Countering linguistic imperialism with stories in the languages of Africa: The African storybook initiative as a model for enabling in and out of school literacies

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dc.article.end-page8en_ZA
dc.article.start-page1en_ZA
dc.contributor.authorReed, Y
dc.date.accessioned2021-08-31T07:20:43Z
dc.date.available2021-08-31T07:20:43Z
dc.date.issued2019
dc.description.abstractBACKGROUND: In South Africa, and in many other African countries, official language-in-education policy supports the use of learners' primary language(s) in early schooling. In reality, texts in the language(s) of the former colonial power are dominant, with high-interest texts in languages familiar to young learners in short supply or non-existent. Where government education departments have begun to address this shortage, it is mainly by producing graded readers in the 'standard' variety of a language AIM: The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate how quality texts can be provided in a wide range of African languages to stimulate children's interest in reading, across the African continent and beyond SETTING: The African Storybook (ASb) initiative of the South African Institute of Distance Education (Saide) aims to provide illustrated texts in local languages and language varieties that enable children to read for pleasure and for learning. This is done through a publishing model that makes these texts available, cost-effectively, as needed, by teachers, librarians and caregivers METHODS: Internal reports, external evaluations, two interviews with the initiative's co-ordinator and a review of selected texts on the ASb website provided data for analysis RESULTS: The analysis enabled reflection on the challenges faced and the successes achieved, identification of factors that have enabled many of the challenges to be addressed and finally consideration of what the initiative offers as a model for supporting literacy development in local languages CONCLUSION: While the paper tells a story that includes elements of a cautionary tale, it is primarily a story that offers inspiration and guidance to other organisations already involved in, or wishing to embark on, the important project of providing texts for young readers in a wide range of languagesen_ZA
dc.description.librarianMS2021en_ZA
dc.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.identifier.citationReed Y. (2019). Countering linguistic imperialism with stories in the languages of Africa: The African storybook initiative as a model for enabling in and out of school literacies South African Journal of Childhood Education, 9(1), pp. 1 - 8.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn2223-7682
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/31543
dc.journal.issue1en_ZA
dc.journal.linkhttp://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajce.v9i1.637en_ZA
dc.journal.titleSouth African Journal of Childhood Educationen_ZA
dc.journal.volume9en_ZA
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherAOSIS Publishingen_ZA
dc.rights© 2019 Yvonne Reeden_ZA
dc.schoolWits School of Educationen_ZA
dc.subjectAfrican Storybook initiativeen_ZA
dc.subjectliteracy in African languagesen_ZA
dc.subjectdigital open licence publishing modelen_ZA
dc.subjectcost-effective children's textsen_ZA
dc.titleCountering linguistic imperialism with stories in the languages of Africa: The African storybook initiative as a model for enabling in and out of school literaciesen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA
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