IMPROVEMENT OF READING COMPREHENSION IN KISWAHILI IN A NAIROBI SCHOOL
2018URVSOLIDÀRIA
2019 - 2019
Kiswahili is the vehicular language in the schools of Kenya. Nevertheless, many of the students speak other aboriginal languages at home, and Kiswahili is no their first language. This fact implies that many students have reading comprehension difficulties, and this fact slows down their learning process.
The aim of this project is to use the StratApp (a free educational app created in the frame of an European project which was coordinated by Mar Gutiérrez-Colon) to enhance their reading comprehension. StratApp is a mobile application that can be filled with any type of text and reading comprehension activities and it works like a game: the student has to read the text, answer the questions, do the activities and if they are correct, then pass to a new screen. The student also receive immediate feedback. The teachers participating in this project will have to look for texts, create the activities and upload them in the app. Once this is done, the game can start being used.
The students will receive a tablet with the app and they will have to play with it until they pass all the levels: we hope that the students will benefit by using a new methodology; as well as improving their reading comprehension. During the action, the teachers/researchers participants will conduct a simple research (pre-post- tests) to check if the app has been useful for the improvement of their reading skills and if there is a need of any type of adjustment. Once this action is completed (after one year), the tablets and the app with the activities will be ready to be used by other students of the school, and even downloaded by other students in other schools. In fact, anybody who wants to improve their reading comprehension in Kiswahili will be able to download it.
Participants
| Name | Institution |
| Mar Gutiérrez-Colón Plana | Universitat Rovira i Virgili |
| Alicia Ndegwa | Laureate School, Kenya |
| Ester Torres Simón | Universitat Rovira i Virgili |
| Vanessa Esteve González | Universitat Rovira i Virgili |
General objective: To improve the learning process of the students by introducing new methodologies which may enhance their motivation.
Specific objective: To improve the reading comprehension skill of Kiswahili language with the use of a gamified app.
There isn’t a specific methodology, teaching methods selected and used by the teacher have a big influence on how students learn and master foreign languages (Felder & Henriques, 1995; Khandaghi & Farasat, 2011; Opdenakker & Damme, 2006). As a general observation, none of the methods is better or superior to another as explained by Frunza (2014). What is of utmost importance is the ability of the teacher to select the appropriate method that will be effective for the student in the lesson being taught (Frunza, 2014).