Mother Tongue-based Literacy Programmes: Case Studies of Good ...
Mother Tongue-based Literacy Programmes: Case Studies of Good ... Mother Tongue-based Literacy Programmes: Case Studies of Good ...
learners, like their minority language counterparts throughout Asia, need multilingual educationalinnovations that will build on what they do know (their own language and culture) and provide a goodbridge to what they do not know (the national language and culture curriculum).Thus, the leaders of the Kam/Mandarin Bilingual Education Pilot Project—a three-way collaborationamong the Rongjiang County education authorities, the Guizhou University Social Science ResearchInstitute 5 , and SIL International—designed their educational innovation to include the followingcomponents:• a two-year preschool programme for five-year old and six-year old Kam children that uses Kamexclusively as the language of instruction;•oral Chinese to be introduced to the children in the second preschool year, using communicativelanguage learning approaches (e.g., total physical response [TPR]), with Chinese language graduallyintroduced as the language of instruction in Grade 1.• Kam as a language of instruction in the early primary grades to be used as follows: 50% in Grade 1,40% in Grade 2, and 22% in Grade 3.•a continuing component of Kam language, literacy and culture from Grade 4 through Grade 6, withChinese used as the main language of instruction.The initial challenge to implementing such a programme was two-fold. The first challenge was indeveloping the needed Kam literature and curriculum materials. The second challenge was in trainingKam teachers to implement the classroom instruction in Kam.Development of Curriculum and Learning MaterialsThe lack of printed literature and instructional materials in minority languages is often cited worldwideas an insurmountable obstacle to bilingual education. This is true also in the Chinese nationalities’context. Stites (1999) describes the lack of minority language teachers and texts as a key explanationfor the failure of bilingual education projects to gain support in the Zhuang nationality language area.(Zhuang is a closely related language to Kam, both linguistically and geographically.) Thus, the leadersof the Kam pilot project began the programme well aware of the need for Kam instructional materials.Mindful of the UNESCO recommendation that at least 800 titles need to be available to readers if literacyis to be maintained in a language, the project organizers scheduled a Kam Writers’ Workshop in July of1999 at the Rongjiang Teachers’ School in Qiandongnan Miao Dong autonomous prefecture of GuizhouProvince. This was the “first step” towards achieving the goal of having ample mother tongue literaturefor the Kam learners. The workshop was led by Prof. Long Yaohong and included 17 participants, togetherwith two participants from SIL International (Geary, Geary, Long and Pan, 1999).Organizers and participants set the tone for the Kam project at this workshop: the materials developedwould be: (1) graded for ease of reading for the young Kam learners, (2) well-illustrated, and (3) basedon cultural themes and topics familiar and interesting to the Kam children. Past experience in educationin multilingual and multicultural contexts shows that readers think of the materials in terms of space:5 In 2004, the partnering work unit in Guizhou University became the Guizhou University Southwest MinorityLanguage and Culture Research Institute.[ 79 ]
eading material in their own language about their own homes, neighborhoods and communities is feltto be “near”; reading materials about other people, in other places, doing and saying unfamiliar thingsis felt to be “distant.” Culturally distant literature is much more difficult for new readers than literaturethat is culturally near (cf. Malone, 2003). The workshop organizers reported the following (Geary, Geary,Long and Pan, 1999):“The goal of the workshop was to produce some written materials in Dong, especiallyfor children. Three kinds of material were produced. The first consisted of ‘Level 2 books,’slightly more advanced than ‘Level 1 books’ and actually easier to compose. Typically,these are stories about 10 A5-pages long 6 , with one or two sentences per page. Each pagehas a picture that accompanies and illustrates the text. The second genre was that of ‘bigbooks.’ These consist of stories about 20 A3-pages long, also with one or two sentencesper page. Each page of the text is illustrated by an A3-sized drawing on the facing page.The third genre was that of ‘listening stories,’ intended for reading aloud to the childrenand not (in the first instance) to be read by the children themselves. (p.2)”At a later workshop, in November 1999, a list of Kam cultural themes (one for each week of the schoolyear) aided the authors in writing the materials. These themes were based on a Kam cultural calendarthat had been developed earlier.Curriculum ContentThe Kam Multilingual Education Pilot Project began in September 2000 by adding a two-year preschoolto the already existing Zaidang Primary School programme. Five- and six-year old Kam children begintheir