In early times across the world, people learned to speak by lining. Church services were conducted with the congregation repeating the words of the church service by following the liner. They could not read.
Liner: The Lord is my shepherd.
People: The Lord is my shepherd.
Liner: I shall not want.
People I shall not want.
Liner: He makes me lie down
People: He makes me lie down
Liner: in green pastures.
People: in green pastures.
Today, the schools of PNG are silent. Students learn to read silently. They never recite poetry and never catch the feel of language.
They never get to understand that sentences consist of key words joined by connectors. The key words are strong stresses and the connectors are weak stresses. Weak stresses are in red.
I go town buy food.
I go to town to buy food.
He went school many years graduate grade 10
He went to school for many years and graduated in grade 10
The rhythm of sentences can be taught by the teacher lining. Students can gain the feel of the rhythm of sentences. They will come to look at sentences in a new way.
So too they can line poetry to gain the feel of weak-weak-strong sentences that is the way we all speak every day. Stressed words are in red.
I once met a girl
who was so good to me
and she soon was the light
in my life.
Lining was a part of Melanesian culture particularly in church. But some fool teachers in western countries said that oral learning was unprofessional and it all stopped. It is time for the PNG people to go back to old ways.
Teacher: Down in the valley where no stranger goes
Class: Down in the valley where no stranger goes
Teacher: There lives a fine family
Class: There lives a fine family
Teacher: with spotless white clothes
Class: with spotless white clothes
Teacher: Let us do that again. I could hear you putting strong stresses on connectors.
Which are the connectors? In, the, ley, where, er.
Teacher: Down in the valley where no stranger goes
Class: Down in the valley where no stranger goes
That’s better. We’ll say it again.
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