Weeks 7-12
12 Week Language Program
Select one of the following lessons.
Weeks 7-8 Event Description
Personal life event
Time: 2 hours
Outcomes
Your 14-day goal is to learn to describe simple life events in your new language. These lessons will take some time to prepare and up to two hours to work through with your language partner.
Materials
Personal journal
Props such as photos or videos of the event to help you with the description.
Methods
Journal about a recent event in your life that would be interesting to talk about. Simplify this into your target. Present it extemporaneously to your language partner. Have your partner offer some improvements in grammar, vocabulary, and overall expression. For further listening practice, have your partner reword and record what you have said, as much as possible saying what you intend to communicate. Practice saying this in conversations with friends and neighbors.
Example
My son and the bully
Yesterday when my son came home from school he told me what happened at school. There is a big boy at school who has no friends. This boy has no friends because he likes to hit and push other children. He is lonely. My son played with him today. While they were playing the other children laughed at them. But then other children started to play with them. The big boy had fun. He did not push or hit any of the children. They laughed and played together. They enjoyed playing together. I asked my son, "Why did you play with the big boy?" He said, "Because Jesus loves him and I want to be like Jesus." I was happy to hear this.
Materials
Personal journal
Props such as photos or videos of the event to help you with the description.
Methods
Talk about a recent experience that involved several events. Have your helper listen to your description and help you improve it.
Outcomes
Your 14-day goal is to learn to describe a series of related life events. These lessons will take some time to prepare and up to two hours to work through with your language partner.
Example
Installing a wood stove
Our first home in the city used natural gas for heating. Then we moved outside of the city. Our neighbors all asked us how we were going to heat our home. It was just May. We asked them how they heated their homes. They said that some homes used radiators with diesel generators but most homes used wood stoves. Our neighbors described the process for setting up and operating a stove. We decided to get a stove. So then our neighbors helped us get a stove and install it. The piping system was complicated and went throughout the house. We also had to raise the chimney. One of our neighbors used bricks to raise the chimney. After that, our neighbors helped us get wood and coal. We got coal from the store. We got wood from the village. They recommended that we burn a mixture of olive and oak. We had to find a place to store it for the winter. Our neighbors helped us build a small wood shed to keep the wood dry from rain. We were thankful for our neighbors.
Weeks 9-10 Extended Event Description
Personal experience
Time: 2 hours
Materials
Scripture text
Notes and Outline
Sketch or drawing of the event (optional)
Methods
I wanted to be able to share the gospel from the Bible. I decided to try to learn to tell a simple familiar story with straightforward action, characters, and dialogue, one that would clearly communicate the gospel to my neighbors. In the story of the Jesus healing the paralytic from Mark 2:1-12 (also found in Luke 5:17-26), Jesus forgives a paralyzed man of his sins, and then he heals him. I live among people who believe Jesus was a miracle-performing prophet. They do not believe he is God. In this passage, Jesus confronts the disbelief of the religious leaders who watch him forgive and heal the paralytic. I wanted to be able to tell this story. I want my friends and neighbors to hear this story. I want them to understand that Jesus can forgive their sins and heal them.
I also chose this passage because it is simple and I was familiar with it. It has relatively few characters, a simple plot, and few complicated events.
Outcomes
Your 14-day goal is to learn to tell a simple familiar story. These lessons will take time to prepare and up to two hours to work through with your language partner.
Notes
I read the story first in English, and outlined it with notes by listing characters, events, and parts were not events but were important to the story. I then read the story in my new language, took notes, and made an outline.
I made notes as an outline is because I wanted something to refer for words and phrases as I told the story so I would get stuck, but I also did not want to read the story.
I simplified the story from the text. For example, instead of saying, "And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said..." I worked on, "Jesus knew their thoughts. Jesus said..." Therefore, I was exposed to new grammar but was also able simplify the story using the grammar and vocabulary that I already know, and still communicate the gospel message.
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Jesus heals the paralytic Mark 2:1-12 (example)
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The characters in the story were: Jesus, the Pharisees, other people in the house, friends of the paralytic, and the paralyzed man. The story breaks down into events which are active, and parenthetically reported, which illustrate a significant verb distinction in my new language. This is only one of many ways the story can be outlined. I use these notes when I retell the story:
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Jesus was teaching - the people came - (the Pharisees and people were sitting) - (the power of God was present) - men came with a paralytic - they tried to enter the house - (they could not enter because it was crowded) - they went to the roof, dug a hole, and lowered their friend - Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven" - the Pharisees thought, "No one can do this except God alone!" - Jesus knew their thoughts... Jesus said, "Which is easier to say - your sins are forgiven or get up?" - So, he said to the paralytic, "Get up..." - immediately, he stood, took his bed, went home praising God - everyone was amazed and praised God.
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I presented this extemporaneously to my language partner. I referred to the outline while I spoke. He helped me say it better. I had my language partner say the story back to me in his own words while recorded it. I listened to the recording several times, and then re-told the story to some neighbors.