Elizabeth J. Pretorius

Reading Ability and Academic Performance in South Africa: Are We Fiddling while Rome Is Burning?

Abstract The two studies reported in this article investigated the relationship between reading skill and academic performance at undergraduate level. The findings showed clear and consistent differences in reading ability between the different academic groups, with reading skills improving the higher the academic group. The findings indicate that many additional language (AL) students have serious reading comprehension problems, which means that they have ineffective and limited access to the rich sources of declarative knowledge provided by print-based materials in the learning context. Reading is important in the learning context not only because it affords readers independent access to information in an increasingly information-driven society, but more importantly because it is a powerful learning tool, a means of constructing meaning and acquiring new knowledge. If developing countries aim to produce independent learners, then serious attention will need to be given to improving the reading skills of students and to creating a culture of reading. Reading is not simply an additional tool that students need at tertiary level - it constitutes the very process whereby learning occurs.

Bilingual and biliterate? An exploratory study of Grade 8 reading skills in Setswana and English

In this paper we present findings from a pilot study that examined the reading abilities in Setswana and English of Grade 8 learners, and their literacy practices and attitudes. In the light of these research findings, it is argued that unless learners are provided with meaningful opportunities to develop their reading skills and are exposed to reading materials in both languages on a regular basis from an early age, they will be inadequately prepared to cope with the high literacy demands of the twenty-first century. What is needed is a meaningful school reading programme geared towards exposing learners to books and helping them develop skilful reading strategies so that they can ‘read to learn’ more effectively.

Putting reading in Northern Sotho on track in the early years: Changing resources, expectations and practices in a high poverty school

Large scale literacy assessments that have taken place during the past decade in South Africa indicate that our learners are struggling to read. Low reading competence occurs in all the home languages as well as in the medium of instruction, English. To date there has been very little research on reading in the African languages that can help to inform this situation. This article focuses on Grade 1 reading skills in Northern Sotho at a high poverty school where a reading intervention project was implemented over a four-year period. The aim of the project was to build a culture of reading at the school by creating conditions that are conducive for reading instruction and development. The purpose of this article is to examine the development of Grade 1 reading skills in Northern Sotho during this period and to reflect on possible changes that took place in the Grade 1 classrooms as a result of the intervention project. Although at the start of the project the reading levels at the school were extremely low, there has been a steady increase in various aspects of reading competence during the four years. It is argued that improvements in reading in the African languages are dependent on changes in instructional practices in classrooms. Such changes, in turn, will only take place if attention is paid to both resource building and capacity building in formal schooling contexts.

Reading and applied linguistics - a deafening silence?

In light of the fact that 2001 has been declared the Year of the Reader, this article presents some findings concerning reading levels within the learning context, from primary to tertiary level, and then briefly examines the relationship between reading ability and academic performance. It is argued that the ability to construct meaning during reading, to access written information independently, to acquire, consolidate and utilise knowledge from print information is a strong determinant of academic success. Skill in reading becomes more demanding as students move up the education ladder, while the gap between skilled and unskilled readers widens. Unless the reading problems of our students are addressed, present failure rates will continue. In the light of these findings, the state of reading research within the South African context is surveyed. In conclusion, questions concerning a socially responsible applied linguistics are raised, and the implications for teaching and research are explored.

English as a second language learner differences in anaphoric resolution: Reading to learn in the academic context

To succeed at a university, students need to read expository texts effectively and meaningfully to access and understand information, and internalize it for study purposes. An important component of the comprehension process is the readers ability to integrate current information with information mentioned earlier in a text. One aspect of this integration process involves anaphoric resolution. This paper reports on findings from a study that investigated anaphoric resolution by first-year English as a second language students during the reading of expository texts. The relationship between skill in anaphoric resolution, academic performance, and language proficiency was examined. Linguistic and textual factors such as type and inference strength of anaphoric tie were also taken into account to examine differential resolution effects. The findings showed that students who were not performing well academically were not skilled at resolving anaphors. Anaphoric resolution was also affected by linguistic and textual differences. Differences in anaphoric resolution diminished as proficiency in English increased. Anaphoric resolution was also affected by the strength of the anaphoric tie; successful anaphoric resolution dropped when the anaphoric tie required greater inferential processing. This was particularly evident among the academically weaker students. The findings suggest that anaphoric resolution in expository texts plays an important role in reading to learn. The implications of these findings are briefly discussed for English as a second language students.

