Abstract
For the past fifteen years, the media has continually published a grim picture of the poor reading
literacy levels of South African fourth grade learners as shown from the Progress in
International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), being the lowest out of 50 countries that
participated in the study. In the 2011 PIRLS report 58% of grade 4 learners were unable to read
for meaning, a figure that increased to 78% in 2016 and 81% in 2021. Given these abysmal
results, this study explored the reading literacy of fourth grade progressed learners against the
PIRLS international benchmark assessment. Progressed learners appear to have significantly
lower literacy levels and are at-risk of further academic failure. Schools in South Africa are
classified as ‘underperforming’ when they do not achieve the required competency levels
outlined in the National Policy pertaining to the programme and Promotion Requirements of
the National Curriculum Statement Grades R-12. This study thus interrogated the reading
literacy of fourth grade progressed learners at an underperforming primary school through
profiling the scholastic competencies of a cohort of progressed learners.
In the first article a critical narrative review was undertaken to examine the PIRLS 2006 to
2026 reports to create awareness and understanding of the reports for South African teachers
when they are developing interventions to improve the reading literacy results of fourth grade
learners. Although South African learners have achieved low reading literacy results in all the
PIRLS cycles, lessons learnt from the PIRLS findings have seen minimal application in
teaching reading explicitly. This article critiqued the development of the assessment procedures
and instruments of PIRLS through secondary analysis of the PIRLS reports. The reading
literacy results and the reasons for the poor reading literacy results were critiqued.
In the second article, the plethora of causal factors related to the continual low reading literacy
levels exhibited by many South African fourth grade learners in the PIRLS cycles, were
interrogated through a root cause analysis. Secondary data analysis indicated that only 19% of
these learners were able to recognise, locate and reproduce information stated explicitly in
texts, and they were only able to answer comprehension questions related to making
straightforward inferences. Fourth grade learners should all have ‘learned to read’ by the end
of third grade and acquired sufficient reading skills that would enable them to ‘read to learn’
across school subjects. The reading literacy crisis was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic
of 2020, which interrupted conventional schooling with nationwide school closures, and since
2023 learners appear to have been lagging a full year behind those in similar age group in 2019.
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Previously existing inequalities were aggravated as well-resourced, technologically advanced
schools switched to online remote learning, whereas learners in under-resourced schools simply
stayed at home without continuing any formal education. These results threaten to have
negative long-lasting economic and social consequences for learners and society. Therefore
improvements to policy and school practice, regarding timely and targeted literacy
interventions, are critical.
In the third article a reading literacy assessment profile of a cohort of fourth grade progressed
learners was developed to determine whether they were reaching the expected levels for reading
literacy outlined in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement for English Home
Language. A bounded single case study was conducted with data collected from official school
documents, such as admission forms, attendance registers, class lists, and formal assessment
tasks selected to shed light on the context of the cohort. Scholastic diagnostic assessments were
selected and administered to obtain a profile of the reading literacy proficiency of the cohort.
The findings revealed that the cohort lacked primary reading skills and was reading three years
and three months below their mean chronological age of nine years six months; and spelling
two years below their mean chronological age. The majority of the cohort were alphabetically
illiterate and unable to read grade one texts with comprehension. The findings show that the
reading literacy development of the cohort had been impacted by under-resourced contexts as
well as cognitive deficiencies.
Guidelines were formulated in the fourth article for foundation phase teachers based on a
multisensory approach for reading literacy instruction. The guidelines are directly linked to the
five essential skills of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary
development and comprehension for meaning to provide clear effective support for progressed
learners. The conceptual framework was based on pillars of the Reading First Initiative.
Although there are many approaches to teaching these essential components, scientific reviews
by the National Reading Panel deemed them to have varying effectiveness and advocated a
multisensory approach for teaching decoding and improving comprehension. A multisensory
approach was regarded as suitable to enhance reading instruction for progressed learners. Each
component was presented as a guideline, by first describing the components based on previous
research findings and then presenting multisensory activities that can be used to enhance
reading teaching. Resources and examples of assessment activities that can be used by teachers
are provided.
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This study contributes to theory as the component model of reading (CMR) has been used as a
theoretical assessment model for understanding reading acquisition and diagnostic literacy
assessment at primary schools. The CMR aligns with the PIRLS assessment framework, since
both frameworks focus on the cognitive, psychological and environmental domains influencing
reading literacy skills. Since learners could struggle to acquire effective reading skills because
of difficulties in any one of these three domains, the CMR has been adapted as an assessment
framework to determine the extent of reading difficulties of a cohort of progressed learners at
ban underperforming school. This study also emphasised that effective reading instruction
requires language teachers to be knowledgeable about these three domains of CMR that could
lead to reading difficulty.
This study contributes to literature on progressed learners by profiling the cognitive, reading,
and spelling skills, and contextual realities of a cohort of fourth grade progressed learners. The
cohort exhibited significant delays in all aspects of reading literacy, related to the three domains
of the CMR. The results of this profiling could be useful to design a targeted literacy
intervention programme for supporting progressed learners at primary schools. The adapted
assessment conceptual framework is recommended as an alternate method to improve reading
assessment at other primary schools since it includes skills such as word recognition and
reading fluency.
The study also contributes methodologically as a root cause analysis was conducted in the
educational sphere using six detailed steps adapted from researchers in other fields. The
methodology of RCA is seldom used in education, and in this study RCA allowed an in-depth
critique of the continually poor reading literacy results of South African fourth grade learners
as shown in the PIRLS cycles over the last 15-years. The critical analysis contributed to an
understanding of the extent South African fourth grade learners are lagging behind their
international peers concerning reading literacy acquisition.
Moreover, this study contributes to classroom practice by giving guidelines for foundation
teachers to improve reading acquisition for progressed learners. The guidelines are underpinned
by the essential components required for reading proficiently and follow a multisensory
approach, giving detailed activities and resources for teachers.
On the whole, this study contributes towards understanding the complex factors resulting in
schools being labeled underperforming, the complexities of the progression policy and the
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controversial language in education policy which influences reading literacy acquisition.
Improving reading literacy teaching practices and accurate policy implementation will assist
more learners to be proficient in reading thus allowing schools to fulfill their obligation of
educating society’s children.
KEYWORDS: literacy acquisition, multi-sensory approach; progressed learners; Progress in
International Reading Literacy Study, scholastic diagnostic assessments; reading literacy; root
cause analysis; underperforming schools