The Role of Dialogue in the Teaching of Reading in South Africa

Abstract

The importance of classroom dialogue in promoting effective literacy skills is well documented. Despite comments in a recent paper that there is scant research on classroom observations around print in South Africa post-1994, there have in fact been several studies that have observed classroom practice around reading. The sum of these studies seems to indicate that teaching styles have changed very little over the past 30 years, and that meaningful classroom interaction between teacher and learner remains largely absent. This paper will focus on how the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), of teachers affected their classroom interaction with Grade three and four learners in two semi-urban schools in the Midlands area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It forms part of a larger, 2019, mixed methods, multiple case study that involved eight teachers and their learners, and examined the effects of PCK on the teaching of reading in these Grades. Findings were that, despite some teachers using additional training, ultimately none were managing to move their learners from decoding to reading effectively, and that lack of meaningful interaction played a central role in this.