colors, numbers, and animals

[Peter Austin]

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
http://dieriyawarra.wordpress.com.

Peter Austin



On 8 August 2014 00:08, Bryan James Gordon <linguist at email.arizona.edu>
wrote:

> 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:
>
>    - skilled preschool and K teachers who have been trained that these
>    are the things children should learn (albeit in their first language)
>    - (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
>    - (in the case of animals) obviously, animals themselves (not just as
>    a semantic system) are very important in many Native cultures!
>
> 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!
>
> 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.
>
> Bryan James Gordon
>
>
> 2014-08-07 8:01 GMT-07:00 Wayne Leman <wleman1949b at gmail.com>:
>
>   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.
>>
>> 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?
>>
>> 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?
>>
>>
>> Wayne
>> -----
>> http://www.cheyennelanguage.org/
>>
>
>
>
> --
> ***********************************************************
> Bryan James Gordon, MA
> Joint PhD Program in Linguistics and Anthropology
> University of Arizona
> ***********************************************************
>



-- 
Prof Peter K. Austin
Marit Rausing Chair in Field Linguistics
Director, Endangered Languages Academic Programme
Research Tutor and PhD Convenor
Department of Linguistics, SOAS
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
United Kingdom

web: http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/staff/index.php?cd=pa
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