Support for children’s acquisition of literacy in Zambian languages
Contents
Teacher appreciation and consultation workshop
Support for children’s acquisition of literacy
in Zambian languages
Development and field-testing of GraphoGame
GraphoGameTM
is a computer-mediated online environment for learning letter-sound
correspondences developed in Finland by Professor Lyytinen and his colleagues
at the University of Jyvaskyla. The Reading Support for Zambian children
Project (RESUZ) was a separately funded research project designed to assess the
feasibility of deploying GraphoGame in poorly serviced government primary
schools, and to evaluate scientifically the impact of various modalities of exposure
to the game on children’s initial literacy learning. It also provided a
professional training opportunity for five Zambian citizens with a Masters
degree to progress towards the attainment of a PhD degree, as a contribution to
national and institutional capacity-building for research. CAPOLSA’s role has
been to support the latter, capacity-building function of the project and to
assist with the dissemination of the project’s findings to relevant audiences,
with a view to optimizing the operational implementation of the project’s
implications for policy development, professional practices and training. Visit
the grapholearning initaitive here
Teacher appreciation and consultation workshop
A
total of 93 teachers and 35 head teachers attended this workshop, which was
officially opened by Ministry of Education, Science, Vocational Training and
Early Education (MoE/MSTVTEE), Acting Director for Teacher Education and
Specialized Services Mr. James Chilufya.
“The
purpose of the workshop was to bring together all people who had played a role
in the successful implementation of the research from inception to date. The
workshop created a platform for sharing experiences and discussing ways of
improving implementation research that is of a similar nature to the RESUZ
project. It was also used an opportunity to thank the teachers and their heads
for their co-operation during the entire duration of the project. Preliminary
findings of the research were also disseminated during the workshop. The
workshop was also used to distribute phones that had the Graphogame installed
to the various schools as a token of appreciation.
“The
key objective of the workshop was to bring people who had been involved in the
research to meet in a free and neutral environment away from other distracting
factors to interact together and share their experiences. The following were
the specific objectives of the workshop:
- To express our appreciation for the cooperation we received from the 42 Lusaka schools we worked with during the duration of the project.
- To learn from Grade 1 teachers and Head Teachers about their experiences with the project
- To share some of the findings of the project
- To explain the benefits we believe the project can bring to the quality of basic literacy teaching
- To give a preview of the way forward” (Sampa et al, 2012).
Field testing of digital tablets as classroom instructional resources
The University of Jyvaskyla has procured a number of digital tablets specially manufactured at a
competitive price to enable web-based (mobile) use of
African language versions of GraphoGame™ in African schools. During the months
of May-July 2013, these were field-tested as educational resources in a sample
of about 20 Lusaka government primary school Grade 1 classes, by a team of UNZA
undergraduate students under the supervision of a visiting student from the
University of Jyvaskyla, Mr Karri Kauppinen, in collaboration with UNZA
Lecturer, Mr Gabriel Walubita. In addition to displaying the ciNyanja version
of GraphoGame for interactive play, the tablets were programmed with a number
of instructional videos prepared by the University of Jyvaskyla to orient teachers
to the theoretical rationale of GraphoGame™ and its links to other aspects of
the initial literacy curriculum, and with easily readable copies of the 8
stories in ciNyanja prepared by CAPOLSA for publication. This work was
sponsored by CAPOLSA under the terms of a supplementary grant from the Niilo
Makki Institute through the University of Jyvaskyla to cover all operational
expenses
Zambian language letter-sound song production
Research has shown
that children’s familiarity with “nursery rhymes”, and their mastery of the
letter names through songs about A-B-C are both positively correlated with
their rate of literacy learning. However, the letter-sound correspondence rules
of English are very different from those of any of the Bantu languages. CAPOLSA
therefore decided to develop some popular songs for dissemination on the radio
that correctly match the letter-sound correspondence rules of ciNyanja, many of
which are also shared with the other six Bantu languages currently used in
Zambia for initial literacy instruction in Zambia’s government schools:
iciBemba, chiTonga, siLozi, kiKaonde, Lunda and Luvale. A local media
production company was contracted to compose three songs with accompanying
videos, which have since been revised until they met all of CAPOLSA’s
stipulations. The songs and videos were finalized in August 2013, and a
licensing agreement signed with the company that transfers all publication
rights to CAPOLSA.
