Learn Language and Culture through Familiar Stories
The beauty of being in Phase 3 of the Growing Participator Approach (GPA) to learn language and culture is that you get to learn through the powerful context of shared stories.
Imagine being able to listen to and understand the beloved favorite stories of Harry Potter, Avengers or Pride & Prejudice in your target language just 250 hours into your journey!
Launch India works hard to develop engaging digital GPA Phase 3 resources like these to make your language learning journey into Indian, Pakistani, and other South Asian languages more effective and fun!
Here's what our clients have said about their understanding, speaking, and general cross-cultural relating abilities by the end of GPA Phase 3:
"We can genuinely make people laugh in our new language!"
"We feel like we are a part of a community in this new language to some extent."
"We can easily understand stories and are able to pick up so much more on tone and meaning of native speakers."
"We sense that people no longer feel that it is strange to hear us speaking to them in their target language."
“I can have a short conversation with a random auto driver. I can speak Hindi!”
"I am generally more able to connect."
How Well Will I Have Learned South Asian Languages by the End of GPA Phase 3?
Here's a list of who you will be and of what you will be able to do by the end of Phase 3:
You are beginning to make acquaintances/friends with more patient people in your community.
You can understand relatively rich and complex stories with familiar plots.
You are able to tell simple stories.
You can understand more abstract explanations and “expository speech” than before without the use of visual aids used in Phases 1 and 2.
You have basic conversational ability.
You are able to discuss a wide range of topics, including ones you have not discussed previously.
You can understand and use a variety of tenses.
You have developed the ability to read the script of your target language
GPA Pro Tip: Sprint Through Phases 1-3
Phases 1-3 of GPA are designed to allow learners to engage with an incredible amount of vocabulary and grammar in a contextual, relational, conversational, and game-like way. Still, as you can imagine, getting started in language learning can often be the hardest part and feel a bit like a crawl. For this reason, whenever a client comes to Launch India to start learning language online or in person for Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi or Telugu, we always recommend that they consider sprinting to complete Phases 1, 2, and 3. This takes a recommended 500 hours (approximately 6 months at a full time rate) if you are starting without much prior experience.
So whatever your schedule, whatever your challenges, we recommend doing your absolute best to maximize your hours doing specialized GPA activities as you start learning language and culture to increase your momentum and motivation towards your ultimate goals.
Language learners all over the world have fallen in love with the Growing Participator Approach (GPA) because it is relational, effective and fun! Launch India is proud to offer our services with trained GPA staff for people wanting to grow into the language/cultural worlds of speakers of Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi and Telugu.
GPA is split into 6 phases with specialized activities in each phase to help maximize your growth according to your level.
Phase 1: 100 hours
Phase 2: 150 hours (2A: 50 hours, 2B: 75 hours, 2C: 25 hours)
Phase 3: 250 hours (3A: 100 hours, 3B: 75 hours, 3C: 75 hours)
Phase 4: 500 hours
Phase 5: 500 hours
Total: 1500 hours
Phase 6: Lifelong Learning
So how does Phase 3 in GPA work?
So glad you asked! There are four main activities of Phase 3 in the Growing Participator Approach.
The Bridge Story
Script of Life
Cartoon Activity
Shared Experiences
The Bridge Story Activity in GPA
The Bridge Story activity is the primary activity of GPA Phase 3. In this activity, you take a story that is familiar to you in your first language and then you listen to that story in your target language, stopping the recording along the way to clarify the words that are new or less familiar. All of this negotiation by this level should be happening 100% in your target language without using your first language (i.e. no English). You'll be amazed at how well you will be equipped to do this by this point in your language journey!
It is the activity that varies the most between the sub-phases of Phase 3A (100), Phase 3B (75), and Phase 3C (75).
Phase 3A- The stories you listen to in your target language are stories familiar to you already such as Harry Potter, Avengers, Fairy Tales, Pride and Prejudice or whatever interests you! Be careful that the recording you use has been adapted for your level. In Phase 5 of GPA you will be listening to recordings in your target language made by a native and for a native. In Phase 3 though, these recordings should be greatly adjusted, slowed down, and made accessible for your level in order to maximize your growth.
