| The
recent unfortunate
displacement and migration of the population from Kashmir to various parts
of the country has made Kashmir a "wounded civilization". The
traditional knowledge of Kashmir is slowly and gradually disappearing and
the identity of the community is in peril. The worst fear is that the new
generation which was born after the migration and is being raised outside
Kashmir may not have access to this traditional knowledge. In order to
save and make this knowledge available to this new generation, it was felt
that a course on Kashmiri may help to a great extent in fulfilling this
need. The Cassette Course on Kashmiri language, produced and introduced by
Roop Krishen Bhat, Principal of our Northern Centre at Patiala, is a step
in the direction of promoting and propagating teaching/learning of this
immensely rich language. The cassettes would be invaluable tools for those
who wish to use them as self-instructional materials placing it along-side
our regular course materials on Kashmiri.
The areas such as Language
Teaching always attracted the faculty at the Central Institute of Indian
Languages, and as a result, a lot of interesting materials got produced.
The present Cassette Course in Kashmiri has been produced in the same
series. Our teaching materials have so far been tried out through a series
of 10 months Intensive Training Programme currently offered in the seven
regional centres of the Institute at three levels: Basic, Intermediate and
Advanced courses. The present set is, however, suitable to be used not
only for such language learners who are to be taught as a part of our
Programme, but also by those who have had introduction to the language
through a formal system, and yet have not had chance to go beyond the
basics. They cover a wide range of speech styles used in the language so
that both teachers and auto-learners of Kashmiri as a L2 could benefit.
The text used here are not
merely instances of ideal spoken styles, they are also used to emphasize
on certain recurring .mp3matical patterns and lexical coinages.
I congratulate the teachers
who have used and perfected the material as much as the author, Roop
Krishen Bhat. The suggestions, comments, criticisms from all those who may
use this teaching material will be most welcome. Specific comments on the
aspect of production, including typographical and other errors that may
have crept in or stylistic changes could be sent to Dr. K. S. Rajyashree (e-mail:
rajya@ciil.stpmy.soft.net),
who heads the Publication Unit. Suggestions on teaching and use of these
materials could be mailed to the Principal of our Centre in the North at
Patiala (e-mail: nrlc@glide.net.in). |
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