Fill That Blank! An iOS-based Literacy Application

There are many existing software applications that claim to teach English literacy. However, these applications often cater to preschoolers, only teach vocabulary or phonetics and mostly focus on fundamental reading skills, and not comprehension. This project aims to develop an application that teaches 7-10 years old children comprehension of the English language. Research was conducted into existing applications and pedagogy leading to the elicitation of requirements specification and design. Our iOS app is designed as a tailored cloze activity ("fill-in-the-blanks") in the context of a story. A usability study was conducted with 18 children in the target age group at two primary schools from different socio-economic areas. Overall response to the application was positive with high intuitiveness and engagement ratings. Future work includes refinements and can explore effectiveness of the app through a longer case study.