The Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA) is a multilingual, early literacy research and development organisation, affiliated with the University of Cape Town. PRAESA’s work in literacy approaches, curricula, training, materials development and research has meaning making, stories and imagination as its compass point. PRAESA’s aim is to ensure all young children from diverse language, class and cultural backgrounds have appropriate opportunities to become imaginative and critical readers and writers.
The nurturing nature of play
The nurturing nature of playRich, pretend play underlies our ability to understand the symbolic nature of written language. But it’s much more than that too. Pretend play also has the power to comfort, help solve problems and leads to empathy and understanding. This...
Feeling at home with literacy
In this video, shot on location in a Cape Town primary school and elsewhere in the city, the viewer spends time with a little girl, Zia who is just starting to read and write. Zia finds literacy stimuli all around her and in some unexpected places, guided by her mother and teachers who use all of the languages present in the classroom as a resource, instead of an obstacle.
Multilingual story-sharing
Listen to and follow the delightfully animated story of Kimi’s Cat. Adults and children can join in and read words in any of the 11 South African official language versions. There is also a story-sharing demonstration in English that can be used with teachers and parents to discuss ways of sharing storybooks with young children.