(2) The upcoming air trip to East Africa, though a dramatic event, was one that would not be part of daily life.
(3) Arrangements for any air travel that they might undertake within East Africa could best be made in English anyway.
Example 8 (Lao) See pp. 326-327.
This example consists of the M-l segments of Cycles 38 and 73 in Lao Basic Course. In their format, they are identical. The problem of interest here is again choice of content. Each contains a miscellaneous list of predicate expressions. In the C-phase of Cycle 38, it is easy to see how the content of the lesson could be brought to bear on one member of the class after another, so that they would get better acquainted with one another at the same time that they were practicing their Lao. No comparable focus is obvious for the material of Cycle 73. Cycle 38 talks about what one individual or another can do, while Cycle 73 is a list of unconnected bits of information illustrating a grammatical pattern.
One more question that arises in the writing of Cummings devices is the extent to which they should depend on the use of translation. The same problem of course comes up in connection with lesson material of other kinds, such as dialogs and drills. Obviously, if the intent is to do with little or no translation, then there is a correspondingly greater premium on the quality of transparency (Chapter 3, p. 48).
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