South Africa continues to face challenges in literacy and education broadly. This calls for interventions ranging from teacher training to alternative pedagogical approaches and materials that are responsive to the needs of learners from diverse backgrounds. This paper considers a lexicographical intervention to literacy development in the Foundation Phase. Dictionary use in educational contexts has tended to be reserved for later years when learners are expected to have developed sufficient basic literacy skills that enable them to look up words and dictionary data. The delay in introducing dictionaries and developing dictionary skills results in learners who struggle to use dictionaries for the rest of their lives, thereby missing out on the communicative and cognitive support that dictionaries offer. In addition, educators are also not adequately prepared to integrate dictionaries into their pedagogical practices. This is sadly the case despite the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) recognising dictionaries as core resources and dictionary skills as integral. This paper seeks to analyse three series of Foundation Phase dictionaries to demonstrate how they may complement some prescribed educational materials used for teaching reading and writing according to CAPS. The focus on dictionary pedagogy and integration of dictionary use as part of comprehensive literacy development is aligned with the interactionist philosophy which inspires an interactive approach to reading. It places value on the role of an interactionist teacher in guiding individual inquiry, providing an environment conducive to interaction, and, ensuring the adequate provision of developmentally appropriate materials for exploration and manipulation. This paper recommends the use of dictionaries in early literacy development programs as dictionaries are important meaning-making tools that teachers can use to scaffold learning. Additionally, learners can actively engage with these tools in a social learning environment to better their understanding of the text.

Keywords: Literacy, dictionary, dictionary skills, dictionary culture, reading, Foundation Phase.