Background: This article describes how the National Reading Barometer project has redefined the concept of 'reading culture' in South Africa. Objectives: As expressed in the 2023 National Reading Survey (N = 4250) and the 2023 National Reading Barometer, a clearer description of reading cultures was developed to describe both individual reading…

Background: This article reports on a responsive extensive reading programme (ERP), involving Grade 3 learners at two primary schools in the Eastern Cape over a duration of 20 weeks. Objectives: The sociocultural perspective of learning guided the implementation of the ERP which aimed at providing learners with opportunities to read books for…

There has been limited attention towards the affective aspect in literacy development; yet, reading attitude, an affective component, is a significant element within literacy instruction. This makes a compelling case for investigating Grade 3 learners' attitudes towards reading. In this study, a situational analysis was conducted as Phase 1 of the…

This study explores how libraries mediated interactions between black readers and texts in twentieth century South Africa. By situating libraries as vital infrastructures of reading, I critically examine how librarians tried to build the habit of reading within black communities. Beginning in the 1930s with the Carnegie Corporation of New York's…

Background: Owing to the dearth of reading practices within the South African literacy landscape, many learners neither engage in productive reading habits, nor exhibit a positive attitude towards English First Additional Language (EFAL) reading. Consequently, many learners experience reading challenges, which negatively impact on their academic…

PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) is the fourth assessment in the current trend series, following PIRLS 2001, 2006, and 2011. There were 61 participants in PIRLS 2016, including 50 countries and 11 benchmarking entities (e.g., regions of countries as well as additional grades or language groups from the participating…

Notwithstanding the substantial transformation of education in South Africa in the last 20 years, specifically to redress the past inequalities, the challenges are ongoing. These challenges include tertiary institutions having to accommodate a culturally and linguistically diverse group of students, often second-language (L2) English speakers, in…

This article explores the contradiction between student teachers' acknowledgement of the importance of reading and their actual personal reading habits, and by doing so, attempts to dig below the surface and 'take stock' of future teachers' attitudes towards reading at a private tertiary institution in Durban, South Africa. The rationale is that…

The implication of reading competence in developing reflection and thinking is an important issue for student teachers to consider. Reading is also a competence, in which the language at the disposal of a person is included, to use for social development and mutual understanding. This article is based on a case study and is concerned with how some…

The Children's Literature Research Unit at the University of South Africa, Pretoria, implemented a research project examining what young people were reading at the end of the 20th century, similar to a research project which had been carried out at Roehampton Institute in London (1996). The research began with a pilot project. Its goals were to:…

A study in two South African schools investigated the impact of encouraging free, voluntary reading on the English language skills of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners. Subjects were 139 fourth- through seventh-grade students in an experimental group and 105 students in a control group. Pretests of reading comprehension were administered…

This paper focuses on a 1997 pilot project carried out in five secondary schools in South Africa that examined children's reading and information use. This study (n=958) was part of a larger study from 1995 and 1996 carried out in the United Kingdom. The primary goal was to examine what young people are reading at the end of the 20th century. The…