Multilingual mobile learning : a case study of four South African high schools

The constraint of inadequate learning material and resources available to learners in some South African schools has motivated continuous attempts by the government and public, to improve the education system. Most learners from poor communities rely extensively on learning material received in those schools. Language has also been identified as an obstacle in their education, as most of the South African population are not first language speakers of the instructional language. Switching between two languages (code-switching) to converse is a popular method of communication in South African schools, and this is also attributable to the country’s diverse language community. A learner’s inability to adequately communicate in English consequently contributes to their poor performance in schools. The increasing accessibility of mobile phones has influenced their widespread use in various socio-economic communities as the most affordable means of basic communication and technology. This has also increased their potential as a contributory solution to the South African education challenges, as mobile phones afford learners a supplementary learning platform with limited cost implications. This paper examines the support of mobile phones to learners by the delivery of educational resources on mobile devices with bilingual content. In this research project learners were provided with low cost mobile phones and access to their curriculum related bilingual learning content. Four South African public schools were subsequently assessed via surveys on the need for a multilingual mobile learning tool that enables learners to access adequate learning material in their language of choice, thus creating a pervasive learning environment