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From: paul vandenbrink
Date: 2004-10-26 18:55:14 #
Subject: [shavian] Re: More about South Africa -> Learning to Read with Shavian

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Hi Joe

I am including an old article from India that gives some background
on the literacy situation in S.A.

Tata Consultancy Services teaches South Africa's tribes the 3 Rs

Times of India, November 14, 2003

Indian software biggies don't just man back-office operations for
global companies. Firms like India's biggest software maker Tata
Consultancy Services (TCS) also help foreigners read and write their
own language. TCS has been working with the South African government
in the latter's adult literacy programme, by providing a software
that aids tribesman to become literate. TCS's computer-based
functional literacy programme which has so far helped over 20,000
illiterates adults in India to read and write across 1,100 literacy
centres is now being adapted to suit the requirements of South
African dialects.

The TCS adult literacy programme is founded on the principle of
phonetics and recognition of words rather than alphabets. ''We expect
an adult to know the meaning of particular words as our programme is
aimed at helping him to associate a group of alphabets with the
word,'' TCS vice-president marketing Mr Jayant Pendarkar said.

By using the TCS programme, a completely illiterate adult can learn
to read at least 70 per cent of a newspaper in 7-8 weeks time. The
TCS model is presently offered in six Indian languages including
Tamil, Telegu, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati.

TCS has been working with local linguists and NGOs for a few months
now and assisting them in mapping the sounds and developing a script
for one South African language namely 'Northern Sotho', spoken by one
of the Zulu Tribes. South Africa has 11 official languages including
Afrikaans English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Sosotho,
Setswana, Siswati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga, besides several dialects.
Many of these dialect do not have their own script and use the Roman
script.

Our technique however is suited to phonetics-based scripts used by
the Indian languages. But in South Africa, many tribes do not have
their own script and use the Roman script which is unable to describe
some of the sounds that these tribes use. Hence we had to adapt our
technique, by analysing the sounds and creating a phonetics-based
alphabet set to describe these sounds," Mr Pendarkar said. For
example, Africans use hissing and clicking sounds which cannot be
described by the Roman script.

{End of News Item}

Joe, You can see from the last paragraph of the News Article that
they are desperately trying to find a Phonetically based script that
will encompass words from the various Native African Languages.
The Roman Alphabet is inadequate to the challenge.

The company may well be open to use of the Shavian Alphabet to teach
English, or to represent English words borrowed for use in another
language.

The new government is working very hard to improve early education,
but it is going to take time to create a fully literate modern
population an Adult learders may need to use something simpler than
the Roman Alphabet.

> Regards, Paul V.

P.S. I will post some comments on various S.A. Education and News
boards to get a little more interest going.







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From: paul vandenbrink
Date: 2004-10-28 03:15:40 #
Subject: [shavian] Re: More about South Africa -> Learning to Read with Shavian

Toggle Shavian
Hi Everybody
I posted some comments at an English Language School, called One
World Language or OWL for Short in S.A.
Anyone heard of ABET training?

Here is their Response.

From: "One World Language School" <owlstudy@...>
Dear Paul
Thank you for your mail.
No, we do not do literacy classes. We only teach English as Foreign
Language. I think you need to contact a centre that offer ABET
Training.
Unfortunately the only one I knew about closed down. Please try the
education department for a list of centres.

Best regards

Howard Johnson
Director
One World Language School
50 Long Street, Cape Town, South Africa, 8001
Ph: ++27 21 423 1833
Fax: ++27 21 426 0166
www.owls.co.za
Agent enquiries: owlstudy@...
Student enquiries: owls@...
---------------------------------------
Subject: OWLS - Correspondence from website
This_form: Contact form (English)
name: Paul Vandenbrink
email: pvandenbrink@...
QuestionOrMessage: Do you teach classes on strictly English Literacy,
for
students who have just English Speech. I am interested in distributing
learning material based on the Shaw Phonetic Alphabet.
This is a fast path to literacy for adults with some spoken English.






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From: Joe
Date: 2004-10-28 16:16:13 #
Subject: [shavian] Re: More about South Africa -> Learning to Read with Shavian

Toggle Shavian
--- In shavian@..., "paul vandenbrink"
<pvandenbrink@s...> wrote:
>
> Hi Everybody
> I posted some comments at an English Language School, called One
> World Language or OWL for Short in S.A.
> Anyone heard of ABET training?

Perhaps he means "alphabet" training.





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From: paul vandenbrink
Date: 2004-10-29 19:40:30 #
Subject: [shavian] Learning to Read with Shavian

Toggle Shavian
I found some instructions on teaching Children an new Alphabet in 4
steps.
Any comments or corrections?

