Background: The implementation of mother tongue-based bilingual education (MTbBE) in South Africa is the subject of much debate, particularly in linguistically diverse townships. Mother tongue-based bilingual education implementation has left most educators questioning the inclusion criteria used for selecting languages in township schools, where linguistic diversity is the norm. Aim: This study explored teachers’ views on the inclusion criteria for MTbBE in selected multilingual township schools. It also explored how classroom practices, policies and institutional expectations influence these perspectives. Setting: This study was conducted in pilot schools located in Johannesburg townships. Methods: To understand educators’ insights, this study used a qualitative research method. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and document analysis with purposefully selected educators in schools piloting MTbBE, and data were analysed thematically. Results: This study found differing views on MTbBE implementation. Some educators saw it as a good strategy that enhanced learner participation; others believed it could perpetuate inequalities and marginalise less dominant indigenous languages, since its implementation relies on dominant languages in township schools. Educators also feared that inclusion criteria used to select languages might threaten their jobs, as they majored in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics subjects and are not well prepared to teach these subjects in indigenous languages. They further expressed dissatisfaction with the language used in MTbBE worksheets, describing it as difficult to understand. Conclusion: This study revealed that choosing one or two languages for implementation in linguistically diverse schools often overlooks learners’ linguistic diversity and further marginalises unpopular languages within the school. Contribution: This study contributes to the scholarship of MTbBE in township schools.
Background: Foundational learning policy and practice does not adequately consider preschool children’s literacy and language (LaL) activities outside of school in rural, multilingual areas. Children are thus unable to draw on prior experiences and existing knowledge of language and literacy when learning in monolingual classrooms. Aim: Preschool children’s (aged 3–7) out-of-school LaL activities were explored in detail. Teacher perceptions and value of these activities were recorded to understand their potential as pedagogical tools and strategies. Setting: The study took place in four multilingual rural and semi-rural villages in Mtwara region, Southern Tanzania. Methods: Interviews, observations, participant diaries, fieldnotes and photographs were used to collect data in homes, community spaces and preschools. A translanguaging and multiliteracies lens was used to analyse data. Results: Children participate in a wide range of everyday activities which support LaL development. However, teachers do not perceive these activities as beneficial for learning. A notable exception is learning with peers and siblings, used strategically by teachers to support in-school literacy. Conclusion: When teachers perceive utility in children’s out-of-school activities, they are willing to integrate these into teaching. Drawing attention to what children already understand about language and literacy can reposition this knowledge as an asset to be drawn on. Contribution: Preschool children’s everyday activities can be effective pedagogical tools. In the context of lower literacy outcomes for rural and multilingual children, understanding better how children learn outside of school should be a research and policy imperative.
Background: South African pre-service teachers (PSTs) mostly learn to teach mathematics in English, yet are expected to teach learners bilingually, including their mother tongue, considering the introduction of Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education (MTBBE). Pre-service teachers must develop their teaching in ways that enable learners’ access to meaning using communicative resources such as multimodal and bilingual teaching. Aim: To provide a methodological contribution to how researchers might analyse multimodal bilingual teaching practices to support teachers’ reflection on their communicative practices in mathematics teaching. Setting: This study took place with intermediate-phase (Grade 4–6) PSTs in their mathematics methodology course at a higher education institution in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. Methods: In this qualitative formative intervention, we purposively sampled one representative PST’s micro-teaching bilingual video and one English demonstration video to show the emergent coding system that was iteratively refined for in-depth analysis. Results: A useful coding system is revealed, enabling analysis and reflection on how the PST enacted multimodal bilingual teaching of the Jump Strategy. In this case, the PST enacted most of the multimodal elements from the baseline video and fluidly moved between isiXhosa, English, and loanwords to support learner access to meaning-making. Conclusion: The coding system allowed for in-depth analysis of the PST’s video to better understand the nature of multimodal and bilingual teaching. Contribution: The methodological contribution suggests an analytic coding system to explore the nature of multimodal bilingual teaching. This system, we argue, could be used effectively to support PSTs’ reflection on their multimodal and bilingual repertoires when teaching mathematics (especially important in the context of MTBBE).
