Abstract:
The use of unsuitable registers has been a critical concern with students at universities,
colleges, and in English Second Language (ESL) contexts. While the appropriate use of
registers is essential for coherent spoken and written discourses. However, students in
ESL contexts seem to encounter difficulties in the use of appropriate registers due to
various factors. The purpose of this study was to explore register competence among
third-level students specialising in English Didactics at the University of Venda. The
participants were 15 third-level students in the academic year of 2020. This study
employed a case study design with a focus on the qualitative research method and a
critical discourse and thematic analysis were employed as methods of data analysis. This
study adopts a prescriptive grammar in the evaluation of the register competence. The
findings of this study reveal that the register knowledge and its suitable usage among the
selected third year-level student educators appeared to be an obstacle to their academic
writing due to the variations in the use of the five distinct registers, namely, static, casual,
intimate, informal, and formal. Furthermore, the following features were present in student
educators’ written work, namely, passive voice, lack of parallel structure, colloquialism,
slang, use of personal pronouns, and phrasal verbs which are mostly considered
inappropriate features for academic writing. Academic writing should be given extensive
attention in English curriculum content such that the students master the appropriate
writing style and register usage. The pedagogical implications from this study are that the
lecturers teaching English second language should enlighten the student educators with
appropriate knowledge to enable them to use registers appropriately and advance
students’ understanding of differences in the English language registers. This would pave
the way for possible research arenas, and strategies to mitigate the inappropriate use of
registers.
