First Language (Dinka) Literacy as a Foundation for English ...

Section 1: Project Report
Section 1:
Project Report
Overview
Background
This project was funded as an Innovative Project under the Department of Education,
Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) Adult Literacy National Project. It
was designed for a group of Dinka-speaking adults who have come to Australia as
refugees from Southern Sudan. Many adults, particularly women, from Southern
Sudan have no formal schooling or literacy in their first languages and, though they
may have participated in English language courses in Australia, have made very few
gains in literacy skills. Unemployment rates amongst people from Southern Sudan in
the central west, south western and western areas of Sydney are higher than
average but their limited literacy skills impede the ability of many to access and
sustain employment, and to undertake accredited training or further education. This
project aimed to build on the research on classroom management strategies which
best address the needs of Sudanese refugee learners conducted by Burgoyne and
Hull in 2007 1 and examine the impact of developing literacy skills in first language
before and while teaching English literacy.
Rationale
There are many reasons as to why learners with no, or very limited, literacy in their
mother tongue (L1 literacy) find learning English literacy so challenging. If the language is
one which is predominately spoken, with reading and writing playing very little part in day
to day activities, people from that culture may have a very limited conceptual framework
that they can draw upon when learning the new language. They may not have the
understanding that language can be visually represented, let alone the grapho-phonic
system that underpins that notion. Added to this are the demands of working with a pen
or pencil in such a way as to make the symbolic representation of the language intelligible
to the reader. Another factor adding to the complexity of second language literacy is the
fact that the learner’s experience of spoken language would be highly context dependent
and related mostly to concrete experience (context-embedded). Written language and the
language of the classroom is less tied to its context and this puts additional stresses on
the learner. Hood (1990) proposes that
the argument in favor of L1 literacy before L2 literacy is that to move from L1 contextembedded
to L2 context-reduced language does not allow for the transfer of context reduced
linguistic abilities and presents too great a leap for many learners. The process of acquisition
of L2 literacy is facilitated by acquisition of context-reduced language firstly in L1.
With this in mind the project looked to initially establishing a classroom experience
focusing on L1 literacy as a means of reducing some of the demands made on the
learner when learning English and thereby making that experience more effective.
Aims and objectives of the project
The overarching aims of the project were to provide a model for learning in which first
language literacy is taught as a foundation for the further development of English
1
http://www.ncver.edu.au/publications/1778.html
© Commonwealth of Australia 2009 Dinka-English Literacy Project Page 4