Think local. Act global: Challenges and successes in taking local language reading materials global

Session Submission Type: Group Panel

Description of Session

The push by governments and international actors for literacy development using mother tongue instruction in early primary school has been plagued by a general lack of appropriate reading and teaching materials in many language groups. Numerous studies have indicated the benefits of children learning to read in a language that is familiar to them, and the subsequent transferring of reading skills to additional languages once the reader achieves a certain threshold. Many governments, specifically in Africa, have transitioned to mother tongue language of instruction policies for early primary grades, having recognized the need to learn from research conducted on the lack of children's learning within schools. However, the challenge arises in many countries when it comes to effective implementation of the policies: reading materials in local and mother tongue languages either simply do not exist, are of poor quality, or are difficult to obtain. Where they do exist in schools, the availability of supplemental reading materials may be problematic. This previously mentioned research on language of instruction has prompted the development of a movement towards the creation of reading materials in local language. Organizations working to support governments in the pursuit of quality education have begun focusing on the acquisition of local language reading materials, inclusive of all steps from creation, adaptation, storage, sharing, to eventual consumption.

Many argue that just as important as the availability of reading materials is, so is the quality of its content. This includes linguistic development of the actual language, how children learn to read in that specific language, as well as authors' and illustrators' knowledge and use of this information to make engaging and high quality reading materials. With the increase in local language reading materials, issues of adaptation have arisen both within national and international contexts. These encompass the need for 'versioning' and adapting to various contexts and languages, adjusting illustrations, identification of word lists to be included in content, as well as considering questions around ownership.

In order to avail the existing and newly created and adapted reading materials to a larger reader population, attempts at developing effective and efficient methods of storage and sharing have been explored. These range from open source online databases, to electronic cloud-based stores, to pre-packaged sets of reading materials uploaded onto devices. The influx of technological solutions for the storage and sharing of reading materials has introduced innovative ways of finding solutions to the lack of local language reading materials, and it has also provided space for additional research and end user-feedback.

Quality control and large scale marketing and consumption requires additional measures to be put in place. These include engaging professional publishers and academic institutions that contribute to the development of reading materials, as well as Ministries of Education and other branches of government. The sustained development of local language reading materials relies on the support and participation in a larger sphere of influence. In the pursuit of refining each of these steps and developing a global repository, the development of strong networks of organizations and key stakeholders is essential for the process of creating and adapting local language reading materials on a large scale.

While numerous efforts have been made to meet the demand for an abundance of locally relevant reading materials, challenges remain evident. This panel will focus on various aspects of 'what constitutes a viable local language text creation and consumption method,' based on practitioners' experience in implementation including challenges and successes. The presentations will range in discussion from the topics of minutia in content development, digitizing of reading materials, influencing the publishing sphere, and ultimately building a strong network and global repository for local language reading materials. The panelists will examine these different steps taken in the pursuit of this global effort towards achieving local language and mother tongue reading materials solutions while considering the sustainability of their actions thus far, as well as prospects for future work in this area.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Africa

Chair

• Rebecca Leege, World Vision

Individual Presentations

• Learning from language in South Africa - Kelly Shiohira, Literacy Specialist, Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy

• Creation, contextualization, and consumption: Lessons from pilot implementation of African Storybook Project - Dorcas Nafula Wepukhulu, South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE)

• One platform for many stories: digital curation of reading materials - Sarah Jaffe, Senior Manager of Research, Worldreader

• Influencing the publishing market in Ethiopia - Emily Wallace, World Vision International