Communication is central to the education process. Language and the functions of language play a very important role in schools. Reading development in the primary schools is central to the success of learners as they progress through school. Evaluations in South Africa have shown that reading achievement in the Foundation Phase is low, especially for learners with African languages as their home language. The purpose of this study was to investigate the way in which reading is taught in Limpopo Primary Schools. The study adopted a qualitative approach and used observation, interviews and document analysis to generate data. Learners come to school from different backgrounds, language groups, cultures and socio-economic status. Learners in South African schools usually experience challenges and perform poorly with respect to literacy and numeracy. To become competitive in the global arena, there is an urgent need to raise the standards of education. Language is required for all learning, including numeracy and mathematics. There is a need for the involvement of all stakeholders in the language acquisition process of learners. The outcomes revealed that the multilingual Foundation Phase classes made it difficult to assist all learners who experienced language problems because teachers could not speak well the Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) at the school.

language, learners, learning, reading, school