Revised National Curriculum Statement Grades R-9 (Schools) - Grade Two

Learning Area: Languages - Home Language

Learning Outcome 1:  Listening

The learner will be able to listen for information and enjoyment, and respond appropriately and critically in a wide range of situations.

Assessment standards

We know this when the learner:

• Listens attentively for a longer period (with extended concentration span) and responds to an extended sequence of instructions.
• Demonstrates appropriate listening behaviour by showing respect for the speaker, taking turns to speak, asking questions for clarification, and commenting on what has been heard, if appropriate.
• Listens with enjoyment to stories, poems, songs and other oral texts and shows understanding:
  • listens for the topic or main idea;
  • listens for details;
  • predicts what will happen;
  • communicates back a sequence of events or ideas in the oral text;
  • answers questions about the oral text;
  • expresses feelings about the oral text giving reasons;
  • works out cause and effect in the oral text.
• Listens, enjoys and responds appropriately to riddles and jokes.
• Listens to a speaker the learner cannot see (e.g. on the telephone) and responds to questions and instructions.

Learning Outcome 2:  Speaking

The learner will be able to communicate confidently and effetively in spoken language in a wide range of situations.

Assessment standards

We know this when the learner:

• Recounts personal experiences and more general news events.
• Uses language imaginatively for fun and fantasy (e.g. telling jokes and riddles, playing word games, and making up own rhymes).
• Creates and tells simple stories with a beginning, middle and ending, using descriptive language, and avoiding repetition.
• Contributes to class and group discussions:
  • initiates topics in group discussions;
  • takes turns and asks relevant questions;
  • suggests and elaborates ideas;
  • shows sensitivity to the rights and feelings of others;
  • reports back on group’s work;
  • asks questions for clarity and information;
  • answers questions and gives reasons for answers;
  • gives constructive feedback to others.
• Suggests ways of solving problems.
• Uses appropriate language for different purposes (e.g. apologies, invitations) and with different people (e.g. interviews people, role-plays).
• Uses appropriate volume and intonation (e.g. speaking quietly with a partner in class and more loudly with friends in the playground).

Learning Outcome 3:  Reading and Viewing

The learner will be able to read and view for information and enjoyment, and respond critically to the aesthetic, cultural and emotional values in texts.

Assessment standards

We know this when the learner:

• Uses visual cues to make meaning:
  • predicts from the cover of a book what the story will be about;
  • in relation to images, print media and advertising:
    • interprets the main message,
    • identifies purpose, audience, and where it will be found;
  • expresses personal response to print and media images.
• Makes meaning of written text:
  • reads a story on own or with the teacher and:
    • describes the main idea,
    • identifies key details (e.g. main characters, sequence of events, setting),
    • identifies and discusses cultural values in the story,
    • identifies cause-effect relations (why something is happening in a story),
    • draws conclusions,
    • expresses whether the story was liked and why;
  • reads simple instructions in the classrooms;
  • reads texts at a slightly more complex level (simple fiction and non-fiction books, simple instructions, invitations and greetings cards, word puzzles, etc.).
• Recognises and makes meaning of letters and words in longer texts:
  • reads with increasing speed and fluency;
  • reads aloud and uses correct pronunciation and appropriate stress;
  • uses phonic and other word recognition and comprehension skills such as phonics, context clues, and making predictions in order to make sense of text;
  • uses self-correcting strategies such as re-reading, pausing, practising a word before saying it out loud).
• Develops phonic awareness:
  • recognises vowel sounds spelled with two letters (vowel diagraphs) (e.g. ea, ee, ay, ai, ar, er, or, ir, ur, ou, oo, oi);
  • recognises single consonants spelled with two letters (consonant diagraphs) (e.g. wh, th, sh, ph, ll, ss, zz);
  • recognises two-letter and three-letter consonant blends at the beginnings and ends of words (e.g. bl, str, lp, nds);
  • recognises the first sounds (onset) and last syllable (rime) in more complex patterns (e.g. dr-eam, cr-eam, str-eam, scr-eam);
  • recognises more complex word families (e.g. dream, cream, stream, scream);
  • recognises known rhymes (e.g. fly, sky, dry);
  • recognises some more complex suffixes (e.g. zz+es, -ies, -ly);
  • recognises an increasing number of high-frequency sight words.
• Reads for information and enjoyment:
  • reads picture books and simple stories of own choice;
  • shows appreciation of stories from different cultures;
  • starts to use the dictionary to check spelling and meaning of words;
  • reads a variety of texts for enjoyment such as magazines, comics, non-fiction books.

Learning Outcome 4:  Writing

The learner will be able to write different kinds of factual and imaginative texts for a wide range of purposes.

