Multiliteracies in Torres Strait: a Mabuiag Island State School diabetes project.

Osborne, Barry ; Wilson, Eric

Introduction

There is considerable concern across Australia about low literacy levels among Indigenous students (for example, Marks & Ainley, 1997, p. 9; Education Queensland, 1999a). Accordingly, the Federal Government launched its National Indigenous English Literacy and Numeracy Strategy 2000-2004 (DETYA, 2000). It reported that 320 rural/remote sites had been investigated to document strategies that were successful in raising 'performance indicators' based on good teaching/learning practice; high expectations of what students could achieve; and a relentless approach by educators. Osborne's research (1) shows that good teaching across cultures involves among other things: spelling out the cultural assumptions of the classroom and the learning task; establishing warmth, respect and high expectations of students; and making learning tasks relevant to students' lives (1996; 2001a, ch. 2). These are closely linked, as indicated in Osborne (2001b) to Productive Pedagogies (Ladwig, Lingard, Mills, Luke & Hayes, 1999), which, with New Basics and Rich Tasks, comprise the triad of reform being promoted across Queensland state schools (Education Queensland, 2000a, p. 17). Indeed New Basics refers to what is taught, Productive Pedagogies to how it is taught and Rich Tasks to how students demonstrate their learning (Education Queensland, 2002).

Education Queensland (1999a, p. 15) in its policy document Queensland State Education, 2010 promotes learning within the New Basics, which among other things incorporates 'the blending of traditional and new communications media' (Education Queensland, 2000a, p. 1) across discipline areas in order to, in this instance, 'maintain health and care of self' (p. 10). Indeed, literacy can be defined as:

 The flexible and sustainable mastery of a repertoire of practices
 with the texts of traditional and new communications technologies
 via spoken language, print and multimedia. (Education Queensland,
 2000b, p. 9)

Furthermore, Queensland State Education 2010 promotes learning that focuses on 'intellectual engagement and connectedness to the real world' (Education Queensland, 1999a, p. 1). Education Queensland in Partners for Success (1999b) also recommends strategies 'to improve literacy outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students' (p. 20) in a context of them being 'second language learners' (p. 11) and 'developing students' confidence in using the appropriate language for different contexts' (p. 11). These two aspects, multi-modal literacy ('across traditional and new communication technologies') and cultural/linguistic diversity, are encapsulated in The New London Group's (2000) notion of multi literacies. Multiliteracies expands the traditional notion of a single correct literacy to ones which are multi-modal and incorporate linguistic and cultural diversity 'designed to create learning conditions for full social participation' (pp. 9-10).

This article examines the way in which two Torres Strait Island schools experimented with several of the systemic initiatives outlined above to improve literacy skills among their senior Primary students. The teachers had good reason to link diabetes, drama and literacy. They stressed learning for a purpose and learning in context. Our reflective commentary shows how these informed practitioner practices/ approaches can be articulated and extended within the curriculum reforms being introduced by Education Queensland. This occurred even though the school is not one of the trial New Basics schools that receive systemic professional development and financial support. Accordingly, the article discusses the school setting and nature of the project, the intents of the project, the research process, description of the project in operation, analysis of the radio commercial segment, and future possible extensions.

The school setting and nature of the project

Mabuiag is one of fourteen inhabited islands of Tortes Strait. It has a population of about 260 with 66 students at the P-7 school. Some of the students speak English as their third language and the vast majority speak it as their second. Those who speak the traditional language, Kala Lagaw Ya, also speak the lingua franca of the Tortes Strait, Yumplatok, which was previously called Torres Strait Creole. The school has a strong emphasis on literacy in Standard Australian English and has a LOTE program in Kala Lagaw Ya for the students in Years 5-7.

In 2001, students from Malu Kiwai State School on nearby Saibai Island joined the Year 6 and 7 students from Mabuiag State School for three days for what they called the Drama in the West (of Torres Strait) project. This fusion inspired part of the project's title Garwoeydhamin 'Coming Together' in the local traditional language, Kala Lagaw Ya. The students from both schools merged into three groups using drama to improve literacy. A fourth group dramatised, under supervision of the elders, the traditional story of Kuiam as told in Haddon (1901-1904). It had not been enacted in living memory, and was performed for the whole community to a narration of Haddon's text.

