From abugida to alphabet: the interplay between phonological awareness and orthography in transfer literacy – the case of Konso language in South-West Ethiopia
Main funder
Funds granted by main funder (€)
- 40 400,00
Project timetable
Project start date: 01/03/2017
Project end date: 31/12/2019
Summary
The study deals with a transfer from a consonant based abugida writing system to alphabetic writing system in Konso language in South West Ethiopia.
The history of written Konso dates back to 1980’s when Konso abugida was developed. Now the language group has decided to switch over to alphabetic writing system, and at the moment transition literacy courses are being offered for people who read abugida in order for them to learn the new orthography for their language.
In the study I am following up how the phonological awareness of the transfer literacy learners develops while they learn alphabetic literacy skills, and what the most troublesome points to learn are.
Previous studies dealing with the relationship between orthography and phonological awareness indicate that the development of phoneme awareness is closely related to learning of alphabetic literacy. Towards this theoretical framework the study aims at finding out what the interplay between the phonological awareness and the immerging alphabetic literacy skills of the learners is like, and how this dynamics can be best utilized in teaching transfer literacy in Konso language and beyond.
The data from Konso is valuable for the research topic, because the opportunity to study transfer literacy within one language is rare.
The history of written Konso dates back to 1980’s when Konso abugida was developed. Now the language group has decided to switch over to alphabetic writing system, and at the moment transition literacy courses are being offered for people who read abugida in order for them to learn the new orthography for their language.
In the study I am following up how the phonological awareness of the transfer literacy learners develops while they learn alphabetic literacy skills, and what the most troublesome points to learn are.
Previous studies dealing with the relationship between orthography and phonological awareness indicate that the development of phoneme awareness is closely related to learning of alphabetic literacy. Towards this theoretical framework the study aims at finding out what the interplay between the phonological awareness and the immerging alphabetic literacy skills of the learners is like, and how this dynamics can be best utilized in teaching transfer literacy in Konso language and beyond.
The data from Konso is valuable for the research topic, because the opportunity to study transfer literacy within one language is rare.
