Bridging the gap: Bantu grammar workshops as a means to support community- based language development

Resumo

The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to teaching that brings together academic linguistic research of the typological variety together with a training program for speakers of Bantu languages and Portuguese. The elements included in this “Discovery package” are: Lectures on Bantu grammar, an exercise book, an electronic shell book and several sample grammar sketches.While the lectures contain general linguistic knowledge concerning Bantu structure, the exercise book provides a step-by-step procedure to guide groups of students in their own discovery of data in their mother tongue. A teaching method in five steps is presented, called IDEAL (Introduction,Definition, Extension,Application, and Lesson Learned).This method was developed with multiplication in focus, hence lends itself to training of teachers. The sample grammar sketches of six mozambican languages illustrate the purpose of the workshop, production of grammar sketches by speakers. This is done by filling in data into the shell book which grows directly from lessons, modifying the template according to the individual language.As a by-product of the Discovery program, paradigms as well as a short text from several languages were collected.These data are evaluated in terms of their usefulness for comparative research and language planning.