High literacy level, very low reading culture: an examination of the underlying causes of the Zimbabwean paradox
Journal Title: JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN LINGUISTICS - Year 2016, Vol 7, Issue 2
Abstract
Zimbabwe currently boasts of one of the highest literacy levels in Africa. Paradoxically, such an encouraging state of affairs is not paralleled with a high reading culture. Instead, the high levels of literacy are undone by a very low reading culture. This paper is an exploration of the possible underlying causes of such a state of affairs as well as the possible intervention strategies. It used the qualitative paradigm, with interviews and semistructured questionnaires being employed to extract information from selected teachers, learners, parents, readers, publishers and bookshop managers. For teachers, learners, readers and parents, random sampling was used whilst purposive sampling was used for publishers and bookshop managers. Data was discussed in accordance with the themes that emerged. The paper observed that the reasons of the paradox included: emphasis on passing the examination, high costs of living and of producing and accessing reading literature, paucity of serious works of art that illuminate life. Possible intervention strategies included: re-orienting the education system, partnerships meant to avail and subsidise accessibility of literature, re-orienting the Zimbabwean language policy and improving marketing strategies for literature.
Authors and Affiliations
Godwin Makaudze, Jairos Kangira
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP169986
- DOI -
- Views 86
- Downloads 0
Sri Guru Granth Vich Prastut Mull Vidhant
Sri guru granth sahib bharat di dharmik ate darshnik prampra da oh vadmulla sarmaya hai, jis vich chintan ate phalasphe nu satkare'a gaya hai. Eh guru sahiban ji di maulik ate and alukik vichaar dhara da sarup hai.
Towards a Semantic Prosodies Approach in the Study of Irony
The advent of large corpora such as the LOB, Brown¦made it possible for readers to perceive consistencies in the influence of collocation on the behaviour of particular linguistic forms. Irony as a stylistic phenomenon p...
Symbolic Code of S/Z: A Semiological Reading of James Joyces Two Gallants
Like a number of other stories of Dubliners,Two Gallants because of it coded polyphony is debatable on the level of significance. It seems that the story strategically convey some crucial information to the reader by dec...
The Use Of Slang Amongst Undergraduate Students Of A Malaysian Public University
Slang is the use of highly informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's dialect or language. Slang is very often colloquial: the language and dialect tend to be specific to a particula...
Analyzing the Relationship of English Language Learning Anxiety and English Language Learning Strategy Use Among English Major Undergraduates in Shi Jiazhuang, China
The study investigated the general state of foreign language learning anxiety and the relationship between foreign language learning anxiety and foreign language learning strategy among English major college students in...