An Effective Tool for Oshindonga Early Development Education:

Lilonga-Nenyanyu Learning Application

Caroline Mulundu

, Victoria Hasheela-Mufeti

and Maria Ntinda

University of Namibia, 340 Mandume Ndemufayo Street, Pioneerspark, Windhoek, Namibia

Department of Computing, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Windhoek, Namibia

Keywords: Oshindonga, Lilonga-Nenyanyu, Mathematics, Language, Mother Tongue, Early Childhood Education.

Abstract: The Namibian official language is English, and that is what is mostly spoken by children because it is the

medium of instruction in schools. Learning materials ranging from kids’ playbooks, TV programs, and most

of the existing children's educational applications are all in English and other western languages, resulting in

our native languages being rarely spoken and used, thus slowly dying out. This study aimed to investigate and

explore the development of learning on an android mobile application in a Namibian language known as

Oshindonga, an Oshiwambo dialect, spoken in Northern Namibia. Data has been primarily collected through

an online survey from Oshindonga-speaking parents and caregivers, to understand what kind of features they

would like to have in the application. Parents and guardians play a major role in their children’s education,

and the results have indicated that most of them are deeply involved in their kids’ education. This will in a

great deal assist the children in using the learning application as they can easily access their parents’ phones,

and as results have indicated, that majority of the children can use and are familiar with smartphones.

1 INTRODUCTION

Early childhood education begins when the child

reaches the age of two, and it establishes the

foundation from where the learning of the child takes

place (Kapur, 2018). Children learn more efficiently

and gain more knowledge when learning through

play-based activities (Melinda, 2009). Early

childhood education serves children in preschool

years. Childhood education is an essential building

block of a child’s future success and later it improves

school performance. The “Namibian Ministry of

Education Junior Phase Curriculum” (2015) stated

that the purpose of the first four years of education is

to lay a solid foundation for learning throughout the

formal education system, which in turn will prepare

for full participation in society as a young adult, and

in further training, studies and work. If the foundation

which is laid in these four years is good, learners will

be well prepared to continue learning. Hence,

adequate learning tools for children are needed to

achieve those later improved school performances

and future successes.

With the advancing technology and changing

time, education must not just be limited to

classrooms. The use of technology in education has

been gaining popularity over the years resulting in a

shift in the preservation of native languages.

Nordquist (2019), defines the term native language as

the language that an individual acquires in early

infancy because it is spoken within the family and/or

it is the language of the region where the child lives.

Also referred to as a mother tongue, maternal

language.

Namibia has a remarkable diversity of spoken

indigenous languages (Mbenzi 2019). Nearly half the

population speaks Oshiwambo languages, thus the

content of the application is in Oshindonga

indigenous language which is of the Oshiwambo

dialect.

Lilonga-Nenyanyu application (LNApp) is an

android application, designed to help children

complement their knowledge in the two most crucial

subjects in education namely: Mathematics and

Oshindonga. Lilonga-Nenyanyu is the Oshindonga

translation of Happy Learning in English.

The LNApp contains fun games related to the two

subjects. The learning activities in the LNApp include

the basics of Mathematics (counting, addition,

subtraction, division, and multiplication), as well as

the basics of the language which comprise reading,

pronouncing different Oshindonga words, vowels,

songs as well as learning the alphabet).

144

Mulundu, C., Hasheela-Mufeti, V. and Ntinda, M.

An Effective Tool for Oshindonga Early Development Education: Lilonga-Nenyanyu Learning Application.

DOI: 10.5220/0010603101440150

In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on e-Business (ICE-B 2021), pages 144-150

ISBN: 978-989-758-527-2

LNApp promotes independence, as the children

can learn at their own pace rather than that of the

teachers’ or that of the child instructors’ instructions.

And this will encourage children to value independent

study without a teacher’s direct influence. This way

children learn better and

faster in their native language, a language they can

understand in turn also preventing delays in learning.

