Tetun

As part of a major early literacy initiative for children in East Timor, RUMACCC is proud to launch graded readers - now available in some of the different languages spoken in East Timor. The little books are free and easily downloadable from the links below; you can access them either by language or by level!

Access the readers here

About 18 languages are native to East Timor, which fall into 2 genetic groups: (a) Austronesian (eg Tetun) and (b) Papuan (eg Fataluku). They have been spoken by their communities for centuries. In addition, East Timor has two official languages: (a) Tetun and (b) Portuguese. Since most East Timorese children have neither language as their mother tongue, the use of these official languages at school presents a major challenge - especially in the earliest years.