Post-Apartheid South Africa has undergone an educational language policy shift from only Afrikaans and English in education to the representation of all 11 official languages: Afrikaans, English, isiZulu, isiXhosa, isiNdebele, siSwati, Sesotho, Setswana, Tshivenda and Xitsonga. The national languages policy included the Language in Education Policy (LiEP), which stipulates that learners from grades 1- 3 in all ways possible should be provided the opportunity to be taught in their home language (HL). With this change, there has been a need to increase access to African languages in education. The 2007 Status of LoLT report released by the Department of Education (DoE) revealed that since 1996 up to 65% of learners in the foundation phase are being taught in their home language. In other ways, the LiEP has been successful in bridging the gap of access to African languages in the basic education system. With that said, there has been rapid growth of interest in early childhood crosscultural literacy assessment across the globe. Internationally South Africa has participated in the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality as well as the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study studies. The design of these particular international studies meant participation in the same assessment but in different languages, calling into question the equivalence of assessments across languages. Assessing across languages should aim to encourage linguistic equivalence, functioning equivalence, cultural equivalence as well as metric equivalence. South Africa has taken part in three cycles of the Progress in International Reading Literacy (PIRLS) study. The purposes of the current study is to present secondary analysis of the prePIRLS 2011 data, to investigate any differential item functioning (DIF) of the achievement scores between English and isiXhosa. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) developed a framework of input, process and output for curriculum process. The framework shows the multiple facets that needs to be considered when implementing a curriculum in a country. The curriculum process framework was used as the theoretical framework for this study. The framework views curriculum success as a process of measuring how the intended curriculum (input) was implemented (process) and should be reflected in the attained curriculum (output). The adapted framework is LiEP as the attained curriculum, as learners in the prePIRLS 2011 are tested in the LoLT in Grades 1-3. Followed by the prePIRLS 2011 assessment, as the implemented curriculum testing the learners’ comprehension skills requires by grade 4 in their HL. Lastly, the attained curriculum refers the learners’ achievement scores in the prePIRLS 2011 study. A sample of 819 Grade 4 learners (539 English L1 speaking learners and 279 isiXhosa L1 speakign learners) that participated in the prePIRLS 2011 study were included in this study. These learners wrote a literary passage called The Lonely Giraffe, accompanied by 15 items. The study made use of the Rasch model to investigate any evidence of Differential Item Functioning (DIF) on the reading achievement of the learners. The findings showed that the items did not reflect an equal distribution. In addition, an item by item DIF analysis revealed discrimination on one subgroup over the other. A further investigation showed that these discriminations could be explained by means of inaccurate linguistic equivalence. The linguistic equivalence could be explained by means of mistranslation and/or dialectal differences. Subsequently, the complexities of dialects in African languages are presented by providing isiXhosa alternative translations to the items. The significance of the current study is in its potential contribution in further understanding language complexities in large-scale assessments. Additionally, in attempts to provide valid, reliable and fair assessment data across sub-groups. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / Centre for Evaluation & Assessment (CEA) / MEd / Unrestricted

Reading can improve the quality of life for individuals and is widely considered the cornerstone of learning. However, many boys who enjoy reading are bullied. The direct, negative effects of bullying on academic achievement have been exposed in previous research. The purpose of this empirical study was to examine whether any statistical relationship existed between the low overall reading literacy achievement scores of Grade 4 boy learners and whether they experienced being the victims of peer bullying. Three research questions underpinned this quantitative, non-experimental, secondary data analysis. The primary data were collected from 8 196 Grade 4 boy learners in South Africa as part of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2011. The three research questions were: What is the relationship of bullying with Grade 4 boy learners overall reading literacy achievement scores when categorised for each of the individual prePIRLS 2011 benchmarks? What is the correlation between overall reading literacy achievement scores and being a victim of bullying as measured by the Learners Bullied at School Index? What is the potential statistical