Rule, W. M.

English

The Australian National University

7 . 9 . 9 .  I NST I TUTI ONAL FRAMEWORK O F  LANGUAGE STUDY : THE AS I A  PAC I F I C  CHRIST I AN M I SS ION W . M . Rule The maj ority of t he work of  the Asia Pacific Chris tian Mis s i on is in trib al situati ons in the Western and Southern Highlands Provinces o f  Papua New Guinea ,  and i n  the Dani and East ern Highlands areas o f  Irian Jaya .  We  have in  each ins tance gone into new tribes  whi ch had only b een entered by the Administration a year or so e arlier , or whi ch had not been previous ly entered at all , and have settled down to learn the language and reduce it to writing. We then c ompile a c orre ct phonemic alphabet using the latest  l ingui stic  te chniques ,  and from there go on to produce a di ctionary and a full s tatement of  the grammar , using a readily understandable descript ion c ouched in conventional grammat i c al termino logy . The princip le on which each grammar st at ement i s  bas ed is  to s tart from the s imp le s t  grammati cal construction in each language , and then t o  add new and expanded cons tructions one by one unt i l  the whole of  the grammatical system of the language concerned is  c overed . It  is a definite point of our policy t o  seek to reach the people to whom we go through means of their mother tongue , believing it to be ' the shrine of  the people ' s  soul ' . Where the trade language o f  t he Papuan s ide , Hiri Motu , was known quite ext ens ively , this was used as a bridge in the init ial stages to gain a knowledge of the local language more quickly . We have then gone on to pro c laim the Good News o f  the Christian Gos pel  to the peop le in their own languages . We c ompile attractive , well-illustrat ed primers and re aders in e ac h  language , and have a n  extensive literacy programme i n  operat i on i n  each trib e to render as many as possible l it erat e in their mother t ongue . Local vernacular t eachers are trained so that they can ass i st in t he lit eracy programme . In our primary s chool s ,  too , we aim to have the 1 3 4 1  Rule, W.M. "Institutional Framework of Language Study: The Asia Pacific Christian Mission". In Wurm, S.A. editor, New Guinea area languages and language study, Vol. 3, Language, culture, society, and the modern world. C-40:1341-1344. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1977.   DOI:10.15144/PL-C40.1341 ©1977 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s).  Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL.  A sealang.net/CRCL initiative.1 342  W . M .  RULE children t o  b e  fluent readers and writ ers in their own language by  fourth Grade , thus helping to counteract their prevalent tendency t o  regard their tribal languages a s  'bus h '  languages ,  and of  little value in education . It is mos t  pleasing to see the st andard of the composi­tions which they write in their own languages , and as t hey writ e up the legends and folk lore of their trib es , so these are b eing pres erved ( s ee chapters 7 . 2 . 4 . and 7 . 2 . 5 .  on vernacular lit eracy by Joan Rule ) .  The aim of  our literacy programme is t o  enable  the people  t o  read edu­cational books , s tory books and the full New Tes tament in each of the languages in whi ch we are working , and s o  a high priority of our work is vernacular trans lation . In s eeking to evaluate the merits o f  this policy aft er 4 0  years o f  work i n  t he earlies t trib es  entered , and le s s  i n  others , it can be said that it has paid tremendous dividends in the early establishment of  good relat ions with the trib es , and in the development of strong local churches ,  with pastors and teachers trained in vernacular Bib le Schoo l s ,  and having an excellent grounding i n ,  and understanding o f ,  t he truths of  the Chri stian faith . The one big disadvantage of a he avily vernacular-oriented work is that whilst the church leaders are well equipped to meet all cont ingen­cies which aris e in their local language areas , they are at a loss when it comes  to int er-trib al c ommunication . They are also at a dis advantage when it comes to dealing with Government officials , business people  and others who do not speak their parti cular language . It  also poses  diffi­cult ies in organ is ing the national church ,  when leaders from different trib e s  meet together in conference . In the c onferences  o f  the Evangel­i c al Church of  Papua , Hiri Motu and English are used as the means of  communi cat ion,  and o f  the  Gerej a Inj il Irian Jaya,  Indonesian is used . We are there fore s eeking to encourage the use o f  Pidgin , Hiri Motu and Indones i an in our respective areas , so that our members can play their full part in the development of their countries . To thi s  end , we are conducting a Cent ral Bib le  S choo] in Hiri Mot u at Lake Murray , another in c omb ined Pidgin and vernacular at Samb erigi , and in Indonesian at Sentani in Irian Jay a .  