formal education with four 40-minute classes per day, two classes in the morning and two in theafternoon. Two of the four classes are Kam language classes, during which the children are introducedto the Kam alphabet and to reading and writing Kam. The instructional programme uses two tracks—astory track and a word-building track—with one 40-minute class for each track (adapted from Stringerand Faraclas, 2001).Programme organizers frequently find the task of developing instructional materials for a bilingualeducation programme among the most serious challenges to providing effective learning for the children.How can national language educators develop these materials in the minority language? The answer is,of course, they cannot. Then who can? The answer to that is simple: the minority people themselves.Drawing from the Kam community leaders’ and teachers’ expert knowledge of their language andculture, Kam programme organizers developed a wide range of curriculum and instructional materialsfor use in the preschool:• 160 stories based on Kam cultural themes written and illustrated for 1st -year preschool and 2nd-yearpreschool (320 stories all together).•100 stories based on Kam cultural themes written and illustrated for Grade 1, 100 for Grade 2, 90 forGrade 3, 70 for Grade 4, 40 for Grade 5 (projected) and 40 for Grade 6 (projected).6 A4 is a normal size sheet of paper. A5 is half as large as A4. A3 is twice as large as A4.[ 80 ]
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learners, like their minority language counterparts throughout Asia, need multilingual educationalinnovations that will build on what they do know (their own language and culture) and provide a goodbridge to what they do not know (the national language and culture curriculum).Thus, the leaders <strong>of</strong> the Kam/Mandarin Bilingual Education Pilot Project—a three-way collaborationamong the Rongjiang County education authorities, the Guizhou University Social Science ResearchInstitute 5 , and SIL International—designed their educational innovation to include the followingcomponents:• a two-year preschool programme for five-year old and six-year old Kam children that uses Kamexclusively as the language <strong>of</strong> instruction;•oral Chinese to be introduced to the children in the second preschool year, using communicativelanguage learning approaches (e.g., total physical response [TPR]), with Chinese language graduallyintroduced as the language <strong>of</strong> instruction in Grade 1.• Kam as a language <strong>of</strong> instruction in the early primary grades to be used as follows: 50% in Grade 1,40% in Grade 2, and 22% in Grade 3.•a continuing component <strong>of</strong> Kam language, literacy and culture from Grade 4 through Grade 6, withChinese used as the main language <strong>of</strong> instruction.The initial challenge to implementing such a programme was two-fold. The first challenge was indeveloping the needed Kam literature and curriculum materials. The second challenge was in trainingKam teachers to implement the classroom instruction in Kam.Development <strong>of</strong> Curriculum and Learning MaterialsThe lack <strong>of</strong> printed literature and instructional materials in minority languages is <strong>of</strong>ten cited worldwideas an insurmountable obstacle to bilingual education. This is true also in the Chinese nationalities’context. Stites (1999) describes the lack <strong>of</strong> minority language teachers and texts as a key explanationfor the failure <strong>of</strong> bilingual education projects to gain support in the Zhuang nationality language area.(Zhuang is a closely related language to Kam, both linguistically and geographically.) Thus, the leaders<strong>of</strong> the Kam pilot project began the programme well aware <strong>of</strong> the need for Kam instructional materials.Mindful <strong>of</strong> the UNESCO recommendation that at least 800 titles need to be available to readers if literacyis to be maintained in a language, the project organizers scheduled a Kam Writers’ Workshop in July <strong>of</strong>1999 at the Rongjiang Teachers’ School in Qiandongnan Miao Dong autonomous prefecture <strong>of</strong> GuizhouProvince. This was the “first step” towards achieving the goal <strong>of</strong> having ample mother tongue literaturefor the Kam learners. The workshop was led by Pr<strong>of</strong>. Long Yaohong and included 17 participants, togetherwith two participants from SIL International (Geary, Geary, Long and Pan, 1999).Organizers and participants set the tone for the Kam project at this workshop: the materials developedwould be: (1) graded for ease <strong>of</strong> reading for the young Kam learners, (2) well-illustrated, and (3) <strong>based</strong>on cultural themes and topics familiar and interesting to the Kam children. Past experience in educationin multilingual and multicultural contexts shows that readers think <strong>of</strong> the materials in terms <strong>of</strong> space:5 In 2004, the partnering work unit in Guizhou University became the Guizhou University Southwest MinorityLanguage and Culture Research Institute.[ 79 ]