Mother Tongue Literacy

KET Literacy Programme Survey

Produced by Lesley Satchel SOUNS Co-ordinator [Knysna Education Trust, November 2013] 

1. Preamble

The SOUNS Literacy Programme was first introduced (through a grant from Rotary International) into preschool classes in 2010, and a relatively small number of preschool learners in the Knysna area were taught according to the correct SOUNS methodology.

Since January 2012, thanks to a further grant from DG Murray Trust, all classes at 22 preschools affiliated to Knysna Education Trust had the benefit of receiving SOUNS kits, and teachers in the field were trained to present the programme in Afrikaans and Xhosa as required. Volunteers were trained to monitor progress in the preschools and learners’ progress was tracked by teachers and volunteers who reported back to KET regularly. Staff members at KET were able to present the programme in both Afrikaans and Xhosa, which are the usual community languages in the Western Cape.

During 2013, 4 more preschools affiliated themselves to KET, and they received SOUNS kits and the teachers were trained in the methodology, together with new teachers who had come on to the programme at the previous preschools. Some new volunteers were also trained in the methodology.

By the end of 2013, 58 classes at 26 preschools were working on the programme, and there were 16 volunteers visiting 18 preschools. 8 preschools did not have dedicated volunteers to assist them. Volunteers have fallen away for various reasons, and the 2 new edu-assistants who had joined the KET staff started giving guidance to the SOUNS teachers who needed it in the field.

2. KET Preschool Survey

24 preschools and 13 volunteers replied to the survey. The SOUNS co-ordinator and the 2 edu-assistants visited each preschool during the month before the survey ended, and their evidence was used for the 2 preschools that did not reply themselves. The survey is essentially informal in nature, but does give an indication of progress in all KET preschools.

3. Highlights at the end of 2013

1. Some Afrikaans Grade R classes were ready to go on to phonetic sentences, not just words.
2. Four Xhosa Grade R learners were able to read library books (not school readers) cover-to-cover on their own. This included some very long words of 12 and 14 letters. They came from 2 different preschools.
3. The teachers are extremely patient with their learners at every preschool, and the learners in every class love working with SOUNS as a result.
4. It is good to see some learners helping their friends to succeed.
5. The fact that some under 2 year-old learners are mastering SOUNS is unbelievable!
6. Grade 1 learners who had SOUNS in 2012 were top achievers in their primary schools in 2013. 

4. Challenges

1. Four preschools were disrupted on account of building operations, or had to move temporarily for specific reasons.
2. Absenteeism and “drop out” is a constant problem.
3. Languages from other parts of Africa. Learners must be taught SOUNS in the dominant language of the community, or the language of the primary school they will attend later.
4. Cases where teachers are not able to speak the mother-tongue of the learners, e.g. Afrikaans teachers with Xhosa learners, and Xhosa teachers with Afrikaans learners. It is not advisable to transfer to English as this poses many other problems in the methodology. It was possible to manage SOUNS lessons differently to help in these cases.
5. Overcrowding, so that some learners are always working upside-down with the SOUNS letters. There is just not space in the room for the learners and the SOUNS to be set out properly.
6. Teachers who have taken short-cuts, so that some of the learners build words backwards.   This does not happen if they use their alphabet boards, and small objects to place correctly on the mats to force the words into left-to-right direction. One of the successful preschools had made their own larger collections of small objects to place correctly, and this is to be commended.
7. New teachers needed extra training.
8. The classes that had mastered 3-letter Afrikaans words did not realise that they should move on to longer phonetic words, including words of 2 syllables, and sentences consisting of several phonetic words. Workshops have been held on this subject, but I think some of the teachers misunderstood this important principle. New wordlists will be compiled and teachers as well as volunteers need more training. The programme did not reach this stage before.
9. Afrikaans teachers did not remember to leave out “c”, “q”, “x”, “z” from the alphabets.
10. Some teachers are only using one set of SOUNS letters, and the learners are not having enough opportunity to handle them in the initial stages. The group should use 2 of each letter constantly.
11. Ages in many of the classes are approximate, depending on the size of the area available, and the comings and goings of learners during the course of the year.
12. Township life has many daily challenges. Three of the preschools are in isolated communities, and this is also not always ideal.

5. Learning and Teaching

Many of the Grade R learners and the 5 – 6 year olds have been on the programme for 2 years (but not all of them), so they have made excellent progress, and their teachers are more confident and competent than they were a year ago. Most of the learners know all the letter-sounds. They are all used to building 3-letter words (Afrikaans) and longer words (Xhosa). The Xhosa learners are enjoying building their names, which are sometimes very long, but phonetic. Afrikaans names are largely a matter of learning the letter-order, as many of them are not phonetic.

