Basketball lingo class provides English lesson for Asian athletes

Shot. Passing lane. Switch. Hedge. Pick-and-roll.

These are just some of the terms Pitt… Shot. Passing lane. Switch. Hedge. Pick-and-roll.

These are just some of the terms Pitt linguist Alan Juffs taught to a group of young athletes from around the Pacific Rim on a basketball court in Shanghai, China last week.

Adidas selected Juffs, director of Pitt’s English Language Institute and chair of the Department of Linguistics, to teach “basketball English” to young Asian athletes headed to the sporting goods company’s Superstar Camp to be held this July in Atlanta.

“They were looking for an English language professor who also had experience in Chinese and European languages,” said Juffs, who is fluent in Mandarin, French and German.

Juffs traveled with Washington Wizards point guard Gilbert Arenas, German-born NBA all-star Detlef Schrempf, and former New York Knicks general manager Scott Layden during his one-week visit to Shanghai.

The NBA players taught the young athletes how to walk the walk, while Juffs taught them how to talk the talk.

Each day, the Pitt professor taught 45-minute courses in basic English and common basketball jargon.

The athletes, who were selected by their local basketball federations, hailed from Australia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and mainland China. According to Juffs, the lessons in basketball lingo helped the players to work together in teams.

Juffs also said that teaching the lessons on the court itself was beneficial for the players.

“It is much more motivational for the players to not be taken away from the environment where they are going to use these words,” he said.

“With these kinds of actions and words, one popular technique is active body response,” Juffs said. This technique consists of teaching students new terms while they perform the tasks that the terms symbolize, instead of merely learning their definitions.

Juffs said that the athletes learned the terms very easily, and that Layden noted improvements in their performances after picking up the lingo.

Basketball is growing increasingly popular in China. Since the NBA opened its Hong Kong office in 1992, revenue earned from basketball merchandise in China has doubled each year, Voice of American Sports reports. On average, NBA games broadcast in China reach 200 million viewers.

In 2002, 7-foot-tall Yao Ming of the Shanghai Sharks entered the NBA draft, was the Houston Rockets’ first pick and soon became the first internationally-recognized, Chinese-born basketball superstar.

This October, the NBA will hold its preseason games in China for the first time, when the Rockets and the Sacramento Kings square off in Beijing and Shanghai.