relationship between the overall reading literacy achievement scores of Grade 4 boy learners and the degree to which they have experienced bullying as measured by prePIRLS 2011, looking at the Learners Bullied at School Index as well as the six independent bullying variables individually? Bronfenbrenner s Ecological Model of Human Development served as a theoretical framework for the study, and a post-positivistic epistemological paradigm was adopted. Overall reading literacy achievement scores from the reading assessments were positioned on a common reading achievement scale using item response theory methods that offered an overall image of the assessment outcomes. The prePIRLS 2011 Learner Questionnaire itself was based on the Likert scale, while the variable Learners Bullied at School Index is a contextual scale based on Rasch modelling. The descriptive statistical analysis revealed that the more frequently the Grade 4 boy learners experienced bullying, the lower their overall reading literacy achievement scores were and vice versa. The Pearson correlation revealed that, as bullying increased, overall reading literacy achievement scores decreased proportionately. The multiple regression revealed that a school that had higher levels of bullying could expect overall reading literacy achievement scores to be lower. Finally, the model statistics revealed that bullying accounted for only 5% of the variation in the target population s overall reading literacy achievement scores. Therefore, other associated variables can be investigated in future research, including, but not limited to, cyberbullying. If the statistical relationship between bullying (including cyberbullying) and reading literacy receives immediate attention, it could lead to stronger design, improved development, and implementation of preventative measures. / Die sleutel tot leer is geletterdheid. Geletterdheid word bereik deur te lees. Lees beskik oor die vermoë om die lewensgehalte van individue te verbeter. Vir dié rede is die leesgedrag van Graad 4-skoolseuns, wat die teikenpopulasie van die huidige studie is, die fokuspunt. Vorige navorsing het reeds die negatiewe en regstreekse gevolge van afknouery (boeliegedrag) op akademiese prestasie onthul. Dus, as lees die hoeksteen van leer is, moet afknouery as 'n moontlike struikelblok tot leer ondersoek word. Die doel van die studie was om te ondersoek of daar enige statistiese verhouding bestaan tussen die lae algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasie van Graad 4-skoolseuns en of hul die slagoffers is van afknouery. Die studie het gebruik gemaak van Bronfenbrenner se Ekologiese Model van Menslike Ontwikkeling as teoretiese raamwerk. Verder het die studie ? post-positivistiese epistemologiese paradigma aangewend. Die studie is gegrond op 'n kwantitatiewe, nie-eksperimentele, sekondêre data-ontleding van data versamel van 8 196 Graad 4-skoolseuns in Suid-Afrika. Die data is versamel as deel van die Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2011. Algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasie is geplaas op 'n algemene leesprestasieskaal met behulp van itemresponsteoriemetodes. Die prePIRLS 2011-leerdervraelys is gebaseer op die Likert skaal. Die Leerders Afgeknou by die Skool Indeks is ? kontekstuele skaal wat gebaseer is op Rasch-modellering. Die drie navorsingvrae wat ondersoek is, was die volgende: • Wat is die verhouding tussen afknouery van skoolseuns en die algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasie gemeet teen elk van die prePIRLS 2011 individuele maatstawwe? • Wat is die korrelasie tussen algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasie en om ‘n slagoffer te wees van afknouery soos gemeet deur die Leerders Afgeknou by die Skool Indeks? • Wat is die potensiële statistiese verhouding tussen die algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasie van Graad 4-skoolseuns en die mate waarin hulle afknouery ervaar het soos gemeet deur prePIRLS 2011, met inagneming van die Leerders Afgeknou by die Skool Indeks asook die ses onafhanklike afknouveranderlikes individueel beskou? Die beskrywende statistiese analise het getoon dat meer gereelde ervarings van afknouery ? verhouding het met laer algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasies van Graad 4-skoolseuns. Die Pearson-korrelasie het getoon dat, indien afknouery vermeerder, algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasies proporsioneel afneem. Die veelvoudige regressie-analise het getoon dat by skole waar hoër vlakke van afknouery gevind is, die algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasie laer is. Ten slotte, het die modelstatistieke aan die lig gebring dat afknouery verantwoordelik is vir slegs 5% van die variasie in Graad 4-skoolseuns se algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasie. Daarom moet ander veranderlikes, met inbegrip van kuberafknouery, met 'n moontlike verhouding met leesgeletterdheid deur toekomstige navorsing ondersoek word. Indien afknouery dringende aandag ontvang, kan dit lei tot verbeterde ontwerp, ontwikkeling en implementering van voorkomende maatreels. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Humanities Education / MEd / Unrestricted