Classroom Presentation of Script :Marathi-A Case Study

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Instead of going into the discussion, whether literacy comes first or education comes first, I am going to talk about how to introduce script in classroom situation, specially Marathi script.

There is very intimate and systematic relationship between the sounds and the script of the language. It is a well known fact, that sounds change over a period of time. But the script seldom keeps pace with the sound change and thus a discrepancy develops leading to problems in spelling and pronunciation. This can be illustrated with reference to the Marathi script.

Marathi script is based on Sanskrit script, which is named as Devanagari script or Balabodh script. Now let us see the differences between these scripts.

Sanskrit Script

Vowels:

Short -+ < = @ñ ±ÉÞ
Long - +É <Ç >ð @ñ
Diphthongs - B Bä +É +Éè

Nasalization - -(anusvar tatva)

Marathi script is the same as the Sanskrit script except for the following symbols.

±ÉÞ, +ì, +Éì, ³ý, IÉ, YÉ

If the present sounds of Marathi are compared with the graphemes of Marathi it shows that there are some graphemes like @ñ, ±ÉÞ, ±ÉÞ which do not have corresponding phonemes, while some others like @ñ ,Ró ,¹É are found only in tatsama words. Some phonemes do not have graphemic representation.." SÉ, U,ô VÉ, ZÉ "represent both dental and alveolar affricates ; while some phonemes have two graphemic representation : /1 /-±É, /š/"É and/kh/-JÉ, JÉ

While teaching Marathi script, one has to take into account all these factors.

Reading and writing involves recognition of patterns and relating them to their sound values, movement of eyes and movement of hand. There are various ways of teaching script. First comes the grouping of letters. This is done in two ways. Audio based and video based. The traditional arrangement or the grouping of graphemes is audio based. Here graphemes are grouped according to the point of articulation of the corresponding sound. The chart given above explains this.

In video grouping are used : (1) Patterned perception and (2) contrastive observation. The letters which are similar in shape are presented in groups and the contrastive features separating the letters of the groups are brought to the conscious attention of learners to facilitate recognition and retention. These contrastive strokes, like inner stokes and outer additions are shown distinctly.

Video Grouping

®ú ºÉ JÉ "É
= >ð
+ +É +Éä +Éè +Æ
MÉ ¨É ¦É
´É Eò ¤É
B Bä
b÷ < <Ç ZÉ ½þ
]õ fø nù `ö
iÉ xÉ
±É ³ý û
{É ¡ò ¹É hÉ
ªÉ lÉ
VÉ SÉ YÉ
PÉ vÉ Uô
¸É IÉ @ñ


Apart from grouping of letters, there are various methods of introducing script. Letters are introduced in isolation as in traditional method. First the vowel symbols are taught, then consonants. After teaching the simple letters, ' barakhadies ', i.e., a combination of vowels and consonants, and conjuncts are taught. Once learners master this, words are introduced.

The other method is teaching script in context. This is proved to be a better way of introducing script especially for adults. This method has various approaches.

(1) Syllable approach

(2) Word approach

(3) Sentence approach

(1) Syllable Approach :

In this approach a number of vowels are introduced n
isolation. Several consonants are then taught in syllables (all of the same pattern) formed by combining the consonants with vowels.

Example :

+ +É < <Ç
¤É ¤ÉÉ ‡¤É ¤ÉÒ
iÉ iÉÉ ‡iÉ iÉÒ
ªÉ ªÉÉ ‡ªÉ ªÉÒ

+ÉiÉ ªÉÉ.
iÉÉ<Ç +ÉiÉ ªÉÉ.
¤ÉɤÉÉ +ÉiÉ ªÉÉ ¤ÉɤÉÉ +ÉiÉÉ +ÉiÉ ªÉÉ.

(2) Word Approach :

In this approach, words using only a limited number of phonemes are taught first. Then the phonemes introduced through this word are combined in various ways to form new words. If the new syllable is used, the syllable with its components is also introduced.

Example :

Lesson 1

Word :®úÉäVÉMÉÉ®ú
Letters :®ú +Éä VÉ MÉ +É

Various combinations of these letters to form new meaningful words:

®úÉäVÉ MÉÉ®ú VÉ®ú +ÉMÉ®ú
®úÉVÉÉ MÉÉ®úÉ VÉ®úÉ +ÉMÉ
®úVÉÉ MÉ®úÉ VÉÉä®ú
®úÉMÉ MÉÉä®úÉ VÉÉMÉ®ú
®úÉäMÉ MÉVÉ®úÉ VÉMÉ

Lesson 2

Word : ®úÉäVÉMÉÉ®ú Eò®úÉ
Letter : Eò

Various combinations :

Eò®úÉ®ú
Eò®ú
EòÉä®ú
EòÉä®úÉ

Lesson 3

Word : MÉÉ®ú ´ÉÉ®úÉ
Letter : ´É

(3) Sentence Approach :

In this approach a story or a theme is introduced through few sentences. The word content is controlled by the use of frames. If there is wide choice of substitution, items having the smaller total number of phonemes, are selected to control phoneme content.

