Enhancing Grade 10 English Learners’ Sentence Construction through Pre-teaching Vocabulary Strategies

Constructing meaningful and grammatically correct sentences is critical for learners to express their ideas coherently in both written and oral communication. However, this remains a significant challenge for many learners, particularly those studying English as a Second Language. The effectiveness of language acquisition is closely linked to the instructional strategies employed by English First Additional Language (FAL) teachers. This study was underpinned by Shulman’s theory of Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory, which together provided a robust theoretical framework. Adopting a qualitative research design, the study investigated the implementation of pre-teaching vocabulary strategies by Grade 10 English FAL teachers and their influence on learners’ sentence construction abilities. Data were collected through classroom observations involving nine teachers from schools in the Dzindi circuit. The findings revealed that pre-teaching vocabulary strategies significantly improved learners’ ability to construct coherent sentences in English, thereby enhancing overall language proficiency and communicative competence.