Lojban textbook(s)

[Alex Joseph Martini <alexjm@umich.edu>]

coi rodo

I recently found a draft copy of the textbook by Robert LeChevalier, and
have seen discussion about writing a new textbook. Also existing are the
"Lojban for Beginners" lessons, the "Complete Lojban Language", and
"What is Lojban?" -- of which the first and last are also viable for
instruction.  It seems to me that it would be beneficial for the Lojban
community to standardize to some extent. Some of you may already know,
but I have been writing a sort of reader that follows the lessons in
Lojban for Beginners. However, if a student of Lojban is learning from
the draft textbook I found, or the book What is Lojban, material is
presented in an entirely different order, and the reader is useless
because the student isn't using the vocabulary he/she knows.

If certain order or groupings of the gismu and cmavo with respect to
presentation in teaching, it would make the future books written to
teach Lojban much more effective. For example, a student could read one
lesson in the textbook, and then look at the corresponding section of
the detailed grammar (or other CLL type book) for clarification of
certain points. Also, people in my position who are writing material for
students to read before they become fluent would be presented with a
standard vocabulary to draw from. Students learning from any textbook
would be able to read any of the basic material at a given level.

Lojban is well named the logical language. Everything is terribly
organized and categorized. It's really useful to be able to look up the
selma'o of a cmavo I know, and know I can use all of the other cmavo in
the same group in the same context. I think it is only reasonable that
the teaching of Lojban be organized into a shared progression, or
divided into blocks that are taught in the order of the author's
preference, especially with respect to the gismu and rafsi vocabulary.

What are your thoughts on this?

mu'omi'e .alex.