Experiences and practices of non-native English-speaking parents reading to their pre-school children

Date
2024-03
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
Abstract
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this research was to gain insight into the reading experiences and practices of parents/caregivers with their pre-school children. I was also interested in whether the parents/caregivers were exposing their children to stories/literature in other languages and in what other ways children’s interest in reading/literature in other languages could be described or identified. This was linked to the Language-in-Education Policy that exposes children to English from Grade 1 or Grade 4. The research was qualitative in nature and took the form of a case study design for which all the participants except one were sourced from one site. The participant recruitment took place through referral from the site after the participants showed interest in the study during a Grade R parents’ meeting. The participant not from the site was selected using snowball sampling. The participants were thus sampled via purposive sampling as I intentionally sought parents of pre-school-aged children who are literate and engaging in some form of reading with their children, to allow me to gain appropriate insight to answer my research questions. Each participant was interviewed once, and the interviews were audio recorded. The transcriptions were analysed using the six steps set out in Braun and Clarke’s (2022) reflexive thematic analysis method, using both inductive and deductive processes, and finally applied to Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological model. Themes arising from the participants’ individual analyses are shared. The cross-case analysis, undertaken afterwards, revealed themes on the macrosystemic level such as TV can be a way to learn English, survival mode influences reading, moves to digital (newspaper) reading platforms, children playing outside, reading and gender roles, and reading and learning are sometimes left for the school space; on the exosystemic level there was a theme of the in/accessibility of libraries; and on the microsystemic level themes included making up stories for children, oral stories allowing space for creativity, the idea of children imitating their parents’ reading, and the possibility of reading becoming a lifestyle.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie navorsing het beoog om insig in die leeservarings en -praktyke van ouers/versorgers met hulle voorskoolse kinders te bekom. Ek wou ook sien of die ouers/versorgers hulle kinders aan stories/literatuur in ander tale blootstel en op watter ander maniere kinders se belangstelling in lees/literatuur in ander tale beskryf of geïdentifiseer kon word. Dit is in verband gebring met die Taal-in-Onderwys-beleid waarvolgens kinders van Graad 1 tot Graad 4 aan Engels blootgestel word. Daar is gebruik gemaak van kwalitatiewe navorsing in die vorm van ʼn gevallestudieontwerp waarvoor al die deelnemers buiten een van dieselfde perseel afkomstig was. Deelnemers is gewerf uit die perseel se verwysings van diegene wat tydens ʼn Graad Rouervergadering aangedui het dat hulle in die studie belang stel. Sneeubalsteekproefneming is gebruik om die deelnemer wat nie van hierdie perseel afkomstig was nie, te kies. Doelbewuste steekproefneming is dus gebruik om die deelnemers te kies, aangesien ek doelbewus die geletterde ouers van voorskoolse kinders, wat ook die een of ander vorm van lees saam met hulle kinders doen, uitgesoek het, sodat ek gepaste insigte vir die beantwoording van my navorsingsvrae kon opdoen. Daar is een onderhoud met elke deelnemer gevoer en klankopnames is van die onderhoude gemaak. Die transkripsies is ontleed volgens die ses stappe wat in Braun en Clarke se (2022) refleksiewe tematiese ontledingsmetode uiteengesit is en induktiewe en deduktiewe prosesse is aangewend en uiteindelik op Bronfenbrenner se bioekologiese model toegepas. Temas wat spruit uit die individuele ontledings van die deelnemers word gedeel. Die kruisgevalontleding, wat agterna onderneem is, het temas op die makrosistemiese vlak onthul, soos dat TV tot die leer van Engels bydra, dat oorlewingsmodus lees beïnvloed, die verskuiwing na digitale leesplatforms (koerant), kinders wat buite speel, lees en genderrolle, en dat lees en leer soms aan die skool oorgelaat word. Op die eksosistemiese vlak was die (on)toeganklikheid van biblioteke ʼn tema, en op die mikrosistemiese vlak was die temas, onder andere, die opmaak van stories vir kinders, mondelinge stories wat ruimte vir kreatiwiteit bied, die idee dat kinders hulle ouers se leesgewoontes naboots en die moontlikheid dat lees ʼn lewenstyl kan word.
Description
Thesis (MEdPsych)--Stellenbosch University, 2024.
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