Fostering reading-culture of pre-teen community friends via reading play dates

Reading & Writing

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Fostering reading-culture of pre-teen community friends via reading play dates
 
Creator Yafele, Simbayi
 
Subject childhood literacy development; intermediate reading; childhood literacy reading culture development; parental literacy champions; children literacy development; reading play dates; experimental ethnographic qualitative research; sociocultural play theory.
Description Background: Partly because of the lack of a culture of reading in many households, poor reading achievement remains a pressing, worsening problem in South Africa, which this study addresses.Objectives: Fostering reading appreciation at home has been positively associated with reading achievement. This study aimed to evaluate the practicality and usefulness of reading-focused play dates at home as a fun way to cultivate reading in children and tackle reading literacy deficiencies.Method: This qualitative study embraced children-parents-initiated reading play dates in developing a reading culture among 9–12-year-olds. Five children, buddies from school, in a Johannesburg suburb, were brought together in a reading-play date investigation. In sociocultural theory, children learn through play. The ethnographic study tracked progress and used fun play date activities, for example, storytelling, quizzes, and games, to promote reading-culture development. The home-based, fun-oriented reading intervention of play dates ignited reading enjoyment and culture. The study’s interpretivist paradigm comprised interviews and the researcher’s observation using content/thematic analysis.Results: The study demonstrates the viability and value of reading play dates for developing reading cultures. Participants joined library sources, read books consistently, developed a reading passion, and had fun reading in an everyday, fun-oriented reading development initiative.Conclusion: The study concludes that play dates involving reading activities, entwined in everyday home experiences such as play and friendships that children naturally enjoy as part of growing up, can offer workable strategies at home in early Literacy Learning, fostering reading love and culture with educational benefits.Contribution: Developing a reading culture for better reading success earlier in childhood.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor N/A
Date 2025-08-30
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Experimental Ethnographic Qualitative research; Fieldnotes; Observation; Interview, Artefacts
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/rw.v16i1.552
 
Source Reading & Writing; Vol 16, No 1 (2025); 13 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/552/1428 https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/552/1429 https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/552/1430 https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/552/1431
 
Coverage South Africa middle-class surburban commuinity 21st century 10-12-year-olds; Girls; African, South African; same middle-class community; friends
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Simbayi Yafele https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
ADVERTISEMENT