Investigating Challenges and Approaches for Teaching Irregular Verb Orthography

South African Primary School Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

Teaching irregular verb orthography to non-native primary school learners is challenging worldwide, especially if limited exposure to English reigns supreme. The paper investigated challenges and approaches for teaching irregular verb orthography to selected primary school learners. The objectives were to identify approaches for mitigating the challenges teachers face when teaching irregular verb orthography at the South African Primary schools, describe and assess their effectiveness. The population of this study comprised 35 Grade 7 English First Additional Language teachers in South African primary schools. Six purposively selected teachers participated in the study. A descriptive qualitative approach was adopted to explore and describe the teaching of irregular verb orthography in depth. The researcher used semi-structured face-to-face interviews and classroom observation to collect data. The initial investigation revealed challenges experienced by teachers in teaching irregular verb orthography. However, after using the orthographic mapping approaches, teachers produced outstanding performance in learners. Although this study’s limitations were the time factor and sampling process, its implication advocates using orthographic mapping approaches to mitigate teachers' challenges. The identified approaches benefit teachers and learners. Future researchers can further research the current topic. The study recommends frequently using the identified approaches to enhance learners’ performance using irregular verb orthography.