Background: The study investigated how Bala Wande game-based activities shaped Grade 1 students’ participation, language use and mathematical meaning-making within a Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education (MTBBE) context, drawing on video data of teachers using the bilingual Bala Wande intervention programme. Aim: The aim was to demonstrate how mathematics games strengthen early grade learning within a MTBBE context. Setting: The dataset comprised 17 classroom videos across three South African provinces of teachers identified as implementing the Bala Wande programme with high fidelity. Methods: An in-depth secondary analysis was conducted on four episodes of the videos’ mathematics games. The analysis examined teacher control, student participation, and the use of mathematical and linguistic resources to understand how game-based activities created opportunities for structured mathematical and language learning. Results: Games in MTBBE classrooms are more than motivational tools. They enable students to draw flexibly on more than one language, while engaging in mathematical discourse, negotiating meaning, developing mathematical practices, and gaining confidence in communicating mathematical ideas. Conclusion: Mathematics games provide structured opportunities for learning and consolidation of mathematical concepts while fostering active participation and multilingual mathematical reasoning and communication, supporting both mathematical and bilingual language development. Contribution: The study advances multilingual mathematics education, showing how games create socially mediated and linguistically flexible learning opportunities. Using a situated learning perspective, it conceptualises multilingual mathematics learning as participation in social practices and how MTBBE, translanguaging and play-based pedagogy support mathematical understanding and language development.
Background: Despite the rhetoric of additive bilingualism, post-apartheid South African education is characterised by hierarchical colonial arrangements in which early-exit mother tongue-based bilingual education (MTBBE) models undermine literacy at the Grade 4 transition, reproducing linguistic and epistemic injustices. Aim: The article critiques, maps out and deconstructs the power assumptions, dynamics and knowledges embedded in MTBBE to elevate the model from a temporary scaffolding strategy to an epistemic strategy. Setting: The study analysis draws attention to the multilingual South African school system in the wake of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act. Methods: Rather than a traditional empirical, participant-led method for data gathering, the study engages in a conceptual analysis based on the critical interpretivist paradigm, and relies on three interrelated conceptual lenses: Postcolonial language theory, decolonial epistemic justice and translanguaging theory. Results: The study reveals how the current resurgence of MTBBE is plagued by policy amnesia of cosmetic and cyclical revivals and a profound conflict between performative symbolism and real decolonisation. The analysis unpacks five MTBBE prevailing myths (transitional, monolingual, reactive, utilitarian and magical). In opposition to these myths, the article offers an alternative theoretical framework based on five essential principles, along with a corresponding three-phased implementation approach (R-3, 4–7 and 8+). Conclusion: Educational transformation entails an epistemological reorientation as well as infrastructural investments, which will ensure the permanence of African languages as part of epistemic success. Contribution: This article fills an important theoretical void through offering a decolonial praxis-based framework of MTBBE.
Background: Structured pedagogy programmes are increasingly implemented in low- and middle-income countries, including South Africa, to address poor early-grade literacy outcomes. These programmes combine structured lesson guidance, teaching materials and teacher coaching to strengthen classroom instruction. Despite their widespread implementation, limited research has examined how teachers use these materials in rural indigenous African language classrooms such as Sepedi. Aim: This study examines how structured literacy materials are enacted in Sepedi classrooms and how they mediate reading instruction in rural Grade 1 classrooms. Setting: The study was conducted in four rural Sepedi-medium primary schools in the Sekhukhune District of Limpopo province participating in the Room to Read Sepedi Literacy Programme. Methods: A qualitative multiple-case study design guided by Shulman’s General Pedagogical Knowledge framework was employed. Data were collected through 26 non-participant classroom observations, four semi-structured individual interviews and document analysis of the Room to Read Sepedi teacher guide, Sepedi reader and the Sepedi Home Language Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). Results: Teachers relied extensively on the teacher guide and reader to organise reading lessons. Instruction typically began with revision before introducing new sounds or vocabulary. Learners practised foundational reading skills through activities such as tracing letters, reading syllables, building vocabulary and engaging with short comprehension tasks. The materials also supported inclusive classroom participation and adaptation for learners with different learning abilities. Conclusion: Structured Sepedi teaching materials supported organised reading instruction aligned with the Sepedi Home Language CAPS in rural Grade 1 classrooms. Contribution: The study provides classroom-level evidence of how instructional materials mediate reading instruction in indigenous African language classrooms.
