Consultation trends 060516

People are moving to cities. Somewhere around now, more than half of all people live in cities and this trend will not be reversed so far as we can imagine.

 

Ministry strategies are historically more effective in rural contexts.

 

Overwhelmed cities are hungry for caregiving for people of need.

 

Current developing adults place emphasis on environment as central to redemption.

 

Questions of calling have increased prominence in today's dialogues, internal and external.

 

It is through providing human care in partnership with others that the ministry community best engages the cities.

 

Beijing, for example, wants help in caring for migrants, developing character and morality in students (suicide, pornography, prostitution, etc.), strengthening and restoring family wellbeing: "the family is the sweet spot of change in the city"

 

The good book begins in the garden and ends in the city; the hero was born in a village and brought his enterprise to a climax in the city.

 

Dr. Steve and Laura Spinella, Sarah, Joey, Robby
Da Yi Street, Lane 29, #18, 2F-1, Taichung 40454, TAIWAN
011.886.4.2236.6145, of 4.2236.1901, fx 4.2236.2109, cell 9.2894.0514
USA: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920, 719.528.1702, cell 719.640.1261
TEAM, PO Box 969, Wheaton, IL 60189, 800.343.3144
<www.team.org.tw/spinella>, <www.team.org.tw/ccg> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TEAMspinella/>
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu>, <lauraspinella@alumni.rice.edu>

Pandemic musings

Current pandemic dialogue rests on an essentially mathematical argument being put by non-mathematicians. In other words, the information sources that the world is relying on for their sense of alarm and/or safety are not capable of understanding the information they are interpreting.

 

This is not really that new a problem. Take for instance the doctrine of evolution, which is actually quite germaine to the the pandemic arguments. Here is a doctrine (scientific, albeit) that purports to explain origins by relying on current observation. This is somewhat like trying to figure out who arrived first at a party by observing the behavior of guests a year later. The problem is not that the observations are unreliable or perhaps irrelevant. Rather it is that too much time has intervened to confound the data. Even if arrival time at last year's party irrevocably influences today's behavior, so might many other equally germaine preceding and subsequent events by the time of the scientific, e.g., current, observations. In fact, mathematicians might shudder if we argued about arrival times based on departure times from the very same party.

 

Statistics of prediction attempt to forecast likelihoods of future events by examining past patterns in steady state or similarly conditioned environments. With questions of pandemic disease, I would assert that this is as much a game as an art or a skill. The confounding variables include such issues as increased funding for the scientists who make the most marketable predictions, political survival and risk for those who might be blamed for catastrophes, and the vulnerability of the powerful in our world to fear of losing power. (Americans might do well to remember both Nixon and Clinton.) Human factors in such games can have far greater impact when a group of people make up the rules for the game than anything in the patterns themselves.

 

So as one reasonably qualified to assert some level of mathematical training in model building, statistical analysis, and human science research with no axe to grind, how do I read the reports? (First, you must suspend your judgment as to whether I am so qualified or merely pretentious, but haven't you had to do this with every other word you've read regarding the pandemic? Then you must do the same regarding whether I (or any other human) have an axe to grind! The more cynical might simply observe we all have axes, the question is, "Why are we grinding them now?")

 

Here are some short observations:

 

1) There is no human ability to forestall epidemic disease, only the ability to react to it with more or less effect. Consequently, we do well to acknowledge that disease remains one of the major risks of life, and that disease is not just an individual concern, but also a community-wide concern, and to the extent our community is global, a global concern.

 

2) Preparedness for epidemic disease has not been effective for unknown threats. The desire to be prepared for a disease that has not yet arrived is a heroic, but largely novel effort. It has to be exciting for medical scientists to imagine that they might be able to stop disease before it arrives. It seems to me this would be a next great thing.

 

3) Efforts so far to respond to the "H5N1 A bird flu" have not inspired confidence. Aside from a re-engineering of the way humans interact with birds, akin to a reengineering of the way humans interact with petroleum, it seems likely that H5N1 will follow its own course with little alteration due to human interventions.

 

4) Pandemic disease is alleged to break out once a generation--every 30-40 years. By these statistics, the actual likelihood of a pandemic each season is closer to 3% than to the 10% some have predicted. This is about the same likelihood as a globally significant armed conflict. In a cold-hearted way, death is as significant personally whether it comes from heart disease, a car accident, or suicide.

 

5) The real impact of pandemic disease is as much economic as medical. What governments most fear is that the world economy will be rearranged, to the detriment of the current order, as that they personally will face death. From this perspective, there ought to be a continuing debate about whether a just-in-time reaction or a preparatory vigilance to avert what may be an unavoidable crisis would be more expensive.

 

So if these things are somewhat true, what are the implications for me?

 

1) Preparation doesn't hurt me much, as long as someone else is doing it. If I do it, it hurts me to the extent that it distracts or disables me from addressing other more relevant concerns. Perhaps the last big crisis for which our communities mobilized ahead of time based on media-fed and individually mediated senses of urgency was the millenium computer crisis.

