Ali Akan. Pilot project
"African languages through internet"
Introduction to Akan
language and linguistics through new electronic technologies
Socrates-Erasmus
1998-1999
Intensive Program (IP)
Final report
Purpose
The Ali Akan program is destined, by
using teleteaching and multi-media methods supported by Internet and CD-ROM
technologies, to provide an introduction to Akan, a national language of Ghana
spoken by well over 10 million people. In addition to acquiring basic
communicative skills and a first-hand working knowledge in the language,
students are expected to gain access to a domain of linguistic study that has
been, during the past three decades, at the root of important new insights in
key areas such as vowel harmony, tonology, serial verbal constructions, and
lexicology.
Through the Ali Akan program,
teaching staff and students are given an opportunity
-
to
test the application of new electronic technology to the teaching and
exploration of an important African language;
-
to
gain experience and confidence in exploiting didactic methods using this
technology.
-
to
discover and master, using multi-media learning techniques, a sound system
which in key areas such as lexical and grammatical tone, vowel harmony and
secondary consonantic articulations differs markedly from that of any European
language;
-
to
broaden one’s view of human language as an epistemic system through exposure to
a syntax and lexicon which, to quite an extent, reveal a different model of
cognitive and linguistic modelisation of human experience;
-
to
gain access, via an interactive learning process, to a traditional African
culture which has survived and integrated modernization.
From a wider
perspective, Ali Akan is meant to contribute to capacity building in the study
and teaching of Extra-European languages and strengthen interest in research on
these languages and the communities which speak them, as well as providing a
useful tool for research in related language-dependent fields (such as cultural
anthropology and history).
Conventional teaching programs on
Akan language and linguistics have so far been limited to regular introductory
courses offered at the Humboldt University in Berlin and, at a more modest
scale, at the University of Zurich.[1] Active pockets of research at the universities of Leiden and Trondheim
as well as a new program of sociolinguistic research recently launched at the
University of Hamburg witness, however, to a more widespread and growing
interest in Akan studies in Europe. These developments may indicate that
European-based scholarship which - witness the outstanding contribution of the
International African Institute and, later the School of African and Oriental
Studies in London - once played a pioneering role in establishing the study of
Akan language and culture as an internationally recognized discipline, still
has a real potential and may be ready to regain a place in this field of major
cross-disciplinary interest whose current expansion has since become almost
exclusively a matter of
Ghana-U.S.-based scholarly efforts. Yet, in spite of an unquestionable
and long-standing need to offer regular academic training in major West African
languages (other than Hausa which is well represented), among them Akan,
limitations of resources in personnel and finances prevailing at European
universities make chances of introducing new regular programs on a conventional
basis appear to be rather slim in the foreseeable future
Against this background, the Ali
Akan program purports to offer a sort of a "by-pass" solution.
Recourse to teleteaching methods and the progressive involvement of teaching
staff from a number of universities in the use of such methods, is expected to
produce a medium-range effect of multiplication, which in the longer
perspective will hopefully result in Akan linguistics becoming an option on a
much wider scale than is possible with traditional institution-based programs.
In addition, the Ali Akan pilot project may serve as a „trail-blazer“ which will enhance sustained
teaching and ensuing applications and research in similar domains of widespread
but rather dispersed interest, as a viable alternative to traditional teaching
programs which are severely limited by constraints on personnel and finances of
local institutions.
Organizational structure
The Ali Akan project was approved by
the Steering Committee of the Socrates-Erasmus Network of African Languages and
Linguistics (Code 09.0, ) at its meeting at Leipzig University in April 1997.
It was adopted by the European and subsequently by the Swiss Erasmus
administration as an Intensive Program (IP) for the funding period 1998-9. At
its meeting in Brussels on Oct. 22-24, 1998, the Steering Committee of the
Network of African Languages and Linguistics decided furthermore that it should
also form part of the development of the new M.A. program in Computer
Applications to Modern Extra-European Languages (CAMEEL).
The implementation of the program was placed
under the joint responsibility of Socrates Network participants from the
University of Zurich and the Humboldt University at Berlin.
The target group of the pilot
project were registered students of African languages and linguistics or
related subjects. Priority was given to students from European universities
participating in the network.
No previous experience of Akan was required.
Successful completion of the IP is credited 8 points in the European Credit
Transfer System (ECTS)
The pilot IP comprised three parts:
1. Residential part at the Humboldt University in Berlin
Date: Friday, April 9 until Saturday,
April 17, 1999
2. Teleteaching part (ODL) at home university
Date: 11 weeks from April 19 to July
2
3. Teleexamination at home university
Dates: July 6 (written part) and 12
(oral part), 1999
Course contents
The concept and
contents of the course, and the multimedia database were developed at the
Seminar of General Linguistics of the University of Zurich (Prof. Dr. Thomas
Bearth, lic. phil. Erika Eichholzer, Justin Frempong,
B.A., and dipl. ing. ETH/lic. oec. Hannes Hirzel), in collaboration with
the Language Laboratory of the University of Zurich (Dr. Paul Mauriac). The
contents were jointly elaborated mostly by T. Bearth, J. Frempong and E.
