A Linguistic Research Programme for Reading in African Languages to underpin CAPS

Vos, Mark de; Merwe, Kristin van der; Mescht, Caroline van der

doi:10.4314/jlt.v48i2.7

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…The CAPS has a common framework for all the official languages – at HL and FAL/SAL levels. The curricula for languages other than English were ‘versioned’ from English (Heugh, 2013) with negative consequences for the teaching of decoding and phonics in the African languages in particular (De Vos, Van der Merwe, & Van der Mescht, 2014). This will be discussed in more detail later.…”

Section: Language Legislationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although benchmarks may differ for different languages, the principle of decoding accuracy remains consistent across languages. The morpho-syntactic and phonemic structures of these languages could influence both word recognition and decoding processes (De Vos, Van der Merwe, & Van der Mescht, 2014). More research is thus needed on reading processes in African languages in order to inform the curriculum and reading pedagogy.…”

Section: Language Legislationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…De Vos et al (2014) propose a research programme for language-specific pedagogies, underpinned by linguistic, psycholinguistic and applied linguistic theory. They argue that the African languages are structurally and typologically different to English or Afrikaans and thus require a different pedagogic approach.…”

Section: Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CAPS also requires that consonants and consonant clusters are taught together and completed by the end of Grade 1. This may be appropriate for English, but isiXhosa has blends like ng and tsh which occur frequently and need to be learned early in Grade 1, and also consonant sequences like ntshw and ngqw which need to be learned gradually (De Vos et al, 2014, p. 3). The authors point out that very little research has been done on micro-approaches to texts such as morphological, syntactic and phonological awareness.…”

Section: Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Language learning and teaching in South African primary schools

Wildsmith-Cromarty

Balfour

2019

Lang. Teach.

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South Africa's history of segregation and the privileging of English and Afrikaans as the only languages of teaching and learning beyond primary schooling, make the post-apartheid period a complex one, especially in light of the Constitutional commitment to multilingualism in the 11 official languages. Research on literacy and language teaching contextualises the impact of curriculum and language policy initiatives aimed at improving learner performance. We review research concerning the transition from the study of first additional language (FAL) as subject, to the use of FAL as the language of learning and teaching (LoLT). Also considered are major studies on learner performance nationally and South Africa's comparability globally. The impact of home language (HL) literacy development on performance in English as the LoLT links to research on language development in teacher education programmes, and shows connections between the capacity of teachers to develop languages for literacy and LoLT and learner success. Research on the development of early childhood literacy in the HL demonstrates the positive impact on literacy development in the LoLT.

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Section: Language Legislationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Language Legislationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Language learning and teaching in South African primary schools

Wildsmith-Cromarty

Balfour

2019

Lang. Teach.

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“…Little research has been conducted on specific phonics instruction approaches in local, indigenous languages across the globe (de Vos, van der Merwe, & van der Mescht, 2014 …”

Section: Phonicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Works in Early Grade Literacy Instruction

Bulat¹,

Dubeck²,

Green³

et al. 2017

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This PDF document was made available from www.rti.org as a public service of RTI International. More information about RTI Press can be found at http://www.rti.org/rtipress. RTI International is an independent, nonprofit research organization dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice. The RTI Press mission is to disseminate information about RTI research, analytic tools, and technical expertise to a national and international audience. RTI Press publications are peerreviewed by at least two independent substantive experts and one or more Press editors. Suggested Citation

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Longitudinal predictors of single word spelling in Northern Sotho-English bilingual children: a cross-linguistic study

Makaure,

Wilsenach,

Schaefer

2024

Read Writ

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Although there is overwhelming evidence highlighting the foundational role of phonological processing and vocabulary skills in reading, less research has focused on the contribution of these skills to spelling, particularly in African languages. This longitudinal study explored cognitive-linguistic predictors of spelling development in Northern Sotho-English bilingual children. Children were assessed on phonological awareness, phonological working memory, rapid automatized naming, and receptive vocabulary in Grade 2 (Time 1) and on spelling development at the end of Grade 3 (Time 2). Phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming were unique within and cross-language predictors of word spelling in both Northern Sotho and English. This study represents a first attempt to understand the processes that support bilingual spelling development in Northern Sotho children learning English as an additional language. The findings contribute to the body of research investigating spelling development in bilingual children who are learning languages with different orthographical systems. Based on the findings, we recommend that bilingual spelling and phonics instruction explicitly reflect the phonological systems of both languages.

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A Linguistic Research Programme for Reading in African Languages to underpin CAPS

Cited by 14 publications

References 57 publications

Language learning and teaching in South African primary schools

Language learning and teaching in South African primary schools

What Works in Early Grade Literacy Instruction

Longitudinal predictors of single word spelling in Northern Sotho-English bilingual children: a cross-linguistic study

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