What is patterned oral paraphrase?

Patterned oral paraphrase is a technique for creating the written text of a story by first using illustrations to prompt someone to tell the story in natural language, then writing what he or she says.

POP was first used in an effort to avoid literal, unnatural translations of texts. Often translators looked at a text and translated what they saw literally or word for word. Better translations developed when local language speakers

• looked at illustrations of a story or subject
• heard the story that went with them or heard the subject discussed
• repeated the story or discussed the subject naturally in their own language
• then wrote down what they said.

• Using patterned oral paraphrase

• Concept module: patterned oral paraphrase
• In overview module: Glossary (Literacy): P
• In modular book: Glossary of literacy terms
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 2 July 1998

© 1999 SIL International