Background: Over the years, the majority of the Basotho nation and many countries have known Lesotho as a country which has Sesotho and English as the only spoken languages and as medium of instruction in schools. Whereas, in reality, Lesotho has many spoken languages. Many tribes have their own spoken languages which, hitherto, have not been…

Even a quick glance at international data reveals something troubling: There is an increasing economic and educational gap between Africa and the rest of the world. If we look just a bit deeper, we find that economic and educational stagnation may simply be the inevitable outcomes of broad educational failure for millions of rural African…

Language is a contextual factor of an education system as it determines the Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT). In order to provide for diversity in South Africa, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, makes provision for 11 official languages and the Language in Education Policy (LiEP) promotes respect for not only these…

Research in sub-Saharan Africa investigating the effect of mother tongue (MT) literacy instruction at medium scale is limited. A randomized controlled trial of MT literacy instruction was implemented in 2013 and 2014 as part of the Primary Math and Reading (PRIMR) Initiative in Kenya. We compare the effect of two treatment groups--the base PRIMR…

The use of ICTs to support literacy in a minority Indigenous Australian language is an important domain of pedagogy that is often overlooked by teachers in these contexts. The development of new technological configurations in remote communities can be highly supportive of Indigenous languages spoken by a small number of people. This paper reports…

A Norwegian study of the effectiveness of teaching young children to read and write using their vernacular as the medium of instruction is reported. In 1980-81 and 1981-82, ten classes of beginning primary students were given all initial instruction in reading and writing in the vernacular. Because no language standardization occurs in the…

Longitudinal study of literary acquisition among first-graders (N=166) from two distinct linguistic communities in a rural Moroccan town showed that the significant differences in Arabic (first literacy) reading achievement between Berber- and Arabic-speaking groups disappeared by the fifth grade. (Author/CB)

A study of Spanish-speaking children in the first and third grade showed that English proficiency was least fostered by reading instruction in Spanish only, followed by bilingual instruction, with those students receiving instruction in English only becoming most proficient but still far less so than their English-speaking peers. Besides…

This compilation of resource papers and findings is from a regional workshop on mother-tongue/bilingual literacy programmes for ethnic and linguistic minorities in multilingual settings. It was organized by Asia-Pacific Programme of Education for All (APPEAL), United Nations Educational and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Bangkok, 6-10 December…

The Spanish Native Language Arts program at Sarah J. Hale High School (New York) integrates the study of reading, writing, and vocabulary with the study of texts that present cultural, literary, and artistic achievements of Hispanic cultures. (CB)

Two adaptations of Success for All, a comprehensive instructional reform program for elementary schools, have been used with students acquiring English as a second language. One is a Spanish bilingual version called "Exito para Todos," in which students are taught to read in Spanish and then transitioned to English reading, usually in…