Eichholzer. The technical production of the teaching materials (CD-ROM and
special software for use on Internet) is mostly due to E. Eichholzer (CD-ROM,
text, sound, images, video) and H. Hirzel (special software).
The didactic concept was shaped by the
limitations of the technology which could be expected to be easily accessible
to prospective students at the local level during the ODL phase. Prerequisites
were specified as follows: Windows 95 PC or later version (with soundcard) or
equivalent Macintosh equipment. Browser: Explorer or Netscape. Internet access
required.
The course contents (except for the Residential
part, see below) were made available to students on CD-ROM, together with a
parcel of "resources" containing install facilities, instructions,
special fonts, conversion macros, etc. As the course continued to be developed
and improved, update versions of the CD-ROM were being made available to IP
participants.
The basic course comprises 11 Units. Within the
mandatory three-month limit of Socrates-Erasmus intensive programs, this
amounts to one unit per week during the ODL phase.
Each unit comprises
·
one or
more dialogue parts reflecting common everyday situations and experiences in
the context of Akan society
·
exercises
(role play, fill-in exercises, translation and transformation)
·
notes
on pronunciation (beginning lessons only)
·
notes
on grammar
·
vocabulary
In addition, special interest sections are provided, comprising e.g. vocabulary
and information on themes of special cultural relevance, proverbs, short texts
and introductions to research topics.
Notes on pronunciation and Notes on grammar are designed in such a way as to accommodate
differing learning styles. Key areas such as tone and vowel harmony are treated
both informally (chats) and in a systematic expository fashion.
Live issues in Akan linguistics are dealt with
in occasional optional modules designed to stimulate reflection and personal
investigation by the linguistically interested student. Students mainly
motivated by the acquisition of communicative skills may skip these sections.
The following Annexes are included on the
CD-ROM: Tables of content, Bibliographical references, searchable Vocabularies
(approx. 1400 entries) alphabetised according to (a) prefix- and (b)
stem-initials, Charts (Vowels, Consonants, Pronouns, Verb tone, etc.), Maps,
Internet links with Ghanaian institutions and resources to Akan language and
culture, E-mail list of participants, Copyright and acknowledgements, as well
as image files and documents providing visual and historical background.
A couple of video clips were added to the most
recent version on an experimental basis.
Most information contained in the Annexes is
accessible from within any part of a unit via appropriate links, which also
serve to connect the user with related subjects, tasks or solutions in the same
or other units.
All language data are provided in
semi-phonological transcription, which for the early lessons includes full
specification of tone and nasalisation. (Note that these are phonologically
distinctive elements which remain unmarked in the official orthography.) The
two half-open vowel harmony sets (ò,
ö vs. e, o) are
however not normally distinguished in the transcription, as their distribution
is highly predictable. Beyond tone and vowel harmony, phonetic detail is
included only to the extent required by the current teaching focus. All data
are paired with audio-files which can be activated locally. English
translations of exercises, dialogues and reading materials are provided in
separate sections.
Technical aspects
The limited financial resources
available for the project, as well as the very concise time-limits imposed by
the short period between the acceptance of the project and its implementation
within an equally strict time-frame, led at the outset to opt for a strict
adherence to the principle of using mostly standard programs and procedures in
producing the materials. A HTML authoring system, a sound editor and an image
manipulation program were used. For the vocabulary, the Shoebox 4 database
program which works with plain text data was used. Different files for different
uses were generated from the same database in different formats (HTML and RTF).
A constant, although by no means unexpected
headache was due to the sizeable inventory of special characters indispensable
for the phonetico-phonological representation of Akan vowels, tones and
nasalisation. Since for instance word-final 'n' occurs in addition to and
independently of distinctive nasalisation and tone, the script had to make
provision for the superposition of two different diacritics, the tilda for
nasalisation and accents for tone, on a single vowel. Ali Akan uses WestAfrica
7, a script developed at the University of Zurich by H. Hirzel in consultation
with T. Bearth. The fonts are included in the resources accompanying the Course
materials, together with a Perl converter which makes them HTML-readable on
both PC and Mac platforms.
The program is designed to encourage online
interaction between participants; hence appropriate procedures for language
data exchange over internet had to be provided. A mnemotechnically simple
keyboarding technique in conjunction with conversion macros ensure full
convertibility of all types of data to and from ASCII format, and hence
minimise the hazards still accompanying the transfer of data that are not yet
provided with an encoding standard over Internet.
