The regional and cultural closeness of Botswana and South Africa, as well as differences in their political histories and language policy stances, offers a unique opportunity to evaluate the role of language in reading outcomes. This study aims to empirically test the effect of exposure to mother tongue and English instruction on the reading…

This article illustrates the value of large-scale impact evaluations with counterfactual components. It begins by exploring the limitations of small-scale impact studies, which do not allow reliable inference to a wider population or which do not use valid comparison groups. The paper then describes the design features of a recent large-scale…

This study identifies factors predicting reading literacy achievement among Grade 4 students in South Africa by utilizing Vygotsky's social interaction theory. The study draws on the preProgress in International Reading Literacy Study (prePIRLS) 2011 data, which places South African Grade 4 students' results below the international centre point of…

In the present study, we examine the personal belief in a just world (PBJW) for teachers and learners in predominantly Afrikaans-speaking South African schools, and the relationship between teachers' PBJW and their perception of problem behaviour in the classroom. The study is informed by national debates of school violence in South African…

Previous research suggests that enhanced cognitive and metacognitive skills are achieved when translanguaging techniques are applied in a multilingual classroom. This paper presents findings on the effects of translanguaging techniques on teaching grade 4 learners how to apply relevant background knowledge when drawing inferences during reading.…

This study explores the feasibility of implementing the curriculum and action-planning components of the HealthKick (HK) intervention in eight low-resourced schools in the Western Cape, South Africa. Process evaluation comprising workshops and personal interactions with teachers and principals were followed up with semi-structured interviews and…

This article presents the findings of an empirical comparative study in the Nelson Mandela Metropole investigating the difference between the written English of deaf children and the written English of hearing children and makes recommendations on how to improve the writing of deaf children. The psycholinguistic approach was used for the…

Language and education are interrelated because all teaching is given through the medium of language. Language is considered to be both a precondition for thought and a bearer of thought and therefore influences the extent to which a child's intelligence is actualised. In the South African context linguistic diversity is a complex issue. It has…