By Akani Nkuna
Home language is a key driver of knowledge acquisition and personal empowerment, unlocking opportunities that may have otherwise been out of reach, according to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
CSIR senior researcher Dr Laurette Marais was speaking during a technological innovations webinar to tackle South Africa’s literacy issues.
“Home language has been one the best vehicles for imparting knowledge and enabling people to make something of their lives that would otherwise perhaps not have been possible.
“Research has shown that home language literacy empowers and liberates, it reduces poverty, it enables inclusion and it promotes equity because it is an equaliser,” she said.
This follows after the release of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study that showed that South African children struggled to read for meaning. The CSIR amplified that despite that report being released in 2023, its relevancy in the present day could not understated.
“81% of South African Grade 4 (10-year-olds) cannot read in their home language for basic meaning, which means that they cannot retrieve basic meaning according to simplistic meaning,” said Marais.
She suggested considering South Africa’s linguistic diversity and its impact on reading comprehension, emphasising the need to examine how the country’s multi-lingual nature influences these outcomes.
The report recorded that English and Afrikaans languages were outperforming African languages in literacy, largely due the effective teaching methods and techniques that have been developed for English literacy instruction.
The CSIR has developed an innovative application designed to enhance classroom learning by assisting pupils in developing their ability to read for meaning. This mobile interface is specifically tailored to work with texts and speech in pupils’ language, ensuring that learners are able to engage with educational material.
By integrating cutting-edge technology, the application aims to bridge language barriers, improve illiteracy rates and foster deeper understanding of learning materials.
“Every solution should in principle be able to be rolled out in all the 11 official languages and the number of users more or less one million grade 1s,” Marais added.
The app has also implemented pronunciation scoring which is essentially about reading aloud where a child records themselves reading a text and the AI tells them whether or not they have done a good job pronouncing the word.
Furthermore, Marais added that it was essential to develop tools and approaches that addressed the specific needs and contexts of local communities to ensure relevancy and effectiveness of the technological solutions.
“The need is for focused homegrown technology. It is not good enough to try and adapt without any critical thought, things that have worked in other countries, although obviously we can learn from them. We need something that works for our context.”
INSIDE EDUCATION
