language and language teaching

RAJENG00941/20/1/2012-TC, Volume 1 Number 1 30 January 2013

English, Biannual, Udaipur Price: ` 150 Annual

(Original Volume 2 Number 1 January 2013 ISSN: 2277-307X)

Azim PremjiUniversity

R. Amritavalli, English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India

Rakesh Bhatt, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, Illinois, USA

Tanmoy Bhattacharya, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

Jim Cummins, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Ganesh Devy, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India

Kathleen Heugh, University of South Australia, Australia

Ayesha Kidwai, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India

Stephen D. Krashen, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

Kay McCormick, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

Rajend Mesthrie, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

K. P. Mohanan, IISER, Pune, Maharashtra, India

Ajit Mohanty, formerly at the Zakir Hussain Centre for Educational Studies, JNU, Delhi, India

Aditi Mukherjee, National Translation Mission, CIIL, Mysore, Karnataka, India

Language and Language Teaching

EditorsRama Kant Agnihotri, Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur, India (Formerly at the University of Delhi)

A. L. Khanna, ELT Consultant, Delhi, India (Formerly at the University of Delhi)

Editorial CommitteeSuranjana Barua, Tezpur University, Assam, India

Haobam Basantarani, Language Consultant, Delhi, IndiaRajni Dwivedi, Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India

Praveen Singh, University of Delhi, Delhi, IndiaRajesh Kumar, IIT, Patna, Bihar, India

Devaki Lakshminarayan, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Executive CommitteeH.K. Dewan, Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India

S. Giridhar, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, Karnataka, IndiaPartha Sarathi Misra, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Copy editor: Preeti Jhangiani; Cover: Aseem Ralhan; Layout: Rajesh Sen

Thanks are due to Preeti Misra and Namrita Batra for their help in finalizing this issue.

© 2012 Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur (Raj.)The views expressed in the articles in LLT are those of the authors only.

Minati Panda, Zakir Hussain Centre for Educational Studies,

JNU, Delhi, India

D.P. Pattanayak, Founder Director, CIIL, Mysore, Karnataka,

India

Robert Phillipson, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

N.S. Prabhu, Former Head of English Language, National

University of Singapore, Singapore.

Tariq Rahman, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Anju Sahgal Gupta, Indira Gandhi National Open University,

Delhi, India

Itesh Sachdev, School of Oriental & African Studies, University

of London, UK

Rajesh Sachdeva, Former Director, CIIL, Mysore, Karnataka,

India

Sadhna Saxena, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

Udaya Narayana Singh, Tagore Research Chair, Visva Bharati,

Santiniketan, West Bengal, India

M.L. Tickoo, formerly at the English and Foreign Languages

University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India

Mahendra K. Verma, University of York, York, UK

International Review and Advisory Board

First issue being published under registration with the office of the Registrar of Newspapers for India

Individual : ` 75; Institutional : ` 150

ArticlesMultilinguality in Academic Institutes in India

Nilu and Rajesh KumarMultilingual Education and Literacy: Researchfrom sub-Saharan Africa

Kathleen HeughIn a Multilingual Class

Rajni DwivediRole of L 1 in Foreign Language LearningClassrooms: A Case Study of Learners of French

Shambhavi SinghLanguage and Culture: About a Saora Class 1Primer

Mahendra Kumar MishraThinking Culture in a Language Classroom:Teaching Gujarati as a Foreign Language

Venu MehtaWriting in Classrooms: Missing Voices andReflections

Nidhi KunwarContinuing Professional Development: The WayForward for English Language Teachers

Kirti KapurDesigning Second Language CurriculumS. C. SoodTeaching Learning Materials in a MultilingualEducation ProgrammeUrmishree BedamattaDo Language Codes Affect Multilingualism?:A Case Study of an Inclusive SchoolSneha SubramaniamLanguage across Curriculum: Principle to Practice

Nisha ButoliyaFricatives and Affricates of English: A Case Studyof Assamese Learners