Each of the other three groups, with their teachers and teacher aides, worked at the same two tasks. The first task was to create a thirty-second radio commercial on diabetes suitable for use on the local TSIMA radio (Tortes Strait Islanders Media Association). The second task was to create and perform a collage drama of up to six minutes using a combination of movement, props, the radio commercial, posters, headlines, narration and song. The performance was open to the community and was videotaped. This paper focuses on just the radio commercials; the other tasks are incorporated in Osborne & Wilson (2001).

The intents of the project

For the three groups working on diabetes, the project developed some key aspects of a Rich Task (Education Queensland, 2000c). In particular, it blurred traditional discipline lines (Education Queensland, 2000a, p. 4) of English (reading, writing and speaking), The Arts (making stage props, composing a jingle, choreographing, performing and singing), Health and Physical Education (diabetes and what to do about it), and used Information Technologies (surfing the WWW and using radio-quality recording apparatus). It also involved uncluttering the syllabus (p. 4) by focusing on one topic and nothing else via two performance tasks for three days. Furthermore, it connected to the students' lives and the real world (p. 4) via both the topic (diabetes, which is endemic in Torres Strait and so students are likely to have personal knowledge of it at the very least through extended family members) and the use of their product on regional (TSIMA) radio.

These framings of the three-day project were not articulated in the above ways by the principal or teachers prior to its commencement. Rather as skilled bricoleurs (Hatton, 1996), that is, those who practice what 'works' rather than from a theoretical base, they wanted to bring together students from two schools to involve them in a novel approach to literacy. One of the teachers has training in ESL and one of the principals articulates a commitment to 'warmth and high academic expectations' for students (from phone conversation in which Osborne was invited to research the project):

 The teacher and principal have been here since the beginning of
 the year and have decided drama could be a good way to achieve
 literacy with students. The teacher sees it flowing oust of
 language in context approaches and also having a different focus
 from using purely the spoken word or purely written text as a
 way of improving literacy (field notes).

The creation of a radio broadcast and a video of a collage drama are 'real world' or at least 'life-like' tasks according to the English Syllabus in Years 1 to 10, Queensland Syllabus Materials (Department of Education, 1994, p. 45). The teachers wanted to develop skills of cooperation and to achieve high levels of output from students who have tended to be less than forthright in public speaking. To do this, the teachers' foundational constructs were cooperative learning, high expectations and language for a purpose.

The teacher-initiated Mabuiag trial incorporated an approach to literacy learning that can be easily extended to incorporate aspects of the earlier framings described in the introduction. It was also quite novel within Torres Strait because, although Torres Strait Islander children have been consumers of popular culture via television since the late 1980s, they have rarely written/performed/videorecorded or even audio taped their own curriculum-related material. They have participated in events like Rock Eisteddfod and Croc Eisteddfod in which performance dominates and sometimes taped a song or message for broadcast on TSIMA radio. Hence, for reasons of novelty, dealing with a local health issue and being 'cool', this transdisciplinary, 'real world' project seemed to have strong student appeal.

The research process

The research process used was illuminative evaluation (Parlett & Hamilton, 1977) and an ethnographic approach to getting insider meanings (Spindler, 1982). This meant a heavy reliance on moving between groups to make observation notes and brief informal interviews with key students whose guardians'/parents' consent had been provided. It also meant the inclusion of one group's radio broadcast where similar consent had been given. We analysed data against recent policies on literacy and Rich Tasks and the literature that supports such policies.

Description of the project in operation

Prior to the project the students had been engaging with text to find out about diabetes. They used the Diabetes Queensland web site and special booklets about diabetes written by Queensland Health for Indigenous people.

Day 1--Introduction to radio commercials

The drama consultant, brought in from Townsville, had a brief session with all groups on the first two days before they began working to create their performances. The first day she did warm up activities with them--one at a time stepping one pace in from a large circle to call out loudly her/his name, then acting like cockroaches, then brolgas. Their initial spoken responses, even to saying their names, brought back images of Tortes Strait Islander students' hesitancy about public speaking from Osborne's own teaching in Tortes Strait some thirty years previously--with rare exception, speakers' eyes were averted, heads were down and voices lacked clarity, projection or even audibility. Nonetheless, these activities quickly loosened the students up particularly as adults joined in the wordless role-plays.

The drama consultant encouraged each of the three groups to work on both the radio commercial and drama collage from the beginning. Osborne saw much student engagement on tasks in all three groups. The students wrote down ideas individually and shared them with one another. They discussed how best to present the knowledge and ideas they had, and who would say/sing the various parts.

The first group started with a mind map of what they had found out about diabetes, and their knowledge was substantial as shown in Figure 1.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The teacher later had them classify the information and they made two initial categories--'doctor' (implying symptoms) and the other 'helping your body'. Although these categories were not used in their final performance, the process displays attempts at higher order thinking in the students' own categories.