Example :

Lesson 1

¤ÉɤÉÉ +ɱÉÉ
EòÉEòÉ +ɱÉÉ

Letters : ¤É Eò +É ±É

Combinations :

¤ÉɤÉÉ EòÉ±É +ɱÉÉ.
EòÉEòÉ EòÉ±É +ɱÉÉ.
Eò±ÉÉ
¤ÉEòɱÉ
±ÉɱÉ, ¤ÉEòɤÉEòÉ

Lesson 2

¤ÉɤÉÉ +ɱÉÉ.
EòÉEòÉ +ɱÉÉ.
EòÉEòÒ +É ±ÉÒ.

Letter : <Ç

The approach which I am going to deal in detail now, is based on the same principle of shape similarity. The same principle can be exploited to teach script by either word approach method or sentence approach method. The only thing to be followed is that the letters used in the word or sentences are partially of the same pattern and partially different.

Now I will explain the approach by which the script is introduced in the material prepared by the CIIL.

The groups of letters formed according to the shape similarity as discussed above are introduced according to two simple similarity as discussed above are introduced according to two simple principles : (1) Easy to difficult. According to this principles, the group that possesses letters easy to draw are taught first while the letters difficult to draw are taught afterwards. In case of Kannada scriptbook, lesson I consists of the following letters :
0 - ÁÚ ÁÚ C OÚ ¾Úß ÁÚhß
+xÉÖº´ÉÉ®ú - ®ú `ö <Ç Eò ªÉ ZÉ

While last lesson consists of
R Fß
JÉ @ñ

(2) The second principle is that at least some words should be formed from this group. In case of Marathi ¸®ú ºÉ JÉ "É form the first group while @ñ , IÉ , ¸É form the last lesson, as the letters of this group have rare occurrence and do not form any word, with the combination of just these three letters.

Every lesson contains the words formed out of the letters introduced in that particular lesson with the combination of letters introduced in the previous lessons. As soon as the sentences can be formed they are introduced.

Example :

Lesson 1

®ú ºÉ JÉ "É
®úºÉ ºÉ®úºÉ JɺÉJɺÉ
"É®ú JÉºÉ ºÉ®úºÉ®ú
JÉ®ú ºÉ®ú

Lesson 2

= >ð
>ðºÉ =¯ûºÉ JÉÖ®ú
ºÉÖ¯û "ÉÚ®ú ºÉÚ®ú

Whenever a vowel is introduced the corresponding matra is taught and the formation of consonant with matra is also introduced. Some of the peculiarities of the formation are brought to the learner's notice.

Example :

®Â ú+ = = ¯û
®Â ú+ >ð = °ü

In every lesson directional hand movement is shown through animated stokes to aid writing. Devanagari symbols can be read and written by learning to recognize and draw vertical and horizontal lines and half and full circles.

After all the simple letters are taught the dictionary order is also given. The above examples are intended to serve as a review lesson and aid a studen5t in the use of Devanagari based dictionaries.

The clusters are introduced after the dictionary order. These are classified into different groups according to the way they are formed.

Example :

Group 1 : Deletion of part of the letter.

Letters with the vertical line while forming a conjunct lose vertical line, as

¨É + ¨É = ¨¨É
{ÉÂ + ]õ = {]õ

Group 2 : No change in the form.

When the letters without vertical line form a cluster, they are joined one below the other without any change in form or a mark called halant is added to the first letter.

`öËü + `Âö = aö

Group 3 : Total change in the form.

The letter * forms a different group as it changes the form altogether.

Example :
®Âú + ½þü = -½þ
®Âú + ½þ = ½Çþ
®Âú + ªÉ = ªÉÇ
EÂò + ®ú = Gò
nÂù + ®ú = pù

After thes clusters are taught, three-consonant clusters are introduced. At the end of this introduction of script, the learner is expected to read and write all the material produced in Devanagari script.

A Few Observation on Teaching Devanagari Script

In most of the books reviewed, selection, gradation and provision for reinforcement of letters have not been taken into consideration. But this aspect should be looked into carefully.

If the author is not careful some of the letters may be left out. It is observed that in one of the primers, letter ³Ö is not introduced.

Letters should be used uniformly. If there are two ways of writing, the most common use should be taught and other usage should be introduced for information. When there are two representations cf the same sound, the use of both may confuse the learner. In some primers both the forms are used as-

Uô/Uô, ±É/±É, "É/"É, JÉ/JÉ

The peculiarities of the script should be taken care of. It is observed that in one of the primers, while teaching ' ukara ' (the matra of / u / vowel) the forms¯û and °ü taught instead of ¯û and °ü