Zimbabwe’s leading publisher of indigenous languages Consultus Publishing Services (CPS) has announced the launch of Rava ChiShona eLibrary, a controlled reading scheme tailored to improve literacy, fluency and confidence in early learners of the Shona language.
Controlled Readers are a series of short stories that use a specific (controlled) list of words and sentences to teach phonics, syllables and fluency.
CPS, in a statement published on their official website, said controlled reading was important in that learners are never presented with words containing syllables they have not yet been taught.
“Students learn that ChiShona language is predictable and governed by an underlying set of consistent rules. Gradually, book-by-book more syllables are introduced. Once new syllables are taught, they are constantly reintroduced in subsequent books for purposes of review and consolidation. Eventually students learn all of the major syllable constructions in ChiShona and thus are able to read and spell with accuracy, fluency and confidence,’ wrote the publisher.
Meanwhile, Rava ChiShona readers are now available as ebooks hosted on an online library platform and are accessible through a 12-month subscription. The recommended ages are 4-7-year-olds, and the publishers said the scheme is an effective resource that complements the CPS| Ziva ChiShona Grade 1 learner’s book.
The Shona language is one most widely spoken Bantu vernacular in Zimbabwe. Recent estimations by Ethnologue have inferred that the language is spoken by 10.7 million people as a first language and by another 1.8 million people as a second or third language in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, and Zambia.
For more information about Rava ChiShona eLibrary, go the CPS website.