The second group discussed much detailed knowledge about diet--'five vegies' and the use of 'Canola/olive oil not butter or margarine'. The third group spent considerably more time establishing roles and responsibilities and chatting about their collage drama performance. At the end of the day Osborne's field notes contained these hesitant ponderings about the groups' ultimate performances:

 Can they do it?
 Will there be enough time to produce good scripts?
 Will they produce convincing radio broadcasts?
 Will the language they use be convincing?
 What language(s) will they use?

All three groups worked through until 4:30 pm--it had been a solid day's work. That evening there was a meal provided by the community at the school's covered area followed by a disco with the chairman of the P & C as DJ. It started slowly, but eventually many of the students danced and seemed to have a great time.

Day 2--Radio commercial performance day

During day two, high levels of task involvement continued. At times one or two students went about their own thing, but predominantly the groups functioned smoothly and with a strong sense of common purpose. The teachers scaffolded the process by querying words and phrasings, reminding students of the target audience, and suggesting other subtle changes (reminiscent of the way developed by Rose, Gray & Cowey, 1999 to scaffold the production of written text for Indigenous students). The teachers also reminded students of the predetermined and previously articulated criteria--ability to transmit appropriate message, adherence to time limit, demonstration of imagination and creativity, commitment to the performance and effective use of voice. The teachers also assisted by querying what content the students wanted to get across to their audience. Some of the individual ideas students were coming up with were being written down. In one group some of the verbatim initial writing was

Don't eat food with too much sugar. it will cause you diabetes, such as:

* soft drinks

* chips

* chocolate So do not eat junk food

* lollies It will kill you

Another student from the same group initially wrote:

* Don't eat to many sugary food every Day

* Don't eat to many fat every Day

* Don't drink to many soft drinks

These ideas are contained in a much-refined form in the group's final commercial.

This group's commercial showed considerable language refinement from these beginnings even in written form, which was not the focus of the task, since writing was a tool for composing an oral performance in which all had to participate. As such a tool however, the written text exhibits considerable expertise, skilled oral/rhythmic presentation, sense of audience and clever marriage of English, Yumplatok, and popular culture (see Table 1).

Unfortunately, some teachers, encouraged by the push for standardised testing in Standard Australian English correctness, see such marriages as errors rather than as 'teaching moments' (Shopen, 2001). Bandscales for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Learners, once developed, may assist such teachers to accept home language and articulate the differences between Yumplatok and English (Turnbull, 2000, p. 6).

The students also showed a wonderful economy of words--there is no redundancy, achieving emphasis by the mood patterning common in English commercials and by voice changes with words carefully juxtaposed. 'Bumby "Goodbye"' does this to great effect by marrying Yumplatok and English in one line with internal rhyme. There is also a great sense of audience, inviting listeners in with 'you sabe'. As well, there is fascinating cultural borrowing, not only of language but of 'Coke', 'chocolate' and 'fish and chips', none of which are traditional foods but which are now fully incorporated into their daily lives. There is another example of cultural borrowing in the ingenious contrast between the speedy, sharp punch-line 'Goodbye' of the TV program The Weakest Link to diabetes that, as the students stress, can eventually kill ('Bumby "Goodbye"'). Hence, rather than seeing Torres Strait Islander students as 'lacking' (as is often the case, see Nakata, 2001), this group is clearly talented and quite functional in aspects of multiliteracies (Education Queensland, 2000a; Cope & Kalantzis, 2000).

To emphasise the skill exhibited by the students we now provide a reading of the radio commercial in English:

There are several instances of intertextuality, that is drawing on text from one context and applying it to another (Halliday & Hasan, 1989; Luke, 1994) like the use of the TV program The Weakest Link and references to popular Western foods like Coke and fish and chips. While these foods are quite mundane and routinely incorporated, the use of the TV program is not only imaginative and original, it also shows a clever marriage of popular culture with the local lingua franca ensuring it is understood by all Torres Strait Islanders familiar with The Weakest Link. What is more, via its clever marriage of languages and cultures, the students' commercial is much more powerful than our translation in Standard Australian English only.

This enables us to read these students as multicultural/multilingual rather than as 'exotic Tortes Strait Islanders' whose traditional culture needs to be preserved, while reducing their social access to society at large (Nakata, 2001). In so doing, it permits us as teachers to build literacy skills around students' already sophisticated understandings of their life world. The Mabuiag and Saibai students were certainly not deficient, developed a powerful message and delivered it using a medium (audio recording), which they had not used before as presenters.