1.1 Motivation

The Namibian official language is English, and that is

what is mostly spoken now, learning materials

ranging from kids’ playbooks, TV programs, and

most of the existing children's educational

applications are all in English and other western

languages. Hence, the need to develop applications in

one of Namibia’s indigenous languages. It is

substantial for children to be taught in their native

languages, in this case, Oshindonga. This will assist

in preserving the language to avoid the distinction of

the language. Beukes (2020) expressed that the loss

of a language results in a lost of traditions and

cultures.

The study focused on the Oshindonga language,

as it is one of the predominant local languages used

as a medium of instruction during the first three years

of schooling in Namibian schools amongst the

Oshiwambo people. Mathematics was also added to

the application as most learners in Namibia find it

difficult to learn mathematics(ref). The incorporation

of the Oshindonga language and mathematics in the

LNApp will assist in preparing and equipping

children for primary education.

1.2 Objectives

This study aimed to develop a purposeful and

educational application for Oshindonga-speaking

children, an app that is easy to use and requires no

training for first-time users.

The application aims to meet the following

objective:

To narrow the communication gap between

illiterate parents and children with regards to

education.

The Namibian Language Policy states that the

mother tongue should be the medium of instruction

throughout the first three years, with a transition to

English Second Language starting in the fourth year

of their schooling (Namibian Ministry of Education

junior phase curriculum, 2015, p.2). Apart from

classrooms, this is not implemented anywhere else,

hencen another motivating factor to create the

LNAppto give the Oshindonga-speaking children

another platform to learn in their native language.

1.3 Research Questions

The study aspires to answer the following question:

RQ1: Will the LNApp assist learners in learning

better in the Oshindonga language

RQ2: What features should be incorporated in the

LNApp to assist learners

RQ3: Will learning in the children’s language

narrow the communication gap between illiterate

Oshindonga speaking parents and children?

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Young children explore and learn with mobile

devices in ways that are natural to them (Cohen,

2011). Learning involves touching and repeating

certain functions on mobile devices, basically by trial,

and error.

The combination of images and phonetics

provides a good foundation for children to learn and

speak in their mother tongue or home language

confidently and fluently, but most importantly

comprehend and appreciate the diversity of languages

employed by South Africans daily. The Mzanzi kids’

multilingual language learning application is a South

African educational app that was created for children

between the ages of two to six years. This application

was created to stimulate visual, speech, and language

literacy skills at an early age by understanding basic

everyday concepts and highlighting the right

pronunciation of speech in six different languages;

English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, and

Setswana (MzanziKids, 2019). This multilingual

learning App upholds the basics of language

acquisition before entering a schooling environment

(MzanziKids, 2019).

Duolingo is another online free app supported by

both mobile devices and desktop machines.

Statistically, it is the most popular in the category of

Education on Google Play. Studies have shown

statistically significant improvements in language

abilities as a result of using this app (Vesselinov &

Grego, 2012).

3 METHODOLOGY APPROACH

This study is exploratory. Very little research is done

on educational apps for children in the Oshindonga

An Effective Tool for Oshindonga Early Development Education: Lilonga-Nenyanyu Learning Application

145

native language thus the adoption of this

methodology.

The study applied a qualitative methodology

approach to gather and analyse data. It has enabled

the researcher to gain in depth understanding of views

and opinions of parents and guardians to Oshindonga

speaking children on an educational app for their

children which will have its contents delivered in

Oshindonga. This type of research is much more

subjective and uses very different methods of

collecting information, mainly individual, in-depth

interviews, and focus groups. The nature of this

research is exploratory and open-ended. A small

number of individuals were interviewed in-depth.

This research was guided by constructivism

research paradigm, whereby people’s views on the

sitation was crucial and taken into consideration.

Social constructivism seeks to understand the point of

view for the individuals, with the aim of

understanding their social and cultural settings

(Cresswell, 2014). Our study is based on the parents’

view, and not necessarily on our own experiences.