Phase 3B- The stories you listen to in this sub-phase now should be famous stories known by those who speak your target language. Go to a local bookstore and ask for some common kids books. If you are able to find those books in both your target language and in your own language, that can help you familiarize yourself with the story and the context before listening in another language. If you can't find the books in English, have someone help you find a summary of the story online. Be careful that when your Nurturer makes a recording in your target language that they are not reading the story or the book word for word as again this becomes a Phase 5 activity engaging with a resource made by a native speaker, for a native speaker. It can be an amazing growth activity in Phase 5, but will likely be frustrating and discouraging at a Phase 3 level.
Phase 3C- This last sub-phase of Phase 3 recommends you start listening to recordings made about familiar topics to you and your Nurturer. Ask them about Covid, famous monuments in your area, current events you both know about. This is a great way to prepare for Phase 4 of GPA where you will be listening to stories without having known the context of the stories you hear before hearing them.
Script of Life Activity in GPA
This is arguably the most culturally and linguistically rich and yet grossly overlooked activity of GPA. In this activity, you ask a Nurturer to describe to you all the steps of a simple every day activity. These can be things like 1) making white rice, 2) sweeping the floor, 3) washing your hair, 4) brushing your teeth, 5) using a local bus, 6) washing your hands. While these topics may seem very simple and child-like, they are always loaded with fascinating cultural insights!
They say that culture consists of the things we do every day without thinking about it. So you already have an idea of how to do each of these activities from your own culture, but listening to your Nurturer describe each step from their point of view allows you to learn what they view as normal. You may be amazed and what you can learn both in terms of vocabulary and culture by slowing down to really break down each step of these simple, every-day activities.
We recommend drawing out each step on a sticky note, or using a program like Mural if doing online classes, so that you can easily ask "expansion questions" to really draw out even more steps and insights and words that your Nurturer may have left out. For example, you might have been told by your Nurturer that to make white rice, first you wash the rice and then you put it into the cooker. You might ask a question about how exactly they wash the rice and discover some methods or beliefs about this simple process unique to your culture.
Cartoon Activity in GPA
One of the goals of Phase 3 of GPA is to start increasing the rate of speech in your target language that you understand. The cartoon activity is a fun way to do that!
Watch a short 1-3 minute cartoon clip before your session with your Nurturer so that you are already familiar with the content. Then, pull out your recording device (we recommend Easy Voice Recorder) and let your Nurturer watch the video clip while describing everything they see. The goal is that you find a clip with a lot of action in it so that your Nurturer has to talk quickly in order to keep up. We recommend Tom and Jerry, Charlie Chaplain, Mr. Bean, or Pixar Shorts for this task. It is also important that you make sure your Nurturer can tell you are not watching the clip with them as they describe what they see as this will encourage them to include more details in their recording which means more new words and phrases for you!
Once they reach the end of the cartoon and stop their recording, you may both watch again while listening and then stop to clarify new words and phrases. This is a fun way to add some laughter and fun to your sessions while also touching on the important goal of increasing your understanding ability!
Shared Experience Activity in GPA
The final main activity of Phase 3 in GPA is the shared experience activity. Go out and do something with your Nurturer! Buy vegetables in the market, eat a local food, or just take a walk in the park. Ask about everything you see along the way (always talking only in your target language of course!). While you can use this time to do longer field trip type activities like visiting famous places in your area, a simple 5-10 minute small excursion can also reap the desired language and cultural results!
After you have gone out and experienced something together, come back to your language session and discuss together all you just did and all the new words or phrases you discovered. Then have you Nurturer make a recording including all these details. Listen with your Nurturer to this fun audio diary and stop it to clarify new words or phrases as always.
If your sessions are online, our biggest recommendation for this activity is to make a plan to cook something together. Gather the ingredients beforehand and then both you and your Nurturer will cook the same dish at the same time and then share a virtual meal! Or if you are able to plan a few weeks to meet up with your Nurturer in person, we recommend that as well in order to take advantage of more shared experience opportunities!
Conclusion
Phase 3 of GPA is a powerful phase for learning language and culture because it wraps everything you hear into the context of a story. Our brains love chunking things into context and are more able to recall what we have learned when we do it this way.
So whether you are growing to understand and speak another language either in person or online using GPA, enjoy the hours of your journey in Phase 3!