We want to make several points about student spelling in this radio commercial text, even though it was created for oral, not written, presentation. The first is that there are two words which could be abbreviated English. One is 'E', standing for 'He, she, it' when gender is non-specific in the third person singular in Torres Strait languages. The other is 'Cause', probably standing for 'Because' since Shnukal (1988) has no words starting with 'c' in her dictionary of Yumplatok. The second is that 'weekest', although not spelled conventionally in English, is phonetically acceptable. The third is that their Yumplatok does not always follow Shnukal's spelling although it does in wah, kaikai, sabe and bumby. In particular wadth replaces wadh, and youpla replaces yumpla. So, it is possible to position these students as spelling technically incorrectly in English and Yumplatok (TSIREC, 1997, pp. 13, 15, 22), although some of the spellings may relate to regional variations that Shnukal (1988, p. 10) tried to standardise. However, we prefer to see them as active participants in a 'society that is rapidly changing. As the pace of societal change increases, so must the rate of change of language and if language does not change then it does not fulfil its major purpose' (Board of Teacher Registration, Queensland, 2001, pp. 2-3).

Here we confront some tensions in terms of school-based measures of literacy in Queensland schools. There is literacy testing at Years 3, 5 and 7 that compares students' performance across State and National benchmarks. Against these sorts of measures of literate behaviour we can easily see the basis for the perceptions of the low literacy standards among Indigenous students alluded to earlier. However, analysis of the rich and complex literacies brought to the task of very successfully writing this radio commercial script highlights the flaws in the 'low literacy' perception. In fact, it accentuates the need to understand the literate practices of these students and the demands laid before teachers to use these literacies to access other diverse forms and contexts. This is the challenge and Bandscales for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Learners should assist once completed.

A second group distinguished between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and ultimately wrote a song to incorporate into their radio commercial. Besides creating their own catchy tune, this group chose to use standard English (with correct spelling throughout) except for the double negative construction in 'can't make no ...':

 Type 1 diabetes, Type 1 diabetes
 Can't make no insulin, can't make no insulin
 Type 1 diabetes, Type 1 diabetes
 Injections every day, injections every day

 Type 2 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes
 Can't handle sugar, can't handle sugar
 Type 2 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes
 Caused by too much fat, too much sugar

 Eat more fruit everyday, eat more fruit everyday
 Exercise everyday, exercise everyday
 Give up smoking, give up smoking
 Fish is good for your heart, fish is good for your heart

The radio commercials were recorded at the end of the second day, in the principal's office, which had been set up as a rather cramped recording studio with a DAT recorder and a large microphone on an imposing stand. The students were completely unfamiliar with the recording process and each group had to have several dry runs before making a suitable recording. Individuals missed cues, stumbled over words that previously caused no problems in the classroom, giggled when others were speaking, or made other background noise. Each of the final recordings was very good and indicated great improvements in oral production after the halting public speaking of their names the morning before. Outsiders who heard the recordings on regional radio were impressed and the students were excited by what they had created and how good it sounded.

Analysis of outcomes of the radio commercial segment

The radio commercials were hugely successful. We put this down to a constellation of factors. Language was being used for a purpose to which students related well. It connected to their world of a high incidence of diabetes through a performance medium of which they were frequently passive users outside of school (radio) (Education Queensland, 2000b, pp. 7-8). It also employed a range of strategies consistent with the signposts of Osborne's (2001a) culturally relevant pedagogy--students worked in groups (Signpost #6.1), teachers held high expectations in a warm, respectful environment (Signpost #4) and natal language was incorporated, not only in working on their tasks but also in the final performance of the radio commercials (Signpost #8). Two groups, one of whose commercial we have analysed here, borrowed/adapted ideas from TV, that is from the popular culture that is part of students' everyday lives (Signpost #3). The extended time used to develop the radio commercial (Signpost #6.4), enabled them to brainstorm and reflect on their collective knowledge, refine extensively, and query other's suggestions/wordings. They also had time to practise performance skills and examine video recordings for cues as to how well they were progressing. All these aspects of extended time nest within an 'uncluttered curriculum', a key component of the New Basics (Education Queensland, 2000b, p. 4).

As several students told Osborne, their first hesitant reactions to the initial, simple speaking task had been one of shame (sem, which Shnukal (1988) translated as shy, embarrassed). When he asked what the sem was for, they said 'the other kids', namely those they did not know previously. We suspect that with unfamiliar adults present, some shyness related to their presence also. Very quickly, the students overcame this shyness, as they put it:

* 'We went out to play with them [at lunch/little lunch] and we knew them.'

