Reading and Use of Informational Material by South African Youth

Research on children's reading habits, preferences, and use of information provides useful insights for those working to motivate children and young people to read and use information. This study, conducted by the Children's Literature Research Unit (CLRU) in the Department of Information Science at the University of South Africa (Unisa), Pretoria, was modeled on a study of children's reading habits in England conducted by the Roehampton Institute in the 1990s. Findings reported in this article are related to the reading of informational material by children between the ages of 9 and 16 in South Africa. Although many learners in South Africa have limited access to school libraries or public libraries, the study participants had a positive attitude to reading and nonfiction texts. They were developing strategies to deal with information texts by using retrieval tools, and they were prepared to persevere with books even if they did not understand some words. The study shoiued that children's reading interests in South Africa are not radically different from those of children in England. However, because many young people in South Africa read in a second language, information books need to be written with this in mind.