 

2) Crises will come, whether to a person, a family, a community, or even a global village. The best preparation for risk is risk-general preparation, not risk-specific. Preparing for the things all crises have in common is more effective than preparing for any single risk. Allocating a small amount of total resources toward crisis management as a whole is prudent, but is not likely to forestall a crisis.

 

3) If I want to worry about bird flu, I should give it a "fair share" of my worry, along with such other minor threats as terrorism, car accidents, and cancer. I should give much bigger shares of my "total concern load" to such things as growing old, eating and sleeping well, paying my current and future obligations, and loving my neighbors.

 

Disclaimer: I nor anyone else may stand by the comments in this blog by tomorrow...

Language Learning Advisers workshop

Overview

Greg Thomson has gathered a team to lead a two-week workshop to train language learning advisers and trainers of language learning advisers. This was the sixth of these international workshops, each emerging in a slightly different way and context. This workshop includes…

·        Attention to three integrated (chocolate) dimensions of language learning, the socio-cultural (labeled blue,) the cognitive (yellow,) and the redemptive (red;)

·        A six phase comprehension-led sequence for growing participation in a linguaculture [linguistic and cultural milieu], with special attention to the first 100 hours; and

·        Extensive attention to motivation through encouragement.

Contextual elements

The content and the process of SEALLAW are woven together with…

·        An undergirding emphasis on a posture of humility,

·        Integrated worship, dialogue, and participatory cell groups,

·        International context, multicultural diversity, and minimal cost, and

·        Extensive notes and materials distributed on an “open source” basis.

Alternative vocabulary

Some alternative vocabulary is introduced to focus attention on central concepts. “Growing participants in host linguaculture communities of practice best develop through supercharged participation within their growth zone.”

·        Growing participants: language learners in every dimension

·        Host and home identities: Home identity is brought along, host identity is developed within the host community

·        Linguaculture: The combination of social group(s), with shared history and culture, and a language of communication, in which a growing participant desires to play a peripheral (edge) or greater role

·        Communities of practice: groups within a linguaculture where more than two participants carry on ongoing conversations around shared experiences

·        Supercharged participation: when activities are designed, structured, and implemented to maximize comprehension-led input suitable for each learner

·        Growth zone: [zone of proximal development] the level of language that is most suitable to stretch the learner, neither already mastered, nor so unfamiliar that the learner shuts down or is over-stimulated

Learner profiles

Rather than using ACTFL levels or some other equivalent to classify learners based on language mastery, Thomson suggests four (or five) profiles that identify where the growing participant has arrived in his learning process and where the participant is headed (listed from preferred to less ideal.) The goal is to help each learner transition one step forward:

Bill

Fully participates in the host linguaculture, with a growing ability to communicate fed by his full participation in Host life and community. He is daily learning more by his continued involvement in life and community. Bill privately wishes he could be more like “Ricardo!”

Harry

Gets most things done and new arrivals admire his active participation in the host linguaculture, but Bill and those with native fluency notice that he frequently misunderstands or guesses when listening to native speakers. His speech (and writing, teaching, or other work) actually relies on a quite restricted set of words and constructions. Harry privately wishes he could be more like Bill.

Jane

Can buy what she needs, especially if it’s on the shelf where she can see it. Given how little she has studied, it’s amazing how much she can get done. However, when she needs to do something new or faces complications, she needs help, gets frustrated, or just gives up. Jane privately wishes she could be like Harry.

Ernest

Ernest is a great help to newcomers. In fact, he can show others how to live in the host economy without hardly any language study. He knows the restaurants that have English menus, the Doctors with foreign education and willingness to talk English, and local people, plus Harry and Bill, that he can count on to help out in a pinch. When he does use the local language, one of the most notable features is his extensive use of gesture and other non-verbal aids. Ernest privately wishes he could be like Jane.

Ellen

When Ellen was in the host linguaculture, she was very excited about growing participation. She was also always asking for prayer for her neighbor, the shop keeper, and even the check out clerks at the department store. Unfortunately, things came up back home and she wasn’t really able to stay. (We may not count Ellen as one of the learner profiles, but she certainly represents a possible stage or outcome.) Ellen privately wishes she could have been more like Ernest.

Encouragement

Extensive attention is given to how language learning advisers can motivate through encouragement. In contrast to forms of motivation that operate through the use of power over the learner, encouragement is a form of motivation that is open to anyone who has a relationship. It does not require an authority component, although encouragement from authority figures can be particularly valued.

A key advantage of motivation through encouragement is that the resulting motivation can have a much longer-term impact since it comes through the receiver’s own values and beliefs. It is a coming alongside rather than a coming over or a coming against posture.

Because the emphasis on the brother/sister posture of humility before the father and before one another, motivation through encouragement is a natural complement in our strategies for influencing those we advise. In actual practice, motivation is perhaps the greatest challenge to language learning advisers, much more than technical (cognitive) expertise regarding what can be done, what works well, or even what ought to be done.

Dimensions of language learning

Language learning strategies are evaluated along three integrated (chocolate) dimensions of language learning.