Student-teacher interaction is an essential
feature of the ODL phase. During the whole post-residential part, this was
realised through a weekly exchange of exercises and corrections between a
supervisor (E. Eichholzer), as well as occasional comments and downloads of new
sound files.
The incorporation of a speech analysis program
(Speech Analyzer, freeware from SIL) allowed spectrograms, magnitude, and tone
contours to enhance the usefulness of the sound files. This feature was taught
during the Residential part but would probably require more total time to be
fully validated.
Implementation of the
program
The residential part (April 9-17, 1999) was organized by staff and
students of the Seminar für Afrikawissenschaften at Humboldt University under
the direction of Prof. Dr. Brigitte Reineke. The Institute of Japanese Language
and Culture graciously made its facilities available, including its 8-place
computer cabinet.
The residential part was attended by 20 persons, two of whom University teachers who joined the group as observers. The following sites were represented: Berlin (Humboldt-U.) (5), Zurich (5), Hamburg (3), Helsinki (2), Vienna (2), Leiden (1), Naples (1), Paris (1).
Main objectives of the residential
part were
·
exposure
to the pecularities of Akan phonetics and basics of everyday verbal interaction
(J. Frempong);
·
introduction
to and practice of computer- and internet-based learning and data exchange
procedures (H. Hirzel, E. Eichholzer);
·
overview
over course contents and lectures on selected topics of Akan linguistics (T.
Bearth, B. Reineke).
The transition from the residential
part to the online distant learning (ODL)
part must be regarded as the acid test for the viability of a program of
this kind. It can be said that this transition went smoothly in the majority of
cases. Minor technical problems in a few instances were due to difficulties in
installing the program on a locally available computer, or in some cases to
problems external to Ali Akan.
It proved to be crucial that an address was
available for consultation on initial technical problems which were linked to
the manipulation of the different features of the program (H. Hirzel).
Monitoring of the ODL activities: see above.
Out of 18 initial ODL participants, 12
participated on a more or less regular basis in the weekly exchange of
exercises featuring the main points on which the unit of that particular week
focuses. All others, except 2, gave sporadic feedback. 11 participated in a
trial exam at the end of May which included translation from a sound file and a
5-minute chat in Akan over the telephone.
Comments and suggestions by the participants
were invited and were occasionally provided. (Among the former, a letter of
thanks written in Akan by one of the participants as a receipt for the latest
CD-ROM update deserves special mention.)
The final exams were taken by 8 students: 3 from
Berlin, 2 from Helsinki, 2 from Zürich, 1 from Leiden.
The exam
consisted of two parts:
1. The
written part: Tuesday, July 6, 1999.
2. The oral
part: Monday, July 12, 1999, afternoon, from 14 to 16h.
The written part was synchronised between the participating institutes and was
taken in the presence of a local supervisor, who guaranteed by his signature
that all questions were filled in independently and without recourse to other
means than those permitted.
|
AliAkan |
Content |
Time |
Means |
|
Subpart 1 |
Grammar |
60 min. |
no helps |
|
Subpart 2 |
Text understanding and production |
45 min. |
CD-ROM,
Internet access |
|
Subpart 3 |
Sound recognition |
15 min. |
Soundfile
individually earmarked for each participant, download from net |
|
Total |
|
120 min. |
|
The oral part consisted of a 10 minute
telephone conversation.
Results: The following grades were obtained by one student each: A+, B-, B, B+,
C, D+, D-, E.
Given the short
time for assimilation of the materials, the results in the A and B categories
can be regarded as excellent, even more so in cases where the student had
started from zero.
Preliminary Evaluation
Pending a fuller evaluation by external
experts, the following points were noted:
·
The ODL phase,
being under the constraints of an Erasmus IP, lasted less than 3 months, which
was too short for full assimilation of the materials. This was the main reason
given for not taking the exams by a number of students some of whom were
otherwise quite enthusiastic about the program.
·
Local
supervision, or at least monitoring by a staff member of the home university,
during the whole ODL period will enhance the stability of the interactive
learning process.
·
Procedures
for self-monitoring during the ODL should be improved, particularly in the area
of feedback and control of habits of pronunciation.
·
While
ODL programs must be designed to allow full self-teaching in principle, the
optimal environment for making the best out of them may well be a combination
of such a program with at least occasional opportunities for practising with a
mother tongue speaker.
·
At
least one more hour, preferably a full morning or afternoon should be planned
for multi-part final exams.
·
More
classical pattern practice (question-answer, transformation exercices) on each
major grammatical topic.
·
Systematic
vocabulary training.
·
Solution
of residual formatting problems, thus permitting deployment for Windows and
Macintosh on a single CDROM (rather than on separate products).
