Writing as Literacy Development for Low Achievers: The Case of a Neighbourhood School in Singapore

Abstract

The study examines the teaching of writing in English to secondary school students in Singapore. It first seeks to understand how sociocultural settings have 'produced and reproduced' a limited literacy experience especially for low achievers, such that they are reified as deficient and stereotyped for certain roles in society. Using the sociocultural perspective on writing which contextualizes literacy learning in the larger social, cultural and political dimensions, the study then explores possibilities for which classroom practices of writing can be made meaningful for low achievers. Two classes of Secondary Three students (aged 15) in a Singapore government school were chosen for the study. The former belonged to the top end of the academic stream and the latter, the 'bottom-rung'. Qualitative and quantitative methods were undertaken to collect and analyze the data for the study. A questionnaire was administered, and classroom observations along with interviews with focal students and their teachers were conducted over one entire school semester. Quantitative findings show that students in both classes shared similar orientations towards five writing subscales, which are Task value and Interest, Self-Efficacy, Affective Feelings towards Writing, Effort Regulation and Goal Orientation, and Self-Regulation of Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies. Discourse analysis of classroom data, on the other hand, found that contrary to the aims of the syllabus, there was little teaching of higher meta-cognitive and evaluative skills or personal construction of voice and meaning in writing in both classes. Rather, the influence of a 'reductive-cum-technicist' model of literacy serves to perpetuate outcomes-driven pedagogical practices and deficient thinking towards low achievers and thus, obliterates larger structural issues that need to be addressed. In response to the findings, an intervention task which was supported by the principles of the sociocultural theory of writing was implemented in the 'bottom-rung' class. Although results of the task showed that deliberate teaching of writing strategies helped to improve students' scores, there was also evidence that teacher and students had filtered the task through the lens of the 'reductive-cum-technicist' model of literacy. Apart from providing insights into the situated nature of second language writing in the context of the mainstream Singapore classroom, the study points to a need for curricular changes aimed at helping low achievers to enhance their experiences in doing writing at school, notably in teacher's classroom practices. To this end, it is suggested that literacy be viewed as progressive, so that learning to write contributes towards the nurturing of voice and construction of meaning.