<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="entry-title">Books to encourage the learning of African languages</h1>
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JOBURG – Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy has introduced a
book series that will encourage children to learn to read in African
languages. </div>
<time class="entry-date" datetime="2018-01-16T07:02:00+00:00">12 hours ago</time>
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Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy are publishing
books in indigenous South African languages, which teaches children to
read proficiently. Photo: Supplied </div>
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<p><strong><span style="color:rgb(0,51,102)">Language and literacy
institute, Molteno, has published books in eight African languages,
dubbed the Bula Vula book series, which teaches children to read African
languages more proficiently.</span></strong></p>
<p>This plan supports the Department of Basic Education’s Incremental
Introduction of African Languages (IIAL) policy for Grade Ones.</p>
<p>The book series was launched in 2015 for Grade Ones and will be rolled out until 2026 when it will be introduced to Grade 12s.</p>
<p>The policy makes it compulsory for all schools to offer previously
marginalised official languages to scholars in all schools currently not
offering any African language other than Afrikaans.</p>
<p>The series encourages children to read African languages proficiently
and is available for learners from Grade One to Three with stories that
offer a range of entertaining stories for children in over eight
languages.</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_194623" style="width:530px" class="gmail-wp-caption gmail-alignnone"><img class="gmail-size-medium gmail-wp-image-194623" src="https://sandtonchronicle.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2018/01/1_36183-520x390.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="390"><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Molteno
Institute for Language and Literacy has published books in indigenous
South African languages, which teach children to read proficiently.
Photo: Supplied</p></div>
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<p>“The Vula Bula African language graded reading series offers
carefully structured graded texts for early, emergent and fluent readers
in beautifully illustrated stories, contextualised to the young
reader’s inner world and life experiences,” said chief executive
officer, Massennya Dikotls.</p>
<p>The books contain predictable text to facilitate and encourage
reading for enjoyment with simple sentence structure and familiar
vocabulary that will enhance reading progress, while clear and detailed
illustrations will help with understanding.</p>
<p>“Through reading these books, children learn to speak and read an
African language. They learn to identify letters and [also learn] about
the structure of words and sentences.</p>
<p>“Additionally, they learn to read with understanding and they learn
about the connection between letters and sounds while increasing their
vocabulary. Another advantage is that the stories in the books are set
within a context children can relate to.”</p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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