Language checks

With literacy kick-off finishing last week it was high time to slow down a bit and take a breather. That would have been the smart thing to do, but instead, we scheduled a language check for Gerdine, Philip and Natalie 🙂 Our literacy consultants left us on Friday, and then language learning consultants flew in on Monday to stay until Wednesday.

The schedule was Natalie is checked Monday morning, Gerdine is checked Monday afternoon and then evening meetings together. Tuesday morning was Philip’s turn and the afternoon and evening were for meetings. Each language evaluation takes 3-4 hours, making gruelling ordeals for those being tested. Then on Wednesday morning our consultants announced the scores to the community and jumped on the helicopter to leave us. Short and sweet. Also intense!

So the big question was what was the result? We have Gerdine and Natalie going up one level each. Gerdine to progressing high (level 6/9) and Natalie is up to capable mid (level 8/9). Philip also showed progress, though he still remained at capable low (level 7/9). Our consultants were encouraged with the the results of each one checked.

Gerdine going up another level when she is busy with home school 4 days a week, and working on a single language day is very good. Our language consultants can see that she is gifted in language learning and has the ability to go all the way. Gerdine and I are having discussions about my taking on more days of homeschool and 3-year-old care so she can push deeper into language. The downside, of course, is less time for me to work on literacy and translation. We’re talking about a split of 3 days for Gerdine and 2 days for myself in the last months before we leave for our home assignment in the Netherlands/UK in June. Is the priority to increase Gerdine’s language level, or to make progress on the translation and literacy projects? Does anyone out there know the correct answer for us? 😀

Gerdine’s test consisted of:

• Talking about an occasion when she went to check traps with the Kovol people and was scared by a spider.
• Introducing where Simon our language consultant was from.
• Translating an English story Simon had told about how his tribal people catch crocodiles.
• What training for brand new missionaries arriving in PNG looks like in Madang.
• Speaking a hortatory (persuasive) speech she had prepared about not buying medicine from street sellers in town.
• Explain how Eskimos live. How do they hunt whales, what do they use whale fat for and how are igloos built?
• Translating on-the-spot grammar sentences given by the consultants in English. “She threw the buai to him.”
• Translating Kovol to English a short story told by a Kovol person.

You can see why it takes over 3 hours, right?

It’s my first time not being tested, having passed out of language study in August. It’s much more peaceful being an observer! Philip, Natalie and Gerdine were feeling the nerves pre-test. I’m glad to not be tested. I thought about it and realised that I’d be scared to have another test, just in case it showed I have regressed and haven’t reached capable high.

Not being needed for the tests I’ve been sitting at my computer translating our literacy teacher’s manual. This manual will be written in the Kovol language, giving step-by-step instructions for every literacy lesson. When we teach our first class we will model consulting this manual and sticking strictly to it so that in the future we can teach Kovol teachers to do the same. As I translate I’m working in an app developed specifically for generating a teachers manual. We, first of all, created the literacy program in the literacy starter app, then we exported this data and imported it into the teacher’s manual app. It then gives me a list of instructions to translate like “Show the class the syllable cards and read with them”. I write in a box to the right what the Kovol is and at the end of the process I click “generate manual” and it should copy and paste everything into the correct place for our 87 Kovol literacy lessons. It also copies the words and syllables to be taught in the lesson from the literacy starter data.

This is a great idea and should save a lot of repetitive copy-pasting. Instructions that apply to every lesson will automatically be inserted. It has made translating tricky sometimes as I wasn’t quite sure of the context of the instruction. Next week I should be ready to click the generate button to see what happens. Somehow I doubt the program will nail it the first time and require no revisions 🙂

With a fresh evaluation of where everyone on our team is at language-wise we will be starting to plan for the future now. When would it be best to start the trial literacy class? How can we help make sure everyone on the team finishes language study? Would starting something new be a distraction right now? How do we best keep the momentum going now the Kovol people are getting excited for literacy? How are we all feeling right now? How has the pace been for our families recently? Is it time to push, or is it time to slow down a bit for the long haul? Lots to talk about! We need some time to wind down and process. We’re praying for a restful weekend. We’ve been fighting off sickness and feeling run-down recently. Some days off to rest and recover slowly might be what’s best for us in the short term.