Ed Foundations – WEEK 2

WEEK 2 QUESTIONS

3. How and when did you learn to read and write? What do you think is the best way to teach reading and writing? Should we focus mainly on skills, or on meanings in context, or is there another method?
4. Reflect on a recent learning experience. How did it build on what you had known or experienced beforehand? List all the knowledge, skills and experiences that contributed to your learning. Are there other links you might have made to help you learn more, or learn more effectively? 

I learned to read and write in Kindergarten, at the age of about five-six. I could write my name in preschool, at the age of four, but that was most likely due to an ability to remember that those squiggles together supposedly spelled ‘Anna’. In my mind, there is a gaping cognitive leap between the ability to reproduce squiggles and the ability to understand what each of the squiggles individually represents and thus be able to apply them in a different context.
Asking my mother whether one skill preceded the other she could not quite recall – as I am the third of four children it is understandable that there were a few other things going on that she prioritised! – but had a general idea that the two occurred concurrently. I was intrigued by this, as I am unsure whether it is common for reading to precede writing, or visa versa, or whether the logic of learning the two skills in tandem outweighs any propensity favouring the simplicity of one or the other.

In an attempt to answer this question I will draw on my recent experience of learning (in a very basic form) another language. Whilst teaching in Tanzania I was attempting to instruct very young children how to speak and write English, yet they were still learning their native tongue of Swahili and thus knew very little, if any, of our foreign language. It was imperative that I learned their language if I wanted to establish a communication channel, no matter how successful it proved to be, and thus I set about learning Swahili.
I dabbled in French in Primary School, then Japanese for one year at High School, but have never attempted to learn a second language in earnest. I know that I struggle with languages that are not phonetic, although I am quite aware that English is a largely non-sensical language and is not itself phonetic, but having grown up speaking it I evidently have overcome this challenge. Fortuitously Swahili is a wholly phonetic, rule-abiding language, which does not have a different word form to differentiate between the past, present and future tense of a word. Instead, the verb/noun is given the equivalent of a prefix that includes the pronoun and tense of the word, and thus it becomes a case of memorising only the verb/noun, as the sentence construction itself is essentially self-evident.

For example:

Pronouns: I = Ni, You = U ;
Tenses: Li = past, Na = present, Ta = future ;
Verb: Rudi = return

Nilirudi = I have returned ; Ninarudi = I am returning ; Nitarudi = I will return
Ulirudi = You have returned ; Unarudi = You are returning; Utarudi = You will return

I am sure you get the message (although these statements alone do not make proper grammatical sense, as one would more likely qualify such a statement with “I will return home/soon/later” etc). I have illustrated this point merely to show that Swahili is a relatively simple language to learn, which greatly assisted in my endeavour to learn its basics in two months. Remarkably, as it is phonetic I am also able to transcribe Swahili words with accurate spelling, even if I have never heard the words previously. This all lends itself to the more logical method of learning the spoken and written forms of Swahili concurrently.

The other factors influencing my learning of Swahili revolved mainly around my immersion in the Tanzanian culture; interacting with people in the street, at school and when relaxing meant that I was able to practise, hone and question my use of Swahili, much to the delight of the locals. It also gave me the upper-hand when bargaining prices in the street – as a Mzungu (the non-derogatory name for a white person) who could quote numbers in Swahili clearly knew which prices were too high! These dynamic and varied situations challenged my knowledge of the language and provided me with great opportunities to discover where I was lacking. My personal drive to achieve at least some grasp of the language also played a large part in my accomplishments therein, as I knew my volunteer work and travel would be greatly enriched as a result; I was a visitor to their country and as such knew that I could make much more of a difference if I did so on their terms.

But how does this link with language learning? English is obviously a whole other kettle of fish, being a mixture of many languages and abiding by the rules of none, and I have been informed a number of times that the reading and writing of English are two very, very different beasts. But in my experience, the best way to familiarise oneself with the language is to first be exposed to it and to practise it – early childhood – on a daily basis. The sentence constructions are naturally a secondary development after the basic vocabulary has been established, at which time contexts, tenses, syntax etc come into play. I find the question of whether or not to focus on ‘skills’ quite arbitrary, as surely understanding ‘meanings in context’ is also a skill? Based upon testimonies from friends learning English as a second language, the written and spoken forms of English are hard to reconcile, and thus I feel that the most difficult aspect of learning our most ecclectic of tongues is to relate the two. How one does though, I am unsure.

– For Science!