Davis, P. 1981b

Davis, Patricia M. 1981b. "The challenges of primer making." In Larson, M. and Davis 1981. (Spanish version by Davis, P. 1979.)

Task of Peru's Machiguenga educator is to make reading comprehensible, using the mother tongue. Methods used successfully with other groups proved unsatisfactory with the Machiguenga, presumably because exceptionally long verbs (rather than nouns) were dominant in that language. Average verb length is 12--18 letters. Common verb length is 25--35 letters. Series of primers incorporate various methods and divide reading concepts into the following phases:

• Prereading activities (including pictures, workbook, and primer consisting of 23 nouns of contrastive shapes) designed to convey that objects can be represented symbolically
• Syllable instruction with familiar oral literature (including a story with four natural divisions) divided into four primers

Chapter 16 describes problems that complicated the preparation of a series of primers in the Machiguenga language of Peru. Search for solutions illustrates importance of adapting literacy materials to the linguistic structure of the mother tongue. Adaptation enhances the learning process among extremely isolated people unfamiliar with basic reading concepts.

• Bibliography module: Davis, P. 1981b
• In overview module: Bibliography (Literacy): D
• In modular book: Bibliography (Literacy), by Doris Gallemore, Trudi C. Hunt, Jeanne Swanson, and Stephen L. Walter
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 25 October 1999

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