TITLE:
Flashcards and Coloring Book: Teaching Strategies and Minority Language Revitalization
AUTHORS:
Chong Shin, Herpanus, James T. Collins
KEYWORDS:
Minority Language Shift, Language Documentation, Flashcards and Colouring Book, Pre-School PAUD, Revitalization
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.12 No.9,
September
26,
2024
ABSTRACT: During the past thirty years, many minority language communities in Indonesia have been in the process of shifting. The rapid shift in language has reflected the complex generation gap between the older and younger generations. This study outlines the use of flashcards and coloring books as instructional tools to promote local language revitalization efforts. As an example of this pedagogical technique, we will look at a case study in a preschool program in Sintang, West Kalimantan (Indonesia). How can a pre-school program address this problem? We focus on flashcard and coloring book strategies because in pre-school, pictures usually draw more attention than texts. The play group discussed here included 13 children (4 - 5 years old) and the instructor. The results of this teaching experiment indicate that flashcard teaching is an effective method for language revitalization. This method encourages active learning at the preschool level, motivates innovative language teaching, and strengthens the children’s recall of vocabulary terms. This technique is simple but is in alignment with the behaviorist and cognitivist approaches to language learning. The study expands on the novel idea of using flashcards to teach local languages in pre-school. The children’s enthusiastic response attests to the value of this pedagogy.