4 <!-- Start of picture text --> CAAS Accuracy (percent correct) on<br>CAAS Speed (in seconds) of Burklnabe Burkinabe and US Students on Sentence<br>and US Students on Sentence Recognition Task<br>Recognition Task<br>16_ 100<br>12 10- ~~~~~G4 ~ O Gr 3 80 1TTM = | E:lGr 3 OG4<br>108 = O [:]GAdult yr1 60I I _ uAyr4<br>6 62 - DAdul Grad 40 2 OAulGr<br>2- 20 -<br>Burkinabe U.S. Burkinabe U.S.<br><!-- End of picture text -->

# IB. DEVELOPING AND PILOT-TESTING<sup>LITERACYJENTERVIENTIONS</sup>

From October 2000 to February 2001, the Burkinabe<sup>researchteam operated a "literacy</sup> laboratory" at the Center for the Handicapped<sup>and Orphansof Sector28 in Ouagadougou. They</sup> invited illiterate or semi-literate area residents<sup>to comefor aftemoonclasses, in which various</sup> methods were tried and developed. About 30<sup>people attendedon a regular basis. The researchers</sup> pilot-tested various methods, observed and<sup>videotaped results,and asked the participantsfor their</sup> opinions regarding effectiveness. The following<sup>methodswere tried:</sup> Phonological awareness exercises. These teach<sup>illiteratesthe structureof the language and</sup> are related to reading effectiveness. Participants<sup>learnedto find the initialand finallettersof words,</sup> make rhymes, and determine the number of<sup>syllables in words.</sup> Speeded reading tasks of progressive diffineulty.<sup>This task was to help learnersread</sup> automatically as many common words as possible,<sup>so that theirworking memorywould not be</sup> overloaded with letter-by-letter reading. Learners<sup>received packsof 20 cards, each with one word,</sup> which they were asked to shuffle and read<sup>to each other as fast as possible.The task involved two</sup> people; one was reading, and the other was<sup>timing the reader with an inexpensiveplastic stopwatch.</sup> The learners were taught to read the results and<sup>place them every day on a graph paper.Every day,</sup> the readers read the pack a little faster. After<sup>the improvementhad leveled off,they weregiven packs</sup> with longer words. Learners went through a<sup>total of four packs that hadwords of three, four,or more</sup> letters.

Groupimg of similar letters and systematic<sup>pairingof consonantand vowel</sup> combinations. This technique was developed<sup>by the biostatisticianGoteti Bala Krishamurthy,who</sup> had applied it extensively in south India. Learners<sup>were asked which consonantslooked similar to</sup> them, and they learned these in groups of _4-5,_<sup>in hopes of learning to discriminateamongthem. To</sup> help learners deduce the reading strategy by<sup>themselves, eachof the consonants waspaired</sup> systematically with all vowels. After learning<sup>agroup of new letters,the learners weretold to search</sup> for them in a local newspaper.

The learners, many of whom had briefly attended<sup>schoolor other literacyclasses, found the</sup> activities attractive. Variability and work in<sup>small groupshelpedlearnersfocus on the material much</sup> of the time. It was gratifying to see (and capture<sup>on video) the reactionsof learners who through</sup> phonological exercises understood the structure<sup>of language.Speededtasks createdcompetitions,</sup> with learners reading as fast as possible while<sup>others measuredthem witha stopwatch.More potential</sup> learners dropped by the center every day. Sometimes<sup>they wereso excited,they did not want to leave</sup> at the end of the class.