Islam in Africa 
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 Dissertation / thesis |
| Title: | Learning languages by heart: Second language socialization in a Fulbe community |
| Author: | Moore, L.C. |
| Year: | 2004 |
| Language: | English |
| Type of thesis: | Ph.D. dissertation |
| Publisher: | University of California |
| Geographic term: | Cameroon |
| Subjects: | education language |
| Abstract: | In this dissertation, I examine rote learning from a language socialization perspective, reframing it as social practice for apprenticing novices into language and other domains of cultural competence. This practice, which I call Guided Repetition, entails modeling by an expert, imitation of that model by a novice, followed by rehearsal and performance by the novice. In each phase, the expert supervises the novice and may assist, evaluate, and correct her efforts. Taking an ethnographic, interactional, and developmental approach, I examine how and why Guided Repetition is enacted in the Koranic and public schools in Maroua, Cameroon. My account is based on a longitudinal study of the apprenticeship of seven Fulbe children in their first year of public school into three language practices in the three primary socializing institutions of their community: recitation of verses of the Koran in Arabic at Koranic school and home, enactment of dialogues in French at public school, and the telling of folktales in Fulfulde (the childrens native language) at home. While the Koranic and public school activities share the same basic sequential structure and the objective of verbatim memorization and performance of a text, they are accomplished in different ways and for different reasons. In my analysis and comparison of the two different school activities, I consider multiple levels practice, lesson, phases of the lesson, and moment-by-moment interaction in order to understand the organization of participation, changes in the participation of novices and experts, and the meanings the activities hold for participants and other community members. Using the Guided Repetition model as an etic grid, I identify patterns in the use of language(s), body, space, and structure in the environment and relate them to participants goals, expectations, values, and ideologies. In addition, I discuss the recent diffusion of Guided Repetition into folktale socialization in the home. This dissertation shows rote learning to be a powerful, intricately structured, and context-sensitive socialization practice and the Guided Repetition model a useful tool for exploring its complexity and its cultural variations. [Abstract author] |