Background: With the increased awareness of the role of language in enabling epistemic access in mathematics, science and technology education comes the importance of multilingual models that value the indigenous languages as important resources for meaning-making and knowledge construction. It is within this context that mother tongue-based bilingual education (MTBBE) was introduced in South Africa. Aim: This scoping review synthesises research outputs published between 2014 and 2025 on MTBBE in Africa at the primary level in mathematics, science and technology education. Setting: The surveyed research outputs were sourced from publications on MTBBE on the African continent from the years 2014 to 2025. Methods: We first reviewed domain-specific journals and conducted additional searches in general education journals, including book chapters published by key academic publishers, using Google Scholar. A total of 45 research outputs met the inclusion criteria. Results: Research outputs indicate a substantial increase in MTBBE research in mathematics, science and technology (MST) primary education across Africa in the last 6 years, with a strong geographic concentration in South Africa. Translanguaging practices and teacher preparation emerged as dominant themes. No research output on MTBBE in technology education was found in the review period. Conclusion: The review indicates that the effectiveness of MTBBE is contingent upon the strengthening of teacher preparation and the establishment of greater coherence between language-in-education policy and classroom-level implementation practices. Contribution: This review article contributes to the literature by providing the first comprehensive synthesis of research outputs on MTBBE specifically within MST education across African contexts.
Background: Mother Tongue-based Bilingual Education (MTBBE) aims to strengthen learners’ home language while developing English as an additional language. However, the historical marginalisation of African languages in mathematics education means that teachers may use everyday expressions that do not communicate mathematical meanings precisely. Limited research has examined how language choices in African-language classrooms shape learners’ early mathematical understanding. Aim: This study examined how teacher discourse constructed fraction concepts during sharing-based lessons in isiZulu-medium Grade 3 classrooms, with implications for MTBBE in Grade 4. Setting: The study involved two Grade 3 classrooms in South African township primary schools. Methods: Guided by a language-as-resource orientation, this qualitative study analysed observations of two fraction lessons taught by mathematics subject advisers during a Lesson Study. Multimodal discourse and thematic analyses examined how language and teaching practices shaped mathematical meaning-making. Results: Both lessons introduced fractions through equal-sharing contexts. However, some translated expressions conveyed meanings more closely associated with division than with fractions as parts of a whole. One teacher emphasised fairness and equivalence, while the other used comparative and relational language, including more, less, fewer and larger parts. Conclusion: Teachers’ language choices influenced how learners encountered and interpreted fraction concepts. Contribution: The study shows how instructional discourse shapes mathematical meaning-making and highlights the need to develop mathematically precise isiZulu terminology and expressions for MTBBE classrooms.
Background: Integrating digital game-based learning in early childhood education poses challenges for teachers, particularly in resource-constrained settings where traditional methods predominate and educators often lack formal pedagogical training. Aim: To explore how teachers adapt their roles and pedagogical practices in a multi-age classroom where children aged 3–6 years engage with digital learning games. Setting: A community-based childcare centre in rural Malawi where volunteer teachers with limited formal education facilitate digital game-based learning. Methods: Ethnographic participant observation was conducted over one month (34 h across 17 sessions), using a developmental research sequence and focused ethnographic analysis of teacher practices, classroom interactions and adaptation patterns. Results: Four interconnected themes were identified: (1) teachers moved from restrictive control to selective intervention, developing ‘adaptive oversight’; (2) technical challenges persisted, with teachers continuing to rely on external support; (3) embodied practices such as physical guidance and native language instruction remained stable, providing essential scaffolding; and (4) teachers gradually recognised and facilitated productive peer learning in the multi-age setting. Conclusion: Given the absence of mother-tongue content and culturally relevant materials, teachers’ adaptation involved essential yet institutionally invisible cultural mediation work, creating hybrid approaches that bridged global technologies with local pedagogical traditions and children’s lived experiences. Contribution: The study shows how teachers navigate digital learning through simultaneous adaptations: developing selective intervention strategies, managing persistent technical dependencies, sustaining embodied pedagogical practices and facilitating emergent peer learning, all while performing institutionally invisible cultural mediation work.
