Meaning in writing variables

In this text there are two areas which caused spelling difficulties: 1 the voiced and voiceless stops pb, td, kg, and 2 the consonant cluster bl and gr. The rewritten text shows correct spelling with elaborations highlighted. A point was given for each elaboration. Wanpela man i go raun long bus long nait long painim blakbokis na em i sutim wanpela blakbokis na dispela blakbokis i pundaun i kam daun long graun na dispela man i kisim dispela blakbokis em i no dai yet na em i putim na dok bilong em i kaikaim dispela pisin na em i dai. English translation: A man went around in the forest at night to look for fruit bats and he shot one fruit bat and that fruit bat fell down and came down to the ground and that man got that fruit bat, which was not dead yet, and he put it and his dog bit that bird and it died. In this text there are eight elaborations recorded: “a,” “around,” “in the forest,” “at night,” “one,” “came down to the ground,” “which was not dead yet,” “and it died.” Variable: Cohesive ties—1. Referentials Referential cohesive ties include substitutes: for example, pronouns, comparatives, and phrases of time. In the above text there are examples of personal, demonstrative, and possessive pronouns: em 10 ‘he, she, it’, dispela ‘thisthat’, and bilong em ‘his, hers, its’. An example of reference to time is taim bilong nait ‘during the night’ found in other texts. Cohesive ties—2. Conjunctions Conjunctions found in the Tok Pisin texts were: na ‘and’, o ‘or’, tasol ‘but’, and long wanem ‘because’. The above text gives examples of na ‘and’. Cohesive ties—3. Lexical Lexical items included to clarify the sense of the story were synonyms and repeats of words and phrases. In the above text, dispela blakbokis is repeated and there are two examples of synonyms: the sense of pundaun ‘fall down’ is repeated in kam daun ‘come down’, and in the last reference the blakbokis is called a pisin “bird” fruit bats are classified as birds. Variable: Story component—1. Introduction This variable relates to whether or not the opening of the text included a general statement to set the stage with the content coming from outside the pictures. The first picture in the series showed a man shooting a fruit bat with a bow and arrow. The text above gives an example of an introduction: a general statement which sets the stage, and includes a time statement with an introduction of purpose, that is, Wanpela man i go raun long bus long nait long painim fruit bats. ‘A man went around in the forest at night to look for fruit bats’. Story component—2. Action The three consecutive pictures allowed for plenty of action in the texts. The criterion for this variable was action portrayed in the text as opposed to static description. The above text shows action throughout the story whereas, in contrast, the text below is a description of the pictures with corrected spelling with no instances of action other than that which was overt in the pictures. For this contribution, therefore, there were no points scored. 10 It will be noted that some smaller components appear in longer sections of text in this analysis and are accorded points on a more specific basis within a longer text. papa i sutim pisin papa is kisim banara man i pasim English translation: ‘father shoots a bird; father gets a bow; a man holds it’. Story component—3. Complication The text cited above as an example of elaborations gives an example of a complication, that is, “… that man got that fruit bat, which was not dead yet, and he put it and his dog bit that bird and it died.” Another example is as follows with corrected spelling: dispela man i taitim banara long sutim blakbokis em i sutim pisin na dok i kisim pisin em i kilim dok na kisim pisin. English translation: This man pulled his bow to shoot the fruit bat. He shot the bird and the dog got the bird. He hit the dog and got the bird. Story component—4. Resolution Texts which included a complication generally included a resolution. The above two examples show two different outcomes when the dog grabbed the fruit bat, that is, “it died” and “he hit the dog and got the bird.” A score was accorded when a resolution was included. Variable: Picture reliance—1. Description A description of any part of the scene in each of the three pictures was accorded a score for this variable. Picture reliance—2. Description prior to the first picture A statement to set the stage for the specific action in the pictures was acceptable for this variable. For example, one woman wrote that a man went to the forest and took his bow and arrows, that is, man i go long bus na em i kisim banara bilong em na supsup. ‘A man went to the forest and took his bow and arrows’. Picture reliance—3. Description of action with interpolations Interpolations were additions to the description which added colour and interest to the story. The following text as corrected for spelling shows the examples of interpolations highlighted a point was given for each interpolation: Dispela man em i go raun na em i sutim dispela blakbokis. Nau dispela pisin blakbokis indai pinis na em i pundaun i kam daun long graun. Nau dok bilong em i simelem dispela blakbokis na em i kaikai i stap na em i lukim na em i pulim long maus bilong dok. English translation: That man he went around and he shot that fruit bat. Now that bird fruit bat died and it fell down and came down to the ground. Now his dog smelt the fruit bat and was eating it and he the man looked and he pulled the fruit bat from the mouth of the dog. Picture reliance—4. Description of the action after the last picture Any addition to bring a completion to the story as depicted by the pictures was acceptable for this variable. There were different versions of this general example: Ol i karim i go long ples. ‘They carried it and went to the village’. Picture reliance—5. Description of action which included inference Description which included any internal state of thinking or emotion was taken into account for this variable. The following is an example of a text that shows emotion but it is also an example of the dog being seen as a pig and the story created around a pig. The text is shown with correct spelling and with inferences highlighted. wanpela man i kisim spia na em i go long bus. na em i sutim wanpela pik long spia long em i amamas nogut tru long dispela pik. famili bilong em i kaikai ol i amamas tru. English translation: A man took a spear and went to the forest. And he shot a pig with the spear so that he would be very pleased about the pig. His family ate it and they were very pleased. This concludes the descriptions of the dependent variables and the scoring procedures. In addition to these descriptions, the Gudschinsky and Multi-Strategy methods have been described in this chapter. The underlying principles and basic lesson patterns have been explained, and a comparison made between the two methods with specific differences identified. The empirical studies with the interventions for Urat and Tok Pisin are now developed. In Chapter 4, the Urat intervention is described and the replication in Tok Pisin follows in Chapter 5. 84

