Support for children’s acquisition of literacy in Zambian languages

Contents

Development and field-testing of GraphoGame

Teacher appreciation and consultation workshop

Field testing of digital tablets as classroom instructional resources

Curriculum instructional support to teacher training institutions

Orthography harmonization

Limited circulation reports by CAPOLSA

Support for children’s acquisition of literacy in Zambian languages

Development and field-testing of GraphoGame

GraphoGame^TM 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: 9-10^th 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.   

Publication of stories in Zambian languages

CAPOLSA’s Early Grade Readers in Zambian languages

Contents

SPEECH by the Permanent Secretary of MESVTEE

The first eight Early Grade Readers published by CAPOLSA in partnership with Maiden Press in 2013

Goals and functions of the Readers

Needs to which the Readers respond

Quality assurance

Origins of the texts

 

The production process

Further development of child-friendly reading materials for Early Grade literacy promotion

• Stories and poems in kiKaonde, Lunda and Luvale
• The Core Vocabulary Project
• Writers' Workshops:

• Translation and editing

 

 

SPEECH by the

Permanent Secretary of MESVTEE Mr Chishimba Nkosha

, on the occasion of the launching ceremony for CAPOLSA’s Early Grade Readers in Zambian Languages.

 

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen

Literacy is a key goal of education. Individual literacy (“the ability to read and write so as to understand and communicate effectively”) has become an essential skill in the modern world. And every Zambian child should be given the opportunity to become literate before she or he leaves school. Unlike the ability to communicate with spoken language, children are not equipped biologically to acquire literacy without assistance. Literacy is a cultural invention and children must be introduced to it by the generation that came before them.

The National Literacy Framework launched by my Ministry in January this year is based on the principles that

• Reading is a foundation skill for all school learning and

• Learners learn the first stages of literacy more easily through a familiar language

Thus the curriculum of the Early Grades (Grades 1 to 4) places great emphasis on the introduction of young children to the writing system of a widely spoken indigenous language. Depending on the region, this may be ciNyanja, iciBemba, chiTonga, siLozi, kiKaonde, Lunda or Luvale.

 

Effective education begins where the learner is and proceeds from the known to the unknown. Since most of the children entering Grade 1 in Zambia arrive with a strong knowledge of how to speak and understand one of those seven languages, that is where the Grade 1 curriculum begins. In the later Grades, after the learner has achieved competence in how to read and write in a Zambian language, the curriculum introduces her or him to the writing system of English, a language that will become more and more important as she or he progresses to more advanced levels of education.

 

Research in psychology, linguistics and child development has shown that one of the keys to acquiring initial literacy is mastery of the spelling code that links the particular sounds of a spoken language to the particular symbols or letters used by the script used to represent that language in writing. The song we heard today illustrates that code for the Zambian languages: a-e-i-o-u! If children learn to sing that song while looking at the letters, they are making a good start on learning to read in any of the indigenous Bantu languages of Zambia: ciNyanja, iciBemba, chiTonga, siLozi, kiKaonde, Lunda or Luvale. And if they play the Graphogame we have been hearing about today, that knowledge will be strengthened.

 

After a child has mastered that code of “one letter, one sound”, she will be ready to start reading for meaning, and that is where the storybooks that we are launching today are so valuable. They tell simple, but also interesting stories that children will enjoy reading aloud:

 

“SHAKAME NI SEELUFOONI”,  a story about how animals came across a cell-phone lying in the grass and tried to figure out what it was for, composed in siLozi, and then translated for publication by CAPOLSA in ciNyanja, iciBemba and chiTonga;

 

“CHITI AKOSHA UMULILO” , a story about a girl whose brothers wouldn’t let her light the fire until she met Kalulu who came up with a clever idea, composed in iciBemba, and then translated for publication by CAPOLSA in ciNyanja, chiTonga and siLozi;

 

The books also contain other stories and poems composed in ciNyanja or in chiTonga and then translated for publication by CAPOLSA into the other languages. This will enable Zambian children, no matter which is their first language, to enjoy these fruits of our African story-telling tradition while practicing and perfecting their new skills of retrieving the meaning of a text by reading it.

 

The authors who composed these stories are all Zambians, and mother-tongue speakers of the languages in which they were composed. The stories were selected by a jury of local experts in Zambian languages, recruited by CAPOLSA from the linguistics and education staff of UNZA, and from among the language specialists at the Government’s Curriculum Development Centre to decide on the award of prizes for the best stories and poems submitted to a nationwide, public competition in 2011. We are grateful to the Niilo Maki Institute in Finland for sponsoring that competition.

