tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10719853.post3984248999683239170..comments2024-01-08T19:50:39.114+09:30Comments on that munanga linguist: Northern Territory's draft Indigenous Education review (Part 1)Greg Dicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07615277580306011754noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10719853.post-86838563300437124022014-09-28T23:10:30.701+09:302014-09-28T23:10:30.701+09:30Thank you for this post, I found it both insightfu...Thank you for this post, I found it both insightful and enlightening.<br /><br />I am new to the study of Aboriginal languages but as a speech pathologist have been interested in the intersect between language acquisition and literacy acquisition for many years.<br /><br />Your 's' phonics example highlighted how the field of language and literacy teaching is not particularly well understood by the public, and how often it is misunderstood even by language educators.<br /><br />It is true that teaching phonics explicitly is an extremely important step when teaching children how to read in English(despite this, there are many who teach phonics without really understanding how English phonology works and simply rely on the pre-prepared materials - another issue entirely). <br /><br /><br />Implementing an English phonics program too early for young EALD learners is a serious waste of time. <br /><br />Phonics should only be taught to students who have phonological awareness. <br /><br />Phonological awareness relies upon students having oral language skill.<br /><br />Therefore, students should at least have some beginning level of ability to communicate in the English before being required to perceive, discriminate between and articulate all of the English sounds. <br /><br />Even though it is possible to learn all the phonics (some children are hyperlexic, after all) - what particular message would you hope non-English speaking children would actually receive from the written English language? I can read Japanese hiragana and katakana quite fluently (it is an extremely simple written system) but my Japanese oral language skill is so poor that I don't know what I am reading.<br /><br />Learning how to read and comprehend a language you already understand is entirely different matter to learning how to read someone else's language. It is utterly ridiculous to suggest that EALD students learn English "much the same way" as English-speaking students and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of literacy acquisition and bilingual education. Teaching oral language must always come first, or you are building your house on the sand.Laurenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00684672091351537163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10719853.post-27542076145405696002014-04-11T15:24:19.104+09:302014-04-11T15:24:19.104+09:30Thanks for your input. Your snake paragraph made m...Thanks for your input. Your snake paragraph made me rethink what I have been thinking also, however, even though phonics were a dirty word in my undergrad Education degree, since being in schools in various regions of Australia with Indigenous students for years, I have seen examples of them excel in literacy using some of the phonics programs - albeit with a great teacher. I have no reason to like or dislike the process, I only know what I have seen and works. As a teacher of grades 5/6 in a remote community since, some of the children did not know the sounds of the English language (as you mentioned) and so I taught phonics quite intensely and they progressed in moves and bounds (amazing that they had 'progressed' to grades 5/6 without these skills - at the beginning of the year they had very low literacy skills and low confidence in western learning). From my understanding of phonics teaching, it is the explicit teaching of the sounds to the letters and combination of letters that teach the children the basics of the English language. If kids don't know that 's' is for snake then they actually DO need to be explicitly taught both the sound and the visual letter in English. Many Indigenous children do have some English vocabulary so for the few that don't, this is harder, agreed, however, I have still taught these kids with success. I have seen the results of teaching some explicit phonics in order to assist Indigenous kids to grasp the abstraction of the English language (abstract to English speaking children too) and I believe the Draft Report is correct in mentioning it as a suggestion. How the instruction is implemented is way more important. Basically, if the sounds of the English language are not in Indigenous language, then explicit teaching of phonemes and graphemes are urgently needed if they are to be empowered in a western system. With regard to resources: in the community I worked in, and this is only my experience, not saying that it is not working differently now; it was problematic to try to formally teach the multiple languages in the community (or one of them), as the other language groups became upset if one seemed prioritised over another as we know language IS Political and there were shortages in the community for people to teach them. It was less political to stick to teaching English formally (even some of the Indigenous teachers agreed), and better at the time to be aware to make sure the children contributed two-way learning to the classroom through inclusion of the different languages rather than get formal language teaching. Again, just my experience. ThanksAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02584804966080381899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10719853.post-44738360499477456042014-03-07T07:24:36.700+09:302014-03-07T07:24:36.700+09:30Thank you, Your discussion on using a snake for S...Thank you, Your discussion on using a snake for S has opened my somewhat ignorant eyes. It has definately made me rethink the response to the report I was about to write.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10866600669727353685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10719853.post-45569977192519285872014-02-14T12:13:38.007+09:302014-02-14T12:13:38.007+09:30Very insightful! I have put a link to this post on...Very insightful! I have put a link to this post on my fb-site.Joellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07648032492719243313noreply@blogger.com