The social networking site Twitter is popular with young people of Zimbabwean heritage, who discuss Shona as though it were an exotic language spoken by their parents and other 'grown ups'. Postings on social networks reveal a disconnect between the avid fascination with the Shona language, and the time and effort that young people are actually willing to invest in learning 'another' language.
For young people in the Zimbabwean Diaspora who have been brought up in countries such as the US, the UK and Australia, Shona sometimes belongs to the 'other language' category. It can be difficult to find the time to learn Shona, given the limitations of a crowded school curriculum that consists of more mainstream languages such as French or Spanish. But online distraction has an even more restricting effect on the ability to learn another language.
Research shows that young people are spending more time online, to the detriment of time spent on homework. Not only do students have less time to do homework, but they certainly don't have enough time left over to learn Shona after all the time spent on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
A typical teenager's day will consist of at least 3 hours spent online, according to research published by the University of Southern California in the US, and the Institute of Public Policy Research in the UK.
Whilst expressing an interest in the Shona language online, young people are spending time on Facebook and Twitter that could otherwise be invested learning the language.
Now a new application has been created by
Exceltasks Ltd, the company behind
LearnShona.com, to help young people learn Shona and manage their time whilst online.
Since homework as well as learning Shona is impacted by the amount of time spent online, the Homework Focus application enables a student to block distractions such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This improves concentration and allows the student to stay focused, whilst permitting access to any websites required for schoolwork.
“Homework Focus empowers the student to acquire online time management skills. With goal setting, reminders and the ability – as a last resort – to block your own list of distracting sites, means that students can study more, take responsibility for their time and improve their chances of academic success” said Nyasha Madavo, Exceltasks Ltd Founder.
The Homework Focus application can be downloaded for free at
http://homeworkfocus.com, whilst Shona courses for young people are available at
http://learnshona.com/shona-audio-courses.
