CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.4 A Brief History of Reading Theory
2.4.7 Studies on Reading Research in South Africa
This section discusses several relevant studies recently conducted concerning the implementation of the R2L approach, as well as research in the area of academic literacy in higher education in South Africa. These are outlined below as follows: Gounden
30 (2003) and Rowlands (2006), concerning effectiveness of the R2L principles; Ralfe (2011) in the area of critical literacy at secondary school level, and Bharuthram (2006), Kirkwood (2007), Millin (2011) in the area of higher education and academic literacy.
Firstly, Gounden (2003) studied the use of a balanced reading approach with L1 and EAL foundation phase learners (tracking specifically six African learners, moving up from grade one to grade two). Although this research did not involve students from higher education, its relevance lies its successful application of R2L, an approach which was still very much in its infancy in South Africa. The study explored how interactive reading approaches could develop literacy skills for African learners. In particular, Gounden mentions how the Outcomes Based Education (OBE) Curriculum 2005 was causing some distress to the teachers as it is essentially a “top down process” which is not rooted in the realities of schools or responsible to conditions on the ground‖
(Gounden, 2003:2). Gounden‘s study is important as a basis for the current proposed research as R2L is based very solidly on the theory of reading as an interactive process.
In fact, one of the reasons for the development of R2L was to counteract the failure of progressivist approaches, which focus exclusively on top-down approaches to reading.
A further use of R2L principles involving a scaffolding approach was made by Rowlands (2006). Six Grade 9 learners with mild to moderate learning disabilities were tracked over a six month period. The findings indicated that the use of the R2L approach was extremely beneficial to her special needs learners in terms of improving both their reading comprehension and writing skills. The current study research hopes to build on the results of Rowlands‘ study by expanding the use of the R2L approach to tertiary level.
Ralfe (2011) implemented a critical literacy intervention at grade 9 level. The intentions were firstly to raise learners‘ awareness and bring change to their attitudes and perceptions of gender relations, and secondly, to improve language and thinking skills.
Ralfe used critical literacy to examine hidden attitudes and ideologies behind texts. Her findings were that critical literacy was difficult to implement due to the poor reading skills of the learners. Due to the vital importance of a basic reading ability in promoting
31 creative thinking and problem-solving skills, Ralfe (2011) recommended that the lack of academic literacy skills be addressed urgently across all school grades, learning areas and subjects, with community involvement at all levels.
In the area of higher education studies and academic literacy, Bharuthram (2006) investigated the effectiveness of reading strategy interventions and integrated reading/writing activities in order to enhance reading comprehension. The study involved first year Dental Technology students registered at the Durban University of Technology in 2004. Based on her findings, Bharuthram argues for explicit teaching of reading strategies for students who originate from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Kirkwood, in line with her statement that reading is ―a skill that is not sufficiently improved over an initial year of university study because, apart from being underdeveloped in previous educational life experiences, it is not explicitly developed at tertiary level, where students are generally expected to process extended texts independently in a limited time period” (Kirkwood 2007:1), conducted a research project that focused on the use of R2L at tertiary level with Science Foundation Programme students (SFP). Using a reduced form of scaffolded reading with students enrolled in the Communication in Science course, Kirkwood prepared an experimental group of SFP students by ―talking them through‖ an overview of the text in common-sense terms so that students would begin reading with some understanding of the assigned text. In contrast, a control group was merely instructed to read the text for homework. Overall comprehension of both groups was tested and students were given a questionnaire about reading difficulty. Kirkwood also measured the reading rate of both groups, using a paraphrased version of a text. Reading rate was measured again at the end of the year and compared to a mainstream sample, to measure potential progress. Findings suggested that the students were more likely to read a prescribed text with comprehension when initially talked through a common-sense paraphrase. In this way, Kirkwood sought to better prepare the students to enter mainstream study. The current research study, however, will differ from Kirkwood‘s research by using not just one, but six phases of the R2L learning cycle, as will be explained further on in this section.
32 Millin (2011) reports on an action research project that explored the use of the ―Learning to Read: Reading to Learn‖ intervention pedagogy to accelerate the development of literacy skills of marginalized, non-native speakers of English in an undergraduate Academic Writing module within the Social Sciences at the University of KwaZulu- Natal, South Africa. Two research questions were raised for this study. Firstly, is this pedagogic strategy an effective approach for the Academic Writing module at UKZN, and secondly, what happens to students‘ academic writing scores after one semester with the implementation of R2L? The R2L pedagogy draws on the theoretical assumptions of Vygotsky, Halliday and Bernstein and is supposed to enable students to develop necessary literacy skills to access, and succeed at tertiary level. The context of education in South Africa, particularly poor literacy rates, is outlined first. A detailed discussion of the pedagogic strategy and possible causes of poor literacy rates amongst marginalized learners follows. A mixed methods approach is adopted within Millin‘s study as students‘
qualitative writing samples are collected and given numerical scores with the assistance of well researched and developed marking rubric/criteria. Both descriptive and analytical (Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test) statistics were used to analyse students‘ literacy scores.
Results indicate that students‘ literacy scores do increase within the first half of the module, but decrease within the second half. This decrease is attributed to a rise in academic complexity of the reading material and assignment requirements; a change in pedagogic practice and type of text used to scaffold academic language patterns; and insufficient time for students to internalize the language patterns modelled. Although the overall pattern of changing literacy scores is less promising, requiring a degree of change in the way R2L is currently being implemented at UKZN, the changing scores of individual students, particularly the weakest cohort of students, illustrates well that R2L does democratize the classroom and lessens the abilities gap between weaker and stronger readers, as these students showed significant improvement in their literacy scores (Millin, 2011).
33 The current research paper continues on the work above by meeting some of the recommendations given by Millin with regard to length of implementation of R2L, texts used and relevance of texts used.