A special set of flashcards!

When we started to work with African language practitioners, our suspicion that there was a dearth of materials to encourage South African parents to have their children educated in their home language was confirmed.  We are committed to change this, probably slowly at first! and our first materials design project has been this set of alphabet/flash cards.

It was quite a challenge coming up with cards that work for the purpose of teaching letters and words, because of the structure of Xhosa and the fact that words, as kids would encounter them while reading, do not actually start with the first letter of the stem, but with the subject or class marker. The interim solution is to present the word with its case marker, and to print the first letter in bold. That way eyes will hopefully be led from the letter and its upper case at the top to its position in the word.

The set of cards, which can be ordered in electronic or printed versions, contains notes with suggestions on how to use them. This could range from simply getting a very young child to recognise the picture and to say the word that corresponds with it, to recognising letters, to discussing the significance of the particular object in his/her own culture and the wider South African context. They are therefore hopefully useful for a years and in their present laminated form should last for those years.

The Zulu version is almost finished and can also be ordered. Please let us know if you have any suggestions or would like to contribute to the development of similar cards in other South African languages.