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IRIN-International |
Inside Ne Nawat, Tutaketzalis |
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Nawat: v
Grammar v
Texts v
Song Who we are: v
IRIN v
TIT Join us! The Nawat language recovery
initiative: |
A guided tour of Ne
Nawat, Tutaketzalis Ne Nawat,
Tutaketzalis (‘Nawat,
Our Language’) is the title of a new series of children’s Nawat language
textbooks. The first level materials will soon be out in a testing version to
be used in the pilot Nawat school programme. These materials will
subsequently be revised and republished in a more permanent format for use in
2005. By then the pilot school children will have progressed to a higher
level of Nawat and will be ready for more advanced books in the NNT series.
In all, plans are for this series to include levels from the second to the
sixth grade of secondary school. Level One of Ne Nawat, Tutaketzalis, like other levels to follow, consists of
three volumes: the student’s book, the workbook and the teacher’s guide. The Student’s Book
Ne Nawat,
Tutaketzalis – as
trainee teachers in the Nawat programme are told often – doesn’t teach Nawat:
that’s the teacher’s job. Teachers are required to engage their young
students in a lively, interactive classroom dynamic whose main objective is
to get the children speaking Nawat to each other. Much of the time their
books aren’t even open. When the teacher instructs the pupils to open their
book, it is usually so that they can look at a version on paper – in pictures
and text – of something they have already learnt orally. The level one student’s book is made up of
ten units to be studied over several months. Each unit represents a few hours
of class work and is divided into four smaller sections called lessons. The
material in one lesson could be covered in an hour of class, although it is
up to each teacher to organise and programme classes. Lastly, each lesson
consists of even smaller sections called activities. In a typical hour of
Nawat class several activities will be done. Each lesson occupies two pages
(left and right); a whole unit is thus eight pages long.
Most of the lessons are oriented to particular
teaching points that form part of the objectives for the unit. Some of the
activities present or practise specific linguistic or communicative content,
while others are for revision, writing practice, exercises or transfer
activities. The fourth lesson of each unit does not present any new material
for active acquisition, but contains complementary material such as reading
or writing activities, songs, games, stories, etc. The Workbook
For
each unit in the student’s book there is a corresponding unit in the
workbook, containing four pages of oral or written exercises, puzzles, and
other activities which can be done either as homework or in class. Many may
be used either for practice or testing purposes. The workbook is designed to
be written and drawn in, whereas the student’s book can be used without
marking it at all, so that the same books can be used in class over several
years.
The Teacher’s Guide
The teacher’s guide for each
level contains several sections with support material for the teacher,
including goals, objectives and a syllabus map, language notes, suggestions
on teaching methodology, and unit-by-unit teaching notes. Goals, objectives and syllabus
Each level has particular goals and communicative
objectives that are developed into a syllabus. Objectives are specified in
terms of situations, topics, functions, notions and language items.
Furthermore units have specific themes that are relevant to the level’s
overall goals.
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© 2004 Alan
R. King, Monica Ward and IRIN.