Two Versions of the Same Letter
A teacher gives a Form 5 class two short Setswana texts about a village water shortage. Text A is a personal letter from a daughter to her mother describing how she queues at the standpipe each morning; it uses contracted forms, emotional language, and direct address. Text B is a notice from the village development committee announcing rationing times; it uses full forms, passive constructions, and no direct address. Both texts mention the same three facts: the pipe broke on 3 June, repairs need a part from Francistown, and water is available from 5 to 7 in the morning. A learner claims the two texts "say the same thing, so they are the same kind of writing". The teacher wants the class to see that purpose and audience shape language choices, and that reading comprehension requires identifying those choices, not only extracting facts.
1. Identify the purpose and audience of each text, and show how at least two language features in each follow from that purpose.
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Text A aims to inform a close family member and to share feeling; its audience is one person, the mother. Its contracted forms and emotional language suit intimacy and speed, and direct address ("Mma") creates closeness. Text B aims to instruct a whole village and to be seen as authoritative; its audience is public and unknown. Full forms and passive constructions remove a personal speaker and make the notice sound official and impersonal, which supports compliance. The same three facts are packaged differently because each text is doing a different job. Recognising purpose and audience is part of comprehension, not an extra.
2. A question asks: "What does Text A tell us about the water supply?" A learner answers only "the pipe broke". Explain what a complete answer requires and why.
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A complete answer must give all three facts (breakage on 3 June, the needed part from Francistown, rationing 5–7 a.m.) and note the personal framing, e.g. that the writer queues early and finds it hard. "The pipe broke" is only one fact and ignores the writer's experience, which is the letter's point. The question asks what the text tells us, so partial extraction loses marks; the reader must also see how the facts are presented (emotional, first-person) because that presentation is part of the meaning. Comprehension means reconstructing the text's message as a whole, not picking out one detail.