Re: functions

[Robin Turner <robin@BILKENT.EDU.TR>]

la lojbab.cusku di'e

>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.

.iesai  Although I have now moved into the slightly more rarified
atmosphere of English for Academic Purposes, I well remember the furious
methodological arguments we used to have in the staffroom.  There is now,
however, a general consensus that a syllabus needs to balance structural,
functional and notional approaches - va'i learning the grammar of the
language, learning to do things in it (e.g. ask questions, offer advice,
make requests) and talk about various subjects in it.

>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.

.ie  Perhaps one solution is to act as though native speakers existed.
Alternatively, we could assume a speaking situation where none of the
participants are native speakers of Lojban, but are native speakers of
different languages using Lojban as a lingua franca.  Obviously learing
solo is different from learning in a class, though a'o the latter will
eventually occur more.  Also learning styles vary enormously, so there is
no magic bullet here either - personally I rather like the old-fashioned
teach-yourself books where the first chapter is entitled "The Grammar", but
I'm almost certainly unusual in this respect.

As for the goal not generally being spoken fluency, well this may not be an
immediate goal for such a widely-scattered community (I'll be happy if I
ever manage to write a decent e-mail in Lojban) but surely it is one of the
long-term goals (otherwise why would we have all those phonological
rules?).  I am not suggesting a Lojban phrasebook, but the type of simple
conversational Lojban found in parts of the refgram and draft textbook is
useful, I think. Given, though, that most Lojban at the moment is written,
a lot of the examples should be letters, e-mails, stories etc.

Finally, some suggestions for the textbook:

1.  As much Lojban and as little English as possible.
2.  A chance to work out the rules before explaining them.
3.  A wide variety of exercises (cloze, multiple choice, dialogue
completion etc.).
4.  Plenty of functional stuff i.e. how to do X in Lojban.
5.  Plenty of vocabulary.
6.  An accompanying cassette with Lojban dialogues (optional).
7.  Lots of pictures!
8.  Versions in other languages than English.

If and when work on the textboook resumes, I would be very willing to
contribute. OK, my Lojban is pretty minimal at the moment, but I do have a
lot of expeience of writing language-learning materials.

co'o mi'e robin.


Robin Turner

Bilkent Universitesi,
IDMYO,
Ankara,
Turkey.

<http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/8309>