Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Development of an Early Literacy App in Dhuwaya
Phonological awareness is a skill which is crucial in learning to read. In this paper, we report on the challenges encountered while developing a digital application (app) for teaching phonological awareness and early literacy skills in Dhuwaya. Dhuwaya is a Yolŋu language variety spoken in Yirrkala...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-06-01
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| Series: | Languages |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/6/2/106 |
| _version_ | 1797530151562510336 |
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| author | Gillian Wigglesworth Melanie Wilkinson Yalmay Yunupingu Robyn Beecham Jake Stockley |
| author_facet | Gillian Wigglesworth Melanie Wilkinson Yalmay Yunupingu Robyn Beecham Jake Stockley |
| author_sort | Gillian Wigglesworth |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Phonological awareness is a skill which is crucial in learning to read. In this paper, we report on the challenges encountered while developing a digital application (app) for teaching phonological awareness and early literacy skills in Dhuwaya. Dhuwaya is a Yolŋu language variety spoken in Yirrkala and surrounding areas in East Arnhem Land. Dhuwaya is the first language of the children who attend a bilingual school in which Dhuwaya and English are the languages of instruction. Dhuwaya and English have different phonemic inventories and different alphabets. The Dhuwaya alphabet is based on Roman alphabet symbols and has 31 graphemes (compared to 26 in English). The app was designed to teach children how to segment and blend syllables and phonemes and to identify common words as well as suffixes used in the language. However, the development was not straightforward, and the impact of the linguistic, cultural and educational challenges could not have been predicted. Amongst these was the inherent variation in the language, including glottal stops, the pronunciation of stops, the focus on syllables as a decoding strategy for literacy development and challenges of finding one-syllable words such as those initially used with English-speaking children. Another challenge was identifying culturally appropriate images which the children could relate to and which were not copyrighted. In this paper, we discuss these plus a range of other issues that emerged, identifying how these problems were addressed and resolved by the interdisciplinary and intercultural team. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T10:24:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e88043902c5d48bf91d392cf8fc9cdd7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2226-471X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T10:24:53Z |
| publishDate | 2021-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Languages |
| spelling | doaj.art-e88043902c5d48bf91d392cf8fc9cdd72023-11-22T00:10:20ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2021-06-016210610.3390/languages6020106Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Development of an Early Literacy App in DhuwayaGillian Wigglesworth0Melanie Wilkinson1Yalmay Yunupingu2Robyn Beecham3Jake Stockley4School of Languages and Linguistics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3000, AustraliaNorthern Territory Department of Education, 55-59 Mitchell St., Darwin City, NT 0800, AustraliaYirrkala School, Yirrkala, Northern Territory Rankine Road Yirrkala, Northern Territory, NT 0880, AustraliaYirrkala School, Yirrkala, Northern Territory Rankine Road Yirrkala, Northern Territory, NT 0880, AustraliaYirrkala School, Yirrkala, Northern Territory Rankine Road Yirrkala, Northern Territory, NT 0880, AustraliaPhonological awareness is a skill which is crucial in learning to read. In this paper, we report on the challenges encountered while developing a digital application (app) for teaching phonological awareness and early literacy skills in Dhuwaya. Dhuwaya is a Yolŋu language variety spoken in Yirrkala and surrounding areas in East Arnhem Land. Dhuwaya is the first language of the children who attend a bilingual school in which Dhuwaya and English are the languages of instruction. Dhuwaya and English have different phonemic inventories and different alphabets. The Dhuwaya alphabet is based on Roman alphabet symbols and has 31 graphemes (compared to 26 in English). The app was designed to teach children how to segment and blend syllables and phonemes and to identify common words as well as suffixes used in the language. However, the development was not straightforward, and the impact of the linguistic, cultural and educational challenges could not have been predicted. Amongst these was the inherent variation in the language, including glottal stops, the pronunciation of stops, the focus on syllables as a decoding strategy for literacy development and challenges of finding one-syllable words such as those initially used with English-speaking children. Another challenge was identifying culturally appropriate images which the children could relate to and which were not copyrighted. In this paper, we discuss these plus a range of other issues that emerged, identifying how these problems were addressed and resolved by the interdisciplinary and intercultural team.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/6/2/106Aboriginal languagesphonological awarenessbiliteracybilingualiPad app |
| spellingShingle | Gillian Wigglesworth Melanie Wilkinson Yalmay Yunupingu Robyn Beecham Jake Stockley Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Development of an Early Literacy App in Dhuwaya Languages Aboriginal languages phonological awareness biliteracy bilingual iPad app |
| title | Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Development of an Early Literacy App in Dhuwaya |
| title_full | Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Development of an Early Literacy App in Dhuwaya |
| title_fullStr | Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Development of an Early Literacy App in Dhuwaya |
| title_full_unstemmed | Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Development of an Early Literacy App in Dhuwaya |
| title_short | Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Development of an Early Literacy App in Dhuwaya |
| title_sort | interdisciplinary and intercultural development of an early literacy app in dhuwaya |
| topic | Aboriginal languages phonological awareness biliteracy bilingual iPad app |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/6/2/106 |
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