3.1 Data Collection

Data collection needs to be as overt as possible, and

findings should be recorded (Sanjari et al., 2014).

Data has been primarily collected through a survey

that was created with the Survey Monkey platform.

Surveys are research methods used for collecting data

from a predefined group of respondents to gather

information and insights into various topics of interest

(Usman, 2015).

The study’s target population is Oshiwambo

speaking parents community and caregivers.

Non-probability sampling was used for selecting

the sample, sampling the population from all

Oshiwambo speaking children’s parents and

caregivers to only those that are of the Oshindonga

indigenous language group. In this case, the sample

was chosen such that the participants may be a parent

or a caregiver of an Oshindonga-speaking child in the

age range of 2 to 7 years. Thirty (30) participants part

took in our study.

In order to establish the validity and reliability of

the research, we ensured that the questionnaire was

double checked by several people before handing it

out, and that, the questions were open-ended, to

ensure that respondents could answer as much as

possible as they saw fit and not be limited by closed

ended questions.

3.2 Data Analysis

Survey monkey was used for data collection; The

researcher was able to see the summary view of the

collected data; comparison was done for each

question from which customized charts were created.

Open-ended responses were also categorized

according to the asked question making it easier for

the research to match up and compare responses from

different participants.

4 DESIGN AND

IMPLEMENTATION

The research design refers to the overall strategy that

one chooses, to integrate the different components of

the study coherently and logically, thereby, ensuring

that one will effectively address the research problem.

(De Vaus, 2001 & William 2006).

4.1 Software Development Process

Model

This research study used the Iterative SDLC

(Software Development Life Cycle model) model to

develop the LNApp. The Iterative model is a specific

implementation of a software development life cycle

that focuses on an initial, simplified implementation,

which progressively gains more complexity and a

broader feature set until the ultimate system is

complete, this model breaks down the software

development of an outsized application into smaller

chunks (Somerville, 2015). Figure 1 shows the

Iterative Process Model Illustration.

Figure 1: Iterative Process Model.

4.2 Application Architecture

4.2.1 Activities for Ages: Two to Four

Flowchart

The users are presented with the home application

when they log onto the application. Thereafter, they

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can decide on whether to choose Age 2-4, or 5-7.

When a user clicks Age group 2-4, they are taken to a

next page with 4 options as seen in Figure 2. The first

activity is for shapes. It consists of different shapes.

A user can click on a different shape, and then the app

will say the name of the shape in Oshindonga.

The second activity is for colours. A user can

select a colour, and then it will be read out. The third

activity is for vowels. A user can click on them, and

then they will be read out, and finally, the last activity

Figure 2: Age 2 to 4 Flow chart.

Figure 3: Age 5 to 7 flow chart.

An Effective Tool for Oshindonga Early Development Education: Lilonga-Nenyanyu Learning Application

147

is a mathematical quiz, with a voice of instructions in

Oshindonga. When a user selects this option, they

will be instructed to select the correct answer from

below. If it is the correct answer, then will be

applauded, and if it is wrong, they will be asked to try

again.

4.2.2 Activities for Ages: Five to Seven

Flowchart

For the 5-7 age group, there are four options as well.

The first one is for a more advanced mathematical

quiz. The second activity reads out the alphabet in

Oshindonga. The third option consists of children

songs in Oshindonga, and finally the last option reads

out the months of the year in Oshindonga.

4.3 Lilonga-Nenyanyu Application

User Interfaces

The application has multiple user interfaces on which

the user can interact with the app. Figure 4 shows the

activities for the 2-4 Age group.

Figure 4: Activities options for age group 2-4.

Figure 5 shows the activities that one sees when they

select the 5-7 age group. There they have options of a

more advanced mathematical quiz. The second

activity reads out the alphabet in Oshindonga

language. The third option consists of children songs

in Oshindonga, and finally the last option reads out

the months of the year in Oshindonga.

