The implementation of English across the curriculum: An exploratory study of how South African educators teach writing in History lessons

Abstract

In 2013, as a strategy to enhance academic performance, the South African Department of Basic Education (DBE) published several English Across the Curriculum (EAC) manuals to guide in-service teachers who did not have prior knowledge of how to integrate the teaching of content subjects with language learning. The DBE introduced the EAC strategy as a mandatory tool for strengthening the use of English as a Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) to address language as a barrier factor to academic success both in primary and high schools. However, in 2017, the DBE published a report showing that most content teachers were not using the EAC strategy. In view of the alarmingly poor academic performance in mostly public schools, the question in many people's minds has always been whether content teachers are using the EAC strategy. To understand this phenomenon, I conducted a qualitative study focused on four purposively selected Grade 8 Social Science educators teaching History (Grade 8 is an entry level to South African secondary schools). I collected data using non-participant classroom observations and semi-structured interviews, while inductive thematic analysis was used as an approach to analyse the data. The findings indicate that to teach writing in History, the participants used strategy-focused instruction which includes vocabulary development and clustering activities as well as writing frames that encompass sentences and paragraphs. Importantly, the research adds to our knowledge of teaching of English to speakers of other languages in multilingual contexts when mandated by governments to change without appropriate support. The study highlights how this situation leads to deeper reflection where educators must encounter professional conflict and dilemmas to bring coherence to their teaching knowledge and experience.