The effects of translanguaging treatment on reading literacy performance in Grade 3 and 4 classrooms
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2020
Authors
Thusi, Thandeka
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The multilingual landscape of South African schools has been viewed as a barrier for literacy
development where English-only language in education practices continue to dominate.
While the South African education system has adopted a language in education policy (1997),
which is in support of multilingual education, the development of multilingual pedagogies and
their impact on literacy development has not been adequately explored. Against this
background, this study investigated the effectiveness of using translanguaging as a
multilingual strategy for reading literacy trajectories in Grades 3 and 4 classes.
The study is contextualised within scholarly literature that deals with themes that include
automaticity, simple view of reading, translanguaging, early grade reading and oral classroom
interactions which have been researched globally. Review of the literature under these
research themes revealed that there was no adequate attention on reading literacy
development between phases in multilingual contexts, which provide the rationale for the
current study to fill in the gap.
Through a mixed method approach, the study first adopted a translingual lens to observe
literacy events that occur in the classrooms. Secondly, the study engaged with metacognitive
reflections of teachers’ account of own lessons where teaching occurred in more than one
language. Lastly, through analysis of a battery of literacy tests written by grade 3 and 4
learners, the study established the learners’ reading and comprehension skills in isiZulu and
English. The results of the learners’ assessments were compared to determine the transition
from foundation phase (Grades 1-3) to the intermediate phase (Grades 4-6) and ascertain
whether or not there were patterns of a Grade 4 slump.
The findings of the study indicate the level of engagement by the learners in literacy events
was not high and a low teacher impact was observed. Secondly, the study found that while
teachers were aware of their learners having reading difficulties, their expectations of the
learners were higher than the results produced by their learners in the multilingual
assessments that were administered. Noteworthy was their acknowledgement that their
learners’ reading development in their home language was lower than their competencies in
English. Lastly, the study found that the learners’ literacy development was significantly lower
than the international benchmark and that the transition from Grade 3 to 4 did not result in
an improved result for the literacy development in both English and isiZulu.
Given these findings, the learners’ engagement in literacy events must increase to improve
literacy skills of learners. In addition, there needs to be an improvement in the reading
development of learners’ home language so as to upscale the literacy development of the
learners. Given the limitations in the scope of the study, further research on the efficacy of
translanguaging on a large scale is urgently needed to augment the findings of the study.
Description
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education to the Wits School of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, 2020
Keywords
Citation
Thusi, Thandeka (2020) The effects of translanguaging treatment on reading literecy performance in grade 2 and grade 4 classrooms, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <http://hdl.handle.net/10539/30329>