Exposure to Cinyanja digital stories and rhymes in pre-school as predictors of reading skills among grade one learners in low-resource communities in Lusaka province, Zambia.
| dc.contributor.author | Mofu, Mubanga | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-10-31T08:14:49Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-10-31T08:14:49Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024 | |
| dc.description | Thesis of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology of Education. | |
| dc.description.abstract | This study sought to establish the long-term effects of exposing preschool children to digital stories and rhymes on acquiring reading skills beyond alphabetic knowledge, phonological awareness, and vocabulary skills at the end of first grade. The objectives of this study were to find out the effect of exposure to digital stories and rhymes in preschool in supporting phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge and vocabulary among grade one pupils, test whether exposure to digital stories and rhymes in preschool supports learning to read among grade one pupils; and test the difference in response to digital stories and rhymes between pupils from more and less stimulating home literacy environments and their reading skills in grade one. This study was guided by positivism; hence a quantitative approach was used. This pre test-post-test randomised controlled trial randomly sampled 241 children (mean age = 98.18 months; SD = 15.05) from 14 public preschools annexed to primary schools of Lusaka Province. The children were randomly assigned to three conditions: an intervention group exposed to digital stories and rhymes in the language of instruction (n = 81), a control group I exposed to a non-literacy game (n = 81) and a control group II that continued with the usual classroom play activities (n = 79). Children in the intervention group attended brief digital stories and rhymes on tablets for six weeks (48 minutes/week). Follow-up assessments were conducted in grade one approximately 15 months after exposure to the digital stories and rhymes. The data was collected using rhyming and vocabulary tests, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), and the Basic Skills Assessment Tool (BASAT). Data on parental literacy levels, home possession (a measure of SES), and home literacy environment were also collected. Data were analysed quantitatively using IBM SPSS version 23. Descriptive and bivariate correlation statistics were conducted before utilising linear mixed model regression to determine the long-term effects of the digital stories and rhymes on the reading skills of grade one pupils. The results showed that children in the intervention group scored significantly higher on reading their names (p = .025) and reading words and sentences (p =. 007) than the two control groups when parental literacy was controlled for. In addition, children in the intervention group outperformed children in the control groups in letter knowledge skills (p = .004) and vocabulary (p = .003). These findings support the hypothesis that children exposed to Cinyanja digital stories and rhymes will have better reading skills at the end of grade one. However, the digital programme did not significantly affect first-grade rhyming skills. The study recommends enriching the preschool curriculum with Cinyanja digital stories and rhymes as supplementary to the traditional curriculum materials. These may also enhance the home literacy environment with more opportunities for children to play with the language of instruction before formal schooling. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://dspace.unza.zm/handle/123456789/8908 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | The University of Zambia | |
| dc.title | Exposure to Cinyanja digital stories and rhymes in pre-school as predictors of reading skills among grade one learners in low-resource communities in Lusaka province, Zambia. | |
| dc.type | Thesis |