Figure 5: Activities options for age group 5-7.

5 RESULTS

Data collected from the participants were analyse and

it was found that 91.43 % of the participants own

smartphones and the remaining 8.57 % do not have

access to smartphones. Since most participants own

smartphones, it makes it easier to install the LNApp

enabling the children to learn.

The study also found that 65.71 % of the

participants indicated that the LNApp assisted the

children to learn.

5.1 Lilonga Enyanyu Feature

Suggestions

Participants agreed about the importance of an

Oshindonga Application and acknowledged the

differences it might have in a child’s education.

Participants were asked to suggest features to be

incorporated in the LNApp. Participants pointed out

that it is better to provide the children with a learning

platform that promotes learning at their own pace, at

anytime, anywhere. One participant was quoted

saying “Well children need to be educated starting

from home, it's easier to learn as you do and when

they go to school they will only be building on top of

what they already know”. Another participant stated

that “Children must have more time to process and

grasp the content they have just learned and they must

be able to learn at their own pace”, “The proposed

application must at least be user friendly that even

uneducated parents can help their children learn and

be a part of their academics life”,

As to what exact features they needed to ascertain

within the Lilonga-Nenyanyu application, most of the

respondents voiced that they expect to see a very

interactive, fun, and educating app. Here are some of

the suggested features: “The app must-have colours,

shapes, alphabet, simple maths, short stories and

poems”

5.2 Lilonga-Nenyanyu Application

User Experience Testing

Majority of the participants expressed that the

application is user friendly and easy to use. One

participant was quoted saying, “One can navigate

through the application without training. Thus

making the children’s experience much easier, as the

LNApp is in a language they fluently understand”.

Results have also shown that parents are positive that

the LNApp will improve their children’s Oshindonga

language proficiency. Further stating that the LNApp

proves to be an effective tool, as children will learn

the basic education content in a fun and educative

manner, which will prepare them for primary school

education.

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6 DISCUSSION

The primary goal for this study was to investigate and

examine the subjects of children learning in their

mother tongue, specifically in the Oshindonga

language. Results found that majority of the

participants are involved in their children's education,

which is positive and promising, as parents and

guardians play a vital role in their children’s

education. Research shows that children that have

parents involved in their education are more likely to

have higher grades and test scores, attend school

regularly, have better social skills, show improved

behaviour and adapt well to school ((Msila 2014). It

can be deduced that having a learning application

might actually assist and compliment the child-

parent-teaching relationship easily since all

participants in this study owned a smartphone and

most of the children have access and are familiar with

smartphone. With this established relationship

between children and their parents/guardians and

easy access to a smartphone, the LNApp might

narrow the communication gap between illiterate

Oshindonga native parents and children with regards

to education and making learning enjoyeableand

conducive. Results correlates with the study done by

Larsen-Freeman and Anderson (2011).

7 CONCLUSION

Providing children with the right tools enable them to

learn with much ease. This study aimed to narrow

the communication gap between illiterate parents and

children with regards to educating them in

Oshidonga. This was done in the context of

concentrating on the Oshindonga language as barrier

to learning amongst the young children and to find

new ways to implement new fun and educational

learning methods. Hence, the need for LNApp.

Since, the LNApp intends to assist oshindonga

speaking children improve their oshindonga language

skills through fun, interactive educational activities

and songs. The study proved that using technology

has the potential to enhance learning experience and

young children will indeed learn better in their native

language, at their own pace, as children grasp

knowledge differently hence promoting

independence.

8 RECOMMENDATIONS

This study recommends the following aspects as

discussed below to be implemented.:

• A multi-language based application

While the research focused on delivering the

application content in the Oshindonga native

language, other native languages could be

incorporated in the LNApp since Namibia is a

country of diverse languages. This will enable users

to switch between different languages.

• Executable in various operating system

devices

Currently, the LNApp only runs on android enabled

devices, advancement could be done to enable the

application to run on multiple platforms..

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