Books (DECDLPE)

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Browsing Books (DECDLPE) by Author "Kirchner, Emma"

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    The reading habits/ behaviour and preferences of African children: The Namibian chapter in collaboration with UNISA
    (University of Namibia, 2014) Kirchner, Emma; Alexander, S.; Totemeyer, A.J.
    Readership studies in multilingual countries are challenging. Developing a scientifically acceptable research methodology for the investigation of reading behaviour and preferences of children in multilingual Namibia, was a process fraught with many difficulties, some of which were almost insurmountable. The research team was faced with situations that required the breaking of new ground. Since it has generally been observed that the vast majority of Namibian children have not developed a reading habit and that this situation may be having a detrimental effect on school success, we tried to establish to what extent language, cultural and socio-economic factors may be impacting on the development or non-development of a reading culture. In 2012 fourteen languages were used in 1515 schools as main media of instruction during Grades 1 to 3 (Namibia, Ministry of Education. 2012: 42. Table 17). These fourteen languages also included the minority languages, San (Jul/hoansi), German, Setswana and Sign Language in a few schools. In the upper primary phase, as from Grade 4, students switch to English medium instruction and in addition study one of the Namibian languages as a school subject. In 2012, 55 422 students in Grade 6 were studying a local language as a subject (EMIS 2012. [Education statistic given by Deputy Director]). This is still the situation in 2014 but a curriculum change which entails the extension of mother tongue as medium of instruction has been announced by the Ministry of Education to be implemented as from 2015 (see section 2.1 in this regard).