Bridging the Language Gap: Learning to Read in Low-Resource, Linguistically-Diverse Contexts
Despite increased access to primary education, an alarmingly high proportion of children in sub-Saharan Africa cannot read and understand a simple text by age 10. This challenge is often linked to a "language mismatch" where children in school are taught in a language different from the one spoken at home. This research investigates how the language mismatch affects foundational reading skills and explores whether a novel approach to reading instruction, altering the sequencing of teaching letters and words, can mitigate the effects of the mismatch. First, two large datasets from Ghana, where many children learn to read in a language they do not understand, will be analysed to explore how the language mismatch is related to the development of foundational reading skills. Second, a laboratory experiment will evaluate the sequenced reading instruction with adult participants learning to read in new alphabets while receiving instruction in either English or an unfamiliar language. Third, a field experiment will complement the laboratory experiment by investigating the effects of the sequenced instruction on reading acquisition in a real-world setting. The field experiment will be conducted in the Ashanti region of Ghana, where students face significant challenges such as poverty, limited family literacy, and a mismatch between home and school languages. This research has the potential to inform educational policy and practice in low-resource, linguistically-diverse contexts, leading to improved reading outcomes for millions of children.