We Speak Kiingereza 

Project Background

We Speak Kiingereza is an English learning board game designed for Swahili-speaking students in Tanzania. It was created in Mto wa Mbu, Arusha Region as part of Michigan State University's Designing Technology Solutions for Schools in Africa program.

What were my objectives?

I wanted to create a supplemental learning tool for Form 1 students (freshman in high school) to learn English in a fun way and to ultimately mitigate students leaving school at this vulnerable age. Promoting technology proficiency was another objective of the visit as a whole.

Why an English learning game?

Initial research uncovered that Form 1 (around age 14) is a time when many students leave school due to the difficult transition from instruction in Swahili during primary school to exclusively in English in secondary school (although students of other ages may also play the game).

The Research Process

I needed a Tanzanian perspective.

Prior to the visit, an English learning game for Form 1 students was conceptualized based on a discussion with the program director. This audience was reaffirmed after arriving and having further discussions with teachers and former students. Other initial focuses were ensuring that students would understand how to play a board game due to limited prior exposure, and gathering feedback on game mechanics such as harder translations allowing for players to take a shortcut.

I also took a crash course in Swahili and Tanzanian culture when I first arrived, which helped prepare me to write the content (see photo).

Although primary school instruction takes place in Swahili, English is one of the subjects taught so students already have a baseline understanding of it. Therefore it was decided that the translations would be conversational rather than focusing on structure or simple vocabulary. It was also important that students translate sentences from Swahili to English to prompt them to practice their English speaking skills.

The Design Process

Pulling everything together and rethinking the mode of delivery due to unanticipated hurdles.

After the rules and structure were decided on, the graphic design of the board took place. Green, yellow, blue, and black were chosen for the color scheme as they are the colors of the Tanzanian flag.

Next came writing the content for players to translate. Some sentences were written by myself in British English then translated into Kiswahili by a colleague or by myself, while others were pulled from Form 1 English curriculum with the assistance of a teacher. A key focus identified in the research was past and future tenses.

The game was initially planned to be made available on Tabletopia exclusively in order to meet the additional objective of promoting technological proficiency, however a temporary poor internet connection on-site during the time of the visit led to the creation of an analog game first. The digital version was created when I returned home to the United States and sent to teachers to share with their students.

Playtesting

The fun part! What I learned from watching students play the game.

Playtesting of the analog game took place with students from both secondary schools I worked with during the overall program. Each session featured three teams with up to five players each (team sizes weren't quite even due to the number of students available) and was moderated by myself and an English teacher (who determined whether or not the translations given were correct).

An explanation of the game was provided prior to playing, and students were each given the opportunity to individually read the rules in both Swahili and English.

The playtesting sessions featured 45 Easy cards, 45 Hard cards, and 36 Mystery cards.

The key objectives of the playtesting were to know if the game is fun, an effective learning tool, and appropriate for the Form 1 age group (particularly in terms of the difficulty level of the translations).