Challenges of teaching isiZulu reading in the early grades

The present study was conducted at a time when South African educational researchers and practitioners have become increasingly concerned about the state of the reading competence of the country’s primary school learners. Another concern that also drove this study was the teaching practices of foundation phase teachers, specifically regarding the current ‘science of reading’ (SoR). In a cross-sectional study of Grades 1–3 learners and their teachers in a primary school in Soweto, Johannesburg, the aim was to capture not only the reading competence of the learners, but also the teachers’ pedagogy and their reflections about their work. To this end, 263 learners were randomly selected from a population of 2 001, along with 24 teachers. Classroom practice was observed and recorded, and interviews with teachers were conducted over a period of six weeks during the third school term in 2019, while the selected learners completed the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA). The outcome of the qualitative data from the classroom observations and the interviews with teachers captured their struggle with instructional methods. The assessment results show young learners’ worryingly low scores, leaving teachers with the urgent pedagogical challenge of teaching reading that could lead to learners’ improved performance.