ENHANCING EARLY ENGLISH LITERACY THROUGH INTERACTIVE ALPHABET LEARNING AT SANGGAR LENTERA: A SIX-WEEK COMMUNITY SERVICE PROGRAM
Keywords:
Early literacy, alphabet instruction, multisensory learning, community service program, young learnersAbstract
Beginning literacy skills in the English language are an essential foundation on which kids develop as they progress and mature at school. Conversely, rural kids will have inadequate opportunities for learning and understanding more refined concepts in English. To address these deficits, a community service project took place at Sanggar Lentera and lasted for six weeks and targeted active learning of the alphabet for kids aged 6-8. The intervention employed multisensory approaches, including colorful flashcards, action games, repetition, and the recognizable song ABCD from Upin Ipin, offering a fun and consistent learning platform for kids to acquire foundation skills in early English literacy. Key observations and experiments have shown significant gains in letter recognition, vocabulary extension, pronunciations, and confidence levels for kids in expressing themselves in English. Also, it boosted motivation and cooperation among kids. This research highlights the importance of learning as a community and how it can be complementary to formal learning, and more so in regions that have limited resources. This research also reveals that child-centered interactive learning methods are very efficient for developing English literacy skills among young children.
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