developed
cohesion or narrative detail. A peer’s question about what made the boy clever, followed by
the teacher modelling a transformation of “the story was good” into an explanation of why the
story mattered, can move the learner towards a version such as: “My grandfather told me a
story about a clever boy who used his knowledge to help his family during a difficult season. I
understood that intelligence is valuable when it is used to help other people.” The learner has
moved from a simple sequence of statements towards elaboration, cohesion and interpreta-
tion, which is a distinctly higher-order performance than the first attempt. Scaffolding of this
kind does not move only from teacher to learner: research on second-language peer revision
shows that learners can scaffold one another reciprocally through questioning, suggestion
and discussion (De Guerrero and Villamil, 2000).
1.2 Alignment Between Process Writing, Assessment for Learning and IKS
The relationship between process writing, Assessment for Learning (AfL) and IKS is signif-
icant in a South African context, where IKS refers to knowledge developed, maintained and
transmitted within particular communities, including environmental practice, agricultural
knowledge, oral tradition, values and story. Seroto (2011) shows that indigenous education
in southern Africa historically transmitted knowledge from adults to children through com-
munity participation, oral tradition, story, ritual and everyday social activity. The principles
underlying process writing and AfL create space for pedagogy that treats learners as partici-
Page 2 of 16
College of Education
⋄
Process Writing, Assessment for Learning,
Vygotsky’s ZPD and Indigenous Knowledge
Systems in a Grade 8/9 FAL Classroom
Assignment 4 — 2026
⋄
Module Code: HED4807
Module Name: Teaching English First Additional Language
Assignment No.: Assignment 4
Due Date: 10 September 2026
Semester: Semester 2, 2026
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for HED4807
at the University of South Africa.
,UNISA | HED4807 Process Writing, ZPD and IKS in the FAL Classroom
Question 1: Genre Selection, the Process Approach and Movement Through the ZPD
A suitable genre for a Grade 8 or Grade 9 First Additional Language (FAL) classroom is the
narrative essay, because narrative writing draws on personal, family and community expe-
riences while developing vocabulary, sentence construction, sequencing, paragraphing and
audience awareness. A topic such as “A lesson I learned from an elder in my community” con-
nects language learning directly with Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), oral tradition and
learners’ lived experiences, giving learners meaningful content to work with before they are
asked to produce an extended English text.
The process approach to writing treats composition as a recursive activity moving through
planning, drafting, sharing, revising, editing and publishing, rather than the production of
a single correct final text. Research on process writing stresses drafting, discussion, revi-
sion and the treatment of emerging texts as improvable rather than finished objects (Keen,
2022; Patthey-Chavez, Matsumura and Valdés, 2004). This stands in contrast to a product
approach, in which learners reproduce the features of a model text and are assessed mainly
on the completed product. For the chosen topic, the sequence would run through five broad
stages: oral preparation and planning, first drafting, peer and teacher response, revision, and
editing and publication. Before writing, learners discuss experiences involving grandparents,
community leaders or other knowledgeable adults, recalling a traditional story, farming prac-
tice, ceremony, proverb or environmental lesson, so that linguistic development takes place
while learners are engaged in genuinely meaningful communication.
1.1 Drafting and Revising as Movement Through the ZPD
Vygotsky (1978) defines the Zone of Proximal Development as the distance between what
a learner can accomplish independently and what the same learner can accomplish with
adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers. This distinction matters in an
FAL classroom because a learner may hold an interesting story in an African home language
but struggle to express the same ideas accurately in English. The difficulty does not mean
the learner lacks the underlying ideas; it usually means the learner lacks sufficient English
vocabulary, grammatical control, organisational strategy or confidence to transform those
ideas into extended written text. The teacher’s task is therefore not simply to locate errors,
but to identify what the learner can already do and what assistance would allow the learner to
perform the next level of the task.
Page 1 of 16
, UNISA | HED4807 Process Writing, ZPD and IKS in the FAL Classroom
During drafting, learners externalise ideas that are still incomplete. A learner may write: “My
grandmother teach me how to plant maize. She say we must look at the rain.” The sequence
of events and the culturally meaningful idea have been communicated successfully, even
though subject-verb agreement, tense and reported speech remain unstable. A product-
oriented response would simply supply the corrected sentence. A sociocultural response
instead uses mediation: the teacher asks what happens to teach when the action is being
described as something that happened in the past, and the learner is guided, through ques-
tioning and reformulation, to produce taught independently. This reflects the principle that
development can occur through guided participation before a learner has full independent
control of the linguistic form (Vygotsky, 1978).
Revision is particularly compatible with the ZPD because the first draft becomes a media-
tional object around which learners and the teacher interact. A learner who writes “My grand-
father told me a story. It was about a boy. The boy was very clever. He helped his family. The
story was good” has produced grammatically sound sentences but has not yet developed
cohesion or narrative detail. A peer’s question about what made the boy clever, followed by
the teacher modelling a transformation of “the story was good” into an explanation of why the
story mattered, can move the learner towards a version such as: “My grandfather told me a
story about a clever boy who used his knowledge to help his family during a difficult season. I
understood that intelligence is valuable when it is used to help other people.” The learner has
moved from a simple sequence of statements towards elaboration, cohesion and interpreta-
tion, which is a distinctly higher-order performance than the first attempt. Scaffolding of this
kind does not move only from teacher to learner: research on second-language peer revision
shows that learners can scaffold one another reciprocally through questioning, suggestion
and discussion (De Guerrero and Villamil, 2000).
1.2 Alignment Between Process Writing, Assessment for Learning and IKS
The relationship between process writing, Assessment for Learning (AfL) and IKS is signif-
icant in a South African context, where IKS refers to knowledge developed, maintained and
transmitted within particular communities, including environmental practice, agricultural
knowledge, oral tradition, values and story. Seroto (2011) shows that indigenous education
in southern Africa historically transmitted knowledge from adults to children through com-
munity participation, oral tradition, story, ritual and everyday social activity. The principles
underlying process writing and AfL create space for pedagogy that treats learners as partici-
Page 2 of 16