Socio-cultural

The socio-cultural dimension of language learning draws attention to the aspect of growing participation in host linguaculture communities of practice. This dimension is relational and focuses on language as a bridge between people in relationship to one another. Communities are groups of people who have ongoing dialogue along a series of themes or activities. It is introduced first because of the long tradition of viewing “study” as an internal, self-contained activity.

Cognitive

The cognitive dimension of language learning encompasses the dimension of language which can be laid out as a set of observations. This includes listing and classifying sounds, words, phrases, minutes, or hours that are experienced, absorbed, recalled, expressed, etc. It looks at what can be measured, observed, categorized, or quantified. This dimension is not the sole focus, but it is a key dimension of all language learning.

Redemptive

When our life purpose is redemptive, we believe that all our activities have meaning as they align with this purpose. It is not enough to see growing participation as purposeful when we arrive at the end—the end is elusive and far away, so the motivation is weakened over time. Making language learning activities themselves align with our life purposes draws us toward each activity

Time

Time is always a dimension of life in this world. We are always at the present, reflecting on what is behind and anticipating what is yet to come. There is an aspect to time that is elastic. An hour of furious listening at the edge of our growth zones can seem like a day’s work. Sometimes we treat time as “teleological,” we are enduring to the end. But we live in the present, and it is in each day’s present that we have the unique opportunities and possibilities together with the Father-given resources of that day, whether limited or vast.

Six phases

Greg Thomson proposes a six phase comprehension-led sequence for growing participation in a linguaculture [linguistic and cultural milieu], with special attention to the first 100 hours. The times given are comparative, not normative.

·        Here and now: the process of identifying objects and describing concrete daily life (100 hours,)

·        Story building: the process of following others’ stories with a good nurturer/guide and previous introduction to the elements of each story (150 hours,)

·        Shared stories: the process of constructing new stories of our own and following previously unheard stories from others (250 hours,)

·        Deep life sharing: the process of sharing the significant details of each other’s lives with a few willing participants from the host linguaculture (500 hours,)

·        Native-to-native communicative competence: the process of participating in the linguaculture as designed for native speakers, with help (500 hours,) and

·        Sustaining participation: the process of experiencing real language as a continually growing communicative competence, where new elements are identified, grasped, and incorporated through full participation in the host linguaculture (10,000 hours.)

First 100 hours

The leadership team provides a detailed model curriculum for a first 100 hours of supercharged participation in the emerging growth zone, complete with sample materials in line art. This material is not provided because it is perfect. In fact, it was originally not provided at all. However, many people were looking for some place to start. By beginning with a completed curriculum for the “here and now” phase one, language learning advisers can then substitute more contextual materials as they are in use. In addition, language learning kits are available (separately for rent) that provide a set of toys and prepared cards for these activities.

Special challenges

In the second week, approximately twelve hours are dedicated to special challenges for language learning advisers. These challenges include issues like facilitating growing participation for…

·        Mothers of young children,

·        Children and families,

·        Teens,

·        Full-time workers,

·        Published curriculums and established language programs, and

·        Recruiting, selecting, and coaching nurturers.

Commentary

From the beginning of the workshop, it was clear that this experience would focus on real challenges contextualized and resourced by deep practice, particularly in the Asian and cousin worlds. At the heart of the workshop is a focus on comprehension-led, pragmatic growing participation. Familiarity with the research, alternative constructs, and other approaches to language acquisition anchored the presentations, but the focus was practical and that meant that particular solutions were offered rather than general theory.

There were several valuable theory-based contributions that I found quite helpful, in the context of other training and experience I have had. These have been summarized above and I leave it to the readers to find their own “diamonds” to pick up.

I enjoyed the spirit of open availability, the focus on language learning for all growing participants, and the constructs like phases and profiles to complement curriculums and ACTFL levels. As a growing participant in this community of practice revolving around language learning advising, I felt both humbled and encouraged. That process of humbling and nurturing matched content with the process, not just for the workshop but also for the challenges of growing participation and coaching.

As a contextualized growing participant who supervises a language learning adviser and specializes in the work of encouragement, I had various opportunities to contribute both individually, in groups, and in the large sessions. In particular, there was an ongoing dialogue around how to find ideas that worked for Asians of various cultures. These contributions were generally well received because the context was one where both Asians and Anglos had ears to hear and a posture of humility that was enriched and developed through the two-week experience together. The materials we produced en route will join the voices of others in the open source collection online and in the distributed materials both for this workshop and potentially future workshops, as these materials are shaped, adapted, affirmed, or revised for greater use in practice.

 

Dread: CNN.com - Study: It really does hurt to wait - May 4, 2006

CNN.com - Study: It really does hurt to wait - May 4, 2006*

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/05/04/science.of.dread.ap/index.html

 

I thought this article was stimulating in its discussion of how dread impacts our actions and thoughts during a time of anticipation of negative consequences. I suppose it should be common sense, but for me it was a good reminder that dread can result in our having some quite contrary-to-expected reactions.

 

Steve