* 'No shame today [day 2]. We are playing together and we know each other.'

* 'Good now. Disco last night, we make new friends.'

Other students provided even more specific comment than these three about their reactions to the tasks and to getting to work with others:

* 'I am very happy this morning [day 3]. Wendy was my best friend [from another island] from Girls in Sport [an inter-island event organised earlier to build such friendships and positive self-concepts among girls]. I liked the poster we made and I am very happy today about the diabetes project.'

* 'Good ideas. "Be aware. Listen to this." I liked working with [the teacher and teacher aide]--we needed their ideas. Put our ideas together.'

* 'All of us worked together, used my ideas but separate parts for others. Teacher helped. Practised little pieces. I switched to "talking not yelling". Very happy with the tape. It will be great to hear it on radio.'

One student had a different perspective in that he did not "like to stay on one thing for so long, not like regular school." However even he went on to say: 'I learned a lot--speaking out loud--open mouth--no paper [to read out aloud from]. But it was a long day.' This feedback also indicates that the aim of fostering friendship had worked well.

Since the major aim of the project was to improve literacy and we had no baseline data, we mapped the commercial against the Freebody & Luke (1990) four resources model--code breaker, text participant, text user and text analyst (Education Queensland, 2000b, pp. 11-12). 'Code breaker' emphasises rules and skills--including letter/sound relationships and conventions of spoken or written texts (the technology of the texts). 'Text participant' emphasises the knowledge or interpretation that the reader/ listener/watcher brings to the text. 'Text user' emphasises the purposes and uses of different texts and how purpose shapes a text. 'Text analyst' emphasises that texts are not neutral and can be challenged/ reconstructed. The resultant Table 3 indicates that, although the primary focus of the project was not the production of print literacy, print and multimedia were used, probably without formal text analysis. Besides, oral skills were displayed across all four roles, again probably with timely scaffolding by their teachers and teacher aides. Students also merged the use of English and Yumplatok with great effect for the target Tortes Strait Islander audience. However, their commercial could still impact powerfully on an audience unskilled in Yumplatok. They also employed The Arts through dance, song, prop and poster making. Over and above all the literacy and The Arts outcomes, the students understood diabetes very well. It is highly unlikely that knowledge of the content area would have had been so strong if the students had been merely preparing for a paper and pencil test. So, while there are positive literacy outcomes (see Table 3), there are positive outcomes in other curriculum areas and their importance cannot be emphasised enough.

Future extensions

This small-scale project cost about $13,000 for equipment like the DAT and video recorder, fares for the consultants and the Saibai students. However, the hardware can be used in subsequent years, and the purchase of video editing equipment and quality microphones could extend video production as another link into multimedia and media literacies. This would involve the teaching of story boarding, video making and editing, making of background music and even developing a Website or submitting their video to Imparja for potential broadcast across northern Australia.

Indeed it could be expanded in subsequent years to incorporate more elaborate prop/stage design, mathematics via travel times, fuel usage, costs of travel, bulk food purchasing and navigation, and extra literacy components incorporating the organising of transport, writing risk notes, writing invitations for billets, and navigation. In other words, a longer project could extend its transdisciplinary focus by providing a real purpose for mathematics and studies of society and environment. Besides, it could strategically support the kinds of learnings required by an existing Rich Task, namely designing and implementing a Personal Health Program. This is a project for students to devise a healthy eating plan and implement and evaluate it over a four-week period. Then over the next four weeks they devise a healthy exercise plan and implement and evaluate it. (2)

While making such extensions, careful attention should be paid to the 'social construction of literacy' (Luke, 1994), the use of Yumplatok and making explicit the differences between it and English (Turnbull & Hudson, 2000), social access through mastering English (Nakata, 1999, 2001), and multiliteracies (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000). Indeed it could extend beyond a mere 'technical analysis of language' to include the 'reading of the cultures around, behind, underneath, alongside, after and within a text' (Luke, O'Brien & Comber, 1994, pp. 139-149). These students and their teachers certainly demonstrated that such complex skill development is possible when grounded in real life learning and when students' existing strengths are nurtured.

References

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Barry Osborne and Eric Wilson

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY, CAIRNS

(1) This review of more than one hundred cross-cultural and multi-ethnic classrooms in North America, Australia and New Zealand identified 9 Signposts that might guide teachers constructing a culturally relevant pedagogy:

Signpost #1 Teachers need not come from the same ethnic group as the students they teach.