Assessment standards

We know this when the learner:

• Uses pre-writing strategies to initiate writing:
  • participates in group brainstorming activities to get ideas for writing;
  • shares ideas with classmates and teacher;
  • chooses a topic to write about that is personally significant and that is suitable to the learner’s age and circumstances.
• Writes for different purposes:
  • writes drafts and short texts for various purposes:
    • lists, such as tasks for the week,
    • simple expressive texts such as thank you cards and letters,
    • simple informational texts such as recipes,
    • simple recounts of personal experiences and events,
    • simple stories,
    • poems and songs;
  • writes a title that reflects the content.
• Revises writing:
  • discusses own and others’ writing to get or give feedback;
  • makes attempts at editing own writing (e.g. deleting or adding words to clarify meaning, checking and correcting spelling and punctuation);
  • revises own writing after talking with others.
• ‘Publishes’ (makes public) own writing:
  • shares work with others by reading it aloud and/or displaying it in the classroom;
  • makes own books or contributes to class anthologies.
• Builds vocabulary and starts to spell words so that they can be read and understood by others:
  • experiments with words drawn from own language experiences;
  • spells common words correctly;
  • uses homophones with increasing accuracy (e.g. one/won, for/four, too/to);
  • attempts to spell unfamiliar words using knowledge of phonics;
  • builds word bank and personal dictionary;
  • uses dictionary to check on spellings and meanings of words.
• Writes so that others can understand, using appropriate grammatical structures and writing conventions:
  • uses writing frames that show different kinds of sentence and text structures;
  • uses basic punctuation (capital letters and full stops);
  • experiments with other punctuation marks such as exclamation and/or question marks;
  • uses some narrative devices (e.g. once upon a time, the end);
  • applies knowledge of grammar;
  • uses some informational text structures, such as recipes.
• Writes with increasing legibility:
  • uses handwriting tools and implements effectively;
  • forms letters clearly and easily;
  • writes with greater ease and speed as a result of frequent practice.

Learning Outcome 5:  Thinking and Reasoning

The leaner will be able to use language to think and reason, as well as to access, process and use information for learning.

Assessment standards

We know this when the learner:

• Uses language to develop concepts:
  • understands and uses the conceptual language of different learning areas necessary at this level and in preparation for the next level.
• Uses language to think and reason:
  • understands and uses language for logic and reasoning (e.g. cause and effect, logical sequence);
  • uses higher order thinking and the language associated with it (e.g. inferring, applying knowledge, evaluating - e.g. ‘I think’, ‘I wonder’);
  • identifies similarities and differences (e.g. like, the same as, different from) and classifies things;
  • compares things.
• Uses language to investigate and explore:
  • asks questions and searches for explanations;
  • offers solutions and alternatives;
  • uses knowledge about variety of text sources to choose relevant materials, and is able to give reasons for the choice;
  • uses simple strategies for getting and recording information (e.g. library search with help of adult or older learner).
• Processes information:
  • picks out selected information from a text and processes it;
  • organises information in simple graphical forms such as a chart, timetable, etc.

Learning Outcome 6:  Language Structure and Use

The learner will know and be able to use the sounds, words and grammar of the language to create and interpret texts.

Assessment standards

We know this when the learner:

• Relates sounds to letters and words:
  • uses phonics to spell unfamiliar words.
• Works with words:
  • spells familiar words correctly;
  • uses a dictionary to confirm spelling;
  • identifies some synonyms and antonyms.
• Works with sentences:
  • joins two simple sentences (clauses) with a conjunction (‘and’ or ‘but’) to form a co-ordinate sentence (e.g. ‘Johan knocked over the vase and it broke.’);
  • uses negative forms correctly (e.g. ‘I will not do that.’ ‘ You cannot do that.’ ‘She does not do that.’);
  • identifies and uses nouns, adjectives, pronouns (my, your, etc.), verbs and prepositions correctly;
  • uses simple past, present and future tenses correctly;
  • uses a variety of sentence types (questions, statements, exclamations);
  • uses punctuation correctly (question mark, comma to separate items in a list, capital letters for proper names - e.g. ‘Gauteng’).
• Works with texts:
  • links sentences to form paragraphs;
  • sequences text by using words like ‘first’, ‘next’, ‘finally’;
  • identifies characteristics of different text types (e.g. story, instructions, recounts)
• Develops critical language awareness:
  • discusses the words commonly used to describe boys and girls, colours associated with boys and girls (e.g. tough, pretty);
  • discusses the effects of these descriptions, and whether one should use this language or not.

• Uses meta-language (terms such as noun, adjective, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, comma, question mark, paragraph).