Grade 7 English First Additional Language Term 2 Study Guide

Grade 7 English First Additional Language (EFAL) Curricular Overview

  • The Western Cape Government Education Department provides the "Quality Learning @ Home" Take Home Package for Grade 7 English First Additional Language (EFAL) for Term 2.

  • This document serves as a comprehensive study guide and workbook focusing on literature, reading, writing, language conventions, and oral communication skills.

Literary Terms and Definitions

Understanding the building blocks of literature is essential for analyzing text. The following terms are defined to provide a foundational understanding of literary elements and devices:

  • Simile: A figurative comparison between two distinct things using the connecting words "like" or "as."

  • Onomatopoeia: Words that are phonetically designed to represent or mimic sounds (e.g., "buzz," "crash").

  • Tone: The specific words and language used by an author to express their attitude or feelings toward the subject matter or the text.

  • Plot: The structured sequence of events in a story, spanning from the beginning through the middle to the end.

  • Alliteration: A stylistic device characterized by the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words in close proximity.

  • Conflict: A critical element of a story that often prevents characters from achieving their goals. It provides the necessary friction for characters to grow from their experiences before continuing their journey.

  • Setting: The specific time and geographical or physical location in which a story's narrative takes place.

  • Theme: The central, often abstract idea or underlying message of a story. Examples include concepts such as greed, love, or the transition of "coming of age."

  • Metaphor: A figure of speech that compares two things by stating that one thing is the other, rather than using "like" or "as."

  • Biography: A genre of literature that provides an account of a person's life, written by another individual.

Reading, Viewing, Writing, and Presenting: Sequence of Events

An essential skill in both reading comprehension and writing is the ability to organize information chronologically. The study guide emphasizes a mapping process for narrative structure:

  • The Narrative Map: Students are tasked with drawing and describing events in the order they occurred.

  • Word Bank for Sequencing: The following transitional markers are used to label the progression of a story:

    • First: Introduces the initial event.

    • Next: Connects to the subsequent action.

    • Then: Indicates the progression to the following stage.

    • Last: Concludes the sequence with the final event.

Language Structure and Conventions: The 2-Minute Challenge

This section focuses on rapid recall and application of grammar, vocabulary, and parts of speech. The goal is to complete the following eight tasks accurately within a 120-second timeframe:

  1. Water Usage: Identify and list three distinct uses for water.

  2. Dinner Nouns: Provide three examples of nouns that represent items typically eaten for dinner.

  3. Prefix Application (sun-): List three different words that begin with the prefix or root "sun-" (e.g., sunlight, sunshine, sunflower).

  4. Suffix Application (-less): List three different words that end with the suffix "-less" (e.g., hopeless, careless, endless).

  5. Descriptive Adjectives: Identify three adjectives used to describe objects or people.

  6. Past Tense Verbs: Provide three examples of verbs conjugated in the past tense.

  7. Subject-Verb Agreement: Identify three verbs that correctly agree with the plural subject "The learners."

  8. Superlative Adjectives: List three adjectives in their superlative form (typically ending in "-est" or preceded by "most").

Listening and Speaking: Pronunciation through Tongue Twisters

Tongue twisters are utilized as a pedagogical tool for additional language speakers to master the pronunciation of complex phonetic patterns. Practice involves repeating these phrases at increasing speeds.

Peter Piper

  • "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked; If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?"

The Woodchuck

  • "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, and chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood."

Betty Botter's Butter

  • "Betty Botter bought some butter but, said she, the butter’s bitter. If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter. But a bit of better butter will make my bitter batter better. So she bought some better butter, better than the bitter butter, put it in her bitter batter, made her bitter batter better. So ‘t was better Betty Botter bought some better butter."

The Seashells

  • "She sells seashells on the seashore. The shells she sells are seashells, I’m sure. And if she sells seashells on the seashore, Then I’m sure she sells seashore shells."

Yally Bally

  • "Yally Bally had a jolly golliwog. Feeling folly, Yally Bally Bought his jolly golli’ a dollie made of holly! The golli’, feeling jolly, named the holly dollie, Polly. So Yally Bally’s jolly golli’s holly dollie Polly’s also jolly!"

Yellow Butter (Speed Drill)

  • "Yellow butter, purple jelly, red jam, black bread. Spread it thick, say it quick!"

  • "Yellow butter, purple jelly, red jam, black bread. Spread it thicker, say it quicker!"

  • "Yellow butter, purple jelly, red jam, black bread. Don’t eat with your mouth full!"

The Thought

  • "I thought a thought. But the thought I thought Wasn’t the thought I thought I thought. If the thought I thought I thought, Had been the thought I thought, I wouldn’t have thought I thought."

The Coarse Cow

  • "If you must cross a course cross cow across a crowded cow crossing, cross the cross coarse cow across the crowded cow crossing carefully."