MASTER OF ARTS WITH SPECIALISATION IN TESOL (TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES)

1.1 INTRODUCTION No single description would ever be adequate to describe writing processes, nor would any prescription be adequate to create good writing. (Liebman-Kleine 1986: 785) The focus of this study is on the English academic writing competence of Foundation Programme (FP) students and the researcher’s teaching practice at the Oshakati Campus of the University of Namibia (UNAM). The researcher (I) identified a problem with regard to students’ academic writing competence. This problem was identified in students’ essay answers in the non-standardized entry tests and students’ laboratory report writing skills. In order to try and improve the weak academic writing competence of the students, I decided to implement two different writing approaches (process approach and modeling/imitation approach) in 2008 in two different classes. These two approaches were chosen because I realized students needed guidance when writing essays, but I was not sure how to assist them effectively. In my search to find effective ways to help students write more effective essays I found information on the process approach and the modeling/imitation approach. I felt that the teaching and learning context was suitable to apply the methods and that the learners might benefit from the implementation of the approaches in their writing programme. In order to measure the outcomes of the implementation I decided to carry out action research to determine the effectiveness of the interventions. Action research is seeking information to gauge the implications of change and to reflect on practice and is therefore appropriate to improve a teaching situation (Bell 2005: 9). It is also cyclical in nature with observation, planning, action and reflection as parts of a cycle. The cycle can be repeated with a revised plan, action, and reflection (Blaxter, Hughes & Tight 2006: 71). After the 2008 study, evaluation of the outcomes of the study resulted in the application of another approach in 2009, the process genre approach, and the outcomes of this intervention were also reflected and reported on. The process genre approach was selected as it is a combination of the effective characteristics of the process and the modeling/imitation approach. I wanted to determine if the process genre approach would yield better results than the process approach and the modeling imitation approach in isolation. This study reports on the evaluation of my teaching practice designed to improve English academic writing skills of FP students and an assessment of three different writing 1 interventions, two applied in 2008 and the third in 2009. In 2008, I applied the process approach in Class 1 and in Class 2 the modeling approach was used. In 2009, I applied the process genre approach in both classes. Convenience sampling was applied as I used the existing classes of 2008 and 2009 as my population and sample since, for ethical considerations, I could not exclude any student from the implementations. However, convenience sampling might have an impact on the transferability