Abstract:
This article examines English Second
Language (ESL) students’ access to
knowledge through early literacy textbased
readings in an under graduate
classroom. A basic qualitative research
design was selected to understand how
students perceive and sustain learning
through text-based readings while using
a whole language approach toward
teaching. Twenty-nine students were
engaged in a survey to determine their
Theoretical Orientation to Reading Profile
(TORP). Fourteen students responded
to focus group interviews. This article
argues particularly for the adoption of textbased
readings as a teaching strategy for
English Language Learning (ELL) in early
childhood teacher training. The results of this TORP survey indicate that much
work needs to be done in order to support
under graduate students’ exposure to skills and strategies for effective ESL
education. The narratives of students’
revealed reading gains as a result of their
increased interaction with reading texts,
the English Second Language (ESL)
challenges, and changing perceptions in
terms of reading and the understanding of
English reading texts in meaningful ways.
The results also highlight students’ ELL
challenges in terms of low self-efficacy
and lack of confidence to speak English.
The study recommends further research
on ESL teaching to carefully document
the outcomes of English Language
Learning within Namibian multilingual
teacher training contexts.
