The Effects of Story-Based Activities on Early Language and Literacy in South African Pre-Schools

This project aims to address the literacy achievement gap in South Africa.
Project status
Ongoing
Departments
International

Our proposal is to develop and trial an early years’ literacy intervention, which will address the literacy achievement gap in South Africa. Literacy skills are associated with positive outcomes in terms of employment, health, productivity and wealth creation but, in South Africa, a high proportion of children struggle with literacy. Our programme will target the literacy and language skills of all pre-Grade-R (4- to 5-year-old children), and is designed to meet SDG 4 by better enabling children to reach their developmental potential once they start school. The programme is designed to be (a) inclusive, cutting across structural inequalities such as gender, ethnicity, race, religion and geography; (b) contextually appropriate by including materials across languages and sites in different locations; and (c) sustainable, by drawing on and contributing to open-source materials and involving training of trainers and teacher training, the effects of which will outlast the funded programme of research.

Research Team: Professor Jane Oakhill, University of Sussex; Professor Kate Cain, Lancaster University; Dr Shelley Bonita O'Carroll, Wordworks; Dr Daleen Klop, Stellenbosch University

Outputs and media

'Teachers at the core: Exploring the usefulness, feasibility, and implementation of an early literacy and language programme'

Presented at the South African Research in Early Childhood Education Conference - September 2023

'Exploring the impact of a story-based pre-Grade R teacher training programme'

Presented at the South African Research in Early Childhood Education Conference - September 2023

'The narrative thread: How home learning environment influences early childhood development [...]'

Paper presented at Bi/multilingualism and Specific Language Impairment/ Developmental Language Disorder, Berlin - May 2022

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