 

The editorial work of simplifying the sentence structures, vocabulary and spelling of the stories to make them accessible to young minds, and then translating the texts from one Zambian Language to another was undertaken by Zambian Language experts drawn from the same pool as the judges who identified the prize-winning stories. This involved extended, technical work coordinated by CAPOLSA in 2012 and 2013, under the skilful supervision of CAPOLSA’s Projects Cooperation Officer, to whom I would like to pay special tribute today: Mrs Mwanza Nakawala Maumbi. I understand that CAPOLSA has already completed the editorial work for production of a second batch of Early Grade Readers in ki-Kaonde, Lunda and Luvale, and that they have several other lines of development under way for innovative reading materials to support the early literacy learning of children in Zambian languages.

 

CAPOLSA joined with one of the few local publishing houses that has continued to publish in the Zambian languages in recent years: Maiden Publishing House, who recruited some excellent local artists to illustrate the books. I wish to acknowledge the efforts in that regard of the General Manager of Maiden Publishing: Mrs. Christine Kasonde. The Ministry is delighted to see this positive outcome of a public-private partnership in the publication of quality educational materials for use in the nation’s schools.

 

Now that the books have been printed and are ready for distribution to the schools, the Ministry’s Curriculum Development Centre has agreed to collaborate with CAPOLSA on evaluation of the books, by interviewing teachers, parents and children themselves about their impressions of the books, including how they are illustrated, and the simplified, child-friendly spelling system adopted by CAPOLSA on the recommendations of expert language and literacy researchers. Based on that evaluation, CAPOLSA, CDC and other publishers will be better informed about the opinions of the most important stakeholders for whom Early Grade reading materials are produced, so that knowledge can be applied to the design of future publications.

 

One very important stakeholder group comprises Early Grade teachers, who are entrusted with the important and challenging task of guiding young children’s initial literacy learning. In order to assist teachers to make the best use of these Readers, CAPOLSA has embarked on a programme of in-service training to guide them in ways of integrating the reading of these storybooks into the overall literacy curriculum, along with other teaching aids such as the a-e-i-o-u song and the Graphogame. The Zambian scholars who have been conducting local research on the effectiveness of the Graphogame in Grade 1 classes are contributing their knowledge and skills to this in-service teacher education programme designed to apply theory and empirical research evidence to the enhancement of professional practices in our schools. In that regard, I wish to acknowledge their professionalism and commitment to public service. They are, in alphabetical order:

Tamara  Chansa  Kabali, Jacqueline Jere Folotiya, Jonathan Munachaka, Francis Sampa, and Christopher Yalukanda. Their work has been supervised in Lusaka by Professor Robert Serpell, Coordinator of CAPOLSA, in close collaboration with his counterpart in Finland, the original designer of Graphogame, Professor Heikki Lyytinen.

 

The Government of Finland has been a strong, long-time partner with the Government of Zambia in promoting development of the Education sector in Zambia. The establishment of CAPOLSA at UNZA as a coordinating body for the preparation of these child-friendly reading materials in Zambian languages has been a joint project between UNZA and the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland. The Ministry of Education (MESTVTEE) is delighted to witness the launch of these books, which we hope will be just the first of many such publications of learning resources for the promotion of literacy in our schools.

 

By starting to learn in the Zambian languages, the next generation of young learners will progress into the upper primary Grades with a stronger foundation of basic literacy skills. And when they graduate from Grade 7 as youths they will carry with them greater confidence in the cultural wealth of their African heritage. The scholars at UNZA who have invested so much effort in the preparation of these books are to be congratulated on a job well done. We are proud as a Ministry to be partnering with the nation’s leading public university in the research and development that goes into quality assurance for the general public that our school curricula are serving the best needs of the learners enrolled in them. Zambia still has a long way to go to achieve quality education for all. But we are committed to working towards that goal with all the resources at the nation’s disposal. These books and the programme of stakeholder evaluation and teacher training that comes with them are important steps in the right direction.

 

It is therefore my great pleasure to formally launch CAPOLSA’s first edition of Early Grade Readers, and to commend CAPOLSA (the Centre for Promotion of Literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa) for achieving this important step forward in the fulfillment of the Centre’s goals.

