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Email:vnomlomo@uwc.ac.za
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INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF WORDS IN ACTIONDATE: 1 – 3 March 2017
THEME
FROM WORDS TO IDEAS: THE ROLE OF LITERACY IN ENHANCING YOUNG CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT
The development of literacy is a powerful tool for socio-economic advancement across the globe (UNESCO, 2006). Literacy is a complex and multi-faceted concept that is deep-rooted in relations of power, history and culture. It is viewed as a prerequisite for social and cultural emancipation (Freire & Donaldo, 1987). The ability to read and write is a fundamental skill in today’s technologized world.
Reading provides young children with a glimpse into new worlds, thereby expanding their world views and horizons. On the other hand, writing involves physical and perceptual development whereby learners express their thinking symbolically in a script to compose a text (Lamme and Childers, 1983; Whitehead, 2004). Unfortunately, these fundamental skills of reading and writing are not always accessible to all young children. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa young children do not have many opportunities to engage with written texts due to a number of factors such as poverty, lack of resources, inadequate teacher preparation, teachers’ classroom practices and the mismatch between the learners’ home language and the language of learning and teaching (LOLT) (Dubeck, Jukes & Okello, 2012; Pendlebury, 2008).
In South Africa, specifically, early literacy remains a challenge in basic education. For example, international assessment programmes such as the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality (SACMEQ, 2001; 2007) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) results show poor literacy performance by Foundation Phase learners, especially in schools that serve poor communities. Similarly, the Annual National Assessment results reveal learners’ underperformance in literacy across the nine South African provinces despite the fact that learners are taught and assessed in their own home languages (Department of Basic Education, 2011; 2012).
Teaching reading and writing in linguistically diverse classrooms is a further challenge in South Africa as some children start schooling in languages other than their home languages. These children often struggle to master the basic skills of reading and writing in a second language (Kirkpatrick, 2013; O’Carrol & Hickman, 2012; Gove & Cvelich, 2010; UNESCO, 2006; Bloch, 2006), and lag behind their counterparts who learn literacy through the medium of their home languages when they start schooling.
In light of the above, the Faculty of Education at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in partnership with local NGOs which focus on early literacy and the British Council[1] are hosting an international conference from the 23rd – 25th November 2016. The aim of the conference is to gather national and international scholars and practitioners to critically engage with early literacy development and think about alternative practices for linguistically and culturally diverse communities.
CONFERENCE OBJECTIVES
- To explore issues and insights on early literacy practices in different contexts
- To provide a platform for exchange of experiences and dialogue on early literacy as a means of accessing knowledge in different modes and platforms
- To identify and analyze opportunities and challenges of early literacy instruction in the learners’ home and additional languages
- To showcase effective early literacy approaches in linguistically diverse classrooms
- To draw lessons from early literacy research in different contexts
- To strengthen early literacy development through collaboration with different stakeholders such as teachers, NGOs, publishers and institutions of higher education
We invite you to submit abstracts that will address one of the sub-themes highlighted below.
SUB-THEMES:
1) Conceptions of early literacy
2) Innovative literacy practices
3) Home Language early literacy development
4) First Additional Language early literacy development
5) Early Literacy development in multilingual contexts
6) Multimodal approaches to literacy development
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
- Learning and knowledge exchange among conference participants
- Sustained collaboration among participants
- Establish conference as an annual event
- Documented case studies and video interviews of participants
- A conference report
- A peer reviewed book on early literacy instruction
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Leading international scholars are the keynote speakers:
1) Professor Viv Edwards, Reading University, United Kingdom
2) Professor Thabisile Buthelezi, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban
3) Dr Jimmy Harmon – Diocesan Service of Catholic Education, Mauritius
4) Professor Elizabeth Pretorius, University of South Africa, Pretoria
Other partners still to be confirmed.