Enseñanza de la lengua, un camino que se bifurca: Material bilingüe para la enseñanza del castellano y cha’palaa

Abstract

The purpose of this curricular integration project is the creation of bilingual didactic material, with the aim of addressing linguistic needs, especially in reading and writing, that have arisen as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this context, a lack of appropriate educational resources has been identified, resulting in a lack of effective strategies to address this issue on the part of teachers. This project is specifically aimed at the children of the Chachi community, who are students at the "Jaime Roldós Aguilera" CECIB. This center is located in the Aapi community, situated in the Borbón parish, Eloy Alfaro canton, Esmeraldas province. It is essential to highlight that this community is part of the Chachi nationality, an indigenous community that preserves its own language and enriching culture. In light of this, it is worth asking: What is the purpose of this curricular integration work? The purpose is to design and implement bilingual didactic material called "Kumuinchilachi (For Everyone)" that assists teachers and students in improving the teaching and learning process of vowels and consonants, as well as enhancing reading and writing processes. Therefore, this material is designed in two languages: Cha'palaa (the language of the nationality) and Spanish (the language of intercultural communication). It should be emphasized that alongside this resource, a "teacher's guide" was developed, which will provide Chachi nationality teachers with access to a range of strategies and methodologies that can be used in classrooms, ensuring quality education for children and young people. The design of this research is ethnographic in nature, with a qualitative approach, as it takes on a subjective reality that is part of the studied reality. Similarly, this approach was employed through the use of semi-structured interviews, field diaries, participant observation, and documentary analysis. In the course of the research, interviews were conducted with teachers and residents of the Aapi community; a diagnosis was also applied to students aged 8 to 12, in order to assess their level of difficulty and knowledge in the reading and writing process; finally, the didactic material provided by the SEIBE and the curriculum of the nationality were analyzed. The applied diagnosis confirmed that the majority of boys, girls, and young people at CECIB have serious difficulties in reading and writing, which led to the creation of the bilingual "Kumuinchilachi" material. This material allowed for the promotion of a sense of pride and appreciation for cultural identity. Similarly, it helped fulfill certain guidelines established in the Intercultural Bilingual Education Model (MOSEIB) related to the creation of culturally and linguistically relevant didactic materials in the official language. Finally, this resource facilitated processes of interculturality, as being produced in Spanish, other teachers can make use of it and adapt it to the Chachi nationality context.