It is pleasing to see that teachers and volunteers are still using extra activities to make learning fun, puppets, klankliedjies, funny faces, memory games, nonsense words, and feely bags. The learners respond with great enthusiasm!

4 and 5 year-old learners also know many letter-sounds, some know all, and can build words.

2 – 4 year old learners know many letter-sounds, and some are building lots of words.

Some of the under-2’s can identify up to 16 letter-sounds, and a few learners are starting to build words, which is an astounding achievement on the part of their dedicated teachers! The little ones can be very playful, and some of them are very attentive for their SOUNS activities.

In the mixed age classes, the older learners know many letter-sounds and can build words. One teacher reports “Die kleinspan (2-3) geniet ook die SOUNS en die 2-jariges sal die “o”, “m” en “s” uithaal en by die kinders vra wat dit is”. That is how they are starting to learn!

I am concerned that some preschools are using English headings and posters in their classrooms, often with incorrect spelling, and even in Spanish in one preschool! If it is to be helpful for children to be in a print-rich environment, every effort should be made for the headings to be in the dominant language of the learners, so that when they start identifying the letter-sounds in the environment, the words are those that they understand well. They will be able to develop new language abilities, if their own mother-tongues are strong first.

6. Grade R Classes 

6 Afrikaans classes, 7 Xhosa classes, 1 mixed A and X.

Letter knowledge         Building words (length)                            Reading
All 26 (Afrik)               3-letter words
All 26 (Xhosa)             7-letter words, long names
All 26 (Afrik)               3 and 4 letter-words, nonsense words
All 26 (Afrik)               3 and 4 letter-words
All 26 (Xhosa)             5 and 6 letter-words, long names
All 26 (Xhosa)             5-7 letter-words, fluent and quick           3 learners reading books
23-all 26 (A and X)       4-7 letter-words (Afrik, short sentences) 
                                4-6 letter-words (Xhosa)
20-all 26 (Afrik)           3-5 letter-words, names
16-all 26 (Afrik)           3 and 4 letter-words
13-all 26 (Xhosa)         4-6 letter-words, long names
6-all 26 (Xhosa)           5-7 letter-words, long names
23                             4-6 letter-words
14-15 (Afrik)                lots of 3-5 letter-words, names
13 (Xhosa)                  4-7 letter-words

There is no reliable information on length of time learners have been on the programme.

7. 5 and 6 year-old learners

3 Afrikaans classes, 2 Xhosa classes, 1 Xhosa learners learning in Afrikaans

Letter knowledge         Building words (length)                      Reading
All 26 (Afrik)               3 and 4 letter-words
16-all 26 (Afrik)           lots of 3 and 4 letter-words
15-all 26 (Xhosa)         3-8 letter-words, long names              1 learner reading book fluently
13-all 26 (Xhosa)         4 and 5 letter-words
9-all 26 (Afrik)             3-4 letter-words
9-all 26 (Afrik)             lots of 3 letter-words, confident /unsure 

8. Mixed age classes

3 Afrikaans classes, 2 Xhosa classes

Letter knowledge        Building words

All 26 (Afrik)               lots of 3 letter-words, fluent
9-22 (Xhosa)              5 letter-words
21 (Xhosa)                 4 and 5 letter-words
4-20 (Afrik)                older ones building 3 letter-words
8-13 (Afrik)                3 letter-words

9. 4 and 5 year-old learners

7 Afrikaans classes, 5 Xhosa classes

Letter knowledge          Building words
All 26 (Afrik)                lots of words and names, fluent
All 26 (Xhosa)              4 and 5 letter-words
13-all 26 (Xhosa)          4 and 5 letter-words
13-24 (Xhosa)              4 letter-words
16 (Afrik)                    3 letter-words
7-15 (Afrik)                  starting 3 letter-words
7-14 (Afrik)                  starting 3 letter-words, nonsense words
4-14 (Afrik)                  2 learners building 3 letter-words
4-14 (Afrik)                  have not started
13 (Xhosa)                  4-6 letter-words
11 (Xhosa)                  have not started
6-11 (Afrik)                  lots of 3 and 4 letter-words

Some classes are still playing lots of memory games (which will help in future) and the last class, that has not learnt so many letters, can already build more than 20 words!