Issues of complexity in reading: Putting Occam's razor aside for now

Abstract In this article Occams razor is used as metaphor to show how different conceptualisations of reading have tended to shave off or exclude important reading variables from their accounts, thus compromising our understanding of reading as a complex phenomenon. It is argued that, although reading and language are inextricably bound, reading is a highly complex system in its own right and, as such, approaches to reading should take account of this complexity and build it into their explanations of how reading works, how it develops and how it is practised. The foundations of a reading theory should include the visual symbolic writing system, the cognitive and linguistic systems, the neuronal underpinnings of cognitive-linguistic operations, the affective dimension of reading and the broader social context in which literacy is enacted, and should explicate the relationships between all these variables. It is also argued that in order to address the literacy challenges in South Africa we need to be well informed about reading and that approaches that articulate the complexity of reading will serve us better than unidimensional approaches.

Laying foundations for academic language competence: the effects of storybook reading on Zulu language, literacy and discourse development

Success at school depends heavily on language and literacy skills. Research indicates that pre-school children whose parents read storybooks to them have a linguistic and literacy head start over other children when they start school. In contrast, learners who come to school with few literacy skills are at a disadvantage. A Family Literacy project was started in 2000 in disadvantaged areas of rural KwaZulu-Natal. One component of the programme promotes storybook reading in Zulu to pre-school children in Grade R. Various aspects of the childrens language and emergent literacy skills were assessed longitudinally. Children in Grade 1 who were not in the project were also assessed, and their performance compared to those of the children in Grade R. The results showed that, on the whole, the Grade R children who were in the Family Literacy Project scored better on the literacy tests and showed stronger language and discourse development than the Grade 1 learners, even though the pre-schoolers were on average a year younger than the Grade 1 learners. These findings suggest that reading storybooks to pre-school children has beneficial effects on their language, literacy and discourse development.

Reading as an interactive process: implications for studying through the medium of a second language

SUMMARY This article discusses the role of reading within the context of learning through the medium of a second language (L2), and provides an overview of differing perspectives on the reading process in the past three decades of reading research. The purpose of the paper is to provide lecturers at tertiary institutions with some insight into the nature of the reading problems that many of their students experience, and to consider some implications of current interactive models of reading for the problems related to reading and L2 proficiency in an academic context.

Is reading in an agglutinating language different from an analytic language? An analysis of isiZulu and English reading based on eye movements

Abstract In this article we examine the reading ability of Grade 4 learners in their home language, isiZulu and in English (first additional language), using both eye-tracking activities and traditional pen-and-paper reading comprehension assessment. The aim of the study was twofold: firstly, to compare bilingual reading performance in an agglutinating language (isiZulu) and an analytic language (English). The learners’ eye-tracking profiles were obtained in both languages to see how they differed across the two languages and their eye-tracking profiles were also analysed according to their comprehension performance in both languages. Secondly, the eye-tracking profiles in both languages were also analysed in terms of reading ability, to determine how eye-tracking profiles differed among strong, average and weak readers in the two languages. In general, pen-and-paper tests showed that the entire group read with relatively low comprehension. The main findings from the eye tracker showed significant differences when the learners read in the two languages, on nearly all the selected eye-tracking variables. The eye movement profiles in isiZulu may be attributable to the longer word units in the conjunctive orthography of isiZulu. However, although there were several significant differences in eye movements between the reading ability groups in English, differences in eye movements due to differential reading skill did not emerge strongly in isiZulu. This may be due to floor effects in novice isiZulu readers or to a longer developmental trajectory in the early stages of reading in isiZulu. Some implications for early reading instruction in isiZulu are briefly considered.

READING COMPREHENSION IN SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOLS: ARE TEACHERS GETTING IT, AND GETTING IT RIGHT?

Much research exists about South African learners’ low literacy and numeracy levels and about poorly performing schools. In contrast , there are far fewer detailed descriptions of instructional practices and what teachers are actually doing in their classrooms, and far less evidence exists of in-depth research attempts to understand in what way and why teachers may experience problems with the teaching of reading literacy, particularly reading comprehension. This article aims to contribute to narrowing that gap by reviewing recent South African research on classroom comprehension instruction and obtaining information from teachers about how they perceive themselves as readers, what their teaching context is, what they claim to be doing about reading in their classrooms, and to match these responses with ANA results at their schools. Data were obtained through a quantitative questionnaire from 159 teachers at 30 schools across three provinces. The results show that many teachers are not themselves immersed in rich reading practices, many teachers claim to be doing more than is reflected in their schools’ literacy results, and in general teachers don’t seem to have a clear understanding of reading concepts, reading development and reading methodology.