Combining web technology and mobile phones to enhance English literacy in underserved communities

Abstract

Despite the importance of literacy to most aspects of life, underserved communities continue to suffer from low literacy rates; especially for globally prevalent languages such as English. This is particularly problematic since English literacy is an important skill for increased access to income generation and higher education opportunities in these communities. Teaching English in underserved communities can be challenging due to a variety of obstacles. In this paper we report on our work with a primary school in Tanzania, with migrant workers in Doha, and with a school for the deaf in the USA to address some of these challenges using web technology and mobile phones. We developed a web-accessible content authoring tool that teachers can use to create and modify English grammar exercises, and a simple game that students use on a mobile phone to practice the content uploaded from the authoring tool. Our solution is primarily intended to increase the motivation for practicing English grammar among students, and thereby enhance English literacy in underserved communities. Feedback from teachers and students in all of our field studies indicate this solution is affordable and has significant potential to enhance the English classroom and homework experience.

Mobilizing education

“…On the other hand, DrMath is a system that allows children to consult a tutor, participate in competitions, or to play single or multiple user text adventure games in the area of arithmetics. There exist other game-based mobile learning tools, like Ed-ucaMovil or English Literacy Tool, that provide more general frameworks to create quizzes for any curricular subject [11,1]. These tools allow teachers to create collections of quizzes for different subjects, which enhances the creation of localized content authoring adaptable to the curricular activities of the classroom.…”

“…Although these mobile games have shown promising results, they are typically criticized by their cost as well as by the lack of involvement of local teachers in the creation of contents. To overcome these issues, recent work like EducaMovil or the English Literacy Tool have advanced the state of the art introducing mobile learning games where the educational contents are created and automatically compiled into a game by the teachers themselves [11,1]. These approaches have the advantage of highly re-ducing educational costs while enhancing localized content authoring, both critical for low-income schools in emerging economies.…”