South Asian Languages: Rethinking Curriculum

Rakesh M. Bhatt

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Curriculum Development

Goals and Methods

Goal of Language Teaching

Communicative Competence

Focus on meaning (making) Meaning as bound to a cultural context Meaning as negotiated through discourse Meaning as negotiated through communicative

strategies

Communicative Competence …[some] occasions call for being appropriately

ungrammatical … child acquires knowledge of sentences, not only as grammatical, but also as appropriate, … [child] acquires competence as to when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk about with whom, when, where, in what manner … [s/he] becomes able to accomplish a repertoire of speech acts, to take part in speech events, an to evaluate their accomplishments by others.

Appropriately Ungrammatical:An Examplar Hindi

aap caay piyeNge

vs. *aap caay piyoge

What is the function of the two variants?

Communicative Competence Knowledge of how, when, and why to

say what to whom.

Focus: language functions linguistic items perform.

Ex: achaa, caluN?

Discussion point: What is the form-function correlation here?

Why Communicative Competence

Kashmiri: “Would you like to have a cup of tea?” caay cakh-aa caay cakh-ay caay cakh-ba caay cakh-bi caay cakh-sa caay cayiv-mahraa caay cayiv-haz

Components of “CC” Grammatical competence: knowledge of

the vocabulary, word structure, and sentence structure of a language;

Sociolinguistic competence: the ability to use language in a contextually appropriate way, taking into account the roles of the participants, the setting, and the purpose of the interaction;

Components of “CC” Discourse competence: the ability to

connect utterances to an overall theme or topic (discourse coherence), and the ability to infer the meaning of larger units (pragmatics);

Strategic competence: ability to compensate for imperfect knowledge of linguistic, sociolinguistic and discourse rules.

Discussion break: Reflection points Language classes should focus on

A. meaning B. grammar Students learn best by using plenty of

A. intuition B. analysis A class should give special attention to

A. fluency B. accuracy Teacher’s feedback to students be

A. frequent B. infrequent

Focus of FL teaching Theoretical focus

How do learners learn? What do they learn?

Methodological focus What are learners’ “needs”?

First step: Needs analysis

Communicative Language Teaching

Meaningful, goal oriented use of target language—focus on the “active” learner;

Language input is vital, grammar explanations help;

Some errors are creations of productive engagement with input;

Teacher’s role: selection of material and tasks, facilitator.

CLT: Methodology Mainly TL use in class Optimal use of L1; code-switching Authentic texts Focus on “functions” (in addition to

grammar and vocabulary) Group and paired activity

Meaningful and realistic interactions

Competing Methodologies Input processing: Input => Intake

PPP model: Presentation-practice-production

OHE model: Observe-hypothesize-experiment

Lets take a 10 min break

CHOOSING TEXTS Authentic, but what are they?

*Making travel arrangements, going to bars, eating out, booking into hotels, buying gas

Focus on the culture(s) of the TL An essay on cricket?

Compare with baseball!

Whose culture?

Diglossic Variation

Bengali: Calit bhasha vs. Sadhu bhasha Tamil: Colloquial vs. Literary Also Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu What about Hindi?

Hindi Language Variation

Eastern vs. Western Hindi vs. Urdu vs. Hindustani Polyglossic variation

paati, ciThii, <khat>, patr, <letter>

Hindi: Use and Identity

maine janaa hai <> mujhko janaa hai

aap caay piyeNgee <> aap caay piyoge

kyaa ek gilaas shiital jal uplabdh hogaa

APPROPRIATE CONTEXTS

Learning SALs as:

Foreign Languages Less Commonly Taught Languages Heritage Languages

SAL as Foreign Language Affective Variables: Needs “Needs

Analysis”

Motivation? Integrative and/or Instrumental

Attitude? Positive or negative

SAL as Heritage Language Heritage and cognate-heritage

Motivation?

Ethno-linguistic identity Maintenance of cultural practices Pop culture

HL and FL: the vital difference Input processing

Strategies and mechanisms that promote form-meaning connections during comprehension

Cross-language (and skills) transfer effects Sociolinguistic competence Discourse competence Linguistic competence

Less Commonly Taught Languages Motivation?

Cultural awareness Diversity

Socio-political context of LCTLs

Lack of resources Lack of classroom research on LCTLs Lack of institutional support Lack of formal training in language pedagogy Abundance of heritage students Variable class size and offerings Lack of professional development and

networking

Contexts of texts

Are they teen-appropriate? Are they HL-appropriate?

Skills in contexts Foreign language

Literacy Accuracy Fluency

Heritage language

Fluency Literacy Accuracy

L2 Literacy Issues

Transfer of skills: Supports or interferes

Language Threshold Hypothesis Onset of L2 literacy vs. L2 learning

Limited language knowledge of L2 reader/writer For a LCTL, the problem is worse

Role of strategies: mental translation, cognates

Scripts: The embarrassment of choices Script choice and identity politics

L2 Reading Abilities and skills

Rapid, interactive, strategic, linguistic, and purposeful

Purposes: To find information: scan, skim To learn: basic comprehension of main ideas To critique/evaluate: reflections, connections and

integration with prior knowledge

What works: Texts must be grounded in learner-contexts

L2 Writing Writing is

Text Composing (process) Social construction (context)

What about L2 writing?

L2 Writing contd. What is good L2 writing?

Cultures affects texts Different cultures produce culturally influenced and

rhetorically distinguishable types of text.

Some useful pointers Focus on the process of writing Group writing tasks, peer correction Drafting and re-drafting Teacher as advisor and editor

L2 Listening Comprehension How does comprehension work?

Intelligibility Comprehensibility Interpretability

L2 speaking Talk across cultures In U.S., but not in South Asia, we

Talk around Talk up Talk down Talk it out Talk it through/over Have talk radio and tv stations Have talk show hosts Take turns talking

Conclusions Language learning must proceed within

the socio-cultural contexts of its use Learning language, learning culture Goal: Communicative language

teaching, tailored to appropriate goals and needs of learners and learning.