$ Steps to Literacy

1. If the class is monolingual then a good way to start is by giving
them the corresponding sounds in their mother tongue (if there is a
contrast - it makes your task even simpler!- tell them that's why
they need to learn it! At any rate, try just one or two sounds per
class until you have covered all 46 Basic Shaw letters. Exclude Ian
in the beginning. Incorporate Yea and Yew in the same lesson.
Write the symbol on the board and say the sound then ask the students
to repeat it back to you as you are pointing to the transcription.
Then ask students at random to tell you a new example of a word which
include the presented sound. You can write the words on the board and
introduce some other examples yourself.
Later on, as the students make progress they can read the Shaw
transcription of some simple words of which they have already learned
all the phonemic symbols in isolation. For example, if they learn the
sounds: /e/, /p/, /t/, /h/,and /n/
They can read the phonemic transcription of the words such as ten,
hen, pen, and net. You should be careful to start with simple
phonemes and then continue with the more difficult ones over time. It
will take a whole semester or more to teach all the phonemic symbols
depending on the number of sessions in each semester.
Review and test for retention of all previously taught letters every
4th lesson.

2. LOOK at the chart at the end of Shaw's "Androcles and the Lion".
It has helped me introduce the sounds. I have often had students pick
a sound from the chart and teach it to the class with their own
examples.
- Explain the difference between Vowel letters and Consonant Letters.
- Explain the difference between Voiced and Unvoiced consonants in
the Chart. Compare unvoiced to whispered sounds.
- Explain Compound letters. Introduce Ian and discuss the other
compound letters.
- Explain the 6 special Rhotic Letters

3. The end of every class shuld consist of randomly students reading
aloud from the Sample word lists for that weeks letter. Allow low
level prompting from the other student. Reading aloud help. As the
Students mispronounce (and very often it is because they can't
produce a sound in a word) show them what made the word sound
incorrect and how learning the sound can help them . This way you can
reinforce the one or two new sounds per class.
Again, have you ever asked yourself if it is necessary to know the
entire sound system of English. Some sounds are much more commonly
used than others. Do not concentrate on the letters of an uncommon
English sound. I have found that, in most cases, just the knowledge
of a few letters and their associated sounds will help students guess
some words and sound more English. That is our objective. To
reinforce the students understanding of English sounds and the Shaw
Alphabet.

4. Testing every 4th Class. Read aloud the correct answers from the
test at the beginning of the next class, along with an overall
description of the entire class's progress.

Teaching the symbols in a concentrated fashion in one go, can be
very off-putting, and thus not helpful in our attempt to help the
learner to use the Shaw letters as a helpful tool to read and write.
Over time all relevant symbols will eventually get introduced, and
one can presuppose that learners can identify all the Shaw Letters
without difficulty and (that's the beauty of it) read the correct
pronunciation off a dictionary, WITHOUT OUTSIDE HELP (the 'autonomous
learner'!).
We need to a make a Student's Dictionary with the 2000 most commonly
used words.

So sorry if this does not provide enough information for you to get
started. But let's hope, somebody comes up with some more useful
advice. Good luck, everybody.

Regards, Paul V.

P.S.
By coincidence, I stumbled over this site:
http://www.developingteachers.com/phonology/sound_activities1.htm
Interesting ideas for teaching phonetics









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From: paul vandenbrink
Date: 2004-10-29 19:40:32 #
Subject: [shavian] Learning to Read with Shavian #2

Toggle Shavian
I found some instructions on teaching Children an new Alphabet in 4
steps.
Any comments or corrections?

4 Steps to Literacy

1. If the class is monolingual then a good way to start is by giving
them the corresponding sounds in their mother tongue (if there is a
contrast - it makes your task even simpler!- tell them that's why
they need to learn it! At any rate, try just one or two sounds per
class until you have covered all 46 Basic Shaw letters. Exclude Ian
in the beginning. Incorporate Yea and Yew in the same lesson.
Write the symbol on the board and say the sound then ask the students
to repeat it back to you as you are pointing to the transcription.
Then ask students at random to tell you a new example of a word which
include the presented sound. You can write the words on the board and
introduce some other examples yourself.
Later on, as the students make progress they can read the Shaw
transcription of some simple words of which they have already learned
all the phonemic symbols in isolation. For example, if they learn the
sounds: /e/, /p/, /t/, /h/,and /n/
They can read the phonemic transcription of the words such as ten,
hen, pen, and net. You should be careful to start with simple
phonemes and then continue with the more difficult ones over time. It
will take a whole semester or more to teach all the phonemic symbols
depending on the number of sessions in each semester.
Review and test for retention of all previously taught letters every
4th lesson.

2. LOOK at the chart at the end of Shaw's "Androcles and the Lion".
It has helped me introduce the sounds. I have often had students pick
a sound from the chart and teach it to the class with their own
examples.
- Explain the difference between Vowel letters and Consonant Letters.
- Explain the difference between Voiced and Unvoiced consonants in
the Chart. Compare unvoiced to whispered sounds.
- Explain Compound letters. Introduce Ian and discuss the other
compound letters.
- Explain the 6 special Rhotic Letters

3. The end of every class shuld consist of randomly students reading
aloud from the Sample word lists for that weeks letter. Allow low
level prompting from the other student. Reading aloud help. As the
Students mispronounce (and very often it is because they can't
produce a sound in a word) show them what made the word sound
incorrect and how learning the sound can help them . This way you can
reinforce the one or two new sounds per class.
Again, have you ever asked yourself if it is necessary to know the
entire sound system of English. Some sounds are much more commonly
used than others. Do not concentrate on the letters of an uncommon
English sound. I have found that, in most cases, just the knowledge
of a few letters and their associated sounds will help students guess
some words and sound more English. That is our objective. To
reinforce the students understanding of English sounds and the Shaw
Alphabet.

