I want to be Sachin Tendulkar! A spoken english cricket game for rural students

Abstract

We present a mobile phone based cricket game for improving the spoken English pronunciation of school children designed and tested within a specific socio-cultural context in rural India, the Mewat district of Haryana State. The development of the game concept was informed by a field study, which identified cultural restrictions respected by the community as well as community interests and motivations. The game was accessible using a low-end mobile phone and evaluated with a group of 63 students from classes 4 and 5 of a rural school. The results suggest that the cricket game can be effectively used to engage students and to improve their spoken English skills in the given setting. Further, the game serves as an informative example of how factors impacting the acceptability and appropriation of a technology in a particular setting can be taken into account from the very beginning of the design process. Copyright 2013 ACM.