A reading project to improve literacy in the foundation phase: A case study in the Eastern Cape

Reading & Writing

 
 
Field Value
 
Title A reading project to improve literacy in the foundation phase: A case study in the Eastern Cape
 
Creator Cilliers, Liezel Bloch, Carole
 
Subject education literacy; rural schools; foundation phase; Nal’iBali
Description Early literacy teaching and learning in the foundation phase of rural schools in South Africa experience persistent challenges. In order to address some of these challenges, a national reading programme to improve literacy among rural learners was initiated by a non-governmental organisation. The article provides an overview of how teachers in selected Eastern Cape foundation classrooms use the reading programme to enhance literacy of the learners. The objectives of the article are to investigate how the reading project has been incorporated into the teachers’ teaching pedagogy and their perceptions as to how the reading programme has contributed to the school and community. Four purposively selected rural schools, each being part of the reading programme, served as research sites. Participants included eight teachers who used the reading supplement in their classroom. Qualitative data were gathered using semi-structured interviews with the teachers in each school. Through a process of thematic content analysis, the following themes emerged: (1) pedagogical challenges, (2) infrastructure and provisioning for literacy and (3) community engagement. The considerations for future reading programmes in rural areas include cost, availability of resources, training of teachers and practical aspects of the supplement, for example, font size and length of stories. These findings illustrate how the foundation teachers use the reading programme to enhance the literacy curriculum in schools situated in rural settings. The recommendation of the article is that the reading programme is useful and teachers should be encouraged to use the supplement reading activities in the foundation phase.
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor University of Fort Hare
Date 2018-11-06
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Interview
Format text/html application/epub+zip application/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/rw.v9i1.167
 
Source Reading & Writing; Vol 9, No 1 (2018); 7 pages 2308-1422 2079-8245
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/167/467 https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/167/466 https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/167/468 https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/167/464
 
Coverage Eastern Cape — foundation phase learners
Rights Copyright (c) 2018 Liezel Cilliers, Carole Bloch https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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