Duration- 1:07:48
Session Activity- Go through Swadesh List
Item Produced- vocabulary, Conversation, Story
Linguistic Effective- Although I was interested in straight listing, we were not able to accomplish much of this. What we did get was quite helpful in understanding phonemes and their interactions.
Linguistic Ineffective- The speaker seemed bored of the Swadesh list- and I wouldn't hold it against him. After three sessions, the Swadesh words are getting pretty old. So instead of plain Swadesh, we tried to get related words, build scenes and recall memories and tell stories as a way to get words. We did not get many words, well, we got ample words, but we really didn’t get to many structured lists. Most of what we got was not what was needed to communicate, but what was said in the session.
Linguistic Provisional Improvements- I think instead of the Swadesh list, maybe we need to come up with a communication list. Like a list of words most often used in communicating, not just words used in general
Cultural Effective- using vocab to tell stories was extremely rich. With just a few related words we were able to transport into the speaker's memories. Through this we saw many vocabulary we would have never thought to ask (breadbox?). The story format was easy and enjoyable for the speaker. It seemed he was easily able to channel thoughts in the language when given a few vocabulary words.
Cultural Ineffective- The speaker would switch in and out of the language. Curiously, it was very controlled. Many of his narratives were recalling work processes. These were very linear tales. When I asked for language vocabulary, he would provide, then begin the story in french; however, if I asked a question about the story in English, he would provide the answer in English, then continue speaking in English until I asked another question about the french vocabulary. I do not know if it was voluntary or involuntary, but I tried this several times during our session with the same results. With a french question, he would narrate in french. With an English question, he would narrate in English.
Cultural Provisional Improvements- Try and tell more stories
Tomorrow- We are going to move on from Swadesh in the next lesson. I am not ready, but I think my speaker wants to move, and I believe I can get much of the vocabulary through story questioning
Further Comments- I feel very comfortable listening in the language. I have taken a lot of french in my life (4 high school, 3 college courses) but was never able to understand Louisiana french. Through the past few lessons, I am now able to pick apart what he is saying and see how his fast, compacted pronunciation is related to the french I studied. I still feel awkward speaking, and I do not think he understands much when I try.
