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Last year, people across South Africa helped us read aloud to almost 50 000 children on World Read Aloud Day! In 2015, Nal’ibali was determined to share the power of reading aloud with even more children… And thanks to parents, teachers, librarians, reading club volunteers, and Nal’ibali Literacy Mentors, we managed to reach our goal and set a new reading record. On 4 March 2015, a...

In South Africa, most of the adults who spend time with children in their various capacities as parents, teachers, care­givers, adopters or custodians, do not regularly read aloud to them. And even if they do, with repeated readings of favourite storybooks, most can’t sustain the activity long enough for it to become a habit. This is because if they choose to read in a mother...

Nal’ibali collaborated with South African role models and public figures to highlight the importance of mother tongue languages in children’s literacy development this International Mother Tongue Day! This video emphasises the challenges faced by many young children as they engage with print and other literacy materials in unfamiliar languages on a daily basis. Local celebs such as YouTube sensation, Suzelle DIY, actress and Freshlyground lead singer, Zolani Mahola, as well as soccer...

This International Mother Tongue Day, Dr Pamela Maseko, Senior Lecturer at the School of Language in African Languages Studies at the Rhodes University in Grahamstown, analyses the role of multilingualism in education. We all learn better when we understand what the teacher says and the language we understand best, in normal situations, is, of course, our mother tongue. In our context, mother tongue refers to the language...