10. 2 – 4 year-old learners

11 Afrikaans classes, 4 Xhosa classes, 1 mixed A and X.

 Letter knowledge           Building words
24 (Xhosa)                    lots of 4-6 letter-words
1- 18 (Xhosa)                have not started
1- 17 (Xhosa)                have not started
16 (Afrik)                      have not started
15 (Afrik)                      3 letter-words
8-15 (Afrik)                    have not started
13 (Afrik and Xhosa)        starting 3 letter (Afrik) and 4 letter-words (Xhosa)
12 (Afrik)                       have not started
10-11 (Afrik)                   3 letter-words
10 (Afrik)                       starting 3 letter-words
10 (Afrik)                       have not started
9 (Afrik)                         have not started
2-7 (Afrik)                       have not started
1-7 (Afrik)                       have not started
6 (Xhosa)                       have not started
3-5 (Afrik)                       have not started

11. Toddlers (under 2 years)

2 Afrikaans classes, 1 Xhosa class.

Letter knowledge              Building words
16 (Xhosa)                      starting 4 letter-words
5-16 (Afrik)                      starting 3 letter-words
4-7 (Afrik)                        have not started

12. Co-ordinator’s comments

The outcomes of the SOUNS surveys from 2012 and 2013 cannot be absolute for various reasons, including class composition, age ranges within each class, changes in teachers during the course of the year, the variable ways in which teachers and volunteers complete the forms. The outcomes cannot be absolutely compared, for the same reasons. However, there seems to be a general improvement in progress across the board, in quality and quantity. The fact that 4 learners can read library books at a preschool age is astounding to me. There are a few areas that must be addressed in 2014, and progress will be even better.

13. Closing comments from volunteers

Despite S going on maternity leave, the stand-in teacher has been very good and has kept the momentum going. J has kept the class bright, cheerful and enthusiastic.

These preschools need moral support from outside the community and it would be wrong to break that relationship and trust that has been established. The teachers enjoy showing off their successes – there are not many opportunities for them to do that. Not many people care.

I have found S a well-organised and responsible assistant. She took on the SOUNS programme with the preschoolers and they made very good progress. Their quick and correct participation was an inspiration and a challenge for the others, with positive results.

I find it amazing how the preschoolers have made such good progress despite the disorganized time while the new preschool was being built.

B’s class has progressed well and they show great excitement and pleasure at making new words. SOUNS has introduced them to the joy of reading…..

The teacher is to be commended for letting those who seem capable try more difficult exercises.

14. Closing comments from teachers

Children can identify SOUNS that they have learnt on TV, newspapers, posters, books, and magazines at home and at preschool.

Die kinders werk goed saam, hulle kan hul eie woorde bou en lees. Die kinders is baie gemaklik met klanke, helpmekaar reg om die uitspraak van die klanke.

Dit help kinders in die huistaal om te luister en praat. Hulle kan self redeneer oor die regte manier van die klanke.

My children love doing SOUNS. My 2 and 3 year-olds are now doing the “e”. I wrote the SOUNS letters on the board and they can tell me all the sounds.

Children enjoy doing SOUNS because they know tomorrow they going to learn one more letter.

The SOUNS programme prepares the children from a young age to know and understand each and every alphabet. 

It is like a game because they enjoy themselves. When I teach I am using the mother language only when we do SOUNS.

Parents are so grateful about what they see, the child just write the SOUNS. 

They point to SOUNS even on the wall, they remind me when are we going to do the SOUNS?

This is a daily routine, and children learn every day. The children love and enjoy it. Sometimes they ask for it.

For me SOUNS can go on and on.

Thank you for helping our kids make a difference in life.

Die kinders wou meer en meer leer. Dit was suksesvol, en die kinders het die SOUNS baie vinnig verstaan.

Die ouers was by op wat die kinders leer, en het die opvoeders bedank op die goeie werk wat hulle doen.

Die ouers is trots op die kinders se prestasie. Ek geniet dit om SOUNS met die kinders te doen, en dit is vir my verbasend hoe kinders die verskillende letters kan identifiseer oral waar hulle kom.

I’m glad to have a volunteer in my class. The children gain a lot from her.

Amazing’s mother is very pleased to see her child doing all her school activities at home….showing her alphabets and identifying alphabets. They are progressing very well, they are building words, they write their names and sentences.

You feel so proud when children start making or pronouncing words. SOUNS make a huge difference in my class…..it is wonderful.

Parents love it and thank us daily for the work we do.

The children are so clever. They are able to tell what sound they have without looking at them.

Parents feel that we have done a great job for they see how the children enjoy books, and they want to write in every book and piece of paper.

It also gives us as teachers confidence in our children.

Published: 20/05/2014