Signpost #2 Socio-historico-political realities beyond the school constrain much of what happens in classrooms.

Signpost #3 It is desirable to teach content that is culturally relevant to students' prior experiences, that fosters their cultural identity, and empowers them with knowledge and practices that enable them to operate in mainstream society. [Later extended with :] culturally relevant approaches to curriculum involve analysing students' life experiences in historical contexts and critiquing the status quo as a collective enterprise to construct equitable and just social relations. This means accepting knowledge as socially constructed and open to challenge.

Signpost #4 Effective teachers are personally warm towards, respectful of and academically demanding of students

Signpost #5 It is helpful to spell out the cultural assumptions on which the classroom operates.

Signpost #6.1 Group work is highly desirable in cross-cultural and multi-ethnic classrooms.

Signpost #6.2 It is desirable to avoid direct, overt management strategies and to use indirect strategies.

Signpost #6.3 It is desirable to avoid excessive 'spotlighting' of individuals, behaviourally or academically.

Signpost #6.4 An unhurried pace is often most effective.

Signpost #6.5 Particularly in the lower grades, it is desirable to provide communication structures that match those that students have acquired already in their home-community.

Signpost #7 It is desirable to involve the parents and families of students from groups we have marginalised in the schooling process.

Signpost #8 It is desirable to include students' first languages in the school program and classroom interactions.

Signpost #9 Racism is prevalent in schools, needs to be tackled, and can be tackled.

(2) This Rich Task was implemented at Mabuiag in 2002. A report is to follow.

Table 1 The verbatim text of one group's radio commercial with
actors added

Text of radio commercial Actor(s)

Be Aware of Diabetes--Listen to this Des, strongly
I like coke Debra, rhythmically
Wah, I like ice cream Nigel, rhythmically
And I like chocolate Helen, rhythmically
Well, I like fish and chips. Joseph, rhythmically
Hey, youpla hardjump for Allistair, emphatically
 all kind kaikai.
'So' Allistair, Debra, Nigel, Helen
 in unison
Think about diabetes Des, sternly
E Deadly zvadth
How come? Wendy, quizzically
Cause you sabe!! Dorothy, emphatically
Diabetes wadth Rodney, emphatically
The weekest link
Bumby 'Goodbye' Everybody, emphatically
Get a regular check up for diabetes!! Des forcefully

Yumplatok words (in italics) and English meanings according to
Shnukal (1988)

Wah# = Yes
Youpla# = Our (Shnukal wrote as yumpla#)
Hardjump# = surprised (Not in Shnukal 1988, source Aaron Bani
 & Juanita Sellwood)
Kind# = types of (Shnukal wrote as Kain#)
Kaikai# = food
E# = Its 'i' in Shnuka1, 1988
Wadth# = (emphatic participle) really, surely Shnukal wrote
 as wad# or wadh#
Sabe# = know
Bumby# = eventually, one day (pronounced bumbai)

Note: Yumplatok words indicated with #.

Table 2. An English translation of the commercial showing mood usage

Text Mood

Be aware of Diabetes--Listen to this! Imperative
I like coke Declarative
Yes, I like icecream Declarative
And I like cholocate Declarative
Well I like fish and chips Declarative
Hey, you guys are surprising us about all kinds of food Declarative
(or)
Hey you guys are surprised by all kinds of food
So? Interrogative
Think about Diabetes Imperative
It's really deadly
How come? Interrogative
Because you know Exclamation
Diabetes really is 'The Weakest Link' Declarative
Eventually you'll die [from it] Declarative
Get a regular check up for Diabetes!! Imperative

Table 3. Four resources model applied to radio commercial

Media of
Communication
Roles of the
Literate Oral Print Multimedia

Code Breaker Much oral They had to be Yes, locating
 clarification of able to make and downloading
 print material meaning of information
 probably diabetes texts. from WWW
 occurred before Some stumbled
 the three-day with print at
 project and did times while
 occur during it recording dry
 run of
 commercial

Meaning Maker Yes, during the Yes, extracted Yes,
 brainstorming information from incorporated
 about diabetes booklet TV program and
 popular music

Text User Yes, songs and Yes, writing of Preparation of
 commercials with scripts and that radio
 varied moods posters showed commercials were
 showed this this used by TSIMA

Text Analyst Insertion of
 'bumby' between
 'The Weekest
 Link' and
 'Goodbye' is
 powerful and
 insightful