South Africa First Additional Language Grade 12 Syllabus

This syllabus outlines the curriculum for First Additional Language (FAL) in Grade 12, focusing on developing proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and critical language awareness. The Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) document provides detailed information on the aims, content, and assessment of the subject.

Aims and Objectives

The curriculum aims to empower learners to:

• Acquire language skills for academic learning across various subjects.
• Develop confidence and enjoyment in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
• Use language appropriately, considering audience, purpose, and context.
• Express and justify ideas, views, and emotions confidently.
• Use language and imagination to explore themselves and the world.
• Access and manage information for learning and other contexts.
• Use language for critical and creative thinking, ethical considerations, and interacting with diverse texts.

Language Skills and Content

The curriculum covers the following language skills and content:

• Listening and Speaking: Listening comprehension, speaking processes, features and conventions of oral communication (prepared/unprepared speeches, interviews, discussions, debates).
• Reading and Viewing: Reading process (pre-reading, reading, post-reading), interpretation of visual texts, vocabulary development, sentence structures, text organization, features of literary texts (poetry, drama, novel).
• Writing and Presenting: Process writing (planning, drafting, revising, editing, proofreading, presenting), language structures and conventions, format and features of various text types (essays, transactional texts).
• Language Structures and Conventions: Grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, spelling, critical language awareness.

Assessment

Assessment is both informal (Assessment for Learning) and formal (Assessment of Learning). Formal assessment includes tests, examinations, practical tasks, projects, and oral presentations.

• Paper 1: Language in Context: Comprehension, summary, language structures and conventions.
• Paper 2: Literature: Contextual questions and essays on prescribed literary texts (novel, drama, poetry, short stories).
• Paper 3: Writing: Essays and transactional texts.
• Paper 4: Orals: Prepared and unprepared speeches, listening comprehension.

The weighting of formal assessment components varies between Grades 10-11 and Grade 12. Exam guidelines provide further details on the format, structure, and mark allocation for each paper. The assessment criteria include content, planning, language, style, editing, and structure. Rubrics are provided for essays and transactional texts to guide marking. Different cognitive levels are addressed in assessment tasks, ranging from literal comprehension to evaluation and appreciation.