Multimodal, Multilingual Dynamic Stories for Literacy Development and Language Learning

Early literacy acquisition has been shown to be life-changing. In resource-scarce multilingual, multicultural societies in which appropriately skilled human resources are scarce and the acquisition of early literacy is a huge challenge, the innovative and creative use of technology offers new ways of tackling this strategic educational challenge. Speech technology is particularly suited to this problem, since children can speak long before they can read and write. In this work we present the Ngiyaqonda! project, in which a multimodal learning environment is being developed to facilitate both literacy development and language learning, with the ultimate aim of solving a unique and pressing challenge facing South African foundation phase learners.