Technology-enhanced literacy learning in Zambia: Observations from a Multilingual Literacy Environment.

This paper reports on pilot studies which were set up to investigate the usability of and potential efficacy of technology-enhanced training, Graphogame, for learning to read in multilingual settings in Zambia. Apart from the intervention data, the studies revealed interesting opportunities for the identification of challenges faced by the early readers in Zambia. Previous research has shown that training the basic skills of reading (starting from letter-sound correspondences) with Graphogame significantly improves pre-readers early reading skills in a transparent orthography such as Finnish. Since the orthographies of locally spoken languages in Zambia are comparably transparent with that of Finnish, it was hypothesized that the Zambian children would similarly benefit from playing the game. The results support our hypothesis on the usability of the game but more importantly reveal reasons for poor reading achievement of early readers. Children found certain letter-sound correspondences surprisingly difficult. It seems that teaching the local languages by mapping the letter-sound correspondences based on the English letter names has a negative influence on children's learning. We discuss the impact of language on literacy instruction and learning outcomes in light of our empirical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]