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Lessons from developing a multilingual National Reading Framework

Tue, February 21, 4:45 to 6:15pm EST (4:45 to 6:15pm EST), Grand Hyatt Washington, Floor: Independence Level (5B), McPherson Square

Proposal

Daiby (2001) affirmed that 25 percent of the languages spoken on the African continent are found in Nigeria. The country has an estimated five hundred Indigenous languages. A sizable number of the indigenous languages in Nigeria lack orthography and this is why some of them have not been widely used as the language of instruction in school and in textbooks. How well pupils learn to read is determined by the language in which they learn to read. Pupils learn better when they learn in a language they know and understand. Critical to Nigeria’s efforts towards the institutionalization of the teaching of reading in Nigerian schools is the development of a nationally acceptable reading framework. At the core of the reading framework is the National Evaluation Framework for Reading (NEF-R). The NEF-R is a blueprint that clearly outlines the reading skills that must feature in any reading curricula, textbooks, and other reading materials. This paper will examine how, some of the languages with written orthography are incomplete and have peculiar structures that make it difficult to align with the text specifications in the National Evaluation Framework for Reading. We will also examine the lessons learned with working with these languages with difficult orthographies and meeting the text specifications that align with the global proficiency framework for reading. We draw from evidence and experience with two national scale early grade reading programs in Nigeria and lessons learned from international best practice.

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