Anima Baishya

InterviewFace to Face with Mr. Navnit KumarVijay Kumar

LandmarksChomsky’s Innateness Hypothesis: Implicationsfor Language Learning and TeachingAyesha Kidwai

Book ReviewsSecond Language Acquisition and UniversalGrammarPritha ChandraAdvanced English GrammarBidisha SomMasti Ki PaathshalaParmanand JhaSuggested ReadingsVocabularyLanguage Teaching Games and ContestsSuranjana BaruaMeri Badi KitabMukul Priyadarshini

Classroom ActivitiesDominos FunSearching SpreeBhavna TandonSay only ‘yes’ or ‘no’Rajni DwivediWriting PoemsRhyme in lineManu GulatiPlaying with MeaningDevaki Lakshminarayan

ReportsWorkshop on Material DevelopmentSuneeta Mishra (The Sansarg Group)Workshop on Language and Language TeachingAmresh Chandra

Forthcoming EventsHaobam Basantarani

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Language and Language TeachingVolume 2 Number 1 January 2013

In the memory of Prof. Rajendra Singh

That many of us would witness the departure of Prof. Rajendra Singh so soon isstill difficult to believe. He was a major linguist of the past few decades and hiswork in Phonology, Morphology and Sociolinguistics and in South Asian linguisticswill always be remembered and valued forever. After getting his Ph D fromBrown University, Dr. Singh joined the University of Montreal and made seminalcontributions in Phonology and Morphology. Prof. Probal Dasgupta remarks: “His1987 article ‘Well-formedness conditions and phonological theory’ (Wolfgang

Dressler et al.[eds] Phonologica 1984, 273-285) was a much-cited landmark paper that helpedchange the course of phonology.” Similarly, his work on Whole Word Morphology provided acompletely new paradigm for examining the formal relationships obtaining among words. In fact,similar things can be said about most of his interventions into the nature and structure of languageand its relationship to mind and society.

He was on the Advisory Board of LLT and was a very special person for the Vidya Bhawan Society(VBS), Udaipur. He promised to spend a few weeks every year at VBS, and shared its dream ofbuilding bridges between the academia and education professionals of all kinds. He helped usconceptualize and eventually conduct several of our international seminars; the proceedings of someof these seminars have been published and translated into Hindi. He conducted courses on someaspect of language every year to enrich the resources of the Vidya Bhawan Education ResourceCentre. Some of these included lectures/ discussions/ workshops on ‘The Nature of Language’(published in English and Hindi as separate monographs from VBS, Udaipur, 2008); a lecture serieson the Greco-Roman tradition in language teaching (likely to be published soon); a course in academicwriting etc. He often ‘blamed’ some of us for pulling him into the discourse on ‘Indian English’ (IE)but that intervention on his part resulted in a position on IE that became a major site for discussionacross the world. The ‘Afterword’ to the 1994 Sage volume (R.K. Agnihotri & A. L. Khanna, [ed.]Second Language Acquisition) initiated that discourse and it reached its climax in the publication ofIndian English: Towards a New Paradigm (R.K. Agnihotri and Rajendra Singh, [eds.] 2013 OrientBlackSwan, New Delhi).

Those of us who were fortunate to share evenings with him at Udaipur remember him with greataffection, respect and awe. Every time he concluded a discussion, we used to wonder how he coulddigest so much knowledge. Though he was always so humble and gentle in his academic discourse,he was never willing to surrender an inch unless there was a solid reason to do so.

VBS salutes him and would always cherish memories of the precious moments he spent with theVBS faculty.

