Presentation made to a PrimTEd seminar in February 2020 that outlines the Molteno Institute’s work on graded readers basic on the phonics of South African languages as well as briefly describing other resources (ZENEX, EGRS 2 and the Department of Basic Education’s new National Framework for the Teaching of Reading in African Languages in the Foundation Phase).
These draft standards were prepared by members of the Consolidated Literacy Working Group of the Primary Teacher Education Project (PrimTEd). These have been discussed within the group, examined at a national consultation, and revised accordingly. They are now open for a further consultation and it must be emphasized that they are draft standards, standards are only truly such when they are recognized by the appropriate authority or authorities. They are standards that apply specifically to initial language and literacy teacher education with a specific focus on: • Developing new graduate teachers’ ability to teach literacy in African languages as home or additional languages, with a special focus on reading and writing; • English as a First Additional language with a special focus on reading and writing; and on using English as the medium of instruction across the curriculum • Developing new graduate teachers’ ability to teach literacy in English as a home or first additional language in multilingual contexts.
Critique of whole language and balanced literacy approaches to teaching reading. Has a rich set of URLs to useful sources.
A commentary on the evidence coming out of evidence-based practices in early reading instruction and intervention in low- and middle income countries In Africa, Asia and Latin America.
A major study conducted in the late 1980s into the nature of the language and learning difficulties experienced by Grade Five learners when the medium of instruction changed from mother tongue to English.
This is an evaluation study of the national change in education policy in England that saw a refocusing of teaching of reading around synthetic phonics. This was a low cost intervention that went through a pilot and then a national rollout. The study shows in particular how this change helped narrow the gap between disadvantaged and other learners.
Final report of a successful project, begun in 1997, to effectively eradicate functional illiteracy among young people through a multiple-component intervention in 58 pre- and primary schools. About 3 000 children entering the schools were baseline assessed annually as were 3 000 older pupils. One main study and four supporting studies were done. In the main study, comparison of cohorts showed year-on-year gains on all tests and across all age groups, with sustained post-intervention gains in later years. In each of the four supporting studies gains were found for the experimentals, pointing to benefits in the use of synthetic versus traditional phonics, in changing attitudes to reading, in making declarations of future reading achievement and in the use of intensive individual support.
A study of the influence of different dialects and code-switching on the literacy and numeracy achievements of isiXhosa Grade 1 learners in the Western Cape which found that many teachers did not use the standardised isiXhosa though they believed that dialects should not be used in the classroom. Many teachers had little or no knowledge about how to teach early reading in isiXhosa and use dialects as an aid. Learners who speak a dialect different from the standardised one start at a significant disadvantage. The authors argue for the standardisation of African languages, teacher training and development and better resource allocation and development of appropriate texts.
Submission dealing with reading from Nic Spaull to the State President’s Roundtable on Strategies for long-term prosperity
A South African research study that argues for the importance of letter-sound knowledge in the earliest stages of children learning to read and in particular for children who come from poor socio-economic family backgrounds. She examines an intervention that focused on the teaching of letter-sound knowledge to pre-school children in the context of building language skills, emergent literacy and understanding print. She suggests that there is an urgent need for quality teacher training programmes for teachers of pre-school children.
Produced by Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) on the Open University's OpenLearn platform, this free introductory course supports an active teaching approach. The course material can be studied online or downloaded.
Accessing Foundation Phase literacy resources in all our official languages, focusing on African languages
