Abstract:
Despite the introduction of a number of educational policies and measures (for
example, the Foundation for Learning Campaign, the National Reading Strategy
(2008), Integrated National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy (INLNS) (Department of
Basic Education, 2011), Certificate in Primary English Language Teaching (CiPELT))
in 2012-13 to increase the quality of education during and over twenty three years of
democracy in South Africa, there are still problems with regard to reading levels of
rural South African learners in the intermediate phase. The in/ability to read at grade
level, still persist even after the introduction of teaching of English as a subject from
Grade 1 in all schools as prescribed by CAPS. Available literature on reading
in/abilities in South African schools concedes that the problem lies in the primary
schools. The aim of this study was to investigate and determine an effective approach
to teaching reading skills in the intermediate phase. I employed convergent parallel
design as both the quantitative and qualitative strands were used concurrently and
equally. The convergent parallel design is suitable for this study as it allows me to
compare and contrast quantitative statistical results with qualitative findings for
corroboration and validation purposes. The four main approaches which are;
Phonemic awareness, Read-aloud, Shared Reading and Guided Group Reading were
tested through the employment of an intervention administered to individual groups of
grade 4 learners applying a particular approach for seven weeks. In the light of the
aim of the study, it is clear from data presentation that Read-aloud approach yielded
better results in terms of developing and promoting reading skills in the rural
intermediate phase. Results of post-intervention comprehension test show that the
Read-aloud group had remarkable improvement in terms of the number of learners
who could read at an acceptable level. Teachers’ experiences about an effective
approach were explored through the questionnaire and interviews; and their
responses corroborated findings from learners’ post-intervention comprehension test.
Nevertheless, Group Guided Reading should not be ignored as the group that was
taught reading using this approach had significant improvement that was corroborated
by teacher participants’ responses in both the questionnaire and interviews. Thus, in
this study I argue that Read-aloud promote and develop reading skills in the rural
intermediate phase.
