Re: functions

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>]

>My main criticism of the draft textbook as it stands is that it's largely a
>step by step journey through the refgram.  If we want to produce a textbook
>that is a practical guide to Lojban, then it needs (pace Austin) to
>concentrate more on "how to do things with words" - such as ask someone a
>"whether" question, for example.  This would also require substantial
>changes in the "syllabus" - this is the only language textbook I have come
>across where you don't get to numbers until Chapter 10!  This is not to
>belittle the textbook, which I think does a reasonable job at what it sets
>out to do (i.e. present the grammar and semantics of Lojban in a digestible
>way) but since any future readers of the textbook will also (.a'o) have a
>copy of the Book, they need to be offered something different, i.e. a
>course that will enable them to start communicating in Lojban as soon as
>possible.  After all, I don't start teaching English to beginners by
>explaining English sentence structure, I start with things like "Hi, how
>are you?" li'a teaching/learning a conlang like Lojban is going to be
>different from learning a natlang - mu'a you wouldnt need to spend much
>time on how to do your shopping in Lojban - but I still think we can learn
>a lot from second-language pedagogy here.

The draft textbook was largely written before the refgrammar was even conceived,
and hence is not a setep by step journey thorugh the latter.  Actually only
the incomplete chapter 1 is intended to be preserved in any form in the final
book, and is rather a more complete explication of the material in Chapter
2 of the refgrammar thna of the whole book.  Essential is more examples of
different kinds and exercises based on those examples.

The textbook does need "useful" Lojban, but its essential function is to
provide lots of examples and exercises, some of which are embeeded in longer
texts to provide context.

I do not expect that the textbook will necessarily include a
conversational phrasebook at the beginning like it seems many 2nd language
books for English speakers do.  The textbook is supposed to teach you how to
leanr the language, and the conversational niceties are not necessarily part
of the best learning method.

The last outline of the draft textbook had one long intro lesson, then 9 or
10 shorter lessons covering specific features of the language while building up
vocabulary - this number will probably be expanded though - and then some
additional lessons that cover "usage" and "trabslation" issues.

More recently, my efforts at studying Russian have greatly changed my
philosophy of 2nd language learning, but I have not yet returned to the
textbook to revise the plan.

I HAVE done a lot of reading in 2nd language pedagogy - enough to know that
most practitioners admit that there seems to be no magic bullets in terms
of pedagogical methods for learning a language.  Lojban is a special problem
in that we cannot provide "native speaker moidels", most learners are acquiring
the language on their own through self-study rather than in a classroom with
others and a knowledgeable (ideally fluent) instructor, and the goal is not
generally spoken fluency.  We need to tailor the textbook methods to our
expected audience.

It is not clear yet whether we can write the book so as to require the reader
 toalso hasve the refgrammar at hand.  I tried this once before - the first
version of the book skipped phonology and told people to read what is now the
phonology and morphology chapters of the refgrammar.  They didn't.

lojbab
----
lojbab                                                lojbab@access.digex.net
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA                        703-385-0273
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    or see Lojban WWW Server: href="http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/";
    Order _The Complete Lojban Language_ - see our Web pages or ask me.