LITERATURE REVIEW
Level 3: Applied
2.7 READING CULTURE
According to Roodt (2018: 4), the lack of reading culture amongst South African learners should be a worry to all of us. Reading is often regarded as a proxy for other parts of educational achievement. Prof J. Jansen, a leading educationist and president of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), argues that “A child who can read well in a language class can also understand texts in a science or economics class. A child who can understand what she reads is able to make connections between real and abstract things, something essential for advanced learning. A child with reading
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competency is more confident in her overall intellectual abilities”. This implies that a learner who is competent in reading may not struggle with comprehending academic materials when he or she gets into university.
2.7.1 Definition of reading culture
Reading culture (RC¹) is defined as the collective attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of all stakeholders in a learning institution regarding any and all of the activities associated. These enable all learners to read at the highest level of attainment for both academic as well as personal gain (Joubert, Ebersöhn, Ferreira du Plessis & Moen, 2014: 401). Additionally, reading culture is defined as a habitual and regular reading of informational material and books. The love for reading and the habit of reading among learners and students is fostered by developing a reading culture (Oyewole, 2017: 88). In order to ensure a supportive school reading culture, an educative context should entail the availability, opportunity, encouragement and support for reading (Merga & Mason, 2019: 173). For a good reading culture to be established, access to educational resources at home and at schools is required (Roodt, 2018: 4).
Reading culture evolves when an individual engages in the reading of books and other information materials necessary for the reader to advance in education or profession, habitually and regularly. The advantage of a skilled adaptive reader is the enhancement of chances of success at school and beyond (Oyewole, 2017: 91). The essence of reading culture is to encourage students to make reading part of their daily life and to make the reading of books a habit that is always needed and enjoyed in one’s life (Alex-Nmecha & Horsfall, 2019: 4).
Many scholars view the exercise of developing a reading culture as a way of boosting the academic excellence and lifelong learning of students (Ruterana, 2012: 19). It is important to promote a reading culture as the future of all citizens. The reading culture requires self-education and lifelong learning. One cannot achieve and sustain the
‘sought’ academic excellence when there is no culture to keep on reading to continuously improving oneself (Kachala, 2007). Ideally, a reading culture ought to be developed at an early stage of childhood and must be nurtured until adulthood, and should be done with the support of cultural tools (Ruterana, 2012:19). As a result,
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students entering higher institutions should develop a good RC¹ that is required for academic achievement.
2.7.2 Challenges in Developing a Reading Culture
In South African public schools, fostering a good reading culture may seem to be difficult as there are challenges in the education system. There have been a lot of changes in the South African education system since the year 1994. This is due to the many policies that are being introduced with the aim of improving the quality of education in the country (Mbhele, 2016: 7). However, poverty, apartheid inequalities, too many curriculum changes, poor administration and school leadership are some of the factors that have slowed down the transformation. It is also argued that out of a total of 28 00 public primary and high schools in SA, only 23% of them have working school libraries. Functional libraries are arguably some of the main sources that can be used to foster a reading culture in children and young adults (Wessels & Mnkeni- Saurombe (2012), such as first entering English language students at HBUs in SA.
A study was conducted to explore and describe the nature of a reading culture in a rural secondary school in SA before and after literacy intervention. The study revealed that before the literacy intervention, teachers who participated argued that the utilisation of the additional language, English, as the language used for teaching and learning negatively affected the reading culture amongst learners. Before the literacy intervention, the learners also experienced language barriers because of the dominance of the English language in the school. In addition, the teachers also indicated that communication between them and the learners was hindered, and that this made it impossible to have discussion around reading with the learners. The teachers, additionally, mentioned some incompetence regarding the ability to teach learners how to read because training in literary skills did not form part of the Further Education and Training Phase (FET) programmes. Consequently, these factors affected the learners’ reading ability as teacher participants indicated that secondary school learners were not able to read at the appropriate grade level. Thus, this further hindered the promotion of a reading culture in SA classrooms, and impacted negatively on the development of their RC (Jourbet et al., 2014: 405).
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According to Alex-Nmecha and Horsfall (2019: 7), the benefits of establishing a reading culture include an increase in memory in that reading slows down the rate of memory deterioration, and discipline. Reading leads one to be disciplined by obeying certain rules and standards. Improved vocabulary is also one of the benefits mentioned. As a result, vocabulary may improve speaking skills and make one a better reader, for example.
Other benefits of a reading culture include creativity and the accumulation of more knowledge. The more one reads, the more informed one becomes. There are, of course, more benefits in addition to the afore-mentioned. Additional benefits are that reading improves one’s reasoning skills, and gives one something to talk about. Books equip one with the ability to make meaningful contributions in discussions and improves one’s creativity (Alex-Nmecha & Horsfall, 2019: 8). Reading also builds one’s self esteem because a person becomes better informed, and this can translate into higher self-esteem (Jegbefume, Yaji & Dala, 2017: 67).