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~International
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IRIN-International |
The UDB textbook project |
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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: |
Nawat goes to school: the Universidad Don Bosco Nawat textbook
project üIn the 2004 school year (which begins
in January in El Salvador), a new program got underway in which three hundred
children in four different schools have started to learn Nawat. The schools
are located in the area where Nawat is still spoken, or else was still spoken
when the children’s parents or grandparents were growing up. Public and
private schools are included in this pilot program, as are both urban and
rural schools. üExperienced teachers already at
work in their respective schools were recently taught Nawat and learnt a set
of interactive, communicative language teaching techniques in a special
80-hour training program aimed at getting them ready to start teaching the
Nawat language this year. This took place with the approval and support of
their schools, which agreed to come into the program and introduce Nawat into
the schools’ curriculum. Nawat is taught three hours a week and treated like
any other school subject. üInside the classroom, the
objective is for the children to learn to communicate in their ancestral
language. The teachers pursue this objective through the methods they have
been trained in, following a specially-developed syllabus embodied in a new
series of textbooks that the program is producing. The name of the series is Ne Nawat, Tutaketzalis
(NNT), which means ‘Nawat, Our Language’. The book for Level 1 was written in
2003 for use in 2004, and further materials are planned for production at the
rhythm required by the project’s development over five years. By the time
these children finish primary school, they will know Nawat better than most
children have done for one or two generations, offering new hope for the
language’s survival and recovery. It is not suggested that the project outlined
here will be sufficient to bring about single-handed the recovery of the
Nawat language. In isolation, this project only addresses systematically one
aspect of language recovery, although an essential aspect: transmission of
the language to children. Language recovery involves more than language teaching:
it must be a social process involving the strengthening of the language at
all levels, redistributing and expanding the language’s social, communicative
and symbolic functions, and progressively reasserting the language’s presence
in the community, public and individual awareness of and identification with
their language, and the practical usefulness and moral desirability of
knowing and using the language. Despite Nawat’s precarious situation at
present these goals may indeed be attainable – we shall only be able to
ascertain to what degree through empirical experience – provided that some
form of language planning is applied in their pursuit. What is clear is that
the process must actively involve present-day Nawat speakers and their social
and community networks, must result in increased use of and more positive
attitudes towards the language among the population (which includes adults of
working age as well as children and elderly speakers), and will require
‘corpus planning’ (linguistic research and codification, didactic
publications, production of oral and written texts, etc.). The textbook
project alone is not in a position to meet all such needs, but can and should
contribute to, support and cooperate with efforts in these areas. Support for the textbook project
The plan for the program, the NNT textbooks,
their syllabus and the methodology they reflect, the teacher training courses
in Nawat language and teaching techniques and the pilot school program are
all part of a project initiated in 2003 by the Universidad Don Bosco (UDB) of
El Salvador and developed under the guidance and direction of Alan King, a
foreign linguist who has previously specialised in the Basque language and is
well acquainted with the dynamics of minority language movements in various
parts of the world. The project was endorsed by Jorge Lemus (Universidad Don
Bosco) and Monica Ward (Dublin City University), both of whom have been
involved in Nawat studies for several years. The project also benefits from
support from a government agency, CONCULTURA. The pilot school program is
being developed in coordination with local education authorities.
Alan King was in charge of all aspects of the
project’s work during 2003, when the basic groundwork was laid and most of
the component activities set in motion. It was agreed that this project needs
to depend on teamwork and should involve members of the communities affected
and native language speakers. These goals have to be pursued through
voluntary participation. Additional activities were undertaken by the project
as relevant parts of the overall language recovery plan (details below). The
achievements of the project’s first year would not have been possible without
assistance from several key individuals such as Genaro Ramírez and Werner
Hernández. The project’s plans for its second year
(2004) include continuation of the areas of work mentioned above plus some
new ones: coordination, assessment and evaluation of the newly inaugurated
Nawat language pilot school program, development of a further in-service
teacher training program, revision and re-edition of the first versions of
new materials in the NNT series, and the establishment of a project office (TIT) to serve as a focus for these activities and as a
general resource for the Nawat language movement. The broadening of the project’s activity and
goals poses a need for a corresponding growth in human and economic
resources. The project now depends on the coordinated work of a larger group
of specialised assistants to help with textbook production, training,
coordination of the school program, as well as related areas of language
study and project development. The staff required is available but the funds
to pay the salaries of assistants and cover the project’s other budgetary
needs are not all being provided by the University at present. To meet those