4. Testing every 4th Class. Read aloud the correct answers from the
test at the beginning of the next class, along with an overall
description of the entire class's progress.

Teaching the symbols in a concentrated fashion in one go, can be
very off-putting, and thus not helpful in our attempt to help the
learner to use the Shaw letters as a helpful tool to read and write.
Over time all relevant symbols will eventually get introduced, and
one can presuppose that learners can identify all the Shaw Letters
without difficulty and (that's the beauty of it) read the correct
pronunciation off a dictionary, WITHOUT OUTSIDE HELP (the 'autonomous
learner'!).
We need to a make a Student's Dictionary with the 2000 most commonly
used words.

So sorry if this does not provide enough information for you to get
started. But let's hope, somebody comes up with some more useful
advice. Good luck, everybody.

Regards, Paul V.

P.S.
By coincidence, I stumbled over this site:
http://www.developingteachers.com/phonology/sound_activities1.htm
Interesting ideas for teaching phonetics









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From: obmklhagjgh
Date: 2004-10-30 21:19:05 #
Subject: [shavian] Important Letter for shavian Members

Toggle Shavian
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From: paul vandenbrink
Date: 2004-11-02 17:31:16 #
Subject: [shavian] Cambridge English Learners Dictionary Online - Back to Phonetics

Toggle Shavian
Hi Everyone

I just spotted a really nice Phonetic Page that outlines the
differences between British and American Vowel pronunciation.
It is is color coded and nicely organized. It lists all the sounds in
the usual I.P.A letters and colors the British only vowel sounds, Red
and the American only vowel sounds, Blue.
It's at the dictionary.cambridge.org site.
Boy, Oxford and Cambridge really have the Dictionary Biz sewed up.
The interactive dictionaries are pretty good, but only the Learners
dictionary offers phonetic representation.

But anyway, take a look at
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/help/phonetics.htm
and let me know what you think.

Is it better then www.dictionary.com?

Regards, Paul V.





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From: Joe
Date: 2004-11-04 00:44:33 #
Subject: [shavian] Re: Cambridge English Learners Dictionary Online - Back to Phonetics

Toggle Shavian
I like it. I've been looking for a dictionary that uses the IPA instead of some strange
diacritical mess. But what is the interactive dictionary?

--- In shavian@..., "paul vandenbrink" <pvandenbrink@s...> wrote:
>
> Hi Everyone
>
> I just spotted a really nice Phonetic Page that outlines the
> differences between British and American Vowel pronunciation.
> It is is color coded and nicely organized. It lists all the sounds in
> the usual I.P.A letters and colors the British only vowel sounds, Red
> and the American only vowel sounds, Blue.
> It's at the dictionary.cambridge.org site.
> Boy, Oxford and Cambridge really have the Dictionary Biz sewed up.
> The interactive dictionaries are pretty good, but only the Learners
> dictionary offers phonetic representation.
>
> But anyway, take a look at
> http://dictionary.cambridge.org/help/phonetics.htm
> and let me know what you think.
>
> Is it better then www.dictionary.com?
>
> Regards, Paul V.





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From: paul vandenbrink
Date: 2004-11-04 17:24:22 #
Subject: [shavian] Cambridge English Dictionaries Online - Back to Phonetics

Toggle Shavian
Hi Joe
If your click on the word Dictionary or Dictionaries at the top of
the page you will get a list of dictionaries. Just put the word you
want to look up in the search field and clik search.
Only the Learners, Advanced Learners, and American English
Dictionaries have the option to show phonetics. Click on the option.

The dictionary seems to be a rather large subset of their regular
printed dictionary.

Does that answer your question?

Regards, Paul V.

--- In shavian@..., "Joe" <allegrox_2000@y...> wrote:
>
> I like it. I've been looking for a dictionary that uses the IPA
instead of some strange
> diacritical mess. But what is the interactive dictionary?
>
> --- In shavian@..., "paul vandenbrink"
<pvandenbrink@s...> wrote:
> >
> > But anyway, take a look at
> > http://dictionary.cambridge.org/help/phonetics.htm
> >
> > Regards, Paul V.





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From: Joe
Date: 2004-11-05 19:34:18 #
Subject: [shavian] Re: Cambridge English Dictionaries Online - Back to Phonetics

Toggle Shavian
I found it. I was just wondering if the interactive dictionary was
different, since I didn't see that anywhere.

--- In shavian@..., "paul vandenbrink"
<pvandenbrink@s...> wrote:
>
> Hi Joe
> If your click on the word Dictionary or Dictionaries at the top of
> the page you will get a list of dictionaries. Just put the word
you
> want to look up in the search field and clik search.
> Only the Learners, Advanced Learners, and American English
> Dictionaries have the option to show phonetics. Click on the
option.
>
> The dictionary seems to be a rather large subset of their regular
> printed dictionary.
>
> Does that answer your question?
>
> Regards, Paul V.





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