Category Archives: Early Childhood Development

There has been much written in South African press lately about language policies in education. There is concern that some of our eleven languages may die if they are not taught in schools.  This concern is not unique to our country but a concern throughout Africa, where there have been vigorous debates as to the role of English and indigenous languages. These debates extend to which language a child should initially start learning to read in, particularly given the low literacy levels on the continent. I was recently asked to conduct a desk-top search to identify research that shows that once young children can read successfully in a familiar language, they enjoy reading and continue to learn to read, first in that familiar language and then in the languages of instruction of their schools. I would like to share this list of resources with readers of this blog.

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