May God bless all of you

 

The first eight Early Grade Readers published by CAPOLSA in partnership with Maiden Press

in 2013 are:

 

ChiTonga Book 1: SULWE A SELOFONI

 

CiNyanja Book 1: KALULU NA LAMYA YA KUMANJA

 

IciBemba Book 1: KALULU NA LAMYA

 

SiLozi Book 1:     SHAKAME NI SELOFONI

 

ChiTonga Book 2: CHITI WAKUNKA MULILO

 

CiNyanja Book 2: CHITI AYASA MOTO

 

IciBemba Book 2: CHITI AKOSHA UMULILO

 

SiLozi Book 2:     CHITI UTUMBULA MULILO

 

Each book contains 4 texts, 2 stories and 2 poems, illustrated with full colour pictures. All texts and illustrations were designed by Zambian authors, artists and editors to appeal to children aged 6-10, and to be easy to read and understand as soon as they have taken the first steps of literacy in that language. Each text is followed by a set of three questions for an adult teacher or parent to use for prompting reflection by a young reader on the meaning of the text.

 

Goals and functions of the Readers

CAPOLSA’s mandate to promote literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa is being implemented through several strategies. One of these is the production and dissemination of child-friendly reading materials in the indigenous languages of Zambia.

 

The first 32 texts contained in these booklets comprise 4 stories and 4 poems in each of 4 Zambian languages. They have been edited for use in Primary School Grades 1 to 4, in Early Childhood Care and Education Centres and in the homes of children aged between 6 and 12, to provide entertaining opportunities for initial readers to practice their emerging skills.

 

Children familiar with the language in which a given text is written will enjoy listening to it read aloud by a competent reader. Learners enrolled in Grades 1 to 4 will find these texts easy to read once they have mastered the letter-sound correspondence rules of the language in which they are written. The spelling system used is a child-friendly, transparent and acceptable adaptation of the standard orthography published by the Ministry of Education in 1977.

 

Needs to which the Readers respond

Initial literacy instruction has had a checkered history in Zambia. During the colonial period, mission schools and government schools favoured use of the indigenous African languages as the medium of instruction in the early grades. However, shortly after independence in 1964, the Government introduced the English Medium Scheme under which children received initial literacy instruction from Grade1 in the medium of English, a language claimed as a mother tongue by less than one per cent of adults in the 1969 national population census. Several problems were identified with this policy during a national Educational Reforms debate (1975-77), giving rise to a formal proposal to reintroduce seven of the indigenous languages as the medium of instruction in the Early Grades (1-4). However, the proposal was rejected by the Ministry in its final policy document, and the English Medium Scheme remained in place for another twenty years.

 

In 1996, the Government published a landmark new policy document, Educating our Future, stating that “all pupils will be given an opportunity to learn initial basic skills of reading and writing in a local language”. In order to implement this policy, a new curriculum was developed, under the title New Breakthrough to Literacy (NBTL). Pilot testing in several different rural zones showed that first-grade children who received initial literacy instruction in the dominant local language made better progress than those immersed in English from the start. In light of those findings, a new generation of teachers were trained in the new curriculum, which mandates that initial literacy shall be offered in all government primary schools in one of seven of Zambia’s indigenous Bantu languages depending on the regional zone.

 

Over the following decade (2003-2013), however, a growing crisis of public confidence has emerged. While some initial gains in reading skills have been reported in the Zambian languages, the overall literacy profile of Zambian children in Grades 5 and 6 of government primary schools has remained very poor. Many researchers and policymakers have attributed this to the inclusion of an early start to literacy instruction in English, beginning in the second grade before most children have fully mastered basic literacy in a Zambian language. In 2014, the Ministry announced that the use of Zambian languages as the principal medium of instruction will henceforth be maintained throughout Grades 1 to 4.

 

During the long period of the English Medium Scheme, publication of schoolbooks and general literature in the Zambian languages underwent a drastic reduction, so that there are currently very few suitable texts available for children to apply and exercise their newly acquired initial literacy skills in any of the Zambian languages. There is thus a recognised need for production of new Early Grade reading materials in all the seven indigenous Zambian Bantu languages mandated as media for initial literacy instruction. Individual multilingualism is very widespread in Zambian society, and there is a high level of intra-national mobility. CAPOLSA’s publishing programme is therefore designed to facilitate children’s acquisition of basic literacy in several of the indigenous Bantu languages.

 

Quality assurance

The first draft of the texts for inclusion in the CAPOLSA Early Grade Readers were original compositions by first-language speakers of the seven indigenous Bantu languages currently prescribed as media of initial literacy instruction in various regions of Zambia. In preparing these texts for publication, CAPOLSA has mobilised the expertise of UNZA and CDC linguists and Zambian language specialists, supported by distinguished Zambian scholars working in the diaspora.

 

Prize-winning stories and poems submitted to a national competition were selected for their excellence by a panel of expert judges, comprising Zambian language specialists based at the University of Zambia (UNZA) or the Ministry of Education’s Curriculum Development Centre (CDC). The selected stories were then translated from one Zambian language to another, and edited for child-friendliness and spelling by teams of Zambian language specialists working in pairs, one of whom was an expert in the language of original composition, while the other was an expert in the target language of the translation.

