Foundation Phase Literacy Learner & Teacher Support Material (African Home Language) Programmes/Projects

Molteno’s Vula Bula is endorsed by both the DBE and the NECT as South Africa’s leading Foundation Phase graded reading series. With its adherence to the unique respective phonic features of each African language orthography, each series offer a carefully structured sequence of authentic decodable texts for Grade 1 and Grade 2 learners to master foundational reading skills and strategies in their home language. The Grade 3 series build on these skills and ensure comprehension through more complex texts and CAPS-aligned after reading questions, language and writing activities.

Building on the success of the Vula Bula graded reader series, Molteno has partnered with the Zenex Foundation, Room to Read and the Nelson Mandela Institute (NMI) to develop additional graded readers for the Foundation Phase. The same approach and methodology used in Vula Bula have been adopted to develop decodable texts for Grade 1 and 2 learners, with more complex texts developed for Grade 3 learners.

Breakthrough to Literacy is a comprehensive mother-tongue literacy programme for the first three years of schooling that incorporates learner-centred and language experience approaches. This combined method utilises the aural and oral language skills the child brings into the classroom from home as the basis for learning to read and write. In 2019, Molteno reviewed and revised the BTL Grade 1 programme in seven African languages: Sepedi, Tshivenḓa, Xitsonga, Setswana, isiNdebele, isiZulu and isiXhosa.

Molteno partnered with Wordworks to produce a CAPS-aligned Grade R Language Improvement Programme for the Gauteng Department of Education in isiNdebele, isiZulu, Sesotho, Sepedi, Setswana, Siswati, Tshivenḓa and Xitsonga. Each two-week teaching cycle is built around a story and a carefully designed programme of activities to strengthen learners’ oral language and emergent literacy.