LinguisticArtefactsin SchoolCurriculum - University of...
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Linguistic Artefacts in School Curriculum Tanmoy Bha*acharya Centre for Advanced Studies in Linguis:cs, University of Delhi [email protected]
Transcript of LinguisticArtefactsin SchoolCurriculum - University of...
Linguistic Artefacts in School Curriculum
Tanmoy Bha*acharya Centre for Advanced Studies in Linguis:cs, University of Delhi [email protected]
Why such Workshops • To streamline language teaching, one needs to understand:
• The nature of textbooks being used • Teacher prepara:on • Classroom methodology
• In order to address these issues, we need to: • Analyse textbooks of different states • Discuss issues with teachers • Engage in classroom observa:ons
• In textbook workshops we should set the goal to be to: • Raise awareness on two fronts – social inequity and linguis:c features
• Prepare be*er teacher training manual
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The Thesis • Homogeneity is the real enemy • Once the differences are realised through linguis:c and cultural artefacts, linguis:cs acts as the leveller, which reveals the universalis:c pa*ern in language (and therefore culture) and by doing so, includes the language (and therefore the culture) of the minority, the deprived, and even the oppressed
• Linguis:cs is not only a leveller but teaches us two great lessons in educa:on: universality and inclusion
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My Work 280315
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True Inclusion One thing that has emerged, especially over the last 2 years or so, is the overarching theme of what I call: Integra:ve DifferEnce which, in short, involves decentring as a constant nego:a:ng process
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Classroom Dynamics
• Decentring should be at the centre of teacher training and therefore the mantra in the classroom dynamics
• This can be exemplified through Object Naming to show how linguis:c and cultural reconstruc:ons lead to the The Thesis
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DEMONSTRATIVE-‐NOUN Meiteilon: N-‐DEM:
(asi-‐gi) lairik asi : (DEM-‐GEN) book DEM Thadou: DEM-‐N:
ce-‐xu in : DEM-‐DIST house Hmar: N-‐DEM/ DEM-‐N
hí lékhabu hì : DEM book DEM Tangkhul: N-‐DEM
fu hi: dog DEM Mao: Mixed: ocu lokhru: house DEM Tarao: N+DEM : naw-‐khə: child-‐DEM
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Structural Awareness
N DEM DEM N DEM N DEM N-‐ DEM
• Centre-‐Periphery • Head (Origin of meaning)
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Cultural Artefact
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Object Naming Exercise
Meiteilon: nahoŋ Thadou: nao-‐púʔ Hmar: naopaŋte puk Tangkhul: nao-‐hot Mao: nao-‐cha apoi nao “child”can be reconstructed as the Proto-‐form
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Knowledge Construction
• Structural (awareness) • Linguis:c (reconstruc:on) • Cultural (reconstruc:on)
• Universality
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Grammatical Phenomena • Modifiers and their posi:ons
• Word order • Complex Sentences • Verbal complexes • Argument structure of verbs
• Verb ellipses and verb movement
• Complex predicates (?) • Pro-‐drop
• To design exercises and ac:vi:es based on these themes or a combina:on of them.
• An awareness of the structural/ gramma:cal proper:es of language.
• The sec:on :tled “language Study”, which has sentence making, synonyms and antonyms as three sub-‐parts.
• This is a faulty interpreta:on of what “language” means, there is almost nothing that one learns from synonyms/ antonyms about language.
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NCERT Class IV: Marigold Unit-‐1: Neha’s Alarm Clock
Wake up! Wake up! It’s a lovely day. Oh! Please get up And come and play. The birds are singing in the trees, And you can hear the buzzing bees
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Wake up! Wake up! It’s a lovely day. Oh! Please get up And come and play. It’s much too late to lie in bed, So hurry up, you sleepy head.
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The First Stanza
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ModiQiers The first line modifiers may be listed:
1 2 3 • Adverbs of manner, :me, and place in that order
• Posi:ons of modifiers (les of S/ Verb) • Posi:oning of 3 refers to the verb since it’s an adverb which modifies a verb or an event
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Wake up! Wake up! It’s a lovely day. Oh! Please get up And come and play. The birds are singing in the trees, And you can hear the buzzing bees
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Pro-‐Drop • One of the most common features of all Indian languages is the phenomenon of pro-‐drop. In total, there are 10 examples of pronominal drop within these 8 lines of the Hindi poem studied, and 8 for the English poem.
• Most are subject pro-‐drop, there is one example where pro indicates an indirect object since the verb there is ditransi:ve requiring an indirect object:
• The English poem has obligatory 2nd person drop
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Neha’s Alarm Clock: The Story
Narrator : Ring! Ring! Ring! Off goes the alarm clock [at six] [in the morning]. Neha makes a face and __ [covering her ears with a pillow], __ snuggles [under [the warm blanket]]. But she knows __ she has to get up. She mu*ers __ to herself:
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Word Order The previous exercise assumes that the learner would be asked to find out S, O, and V and specifically their order. One can point out that the V in ques:on is a transi:ve one and therefore would require an object (O), and proceed to ask the students to find out the object. Similarly for the Hindi example: Object: ask the V What and Whom: “What do I say?”
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Direct/ Indirect; Complex Sentence
This teaches us about indirect/ direct speech (narrator versus Neha). This also teaches us about complex sentence structure where the subordinate/ embedded clause is joined to the main clause through a complemen:ser (‘that’); similarly in Hindi with ki:
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Universal Grammar Lesson • What I have shown here is that there is absolutely nothing that violates any known principle of grammar -‐-‐ this itself is a valuable lesson to impart to students that everything in language is for a reason and as per the principles of universal grammar.
• Similarly to the Tibeto-‐Burman languages example, here one can point out the similari:es between English and Hindi/ Urdu in the domains of modifiers, pro-‐drop, complex sentences, and word order, among many others.
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Discourses • Conversa:on [word order; pro-‐drop; ellipses] • Descrip:on [modifiers] • Rhymes/ songs/ poems [word order] • Narra:ve [complex sentences; direct/ indirect speech]
• Diary [ellipses; pro-‐drop] • No:ce/ Slogan/ Poster [word order] • Drama [all linguis:c features]
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Discussion Points • “The textbook trap” • Do we need a separate grammar book? • Quan:ty of exercises • Order of lessons • Medium of instruc:on:
“Explaining a new word in mother tongue is the best way to make the child understand its meaning. Through this, a child can co-‐relate teaching in the classroom and his/ her outside experiences.”
(Teacher –UP). • More than 52% teachers in UP use English in class only some:mes
• Is English teaching English reading/ wri:ng? • Should children learn non-‐stnadard forms (Indian English)?
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