The Importance of a Reading Culture in the Classroom

Nonkululeko Maringa

April 7, 2025

Read, read and read! As a learner, your teachers told you to read and as student teacher, you are telling your learners to read. What makes reading so important that it’s constantly emphasised, from the moment you are a learner to when you become the teacher?

Why Reading Matters

Reading helps learners develop critical thinking skills and cognitive abilities. It improves their focus, memory, vocabulary, language and communication skills. Reading also leads to learning new things efficiently and enables learners to think creatively. It is the ultimate “learning hack” to advance in the classroom to contribute to society in the workforce.

The Reading Crisis in South Africa

As a nation, South Africa lacks in nurturing a reading culture. As mentioned in one of SANTS’ latest blogs, the most recent Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) shows that 81% of South Africa’s Grade 4 learners struggle to read for meaning. This means that Grade 4 learners are reading words without really understanding what they imply. According to Dr. Botha (2024), the lack of home language education contributes to South Africa’s poor reading culture, as young learners are less likely to relate to literature written in a language other than their mother tongue.

Practical Ways to Get Learners to Read

Now, you may sit with your hands in your hair and wonder how you are going to address the poor reading culture and accomplish the goal of getting your learners to read. Don’t fear, here’s a list of suggestions that you may use to improve your learners’ reading culture:

Getting learners to read:

Acquire fun and exciting reading material.
Teach learners to choose genres of their interest – “Book-Tasting”;
Establish a book cub;
Have all sorts of reading material available in EVERY classroom;
Host a reading or spelling competition;
Celebrate international literacy events in an exciting way;
Expose learners to audiobooks or podcasts.
Play online word games in class and let the learners participate – ‘Wordle”;
Apply “drop-all-and-read”; or
Introduce a book swap.

Reading will open the possibilities of writing, which will then contribute to the development of new literacies in new languages. When learners have an established reading culture, they will start to develop a writing culture.

Getting learners to write:

I know you may think that it is already tough enough to get learners to read, you don’t even want to consider the challenges of getting your learners to write. However, here is another list of methods you can apply to get your learners to write:

Encourage learners to write book reviews (“Book Tasting”);

Allow learners to write drama’s and then perform it;

Let learners write a news article of the school’s events and then present it as news anchors during assembly; or

Encourage learners to write their own books and illustrate their stories – print this for them and use it in class.

Now consider what you, the teacher, can do:

Consider how the classroom should look, create an inviting atmosphere and promote well-known stories and authors with posters.
Upgrade the reading corner or school library.
Create a class TikTok account, where you can recommend books on “BookTok”.
Discuss books you have read and make it a classroom social event.
Inform parents, grandparents or guardians and encourage them to invest in these projects.

Encouraging learners to read and write is important, but it is difficult to promote these language skills if the teachers do not practise what is preached. So, the question is: How often do you read?

References:

Botha, F. (2024). Hoe kry ek my leerders om te lees en skryf? Lenteseminaar vir Afrikaansonderwysers. Pretoria: University of Pretoria.

Du Plooy, M. (2024). Boekietyd – Leesbevordering. Lenteseminaar vir Afrikaansonderwysers. Pretoria: University of Pretoria.