Research 

Improving the level of literacy for all learners, including those from diverse socio-cultural and economic backgrounds, is high on the list of priorities for education in South Africa. Grade One teachers are currently working within an outcomes-based educational and literacy framework. This implies that teachers have to know and understand what is entailed in each of the learning areas and they have to plan the content of the learning programmes according to the expected outcomes. While traditional literacy instruction focuses on skills development, contemporary approaches advocate language and literacy practices that reflect a socially constructed model of learning and knowledge. The latter emphasizes interaction through language, between the learners and their cultural worlds, in as well as outside the classroom. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of classroom talk in effective literacy instruction, by observing how literacy is presented and modelled by one teacher in a particular Grade One classroom. 

Thesis (MEd)--University of Cape Town, 2004