A systematic review of the effectiveness of reading comprehension interventions in the South African multilingual context

ABSTRACT

International comparative measures show that South Africa has extremely low standards in reading. A variety of programmes aimed at boosting reading have been developed, however, the effectiveness of these programmes is unclear. Prior reviews of effective reading instruction practices have focused almost exclusively on learners whose first language and language of instruction is English. This paper reviews evidence from 17 intervention studies which focused on the teaching of reading comprehension in the distinctive multilingual context of South Africa. Although in line with prior reviews, we found some evidence that reading strategy instruction including vocabulary development are features of successful interventions alongside effective teacher education and resourcing of reading. These findings remained inconclusive due to variability in the quality of research, considerable methodological variations of the studies and the limited number of studies. Research in this field requires a more rigorous scientific approach to improve the evidence base.

KEYWORDS:

• Reading
• reading comprehension
• ESL
• South Africa
• systematic review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the British Academy Tackling Global Challenges award under grant [TGC\6416658].

Notes on contributors

Jane Carter

Dr Jane Carter is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Education and Childhood at the University of the West of England (UWE). Her work concerns all aspects of literacy with a particular interest in the teaching of early reading and comprehension as well as approaches to engaging all children and families with reading. She is currently leading a multi-disciplinary team at UWE and the University of Zululand funded by a British Academy Tackling Global Challenges award, which has designed and implemented a mobile phone app that aims to support teachers and student teachers in rural and township schools in South Africa with the teaching of comprehension.

Tessa Podpadec

Dr Tessa Podpadec is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Education and Childhood at the University of the West of England. Her work concerns sustainable futures in education, including children’s experiences of racism and well-being, futures thinking about climate changes, as well as the use of mixed-methods evidence to inform educational policy change.

Pravina Pillay

Dr Pravina Pillay is an Associate Professor of English Studies at the University of Zululand in South Africa. Her research interests include English Language Education, English Literary Studies, World Literatures and Higher Education in South Africa. Professor Pillay has published extensively in national and international journals.

Selma Babayiğit

Dr Selma Babayiğit is a Senior Lecture in Psychology at the University of the West of England. Her work concerns the language and cognitive skills that underpin literacy development of children from diverse language backgrounds. Her current research considers the cognitive effects of bilingualism and the ways in which strengths and weaknesses in cognitive and language skills interact to influence reading comprehension and academic attainment in both monolingual and bilingual/multilingual groups.

Khulekani Amegius Gazu

Dr Khulekani Gazu is a lecturer of English Studies in the School of Arts, University of South Africa (Unisa). His research foci include English second language teaching and learning, empirical literary studies, and discourse analysis. He is currently supervising research at post-graduate level and has examined theses in the area of English teaching and learning.