K. Marcus Cardon and Dr. Michael Bush, Humanities
Swahili is the most extensively spoken language of the hundreds of Bantu languages in sub-Saharan Africa. It is considered to be the closest language in Africa to a native lingua franca and is essential for effective communication in the East Africa region. As the national language of both Tanzania and Kenya, the importance of Swahili is significant, prompting the NSEP, National Security Education Program, to list Swahili as one of the languages critical to national security.
During the Fall 2004 Semester, I taught the Swahili 101 course and participated with the Swahili Arclite Lab team supervised by Dr. Michael Bush the following semester to help strengthen the Swahili program at BYU. Integrated as part of the 101 course, the students use online lessons in addition to regular class time. The online lessons are Web-centric, highly interactive, and platform independent. The lessons have been a significant help to my students in learning the language and culture of Swahili. To help the Swahili program grow, I have set out to help create online lessons for the 102 class primarily on the part of creating a scope and sequence and the integration of a textbook, Tuseme Kiswahili written by Dr Senkoro, a leading official in the Swahili language located at Dar es Salaam University in Tanzania. I plan to have completed my project by March 2006.
Tuseme Kiswahili is integrated into the Swahili 102 course by first integrating the book into the 101 course. Since the Swahili program has now identified this book as its reference text, which it will use for its courses, I needed to know which parts of the book are covered in each course. Using the scope and sequence for the 101 online lessons, the material in the book is matched with that of the lessons. As the book is matched up based upon the sequence of the 101 lessons, the exact opposite is done with the 102 lessons. The language functions and contexts used in the book that aren’t used in the 101 course are identified and used for the scope to build a logical order of sequence by following as closely as possible with the book for the 102 online lessons.
The anticipated academic outcome of this project is to use digital media technologies to make Swahili 102 online lessons based upon the scope and sequence made by the integration of Tuseme Kiswahili. Like the Swahili 101 online lessons, the 102 lessons will be accessible through the World Wide Web. The lessons will also have the ability to be published in other forms of multi-media technologies such as CD-ROM.
The methodology of the online lessons is based on the extensive use of authentic or “simulated authentic” target language input in a proficiency-oriented methodology using video, audio, and text. It will have a reliance on story and video. It will not be as extensive as the project made for the Romanian course, one continuous story, but instead short, story-formatted videos focusing on a few individuals/families throughout the course. Like the 101 lessons, grammar will not be the focal point of instruction; references will be available on-line to address the need for accuracy according to individual learner needs. The on-line dictionary lookup and other references will be used from the Swahili 101 online lessons.
There have been a few challenges with creating a Swahili course just based on the fact that Swahili is what is referred to as a less commonly taught language. As a consequence, there are few teachers available and qualified to teach. There is also limited materials availability (reference texts). What I hope the 102 online lessons will bring is much like what the 101 online lessons have already brought. The online lessons will ultimately give a lower overhead cost (less time in the classroom) and will permit more time for communicative activities (post-activities) to be used during class. It will allow for easier teaching training and act as a base-standard to help future teachers in preparing their lessons since a scope and sequence will already be established by the online lessons. This is very helpful so that every new teacher doesn’t have to start from scratch and help supplement their lack of experience in language teaching (most teachers in the past have been undergraduates). With a stronger course established, Swahili 102 will add in fulfilling the requirements of an African Studies Minor. As aforementioned, this project will serve in helping answer the nation’s need for developing courses and curriculum for less commonly taught languages and geographic areas emphasized by the NSEP. Lastly, the 102 lessons will give experience to students with native speakers and an overall increase in awareness to Swahili as a language and culture.
This project has given me the opportunity to continue to learn the Swahili language and culture and valuable experience using the language in an academic setting. It has also helped me to make contacts with professionals in my field of study in East Africa this past summer. Finally, the experience that I have gained will help me to overcome the practical challenges of the real world by preparing me for my graduate studies and future career.