Browsing by Author "Matsoso, Lifelile Mpho"

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    Causes of improper tense shifts in high school students' composition writing
    (National University of Lesotho, 2019-06) Lebona, Thapelo Vincent; Matsoso, Lifelile Mpho
    In the LGCSE English Language Syllabus, writing is the only mode of assessment. Creative/composition writing in particular, assesses learners on the ability to use English Language appropriately in sentence construction to create meaningful texts. Nonetheless, research and documented scholarship show that managing verb tenses in composition writing is a daunting task for most L2 learners. Their tense errors are in the form of improper shifts from one tense to another and wrong verb inflection in different tenses. These errors blur meaning and evince learners’ lack of communicative competence. This study, therefore, investigates causes of improper tense shifts in high school learners’ composition writing. The study adopted a qualitative approach and an interpretive paradigm. Data was sourced from the participants through open-ended interviews with LGCSE English Language teachers from three participating schools and through the analysis of the content in Form E learners’ compositions. Major findings were consolidated into language and linguistic competence deficit. The guiding principles of L2 learners’ interlanguage were used to classify learners’ tense-related errors into types. Learners’ tense-related errors of omission, addition, misformation and misordering were interpreted in terms of interlingual and intralingual transfers, ignorance of rule restriction, incomplete application of the rules, false concepts hypothesized and the context of learning as causes of errors.
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    Factors contributing to learners' inability to use a variety of sentence structures in English essay writing
    (National University of Lesotho, 2018-08) Majara, Mabatho; Matsoso, Lifelile Mpho
    It is common in the language classroom that the ability to produce written productions is among most valuable requirements that learners aim to accomplish from language study. This is because the mode of examination is through written tasks. However, learners are not able to achieve this aim because one of their problems in writing is lack of variety in sentence structures. They seem to use mostly simple structure. Whenever they try to vary, they are limited to compound with the overuse of and. Therefore, the present study aims at investigating the factors contributing to learners’ inability to use a variety of sentence structures in their essay writing. The study adopted an interpretive paradigm that used a mixed methods approach – qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data was generated through marking thirty learners’ essays and conducting one on one open-ended in-depth interviews with three teachers from the three selected schools. Analysis of findings revealed that learners’ failure to vary sentence structures in essay writing because of these factors: lack of extensive reading, poor educational background, lack of practice and feedback, confusion of non-sentence sentences with complete sentences, teachers’ content incompetency, lack of application of grammatical concepts in essay writing, teacher-centered teaching strategies as well as lack of exposure to English language.
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    Learners' and teachers' perspectives about causes of poor argumentative English essay writing
    (National University of Lesotho, 2018-09) Tlali, Phenyane; Matsoso, Lifelile Mpho
    The study aimed at understanding the causes of poor argumentative essay writing at LGCSE. The study was guided by Weiner (1972) Attribution theory of Success and Failure. The study followed a qualitative approach in which a case of three schools was employed. Data was collected from sample drawn from Form D students and their English language teachers using questionnaires and a focus group with teachers. The students also wrote an essay under the supervision of their teachers for reliability of the findings. The essay was written to help the researcher identify possible causes that might contribute to poor argumentative English essay writing. The findings for this study revealed that most students fail to perform argumentative English essay writing well due to failure to argue their points convincingly. Additionally, the study indicated that students fail to use language accurately. On this note, the study proposed that students be exposed to various situations where they can learn or observe how other people state and defend their arguments.
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    Opportunities and challenges in a pilot implementation of integrated curriculum
    (National University of Lesotho, 2019-08) Matee, Lihotetso Gloria; Matsoso, Lifelile Mpho
    The purpose of this study was to investigate opportunities and challenges in pilot implementation of integrated curriculum in the teaching and learning of English Language. The study adopted a dual theoretical framework advocated by John Dewey (1925). This study was underpinned by constructivism paradigm, qualitative design was also adopted. In line with the adopted design, the researcher found qualitative case study to be appropriate for the study. In this study, purposive convenience sampling which is a non-probability sampling technique was employed. A sample of twenty four (24) English Language learners, three (3) English Language teachers and three (3) principals was used as participants of the study. For the researcher to be able to assemble opportunities and challenges in pilot implementation of Integrated English, conversational interviews, focus group discussions and classroom observations were conducted at live situations. In this study, data was analysed based on the themes which emerged. In the view of these findings, it was established that the introduction of integrated curriculum in Lesotho calls for research to adopt a subject-based pilot implementation of not only Integrated English but also of other subjects before country-wide implementation takes place. The recommendations made were meant to raise an awareness to the curriculum developers to prescribe relevant textbooks as well as instructional and learning resources. Ministry of Education and Training also should provide English Language teachers with requisite teaching and learning needs and strategies relevant to Integrated English in order to avoid certain challenges and benefit from IC.