Furthermore , i n  each of  the trib es in which w e  operate ,  w e  have realised the need of a long-range plan for producing leaders of the future who are fluent in the international language of the are a ,  namely English for Papua New Guinea , and Indonesian for Irian Jay a .  Accord­ingly , for a long time now , we have run primary s chools in English and Indonesian respe ctively , moving on to a high s chool at Awab a in the Wes tern Provinc e ,  and a teachers ' c ollege at Dauli in the Southern 7 . 9 . 9 .  INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK O F  LANGUAGE S TUDY : A . p . e . MISSION 1 3 4 3  Highlands Province of  Papua New Guinea .  Numb ers o f  our l e adin g p astors are also b eing trained in full English at the Christ ian Leaders ' Training Col lege at Ban z  in the West ern Highlands Provinc e .  S imi lar training is also envis aged at the Central Bib le Inst itute at Sent ani in Irian Jay a .  We are j ust reaping the b ene fit o f  this s i de o f  the work as leading past ors and s chool teachers are as s uming excellent respons­ib ility and leadersh ip in many of  our areas . Except in the Gogodala area o f  t he Lower Fly River area , we have not sought to develop any single vernacular language as a lingua franca for other surrounding tribes , b ut have done independent work for each lan­guage . In the Gogodala area mentione d ,  t he trib es  were very smal l ,  numb ering only between 1 0 0  and 2 0 0  in each , and they already had a good proport ion of b il ingual speakers of Gogodala , so they came to s chool in the Gogodala country , received instruct ion in t hat language , and then returned to their own trib e s  ( s ee chapter 7 . 4 . 5 . 6 . ) .  It  will  thus b e  seen that we o f  the Asia Pacific Christ ian Mission have a threefold language policy : a )  To work in the vernacular in the e arly s t ages of  the w ork , con­t inuing thi s through for all training and church work at t he adul t  level , and also s eeking to achieve full literacy for all children as well in their own vernacular . b )  To encourage the local elders and leaders o f  t he churches to make every endeavour to b e c ome fluent in Hiri Motu , Pidgin ( or in both ) , or in Indones ian ,  so that they can play their p art in the nat ions ' devel­opment . c )  To train our leaders o f  the future in full English and Indones ian . The following i s  a list o f  the trib es  and languages in which the As ia Pacific Chris tian Miss ion ( and o ur U . S .  counterp art , the Unevan­gelised Fie lds Mis s i on )  are working :  a)  Lower Fly River Area o f  P apua New Guinea GOGODALA TA : ME DUDI NAMEU SUKI (Balimo , Mapoda , Awab a ,  Wasua)  ( Bituri Creek ) ( also  known as MUTUM) l (Lewada I s land in Fly River ) ( al s o  known as LEWAD A )  ( Arufe ) ( Suki Lagoon ) J Both thes e are dialects o f  TIRIO 1 3 4 4  W . M. RULE b) Upper F l y  River Area ZIMAKANI ( Pango a ,  Lake Murray ) KUNI ( Pangoa ,  Lake Murray ) PA ( Debepari ) BEDAMUNI AEKYOM ( or AlWIN ) ( Nomad River and Mogulu ) ( also known as BIAMI ) ( Rumginre , Kiunga ) YONGGOM NINGERUM ( Atkamb a )  } ( Ningerum and Trakb it s ) Members of  the Ok Family c) Southern Highlands Province d )  HULl ( Tari , Dauli , Mananda , Tani , Korob a )  FOE ( Kutubu , Orokana)  OLOGO ( KALULI ) POLE SAO Irian Jaya WESTERN DANI HMANGGONA KETENGBAM NGALUM WALAK NGGEM ( Bo s avi ) ( Erave ) ( S amb erigi ) ( Bokondini , Ke lila,  Muli a ,  Ilu)  (Nal c a )  } ( Ok Bap )  Memb ers o f  the Goliath Fami ly ( Kiwi )  Memb e r  of the Ok Fami ly ( I lugwa,  Wolo ) } Dialects of Pyramid Dani ( Kob akma ) Rule, W.M. "Institutional Framework of Language Study: The Asia Pacific Christian Mission". In Wurm, S.A. editor, New Guinea area languages and language study, Vol. 3, Language, culture, society, and the modern world. C-40:1341-1344. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1977.   DOI:10.15144/PL-C40.1341 ©1977 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s).  Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL.  A sealang.net/CRCL initiative.

Institutional Framework of Language Study: The Asia Pacific Christian Mission

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Institutional Framework of Language Study: The Asia Pacific Christian Mission

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