English proficiency is regarded important for economic empowerment in South Africa, since English is the official business language of the country. South Africa is, however, a multilingual country, with 11 official languages. The majority of South African learners do not speak English as first language, but study English as an additional language in school. This leads to English Second Language (ESL) classroom complexities such as multilingualism, negative attitudes to ESL, and various levels of linguistic proficiency, which affect the teaching of the prescribed curriculum. Many learners arrive in secondary school (Grade 8) with underdeveloped English proficiency, which means that a lot of time in ESL classrooms is spent on re-teaching English language concepts, especially grammar concepts. This causes stress for both ESL teachers and learners. This study tested the effectiveness of a self-help ESL grammar intervention programme in order to establish whether existing gaps in grammar knowledge could be closed via self-study outside of the classroom. More specifically, the study asked the question whether learners’ knowledge of Parts of Speech could be enhanced via a self-help intervention programme, which was based on the principles of Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG). SFG is not traditionally used as an instructional framework in ESL classrooms in the South African context. The rationale for assessing the efficiency of an SFG self-help intervention programme was that there is currently a dire need for alternative approaches to teaching ESL grammar, which would assist struggling learners to raise their proficiency levels quickly, and which would allow teachers to continue with the prescribed curriculum. The intervention programme was tested in a controlled quasi-experimental study, which included an experimental group and a control group, and which compared performance in the mid-year examination and year-end examination to performance in a baseline assessment. The results of the study showed that the self-intervention programme was effective in enhancing ESL learners’ knowledge of Parts of Speech, and also had a positive effect on other aspects of grammar knowledge and on writing. Based on these findings, it is recommended that self-regulation and self-instruction be considered for inclusion in ESL syllabi in the South African context, as it can play a positive role in enhancing ESL learners’ linguistic proficiency.

Key words: Parts of Speech (POS); Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL); Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG); Complexity Theory (CT); Dynamic Assessment (DA); Self-Regulated Learning (SRL); Traditional Grammar; Self-help Intervention