Urdu for Children, Book One Return to item page
A pioneering instructional resource for teaching
Urdu as a second or third language at the primary
level (Junior and Senior Kindergarten and Grade
One), consisting of the two textbooks, a workbook,
two audio cassettes, and a teacher's manual.
Forthcoming
Urdu for Children, Book Two,
for Grades Two and Three -- a set of six volumes,
a teacher's manual and two audio cassettes --
is ready for publication. McGill-Queen's University
Press, 2000.
The textbooks and workbooks may also be used
as excellent supplementary resources for Inroductory
Urdu courses offered at college and university
level in North America and Europe.
The two-volume textbook includes forty lessons,
each structured around a story or poem that
reflects the theme "All About Me."
This theme is chosen because children in the
primary division show the greatest enthusiasm for things that relate to themselves. The methodology,
outlined in the teacher's manual, is specifically designed to promote the integration of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills; the children listen to the story or poem recorded on the audio cassette or read by the teacher, repeat it in unison, and read it from the chart. Flash cards, role-playing, and drawing are also used to reinforce vocabulary and comprehension.
"The main objective of this kit is to provide teachers of Urdu in elementary school with a
truly useful tool for imparting a basic knowledge of the Urdu language, of its uses in primary communicative tasks, and of its cultural relevance to Canadian children. Being the only text of its kind, it is unnecessary to say that it is indeed a significant contribution to minority language education. The authors have employed
sophisticated instructional methodology, shaped
in large part by theories and findings coming out of two scientific domains - psychology and linguistics. The interplay between theory and
practice has allowed them to produce a highly contemporary and methodologically-advanced learning tool. The authors ... have shown that it is not only desirable, but possible, to give instructional
practises in a minority language like Urdu a structure and a substance that will activate the child's natural learning system. This is a truly important contribution to the field
of materials development for minority languages."
Marcel Danesi, professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Developed by the following team of trained public
school teachers with extensive backgrounds in
teaching Urdu as a heritage language, Urdu
for Children will help meet the needs
of a rapidly growing Urdu-speaking community
in North America:
Chief Editor & Project Director: Dr. Sajida Alvi
Coordinators: Farhat Ahmad, Ashfaq Hussain
Writers: Humaira Ansari, Firdaus Beg,
Rashida Mirza, Hamda Saifi,Illustrator:
Rashida Yousuf
Cassette Composers and Producers: Sohail
Rana, Afshan Rana
Dr. Sajida Alvi is Professor of Indo-Islamic HHistory and Chair in Urdu Language and Culture at the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University. |
