Pitfalls and possibilities in literacy research. A review of South African literacy studies, 2004-2018

This article evaluates South African research from two annotated bibliographies on reading in African languages at home language level (2004–2017) and South African research on teaching reading in English as a first additional language (2007–2018). It also aims to provide guidelines for addressing the weaknesses in this research. While this article is not intended to be a comprehensive guide, it would be useful to supervisors, postgraduate students and early career researchers currently undertaking, or planning to undertake, literacy research and to writing for publication.