Reading is an important skill that forms part of acquiring knowledge. It improves literacy levels, social skills, personal wellbeing and provides a sense of purpose. However, there are majority of learners experiencing reading difficulties around the world. The purpose of this study revolves around recent trends in academic underperformance that have led to a proliferation of studies which suggest that one of the greatest causes is reading difficulties. The Full-Service Schools (FSS) being part of the support strategy as denoted by Education White Paper 6 are primary schools that are equipped with most resources including Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). For this reason, they were selected so that the perceptions and experiences of their School-Based Support Team (SBST) members and Learning Support Educators (LSEs) can be explored, described and be explained when supporting learners experiencing reading difficulties. Through the concurrent triangulation mixed methods design data was collected using both quantitative and qualitative methods (that is the structured questionnaire, focus group interviews and official documents). The collected data was analysed through mixed analysis and merged to corroborate the findings from quantitative and qualitative data. Findings indicated that there was a small statistically significant difference in the reading performance of participants who were exposed to ICTs as a support mechanism for learners experiencing reading difficulties in the FSS. The slight improvement can be attributed to lack of ICTs guidelines for supporting learners experiencing reading difficulties, limited teacher training on ICTs and the limited use of the ICTs. In conclusion, the ICTs scaffolding guideline for teachers to support leaners experiencing reading difficulties was developed. The guideline incorporated the three theories that unpinned this study namely the social interaction part of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, the readers-response theory and e-reading theory. Throughout the ICTs scaffolding guideline, electronic text feature as part of the e-reading theory. It is the eradication of reading difficulties that can improve the learners’ confidence which in turn will have a positive effect on their academic performance on some or all of the subjects. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

The continued underperformance of many L2 students at primary, secondary and tertiary level is a cause for grave concern in South Africa. In an attempt to better understand the cognitivelinguistic conditions and processes that underlie academic performance and underperformance, this study looks at the problem of differential academic performance by focussing on the inferential ability of undergraduate L2 students during the reading of expository texts. The study works within a constructivist theory of reading, where the successful understanding of a text is seen to involve the construction of a mental representation of what the text is about. Inferencing plays an important role in constructing meaning during reading because it enables the reader to link incoming information with already given information, and it enables the reader to construct a mental representation of the meaning of a text by converting the linear input into a hierarchical mental representation of interrelated information. The main finding showed that the ability to make inferences during the reading of expository texts was strongly related to academic performance: the more inferences students made during the reading of expository texts, the better they performed academically. This relationship held across the making of various inferences, such as anaphoric inferences, vocabulary inferences, inferences about various semantic relations, and thematic inferences. In particular, the ability to make anaphoric, contrastive and causal inferences emerged as the strongest predictors of academic performance. The study provides strong empirical evidence that the ability to make inferences during reading enables a reader to construct meaning and thereby also to acquire new knowledge. Reading is not only a tool for independently accessing information in an information-driven society, it is fundamentally a tool for constructing meaning. Reading and inferencing are not additional tools that students need to master in the learning context- they constitute the very process whereby learning occurs. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

In the secondary school situation, a pupil needs to read to learn, therefore it is imperative to comprehend what is read. Reading comprehension is one of the two functions of reading and it is dependent on the abilities of the reader, the reader's interpretation of the text and the context in which the text is read. In examining reader characteristics, it is evident that it is very difficult for learning disabled pupils with a reading comprehension deficit to comprehend successfully. Their · unique problems can be exacerbated by such external factors as text components and the context in which the reading takes place. Reading comprehension has been instructed to learning disabled secondary school pupils using reading methods and strategies, to facilitate reading comprehension. From this practical experience and the literature studied, guidelines have been formulated for teachers to use to improve the reading comprehension skills of learning disabled secondary school pupils. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Orthopedagogics)

The aim of this action research was to investigate how auditory perceptual deficits affect reading in learners with disabilities. The sub-questions were: What auditory perceptual deficits learners’ experience? How do educators assist learners with auditory perceptual deficits? What instructional strategies and classroom management can educators apply to assist learners with auditory perceptual skills? The data collections comprised of an informal oral assessment, observation and anecdotal notes with fifteen participants with barriers to learning, from the English first year class, within a special needs educational setting. Data analysis and validity were supported by triangulation through informal assessment, observation, my critical friend and my own critical reflection. The support of phonologic, memory, and cohesion skills, auditory skills were the reading educational construct and strategies used as intervention in order to identify the efficacy of said interventions. Both bottom-up and top-down support strategies were used in relation to the participants’ individualised educational needs. The research results and discussion included methods to improve reading and listening skills in the classroom environment. / Inclusive Education / M. Ed. (Inclusive Education)