Investigating Grade 4 Teachers’ Experiences of Teaching Reading Comprehension in English Second Language at Botshabelo Schools
Master’s Dissertation
| dc.contributor.author | MATSIETSI PAULINA MOHLOKI | en_ZA |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-09-09T12:20:10Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024 | en_ZA |
| dc.description | Teaching reading comprehension in English Second Language (ESL) classrooms has been a bone of contention in the English curriculum in South Africa and abroad. The study explored Grade 4 teachers' experience teaching reading comprehension to ESL learners at Botshabelo Primary Schools in Free State Province, Free South Africa. Reading comprehension, which is the ability to read a passage, process it, and understand its meaning, is a problem for primary school learners in South Africa. Moreover, reading comprehension is a vital component of a learner should read for a purpose, engage with the text, learn from it, and eventually enjoy it. Thus, learners are more prone to read texts less eloquently and need help comprehending what they read. Hence, the role of a teacher is so critical that the teacher's skills enable learners to read proficiently, learn effectively, and build problem-solving capacity and strategies. However, despite extensively studying reading comprehension, participants indicated that most learners need help reading for comprehension. The extent of the reading problem was emphasised by the dismal performance of Grade 4 learners in the 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS, 2016), where it was discovered that South African learners are the worst globally, where more than 80% of sampled learners could not read for meaning. The theoretical framework directing this qualitative research research was the schema theory. Six purposively selected participants participated in semi-structured interviews and were observed in class. Document analysis was also used to generate data. Data were analysed thematically. Consent was sought from the University of the Free State and approval from the Free State Department of Education. Findings demonstrated that teachers use various strategies to teach reading comprehension and do not rely on passively reading a text to learners. The study adopted an interpretivist paradigm, and the data generation process was done through a purposive sampling of 6 ESL primary school teachers from Botshabelo. Data were generated by semi-structured face-to-face interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11660/13397 | |
| dc.publisher | University of the Free State | en_ZA |
| dc.rights.holder | University of the Free State | en_ZA |
| dc.title | Investigating Grade 4 Teachers’ Experiences of Teaching Reading Comprehension in English Second Language at Botshabelo Schools | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Dissertation |
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