Background: Language remains a central determinant of epistemic access in South African Foundation Phase classrooms, where many learners begin schooling in a language other than their home language. The 2025 shift in language-in-education approaches renewed attention to mother tongue-based bilingual education (MTBBE) as a pathway to equity and meaningful curriculum access, particularly within Science, Technology, Robotics, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STREAM) education. Aim: This review explored how MTBBE supported conceptual understanding, learner agency and educational inclusion in the Foundation Phase through sustained home-language instruction and additive English use. Setting: A bibliometric analysis across global and South African contexts was conducted. Methods: We conducted a bibliometric review, complemented by qualitative thematic analysis. Guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta- Analyses (PRISMA) selection process, we sourced and screened Scopus-indexed literature published between 2015 and 2025 using predefined criteria and analysed the selected studies within a transformative research paradigm. Results: Three themes emerged: (1) multilingualism and MTBBE as pathways to epistemic access and social justice; (2) additive bilingual pedagogies in early schooling; and (3) positioning African languages in global and local scholarship. Although global scholarship increasingly recognises multilingual learning and translanguaging, it seldom frames these within additive bilingual education as mechanisms of epistemic access. Conclusion: By advancing both pedagogical and social justice aims, MTBBE deepened learning and reduced early cognitive barriers linked to language exclusion. Contribution: This study advances bilingual education scholarship by synthesising evidence-based research on MTBBE in the Foundation Phase, subsequently informing teacher education and policy implementation debates central to education.
Background: CareUp is a multilingual mobile communication tool connecting practitioners at early childhood development (ECD) centres with parents or caregivers of 4- to 5-year-old children. Aim: The study aimed to measure the uptake and use of the CareUp mobile application among isiXhosa-speaking practitioners and parents, and to extract lessons to inform future m-learning parent-support programmes. Setting: Data were collected from 10 ECD centres in four low-income urban communities in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa, where both practitioners and parents were primarily isiXhosa speaking. Methods: A mixed methods approach was adopted to capture uptake, usage and feedback data before, during and after a 15-week design trial. Quantitative application data were integrated with qualitative interview, focus group and survey data to answer the research questions. Results: Approximately, 94% (n = 16) of practitioners downloaded the application (app), compared with 34% (n = 353) of parents. Practitioners recorded an average of 7.8 interactions per week, while parents averaged 3.4. Uptake and usage patterns are interpreted by considering qualitative evidence from interviews, focus groups and survey comments. Both benefits and challenges, as perceived by the beneficiaries, are elucidated. Conclusion: Mobile applications offer promise for supporting communication between parents and practitioners in ECD centres. However, structural and contextual constraints need to be mitigated to ensure broader parental access and use. Contribution: This article provides evidence of how child development practices in low-income urban ECD centres can be enhanced by engaging parents in their home language through mobile technology.
Background: Developing a reading culture among elementary school students is important for supporting literacy development and meaningful learning in Indonesia. Digital learning media may help teachers to provide more engaging and contextual reading materials. Augmented reality (AR)- and virtual reality (VR)-based digital pop-up books offer a possible direction for instructional media development, but such development should be grounded in teachers’ perceived needs. Aim: This study described elementary school teachers’ perceptions and instructional needs regarding AR- and VR-based digital pop-up books to support reading culture in elementary education. Setting: The study involved 137 elementary school teachers from Pandeglang Regency, Indonesia. Methods: This descriptive quantitative survey collected data through a 25-item structured questionnaire. The instrument was developed as a content-reviewed needs assessment tool covering seven dimensions: reading culture achievement, authenticity, technological integration, functionality, communicative learning, contextuality and assessment. Data were analysed using frequencies, percentages and descriptive statistics. Results: The mean agreement rate across the seven indicators was 85.14%. The highest agreement rates were found for technological integration and communicative learning, each at 88.00%, while the lowest agreement rate was for functionality at 80.00%. Conclusion: The findings show that many teachers perceive the need for reading materials that are technologically integrated, communicative, contextual, authentic, functional and assessment-oriented. Contribution: This study provides a descriptive needs assessment to inform the early development of AR- and VR-based digital pop-up books for elementary reading instruction. The findings represent teachers’ perceived needs, not evidence of media effectiveness. Further research should develop, validate and test the media in classroom settings.
Background: At the beginning of the roll-out of Mother Tongue Based Bilingual Education (MTbBE) in South Africa, biliteracies in an African language and English still present an ideological frontier to be crossed. While the negative consequences of monolingual English instruction from Grade 4 have been well documented, there is little research on biliteracy practices in content subjects at this level. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore biliteracies in learning materials and classroom practices and their impact on learner achievement. Setting: The project was carried out in one Grade 4 science classroom in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. The teacher and 42 learners were the focal participants. Methods: The article draws from an ethnographically informed participatory intervention study during 2023. A sample was taken from 168 photographs taken from the Grade 4 science classroom of bilingual texts. The texts were analysed using discourse analysis and Sebba’s framework for multilingual text analysis in order to answer the research questions. Results: Children read bilingual materials in different language varieties; children wrote in more than one language and in a meshed register; and bilingual writing in a bilingual assessment produced higher achievement than that of children who wrote a monolingual English test. Conclusion: The variety of biliteracies in which the teacher and children engaged point towards the need for both separate biliteracy and translanguaging literacies in developing children’s writing. Contribution: The study contributes to the scholarship on biliteracies in the context of MTbBE and Southern schooling more broadly.