needs and keep this important project on track, it will be necessary to fill
these gaps in resources. The project’s achievements in 2003 ·
Planning
and groundwork for the textbook program: Prior
to the present project, Nawat linguistics was an underdeveloped area and
Nawat language teaching was almost virgin territory. Very few people were
interested in the language, and those few were mainly working in isolation
and largely unaware of each other. Native Nawat speakers were mostly
illiterate and lacking in resources and know-how to develop effective
programs. Three general areas of overall preparation therefore had to be
planned and implemented before even the preliminaries of textbook production
could be commenced: organisation of human resources, linguistic work, and
methodological preparation. The first half of 2003 was largely given over to
these areas of activity: -
Organisational
preparation:
Creation and coordination of a network of people willing to participate in
the project and support it. -
Linguistic
preparation:
Collection and organisation of existing language documentation, coordination
with speakers and students of the language, synthesis of all available linguistic
information and basic research, together with codification proposals
(orthographic standardisation, grammatical systematisation etc.). -
Methodological
preparation:
Identification and development of an appropriate methodological basis for the
overall design of the project and the didactic approach to be taught and
reflected in the materials produced, as well as a production chain for the
authoring, graphic design, editing, printing and distribution of the texts. ·
Textbook
production: After
several months of organisational, linguistic and methodological preparation,
production of the first text began. Having produced and discussed an initial
prototype, materials were written for the first student’s book and workbook
(Level 1), and passed on to a team at the School of Graphic Design of the
Universidad Don Bosco led by Claudia Hidalgo, whose job it is to supply the
artwork and edit a printer-ready version. CONCULTURA has offered to cover the
printing costs through its Service of Publications. Authoring of the Level 1
Teacher’s Guide and the Level 2 student’s book were also begun. ·
Pilot
school program: With
permission from local education authorities, the project approached several
schools in selected localities in the territorial division (Departamento) of
Sonsonate, in the heart of the Pipil region, explaining the project and
inviting them to enter a pilot program introducing Nawat into the school
curriculum from age eight (Second Grade) in 2004. A number of schools
accepted with enthusiasm and were asked to select one or more teachers to
attend a special training program and begin teaching Nawat from the beginning
of the 2004 school year.
·
Teacher
training program: The
first stage of the Nawat teacher training program was an intensive 80-hour
course in November and December 2003, taught by Alan King and Werner Hernández
with contributions by Jorge Lemus, attended by ten trainees, mostly teachers
from the pilot schools. The chief objectives of the course were practical
Nawat language at the beginning level, teaching techniques and a presentation
of the Level 1 textbook material. The course produced satisfactory results:
participating teachers received a Level 1 Nawat language certificate and were
ready to start teaching Nawat in their schools. The course was also attended
by Genaro Ramírez, a native Nawat speaker and experienced Nawat teacher, who
approved of the language content and teaching methods taught.
Teacher training session in Itzalku ·
Additional
activities: -
University
course: The
project organised and taught a 24-hour university course called “Introduction
to Nawat”, which was attended by eighteen students, including several Pipils.
The course content included historical and sociocultural background of the
Nawat language and the Pipil people, a linguistic introduction and practical
language classes. A textbook, ‘Iniciación al Náhuat’, was specially developed
for this course. The course was taught over a six-week period, the first five
weeks at the Universidad Don Bosco and the sixth week in the Nawat-speaking
village of Santo Domingo de Guzmán. Students coming from the Pipil area to
attend the course received grants covering their tuition, textbook and travel
expenses. Attendance was good and the course was qualified as a success by
students and organisers.
-
Project
reports: Several
informative documents were produced by the project during 2003 to report on
the project’s aims, needs and progress. The project’s goals for 2004 ·
Textbook
production: Completion
of remaining Level 1 materials, production of materials for Levels 2 and 3,
and revision of the preliminary Level 1 publications following their use in
the pilot school program. Development of objectives and syllabus for Level 3
prior to authoring. ·
Pilot
school program: Continual
assessment, support and evaluation of the pilot school program, maintaining
contact with the teachers and following closely the development of Nawat
classes at their schools. ·
Expansion
of school program: Recruitment of
further schools and localities into the program in the post-pilot stage to
begin in 2005. ·
Teacher
training program: -
Further
in-service training for project teachers: Continued language instruction and general
training for Nawat teachers working in the pilot school project this year. -
New
initial training course: Repetition of the initial teacher training course for new Nawat
teachers entering the program in the 2005 school year. ·
Additional
activities: -
Project
office (TIT):
Creation of an office in the region of the pilot school project to carry on
project work and attend to the general needs of the project and work related
to its goals. -
University
course: Possible
repetition and extension of the university course “Introduction to Nawat”. Decision
on this will depend on demand, university policy and the availability of
resources. -
Project
reports:
Production of informative documents to report on the project’s aims, needs
and progress in 2004. |
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© 2004 Alan
R. King, Monica Ward and IRIN.