 

The spelling adopted by CAPOLSA for this first round of publication of Early Grade Readers was guided by consultation with a select group of language experts convened in Lusaka by CAPOLSA in 2011, including senior language scholars at the University of Zambia (Prof Mubanga Kashoki, Dr Mildred Nkolola-Wakumelo, Mr Chishimba Nkosha), language specialists at the CDC (Mr Bostor Mwendende, Ms Petronella Hachoona) and distinguished Zambian language scholars working abroad (Prof Felix Banda, University of the Western Cape, South Africa - UWC; Prof Lazarus Miti, Centre for the Advanced Study of African Society, Cape Town - CASAS)

 

Origins of the texts

The stories and poems featured in CAPOLSA’s Early grade Readers originated from the Kalulu Story Writing Competition (see http://info.graphogame.com/blog), which was an initiative of our partners, the grapholearning team based at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland. In order to capture stories from different parts of the country embedded in different cultures, the competition was advertised for several weeks in 2011 on national radio, TV and in the national press, inviting people irrespective of their language and age to contribute. More than 700 stories were received in the seven languages approved by the national government (GRZ) as languages of instruction in the early grades namely chiTonga, ciNyanja, iciBemba, kiKaonde, Lunda, Luvale and siLozi. IciBemba had the largest number of entries (more than 300) followed by ciNyanja, chiTonga, siLozi, kiKaonde, Lunda and Luvale. All of the entries were reviewed by an expert panel of adjudicators who recommended to CAPOLSA the best story and poem in each of the named languages. Thirteen prizes in all were awarded to the authors of the Best and Most Creative Stories and Poems, and one prize was awarded to the author of the Best Illustrated Story, at a colourful ceremony held in the grounds of Kaunda Square Basic School, Lusaka on 19 October 2011.

 

The production process

The eight prize-winning stories and poems in ciNyanja, iciBemba, chiTonga and siLozi (the most widely used Zambian languages of initial literacy instruction) were selected for inclusion in CAPOLSA’s first phase of publication of Early Grade Readers. Two texts originally written in each of those four languages were translated into the other three languages by language specialists. This was in order to give a chance to all children whose medium of instruction is one of the four languages to access stories that were originally written by authors from regions of Zambia other than their own. Thus each language version contains the same two stories and poems, with the same illustrations.

 

As explained elsewhere on this website, CAPOLSA was prompted to look systematically into the spelling system (orthography) of the Zambian languages due to the many inconsistencies that were displayed in several books previously published in those languages. The orthographic guidelines agreed at CAPOLSA’s Orthographic harmonization workshop in August 2012 (see item 2 below) were then applied to the texts submitted to Maiden Publishers for type-setting, illustration and printing. The publishing house worked closely with CAPOLSA on the distribution of texts across a lower (Grades 1&2) and higher (Grades 3&4) level as well as on the location, character and quality of the illustrations, and the selection of fonts. The first consignment of published booklets were delivered to CAPOLSA in September 2013, and presented to CAPOLSA’s multisectoral Advisory Board at its meeting that month. A launching ceremony is planned for early in 2014.

 

Further development of child-friendly reading materials for Early Grade literacy promotion

Stories and poems in kiKaonde, Lunda and Luvale

All the eight titles published in the first set of Early Grade Readers have since been translated into kiKaonde, Lunda and Luvale and those versions have been compiled into six more booklets (two in each language) that are camera-ready for publication. In addition, editorial work at CAPOLSA has focused on the stories and poems composed in kiKaonde, Lunda and Luvale that were awarded prizes in the Kalulu competition. These texts have also been refined and shortened to make them suitable for young readers, and then translated into the other two languages by the specialists, and their spelling standardised in accordance with a simplified and easy to learn orthography. There is thus a total of 15 of these stories and poems in store awaiting publication.

 

This project is designed to support the promotion of children’s cognitive development in Zambia’s multilingual society, and to reduce the sensitivities to linguistic differences that may occur in cases of children moving to different regions. The goal is to generate interesting reading materials originating from different regions, composed in such a way as to enable children to read text not only in their principal language or mother tongue, but also in the other languages without need for translation. A workshop was convened by CAPOLSA in May 2013 to move the project forward. The main objective was to make a compilation of reading materials sharing over 70% of vocabulary from some Zambian languages. The resource persons invited for the workshop came from different backgrounds and included indigenous speakers of: ciNyanja, iciBemba and chiTonga. The workshop generated lists of common vowels, consonants, syllables and core vocabulary words shared across the three languages, as well as a total of 48 stories. It is anticipated that these outputs will be used for the further development of instructional materials via GraphoGame and/or digital tablets to be distributed across most of Zambia’s government schools in the next few years.

