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I think that it would be useful for linguists to spend some time <br>
visiting K-3 (and even pre-school) classes to see what sorts of <br>
activities children are engaged in and enjoying, and also to go <br>
to a children's toy store to see what sorts of games are sold there. <br>
One has to develop some basic content and framework in a <br>
language before making much use of it. Decontextualized lists <br>
of words are anti-motivational, and can quickly turn children <br>
(and adults) off, but they can be used in game activities such as <br>
bingo, or a board game that advances pieces for right answers, <br>
and these can be played in cooperative ways rather than Anglo-<br>
centric competitive ways. But we typically underestimate the <br>
abilities of young children, who can learn/be taught much more <br>
than we usually challenge them with. Small playlets allow <br>
children (or adults) to memorize contextualized language, and <br>
these can be enjoyably practiced, then expanded from by changing <br>
person, aspect, action, direction, systematically. For older learners, <br>
this was the basis for our highly successful Quechua course (and <br>
Martha Hardman's equally successful Aymara course as well). <br>
Depending on the language/culture, short traditional animal <br>
stories (with sound and motion effects) can be memorized and <br>
acted out (but never at the wrong time of year!!). These again <br>
can be used as a basis for expansions and for raising intuitive <br>
awareness of grammatical categories and morphological structure. <br>
Knowing how to analyze a language and how best to help people <br>
acquire it are vastly different things, just as chemistry and cooking <br>
are. One of the best teachers of Turkish I ever had was a lawyer <br>
by trade, while the two worst were a linguist and a teacher trained <br>
to mechanically teach the Foreign Service Institute materials. <br>
<br>
Rudy<br>
<br>
Rudy Troike<br>
University of Arizona<br>
Tucson, AZ USA<br>
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<div style="direction: ltr;" id="divRpF344419"><font color="#000000" face="Tahoma" size="2"><b>From:</b> ilat-request@list.arizona.edu [ilat-request@list.arizona.edu] on behalf of Peter Austin [pa2@soas.ac.uk]<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, August 07, 2014 9:13 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> ilat@list.arizona.edu<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [ilat] colors, numbers, and animals<br>
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<div dir="ltr">In our Dieri language workshops in Australia we used a variety of methods, like teaching people simple commands, drawing human figures and naming body parts (rather than list format), games like "Simon says" and "Lingo Bingo" -- you can read
about some of this in various blog posts on <a href="http://dieriyawarra.wordpress.com" target="_blank">
http://dieriyawarra.wordpress.com</a>.
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<div>Peter Austin</div>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On 8 August 2014 00:08, Bryan James Gordon <span dir="ltr">
<<a href="mailto:linguist@email.arizona.edu" target="_blank">linguist@email.arizona.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex; border-left:1px #ccc solid; padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:13px">There's a consensus among linguists that lists of colors, numbers and animals are a bad way to teach a language. Although I am part of this consensus, I don't think it's colorness, numberness
or animalness that's the problem, and I doubt we're going to find anything insidious in digging up the genealogy of this practice. Some potential sources that spring to my mind:</span>
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<li style="margin-left:15px">skilled preschool and K teachers who have been trained that these are the things children should learn (albeit in their first language)</li><li style="margin-left:15px">(in the case of color and number) the fact that Native names for colors and numbers often teach culturally important things and destabilise the apparent naturalness of the English color and number systems
</li><li style="margin-left:15px">(in the case of animals) obviously, animals themselves (not just as a semantic system) are very important in many Native cultures!</li></ul>
<div>It's listness that's the problem. Working at AILDI I've often had to discourage folks from using lists of words of any sort when they're developing their teaching tools. But the best way to do this, in my experience, is to recognise their value and try
to pivot it over to something else more language-acquisition-appropriate that benefits from the same value. If a teacher is fascinated by the fact that her language has a base-4 system, I encourage her to identify a traditional practice that involves counting
on 4 fingers (or whatever is the physical base) and to use that practice instead of a list for her microteaching. If a teacher really wants to teach animal names, I encourage him to teach them in complete sentences, and also teach hyper- and hyponyms that
include those animals, and to include some of the flora that those animals interact with regularly - or anything culturally important about the animal that goes beyond just naming it!</div>
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<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:13px">Teaching lists of colors, numbers and animals is a well-established practice in many Native language programs. This has had obvious negative consequences in terms of the ratio between effort and money
input and acquisition output. But I worry that, by identifying this practice as a problem instead of as a potential source of utility, we are furthering the alienation between linguists and community members. My two cents.</div>
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<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:13px">Bryan James Gordon</div>
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<div class="gmail_quote">2014-08-07 8:01 GMT-07:00 Wayne Leman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:wleman1949b@gmail.com" target="_blank">wleman1949b@gmail.com</a>></span>:
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<div>A number of methods are used for teaching indigenous languages. One that seems commonly used for teaching Native American languages in the U.S. is a focus on memorization of colors, numbers, and names of animals.</div>
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<div>Does anyone know where this approach to language teaching originated? Might it reflect how the teachers themselves were taught English in boarding or reservation schools? Might it reflect perceived requirements on the part of school, state, or federal
administrators?</div>
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<div>Do any of you know of any programs where there has been a shift from memorization of word lists toward creating conversational fluency in the indigenous language?</div>
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<div>Wayne</div>
<div>-----</div>
<div><a title="http://www.cheyennelanguage.org/" href="http://www.cheyennelanguage.org/" target="_blank">http://www.cheyennelanguage.org/</a></div>
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-- <br>
***********************************************************<br>
Bryan James Gordon, MA<br>
Joint PhD Program in Linguistics and Anthropology<br>
University of Arizona<br>
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-- <br>
Prof Peter K. Austin<br>
Marit Rausing Chair in Field Linguistics<br>
Director, Endangered Languages Academic Programme
<div>Research Tutor and PhD Convenor<br>
Department of Linguistics, SOAS<br>
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square<br>
London WC1H 0XG<br>
United Kingdom<br>
<br>
web: <a href="http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/staff/index.php?cd=pa" target="_blank">
http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/staff/index.php?cd=pa</a></div>
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