4. The Urat Study

4.0. Introduction

One question this project addresses is whether men and women, after a short period of training and with full community support, can successfully plan, adequately prepare necessary materials for reading and writing instruction, and competently carry out adult literacy programs, while receiving a minimum of advice and assistance from trained and experienced personnel. The research set out to address this question using the two different instructional methods described in the previous chapter: the Gudschinsky method and the Multi-Strategy method. Any two languages have differing degrees of complexity of phonological structure. A full description of the pertinent factors of the two languages chosen, Urat and Tok Pisin, and some aspects of Kwanga spoken in the area of the Tok Pisin study, is given in Chapter 2. The complex phonological structure of Urat with consonant clusters, vowel sequences, vowel harmony, and morphophonemic changes shows distinct differences from the phonological structure of Tok Pisin. A description of the Urat study will be given in this chapter showing particular attention to the physical and socio-cultural setting, the participants, the materials used, and the procedures and results of the study.

4.1. Physical and Socio-Cultural Setting

The participants in this study live in the foothills of the Torricelli Mountains which run parallel to the northern coast of Papua New Guinea see Figure 2.3 for the location map. The people of both Urat and Kwanga live along the southern fall of the range at an altitude between 200 and 300 metres. The two groups share similar topography and climate, and although their languages are distinctly different the socio-cultural practices are closely linked Allen 1976:24– 25; Schindlbeck 1984:5. The socio-cultural setting for the Urat study is similar to that of the Tok Pisin study, with the village as the identifying focus for the individual, where extended families build their houses in close proximity Allen 1976:29. One of the premises on which both studies were based is that the community should be in control of the literacy intervention from the outset. The strong binding force of the village played an important part in some of the outcomes of the Urat study. To have the outcomes more clearly and appropriately understood, some of the pertinent socio-cultural aspects of the group will be covered in this section. The socio-cultural basis for internal village relationships is embedded in strong historical affiliations between individuals through their clans and the dual division of males in the tambaran cult and “exchange partners.” Throughout the detailed description which Allen gives of the Urat people, the importance of village relationships between individuals is stressed: Kin relationships form a network which spreads throughout the village … Such links bind together individuals, hamlet sections and hamlets into an integral whole. … Clans are localised village groups … and the intensity of interpersonal relationships within the confines of the village, means that the clan organisation becomes subliminal in every-day village activities Allen 1976:34–35. Two of the villages in the present study, Nanaha and Musengwah, are located on the ridge along which the Sepik Highway is built, so some of the houses are very close to the road. Houses in the other three villages, Musemblem, Musingwi, and Tumam, cluster along a ridge near the highway. Although the interpersonal relationships of an individual are bound up in the family and clan within the village setting, there is a further set of relationships surrounding the “dual division of all adult males in a village into two ‘identical’ groups” Allen 1976:39. In cultural affiliation groups are ritually opposed in ceremonial exchanges and in initiations into the secret men’s cult, now widely known by the Pidgin term, tambaran. The dual division deeply influences all aspects of village life, determining to a large extent relationships between people within the village and links between villages Allen 1976:39. Allen’s study, giving details of the significance of the relationships between members of the opposing groups, reveals that some ceremonies connected with this inherited, cultural affiliation were still practised in the late 1970s. Obrist van Eeuwijk 1992:59, concentrating on the Kwanga area, which is described more fully in the following chapter, gives a description of the “exchange partner” relationships in the opposing division. These relationships were of a different quality from the open competition at the dual division level. In the partner exchanges, balance was the overriding objective with each of the two men gaining in status and authority through the exchanges. Allen points out that, “in contrast, relationships between halves of the dual division were characterised by intense competition. The opposing group were seen as a constant threat and source of danger” Allen 1976:41. As the influence of the government and mission groups became more prominent, these dual division ceremonies connected with the tambaran cult were discontinued. The overt division of male members of a village into two opposing groups is no longer evident but there are practising exchange relationships between individuals and groups. There also still seems to be a strong competitive spirit between males within the society. This may be connected with a deep cultural value to do well in all activities, but could have its roots in the opposing dual division so prominent in ritualistic ceremonies being practised just two decades prior to this study. The leadership and cohesion of individuals within each village had a bearing on the decisions made in the literacy program: where the schools were located; who were chosen to be teachers; with whom each teacher worked and, ultimately, which classes remained in the program. As indicated earlier, the focus for identification of an individual was the village, not the language. Villages began to be identified as belonging to language groups after contact Allen 1976:28. The focus of the next section is on the main people involved in the program and their participation in the proceedings.

4.2. Participants

The participants in the Urat study speak the Central dialect of Urat. Most of the people in this group live along the Sepik Highway, west of Dreikikir and within walking distance between villages of no more than an hour of time see Figure 2.1. Residents of the two Northern villages, Nanaha and Musengwah, speak a slightly different dialect with one phoneme change and some vocabulary differences. As explained in Chapter 2, it was considered that such minor differences would not present a difficulty in the literacy program. Decisions regarding the program were made through discussions with village leaders, community members, and the linguist, who was, at the time, resident in Tumam. The researcher used English and Tok Pisin, the lingua franca, to communicate with the people. Otherwise, Urat was the language used in interactions. The main participants of the Urat study, the teachers and the learners, are now described. We first consider the selection, training, and allocation of the teachers.