Multilingual Story Supplements

We know that reading lots of books helps to make children better readers. If we want to get our children reading and then keep them reading, it’s really helpful to understand what motivates them to read. Here is what some children aged 9 and 10 had to say about books and reading.

The young people of South Africa desperately need books. They need picture books, chapter books, and books to read for fun or for research. Most of these books should be in their mother tongue. Importantly, children need to be shown how to connect with books.

Sharing stories is as natural to human beings as eating and sleeping! Some of the stories we tell today have been passed down from generation to generation, while others are new ones that we create ourselves.

Each year, Nal’ibali produces a story especially for World Read Aloud Day in all 12 official languages. We then call on adults throughout the country to join us in reading the story out loud to the children in their lives on World Read Aloud Day.

The school year is almost over and soon it will be that time of year when most of us are able to spend more time than usual with family and friends. It’s time for that long-awaited end-of-year break. That time of year when we can all slow down a bit, relax, and spend time doing more of the things we enjoy.

Schools are important places for literacy teaching, but they also have another important role to fulfil – to help inspire children to be lifelong readers! When a school believes in the power of reading for enjoyment, and it allows its children to experience this first-hand, it sparks in them an interest in reading and writing.

Each year on International Literacy Day, 8 September, the world celebrates the role that reading and writing play in our lives. We also remember that there are many people around the world who can’t complete simple but important tasks, like filling in a form or reading the instructions on a medicine bottle, and who are never able to get lost in a novel. There are many reasons why people don’t learn to read and write, but this happens mainly because they don’t have what they need to learn − good resources and the right kind of help and inspiration!

Reading to your children helps them to discover the magic of books. If your children only read at school and when they do homework, they will learn to link reading with work and not with pleasure. When we read to our children every day, they learn that reading can be an enjoyable and entertaining activity.

Some environments are print-rich. In these environments, print is used and displayed for different purposes – signs, notices, advertisements, magazines, newspapers, books, timetables, posters, letters, cards, etc. They may be in one language, or two or more languages. Other environments have very little print. Even others have none at all. It is easier for children to learn to read and write in an environment with lots of print because it shows them what reading and writing can be used for. Here are some ideas for how to make your reading club’s meeting place a print-rich environment.

Research has consistently shown that children benefit greatly when fathers (or father figures) are actively involved with their children daily. They tend to do better at school, are happier, can build positive relationships with others, and have fewer negative behaviours. An important and natural way for fathers to bond with their children is to tell or read them stories and to show interest in their play, drawing, and writing activities.