Language and Literacy materials

New Readers Publishers - easy readers for adults

New Readers Publishers develops and supports adult literacy and basic English Second Language skills by producing easy to read books in all South African languages for the entertainment and education of adult new readers. Many of the books are also read and enjoyed by children. New Readers Publishers is a non-profit publishing project originally started in 1991 and housed by the Centre for Adult Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, until 2014. It is now an independent initiative which has made digital versions of all of the New Readers Publishers books available online. The use of these e-versions is free for non-commercial purposes via a Creative Commons Licence (Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivates 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) International licence). New Readers Publishers retains the copyright. The books can be downloaded, printed or read online in pdf format.

This is a set of draft study guides for students who are training to teach reading and writing in Primary Schools. They can be used as self-study material and all include study short self-tests for each unit in each study guide. The full set is still in development and six study guides are currently available.

This is a set of draft study guides for students who are training to teach reading and writing in Primary Schools and particularly in the Foundation Phase. The guides can be used as self-study material and all include study short self-tests for each unit in each study guide. They are written in English but two of the guides, based on Sesotho and IsiZulu Reading Project material, make extensive reference to these two languages.

This is a very basic introduction to the linguistic (language study) terminology and concepts that underlie the teaching of reading and writing. It provides the essential linguistic concepts for teaching reading. Though suitable for all teachers of South African languages, many of the examples given in the study guide are particularly useful for those who will teach in Sesotho or IsiZulu. The study guide is an adaptation of Sesotho and isiZulu Reading Project (SIRP) material.

This is a short introduction to the development of reading fluency in initial reading teaching. It describes the components of reading fluency and methods for developing and assessing it. The use of fluency norms and benchmarks in the South African context is outlined as are ways of testing oral reading fluency (ORF) in the classroom.

This is a short introductory overview of the teaching of reading. It introduces some of the terminology and key concepts associated with literacy and the teaching of reading. Outlines are provided of the key processes in learning to read and of the necessary components of effective reading instruction programmes. It includes short self-tests for each unit in the Guide. As an introductory overview it does not provide specific instruction on the techniques used in teaching reading and writing, whether for home language or in a first additional language.

This is a short introduction to the development of writing in initial literacy teaching. It describes the components of teaching writing, including handwriting, spelling, genres and the making of multimodal texts.

This is a short and basic guide to the development of vocabulary knowledge and use in the primary school.

This study guide is about decoding – about developing the ability to transform written text into spoken words in order to gain access to the meaning of a text. Unless a child is able to convert the written text into spoken language, she or he cannot decode the message behind the words. Children are not born with an innate ability to read and write, they have to be taught to do that. To decode a text means applying a knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including knowledge of letter patterns, to correctly sound-out and pronounce written words. In other words it is deciphering the alphabetic code into language. To encode is the reverse process of converting spoken words into written text. This guide provides an introduction to the key elements of decoding in reading, namely phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, phonics, morphological awareness and oral reading fluency. Note that this study guide has focused on decoding in Sesotho and isiZulu, though it will be useful for all teachers of literacy in South Africa's official languages. The study guide is an adaptation of Sesotho and isiZulu Reading Project (SIRP) material

The Department of Basic Education Literacy Workbooks

Since 2011 the Department of Education produced free Literacy workbooks in all the home languages for all primary education school grades R to 6.

Zenex Foundation materials designed by SAIDE and Woz’obona on Fundamentals for Communications at NQF Level One, in English. It uses a problem centred approach. The materials were originally designed for ECD practitioners studying at NQF Level 1 (meeting the requirements of five NQF level 1 unit standards to gain a qualification in Communications (Unit Standards 12462, 119641, 119631, 12469, and 119636) to gain a part qualification in Early Child Development at NQF Level 1). The course comprises learner and trainer materials.

Zenex The Expert Reading Teacher course materials

A set of materials designed to teach Foundation Phase teachers how to teach reading. They are high quality materials developed by academics in collaboration with teachers. This collaboration resulted in materials that are highly structured, using a systematic approach to the teaching of reading. The materials address various aspects of the reading process, including language concepts and vocabulary building. They are written in English, but include a comprehensive list of literacy concepts explained in three languages, namely, English, isiXhosa and isiZulu.