Page:Adapting and Writing Language Lessons.pdf/95

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CHAPTER 3
A 'MICROWAVE' FORMAT (TELUGU)
  1. Make (or draw on the blackboard) a tool rack, with outlines of the various tools. One person points to a space, and another asks him whether he wants a particular tool.
  2. Speak Telugu for 30 seconds so as to impress a stranger with your fluency.


Note that each of these 'occasions' has a social side as well as a linguistic side.

The second lesson of the original course introduced the negative of the pattern that was covered in the first lesson. The instructors working in this training program, however, felt that the negative would cause too much confusion at this point, so it was postponed. The second lesson in the new series therefore was structurally identical with the first, and differed only in sociotopical content: 'What is (this, that)? (This, that) is a tree, etc.)' The vocabulary consisted of some gross physical features of the training site (see p. 79).

Although the format and grammatical content of the second lesson as it stands are identical with the first lesson, the sociotopical difference leads to some interesting differences in further development. Instead of two colleagues in a workshop, we have students with their Telugu teacher, improving the time as they walk across the campus. The 'sample' might therefore take the form of another dialog:

What's that, please?

It's a ( tree). (' Tree' )?

That's right.

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