Enhancing visibility of local African languages in South Africa through learning to read

ABSTRACT

This article examines the visibility of an African language, isiZulu, in the public domain of education in South Africa. It explores synergies and disjunctures in language use and exposure for children across the continuum from home to ECD centre and early primary school, and how they affect children’s competence in reading in two languages by Grade 4. Our qualitative cross-sectional study finds isiZulu is visible in the homes, communities and at each grade level, along with other African languages; but use of, and exposure to, these African languages varies widely. In most homes, while storytelling is common, little reading is done; educational settings, in contrast, are print-rich environments, displaying isiZulu and English and making English highly visible very early on. Teaching of reading in both languages is done at a very slow pace, using restrictive pedagogies, and with little continuity across Grades, but enables Grades 3 and 4 children to read simple, connected text in both isiZulu and English. The article calls for language appropriate, specialised reading teaching that strengthens learners’ language and reading development bilingually, and increases and consolidates the visibility of the African language in the curriculum.

KEYWORDS:

• African languages
• reading literacy
• home literacy
• ECD
• primary school
• Bilingualism/multilingualism

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the South Africa team members Taadi Modipa, Mthuli Buthelezi and Samukele Mbhamali for their empirical work.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This paper draws on research funded by the British Academy International Partnership & Mobility Scheme, IPM 2015 (#PM140275), which enabled establishment of Reading to Learn Network. Ethical approval was granted via the University of Leeds as the UK fund holder.