 

Writers' Workshops:

Building on CAPOLSA’s experience in Phase 1 with the Kalulu Story-writing competition, with the translation of prize-winning entries from one Zambian language to another, and with their editorial refinement for publication as resources for Early Grade readers, a series of writers’ workshops has been initiated. The workshops are intended to enhance the awareness and relevant skills of promising writers by exposing them to examples of highly rated children’s literature in English and Zambian languages, and guided discussion of writing principles and techniques that may be useful to them for further creative writing of child-friendly literature in the Zambian languages.

Preparation of the Workshops was guided by Prof Robert Cancel, a distinguished researcher of African traditional and contemporary narrative practices with long experience in Zambia, who was attached in 2012-13 to the UNZA Department of Literature and Languages as a Visiting Fullbright Professor. Ms Mulenga Kapwepwe, Chairman of the Zambia National Arts Council and Mr Gankhanani Moyo, a Lecturer in the UNZA Department of Literature and Languages assumed overall coordinating responsibility for the workshop series and met over a number of weeks with resource persons recruited to lead each workshop depending on their particular linguistic expertise. CAPOLSA corresponded with writers awarded prizes or certificates of excellence in the Kalulu Story-writing competition and some other candidates recommended by the expert resource persons, and handled the logistical arrangements for the workshops.

The first workshop on Bemba language writing was held in the conference room of the School of Veterinary Medicine on the Great East Road campus of UNZA from 12-14 June 2013, under the leadership of Ms Eunice Mukonde-Mulenga, Lecturer in the Department of Literature & Languages. The second on Nyanja writing was held at the same venue from 17-19 July 2013, under the leadership of Ms Naomi Njobvu, also a Lecturer in the Department of Literature & Languages.   The workshops were generally deemed successful by the 10-15 writers who attended each, and by the slate of creative writing and child development experts who joined in. Discussion at each workshop was conducted almost entirely in the medium of the language for which participants were preparing to compose child-friendly literature, and a small panel of children enrolled in Early Grades of a local primary school were invited on the last day of each workshop to attend and read aloud some of the stories that had been generated.

 

Translation and editing

Stories in kiKaonde, Lunda and Luvale. The 8 stories published by CAPOLSA in iciBemba, ciNyanja, chiTonga and siLozi have since been translated into kiKaonde, Lunda and Luvale. In addition the 5 prize winning entries in kiKaonde, Lunda and Luvale to the 2011 Kalulu Storywriting Competition have been cross-translated among those three languages. These stories have all been edited for length and content, and study questions have been prepared. What remains is a final review for spelling in accordance with CAPOLSA orthography, plus translation of the stories and poems in those languages into the other 4 languages: iciBemba, ciNyanja, chiTonga and siLozi.

 

Funds permitting, CAPOLSA plans to conduct additional Writers Workshops in other Zambian languages during 2014.

 

 

 

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The Centre for the Promotion of Literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa (CAPOLSA)

is based in the Psychology Department, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, on the Great East Road Campus of the University of Zambia. It was established in May 2011 in cooperation with the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland with financial support from the Government of Finland, through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

Lusaka Grade 1 learners playing Graphogame

CAPOLSA Early Grade Readers in two Zambian languages

Grade 3 child reading aloud a newly composed story 

at CAPOLSA writers workshop

PLEASE NOTE: this site is under development

introductory video about CAPOLSA 2013

The Centre has the following staff:

Coordinator:                           Dr Jacqueline Jere-Folotiya, PhD (Educational Psychology)

Projects Cooperation Officer: Ms Mwanza Nakawala Maumbi, BA, MSc (Neuropsychology)

Office Manager:                      Ms Eneless Mtonga Njobvu, Dip (Secretarial Studies)

Psychology Department, UNZA, PO Box 32379, Lusaka, Zambia

Phone: (+260) 211 290850

Email: CAPOLSA@unza.zm OR

jfolotiya@gmail.com OR mwanzanakawala@gmail.com OR eneless69@yahoo.com

                                               CAPOLSA ‘s mandate
Includes applied research, curriculum development, instructional innovation, teacher education and production of child-friendly reading materials in African languages to support children’s initial reading acquisition.

                         For Detailed information on the activities of CAPOLSA click on the following links

•  The main achievements of the project during its first five years

• Publication of Children’s stories in Zambian languages

• Support for children’s acquisition of literacy in Zambian languages 
• Graphogame
•  
• CAPOLSA research - overview 2014