Using Radio's Potential to Teach Language Arts.

The Radio Language Arts Project (RLAP) is a pilot program being developed in Kenya to provide a cost effective English-as-a-second-language program via radio to rural children. The RLAP will use an integrative language arts approach focusing on language function, meaning, and communication activities, with listening and oral language preceding reading and writing. Each 20- to 30-minute broadcast will consist of several brief segments of varied learning activities designed to teach or maintain a skill, and will allow as many as four to eight pupil responses per minute. Children in the primary grades will receive English instruction via daily broadcasts; will talk, write, and respond physically throughout the program; and will receive immediate results to stimulate learning. A teacher's guide will provide classroom teachers with information about each lesson and suggestions for their participation. After each broadcast, classroom teachers will direct additional oral and written language exercises. Evaluation of the project will include trained observers noting pupil reaction, and a measure to compare the achievement of pupils taught by RLAP with that of pupils taught by conventional methods. If successful, the RLAP will provide improved instruction of English at a lower cost to a greater number of students, and its design will allow for its transfer, intact or with alterations, to other geographical locations to meet their needs. (HTH)

an: ED211977; docTypes: Reports - Descriptive; pubTypes: Report;