Background: Strengthening learner engagement during the early years of mathematics education is crucial for mathematical success. A significant challenge is to transform primary classrooms from teacher-centred spaces to ones where learners are motivated to participate and to enjoy the mathematics they need to learn. In trying to address this challenge, the authors collaborated with an external organisation, Numeric, to introduce engagement strategies to enhance motivation and cognitive engagement among participants who were peer tutors for a primary mathematics course. Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore the 15 tutors’ perceptions of their professional growth in terms of motivation and cognitive engagement following their involvement in a tutor development programme. The programme trainers embedded activities that helped tutors develop practical classroom management skills while facilitating energisers and computational fluency tasks. Setting: A development programme for student tutors who support students doing Foundation and Intermediate Phase mathematics. Methods: The research instruments were made up of a questionnaire, a focus group interview and WhatsApp conversations. Pre-test and post-test comparisons showed that participation in the intervention significantly improved the tutors’ fluency in mathematical computations. Results: The tutors’ reflections on their own professional growth helped them recognise the value of learner engagement strategies for classroom practice. The tutors also learnt from the facilitators’ effective modelling of engagement-oriented strategies. Conclusion: The study illustrates that pre-service teachers (PSTs) are receptive to learner engagement activities that can potentially transform primary mathematics classrooms while enhancing cognitive engagement. Contribution: The study contributes to knowledge of how well-designed engagement strategies in teacher education can foster cognitive, affective and professional benefits in the teacher education setting.
Background: South Africa’s commitment to mother tongue-based bilingual education (MTBBE) depends not on language policy but on teachers’ capacity for early reading instruction in indigenous African languages. Despite expanded literacy interventions, limited empirical attention has been paid to teachers’ development for enacting MTBBE in classrooms. Aim: This study examines how professional development (PD) strengthens Grade 1 teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching reading in Sepedi, focusing on practices that support the mother-tongue phase of MTBBE. Setting: The study involved four rural Sepedi-medium primary schools using the Room to Read Sepedi Literacy Programme in Sekhukhune District, Limpopo, South Africa. Methods: Using a qualitative multiple case study informed by PCK theory, data were collected through 24 observations in four Grade 1 classrooms, four semi-structured interviews with Sepedi teachers and document analysis of the Sepedi teacher guide and learner reader. Results: Structured PD, with aligned literacy materials and in-class coaching, strengthened teachers’ language-specific PCK and supported early reading instruction in Sepedi. Teachers used language-responsive practices to support phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. Alignment between PD, instructional materials and classroom practice promoted coherent reading instruction. Conclusion: Effective support for the mother-tongue phase depends on pedagogical coherence, language-responsive literacy instruction and teachers’ preparation to teach reading in indigenous African languages. These conditions may strengthen the literacy foundation for later bilingual learning within MTBBE. Contribution: Foregrounding pedagogical enactment of mother-tongue reading instruction extends MTBBE scholarship. PD, instructional coherence and language-specific PCK offer insights for Sepedi and multilingual African-language contexts supporting foundational literacy in home languages.
Background: Proprioception encompasses position sense, posture and body movements, providing essential sensory information for learning and controlling movements, which is critical for children’s motor development, coordination and school readiness. Existing proprioceptive tests are primarily clinical, costly and difficult to apply in resource-limited settings, thus creating a need for feasible and reliable tasks to evaluate proprioception. Aim: This study aimed to establish inter-rater and test-retest reliability of existing proprioceptive tasks. Setting: This study was conducted in the Mangaung area of South Africa, involving participants from a Quintile 3 school. Methods: Twenty-four participants (50% males and 50% females) between the ages of 6 and 9 years completed six proprioceptive tasks on two occasions, 5 days apart. The performances were video recorded and rated by three reviewers. Test-retest and inter-rater reliability of each task item was calculated using the intraclass correlation coefficient for a single rater and for absolute agreement across multiple raters. Results: Three of the tests exhibited moderate test-retest reliability (shoulder-level-arm-raise both arms, finger-to-nose total and shoulder-level-arm-raise total), and one showed good reliability (Finger-to-nose eyes closed). Inter-rater reliability showed greater consistency; excellent reliability was shown for two task items (Rhomberg and force perception), and three showed moderate reliability (shoulder-level-arm-raise, both arms, and preferred arm, angels-in-the-snow and reciprocal imitations). Conclusion: The proprioceptive task items were deemed reliable to use in a field-based setting for children. Contribution: This study provides the first evidence of reliability for field-based proprioceptive tasks for South African children, identifying several tasks that can be confidently applied in school and community settings.