Outlook
Continuation
Funding for another Ali Akan course in 99-00 has been
granted. On the strength of the current, essentially very positive, but still
unfinished experience it has been decided that there should be another
introductory rather than a follow-up course. This could serve at least the
following purposes:
·
consolidation
of the attainments of the current pilot-experience;
·
maturation
of the basic product to the level where it could be used independently under
the supervision of qualified local staff;
·
allowing
those "lost on the way" this year to complete the course, including
the exams;
·
increasing
the pool of prospective participants eligible for a follow-up course planned
for 2000-2001, focusing on advanced features of Akan language and linguistics
and ODL study and research in general.
Publicity/Publication
It has been agreed with Köppe
Verlag, Cologne, to publish an update version of the current Ali Akan CD-ROM as
a non-profit release for teaching purposes.
Information on the Ali Akan project
is accessible over the following sites:
http://www.spw.unizh.ch/afrling/aliakan/
http://www.edu-net.ethz.ch (Network for educational technology)
A report on the project will be
included in the chapter on computer applications to extra-European languages to
be published as part of a volume edited under the auspices of ACO*HUM (Thematic
Network"Computing in Humanities").
The Ali Akan program was presented
and submitted to discussion at the "Tage der Schweizer Linguistik"
organised by the Schweizerische Sprachwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft (SGS) at
the University in Berne, on Nov. 5, 1999.
Acknowledgements
A subsidy
of Fr. 3000.- granted by the Prorektorat für Lehre und Forschung of the
University of Zürich, in addition to Socrates-Erasmus funding, is gratefully
acknowledged. It helped to acquire software and other computer accessories
necessary for the project and to pay a modest honorarium for computer
technological assistance.
Esslingen, Sept. 13, 1999
Update Nov. 11, 1999
Thomas Bearth
Ali Akan 2000 –
Announcement (extract)
Organization and structure of the course
1. Residential
part at the Humboldt University in Berlin
Date: Friday, February 18, until
Saturday, February 26, 2000
·
Akan
phonetics and basics of everyday verbal interaction
·
Introduction
to and practice of computer- and internet-based learning and data exchange
procedures
·
Overview
over course contents and lectures on selected topics of Akan linguistics
2. Teleteaching or ODL part (at home university)
Date: 11 weeks from February 28 to
May 13, 2000
·
Main
course contents: Ali Akan CDROM units 1-11
·
Weekly
exercices, regular monitoring
·
Work
load: 6 to 8 hours per week (1 unit per week).
3. Trial
exam (at home university)
Date:
mid May 2000
·
Participation
in trial exam is a prerequisite to admission to final exam!
4.
Assimilation part (at home
university)
Date: from mid May to end of June 2000
·
Individual
rehearsal, sporadic monitoring
·
Discovering
interactive options
·
Preparation
for final exam
5. Final exam (at home university)
Date: Beginning of July
·
Grammatical
and lexical knowledge
·
Text
understanding and production
·
Sound
recognition
·
Conversational competence
Credits
8 points in the European Credit
Transfer System (ECTS)
·
Registered
students of African languages and linguistics or related subjects. Priority
will be given to students from European universities participating in the
network.
·
No
previous Akan experience required.
·
Due to
space limitations (computer infrastructure at the Institute of Japanese
language and culture at Humboldt University), the total number of participants is limited to 16.
PC requirements
Access to Windows 95 PC or later
(with soundcard) or equivalent Macintosh equipment.
Local support requirements
Local supervision by a staff member of the home
institution during the ODL and assimilation phases is important. The local
supervisor ensures that proper procedures are followed during exam sessions and
examination papers are sent to the examiners for correction and grading.
Opportunities for occasional interaction with native
speakers of Akan during the post-residential period are highly desirable.
Costs
Travel expenses and accommodation
for the residential part in Berlin are subsidised by the Socrates-Erasmus
program.
Applications
Application forms
(enclosed) are to be submitted through
the department/section/institute of African studies of the home university and
to be sent to the following address:
Dr. Ines Fiedler
Seminar für Afrikawissenschaften
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Unter den Linden 6
D-10099 Berlin
Phone: 0049/30/2093'6670
Fax: 0049/30/2093-6666;
E-mail: Ines.Fiedler@rz.hu-berlin.de
è Deadline for applications: December 15, 1999.
Important note for
students having participated in the 1999 pilot course
Students who took the residential part in April 1999
and who want to repeat the course in view of taking part in the exams in 2000
may do so without repeating the
residential part.
Students having completed the residential part in
1999, who wish to participate in the ODL phase and take the exams of Ali Akan
2000, should register until February 1,
2000 through their home institution.
***
[1]
The University of Zurich and the University of Ghana at Legon (Accra)
signed an agreement of cooperation in the area of language research and
development in 1996 which is currently implemented primarily through the
computer-assisted Akan Dictionary Project "Christaller 2001".