Curriculum & instructional support to teacher training institutions
Visits were made
by RESUZ Project Leaders in 2012 to Primary Teacher Education Colleges
to sensitise College Lecturers to the uses of the GraphoGame and to learn from
them about any logistical constraints likely to arise in their deployment in
Colleges as teacher training resources.
Orthography harmonization
The CAPOLSA consultative workshop on harmonisation of
orthographies for Zambian languages was held in the UNZA Psychology
Department from 9 to 10 August, 2012.
Annex 1 presents a summary of the Workshop’s goals, participants and conclusions.
(copies available on request to the Projects
Cooperation Officer: Ms Mwanza Nakawala Maumbi lukundonaks@gmail.com
)
Limited circulation reports by CAPOLSA
Maumbi, M.N. & Serpell, R. (2012).
CAPOLSA consultative workshop on harmonisation of orthographies for Zambian
languages. Lusaka: CAPOLSA, Psychology Department, UNZA.
Sampa, F.K., Jere-Folotiya, J. &
Serpell, R. (2012). Reading support for Zambian children: report on
appreciation and consultation workshop for schools. Lusaka: CAPOLSA, Psychology
Department, UNZA.
Annexes
Annex 1
CAPOLSA CONSULTATIVE WORKSHOP ON HARMONISATION OF
ORTHOGRAPHIES FOR ZAMBIAN LANGUAGES
Lusaka, Zambia: 9-10th August, 2012
GOALS OF THE WORKSHOP
1.
To
review the 1977 Republic of Zambia Ministry of Education (MoE) approved
Standardized Orthography.
2.
To
harmonize the spelling system/orthography within and across seven of the
Zambian languages approved by MoE as official languages of the education system
in order to ease the acquisition of literacy among early learners.
3.
To iron
out disagreements existing among linguists of the region as regards the
spelling system for the benefit of early learners.
4.
To try
and achieve the most transparent way of promoting the acquisition of literacy.
5.
To bring
harmony between sound pronunciation and the writing system within and across
languages so that one spelling represents the same sound for easier acquisition
of reading and writing in several different Zambian languages.
WORKSHOP
PARTICIPANTS
Prof. Felix Banda University of the Western Cape (UWC), Cape
Town
Ms. Petronella
M. Hachoona Curriculum
Development Centre (CDC)
Prof. Mubanga Kashoki UNZA Institute of Economic & Social
Research (INESOR)
Prof.Lazarus M. Miti Open
Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), Johannesburg
Mr. Kyangubabi Chika Muyebaa Curriculum Development Centre (CDC)
Dr. Joseph Mwansa UNZA, School of Education, Dept of Language
& SS Education
Mr. Mundia Bostor Mwendende Curriculum Development Centre (CDC)
Dr. Beatrice Nkolola-Wakumelo UNZA, School of HSS, Dept of Literature
& Languages
Mr. Chishimba Nkosha UNZA, School of Education, Dept of
Language & SS Education
Prof. Robert Serpell UNZA, School of HSS, CAPOLSA, Psychology
Dept.
RECORDER: Ms Mwanza Nakawala Maumbi, Projects
Cooperation Officer, CAPOLSA
The Workshop made a number of
specific recommendations for the spelling of ChiTonga, CiNyanja IciBemba,
KiKaonde, Lunda, Luvale, and SiLozi in its publication of the first set of
stories for Early Grade learners generated in 2011 through the Kalulu
Storywriting competition and translated and edited by CAPOLSA.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
CAPOLSA recognizes that the
spellings that result from these recommendations will depart in a small number
of significant ways from the MoE (1977) Approved Orthography. We believe that
those departures are warranted in the light of careful deliberations by the
expert group assembled at the workshop in August 2012. We believe that as a
responsible actor in the domain of educational publishing, CAPOLSA should
participate in the progressive change of standards towards the goal of greater
unification of orthography across the various Bantu languages of the region, especially
those widely used for educational purposes in Zambia. We recognize that some of
the specific spellings adopted for this first set of publications by CAPOLSA
may appear to some adult readers to be inelegant, inappropriate or incorrect.
However, we believe that young readers in the early grades of schooling will
find them easy to decode and that this will enable them to extract meaning from
the text and to appreciate the content. At a later date we anticipate inviting
a sample of teachers and parents to report back on how the spelling system we
have adopted has been received. Orthography, like other aspects of language, is
a dynamic cultural process that reflects wider changes in society. We hope that
the small step taken in this report and the publication of children’s stories
that flows from it will contribute positively to the promotion of literacy in
the next generation of citizens of Zambia and the rest of Sub-Saharan
Africa.
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