Background: Inclusive education in South Africa has been prioritised. Still, research has shown that neurodivergent learners in the foundation phase continue to experience exclusion. Meanwhile, policy has not been adequately examined through a neurodiversity perspective that recognises cognitive difference as a natural human attribute. Aim: The study analysed the Guidelines for Responding to Learner Diversity in the Classroom through the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement using neurodiversity theory to determine their implications for curriculum and assessment in the foundation phase. Setting: The study was situated in the South African public basic education policy environment, with a specific focus on curriculum and assessment in the foundation phase. Methods: A qualitative theoretical document analysis was conducted on the Guidelines. The text was thematically coded and interpreted through a neurodiversity perspective to identify how learner differences, curriculum differentiation and assessment flexibility were construed. Results: The analysis revealed that the Guidelines strongly promote curriculum differentiation and flexible assessment, whilst rejecting narrow views of intelligence. However, learner differences are largely framed in terms of barriers and support needs, and not as positive neurocognitive variation. This leaves neurodivergence only implicitly recognised. Conclusion: Whilst the Guidelines support inclusive practices in principle, they have not fully embraced a neurodiversity-affirming understanding of learner diversity. As such, greater conceptual clarity and explicit recognition of neurodevelopmental variability are recommended. Contribution: The study links the national curriculum and assessment policy to neurodiversity theory in the foundation phase. This effort results in a conceptual argument for advancing inclusive, equitable and responsive early childhood education, which can potentially help in policy reform.
Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic caused prolonged school closures and a shift to virtual education, creating major challenges for children with limited internet access or digital skills. These difficulties disrupted learning, especially in key areas such as mathematics and language. Aim: To examine the relationship between academic performance and intellectual capacity in children aged 6 years – 8 years after the pandemic. Setting: The study took place at a public school in Pasto, Colombia. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with 418 children. Cognitive performance was assessed using the WISC-IV, while academic and demographic data were obtained from Sistema administrador de procesos educativos [Educational Process Management System] (SAPRED). Results: A high proportion of children scored in low-average (38%) and borderline (32%) ranges. Most showed borderline performance in verbal comprehension (77%) and working memory (78%). Significant correlations were found between WISC-IV scores and academic performance in mathematics and Spanish. Conclusion: Intellectual and academic performance levels were mainly low or borderline, highlighting the influence of socioeconomic and environmental factors on post-pandemic learning. Contribution: The study provides insight into post-pandemic cognitive and academic outcomes in Colombian children and emphasises the need for context-sensitive educational and psychological interventions.
Background: This investigation is necessitated by some stakeholders who believe that reading should be taught using a morphology-based approach. The endorsement of a morphology-centred approach to teaching reading is probably fuelled by desperation, invoked by the continuous poor reading performance of South African learners in Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the pronouncement that learners cannot read for meaning. Aim: This article investigates the feasibility of teaching decoding in isiZulu and the other African languages using a morphology-based approach. It furthermore considers the overall role morphology plays in all the components of reading. Setting: This research considers the insistence of stakeholders in early literacy across South Africa who believe that young children can be taught to read using a morphology-centred approach. Methods: The investigation is based on both linguistic and pedagogical considerations for teaching reading in the African languages using a morphology-based approach. Results: Young learners have no, or very limited, innate knowledge of morphemes; moreover, the identification and semantic specification of isiZulu morphemes are complicated by inter alia, the fusional nature and a lack of clear morpheme boundaries. While a morphological approach is inappropriate for teaching beginning reading, morphology has an impact on reading comprehension and language comprehension, with less influence on vocabulary building and reading fluency. Conclusion: Like all languages using an alphabetic writing system, the orthography of isiZulu and the other African languages is based on the relationship between phonemes and graphemes, and morphology plays no role in the orthography; hence, it does not play any role in decoding either. Contribution: This article contributes to the discussion on the use of morphology to teach early reading and the true role morphology plays in the learner’s reading development.