Vidya Bhawan Society

Language and Language Teaching Volume 2 Number 1 January 2013 1

IntroductionIndia is a land of many languages. According tothe 2001 census, there are twenty-two officiallanguages in India, and more than one thousandsix hundred regional dialects along with theirvarieties. In the villages, most children go togovernment schools for their primary andsecondary education. In the government schools,the syllabus, examination, debates, speeches,official formalities, etc., are conducted in thelocal, regional or official language. English maybe one of the subjects, but it is not the languageof the functional domains in most cases. Soonafter the completion of formal secondaryeducation, some students get into institutes ofhigher education such as the IITs, NITs, IIITs,IIMs, AIIMS, or other medical or engineeringcolleges and universities. When these studentscome to such institutions, everything feels aliento them. Almost overnight, the language of alltheir functional domains becomes English.English, which until now was restricted to beingone of the subjects, becomes the medium ofinstruction. Discussions, speeches, debates,assignments, examinations, official formalitiesare all conducted in English. The drastic changein language from mother tongue to other tongue(English) becomes an impediment for thestudents, and not just in terms of their education.This change makes students suffer academicallyas well as psychologically. Achievements andknowledge are lost in questions of language thatrequire serious attention in academics.

We know that every child is fluent in her firstlanguage (Chomsky, 1965). A child grows upwith her/his first language, and brings it to school.However, when the child reaches a highereducational institution, she/he has to switch toEnglish. A natural question arises at this point;why are higher educational institutions restrictedto English? If India is a land of multilingualism,then the medium of instruction in academicinstitutes should also be multilingual. This paperexamines the Indian scenario of education thatoffers a monolingual solution to a multilingualsituation. The paper discusses multilinguality andthe acquisition of English language in higheracademic institutes with particular reference toIIT Patna.

Multilingualism in IndiaIndia is a land of multiple religions and socio-cultural environments. In fact, most children inIndia are multilingual. Multilingualism in India isa way of life so taken for granted, that wepossibly cannot imagine another way of livingsocially. Not only do people speak differentlanguages within and outside their homesbecause of social divisions, they also speakdifferent versions of the same language acrosssituations and with different social players.Chomsky (1986) argues that a child is born withthe innate quality of acquiring/learning language.He further suggested that one of therequirements for such an acquisition was inputfrom the society that was fuzzy in nature andinadequate in quantity. It is reasonable to assume

Multilinguality in Academic Institutes in IndiaNilu and Rajesh Kumar


from this hypothesis, that the output of theacquisition may also result in a ‘fuzzy’multilingualism. It is critical to note here thatthe acquired language is highly organized andrule-governed at all levels. Chomsky haddescribed the concept of an ideal native speaker/hearer. However, an ideal speaker/hearer doesnot exist. The language in the real world cannotbe defined as ‘a language’. A person acquiresand speaks many languages simultaneously. Wetake our language capacity to be monolingual,and consider multilingualism as an ability aliento humans. On the one hand we are programmedto learn our first language naturally and we haveto make an effort to learn any other language,and on the other hand popular discourse ineducation that questions the learning ability ofchildren in a non-native/foreign language drivesus to consider humans as essentiallymonolingual. We all possess the capacity(Language Acquisition Device and UniversalGrammar) to acquire and decipher differentlanguages. However, this does not mean thatwe have direct access to languages. Externalinput of the specific language is needed to learnit; however, we learn and comprehend muchmore than the input and this comes from a naturalability for languages. As Jackendoff (1993) putsit, “... language acquisition has to go far beyondjust memorizing and reshuffling inputs one hasheard. Much of the organization has to comefrom inside the brain” (p.101-111). The flexibility,with which a child picks up different languagesspoken in the neighborhood, somehow seemsto get lost, or wane as the child grows older.Why can’t this adaptability in children todifferent languages be used as strength inteaching?According to Chomsky (1965), linguistic theoryshould concern itself primarily with theinvestigation of a speaker’s competence. Hedescribed competence as speaker’s/hearer’sknowledge of her language. Chomsky’s idealspeaker/hearer was someone who lived in a

completely homogenous speech community, hadperfect command over its language, and wasnot affected by any grammatical irrelevantfactors, such as limitation of memory, distraction,shift of attention or error (momentary orcharacteristic), in making practical use of herknowledge. By this definition of Chomsky, amultilingual speaker was considered to be a non-ideal speaker. However, people live inheterogeneous speech communities where theyhave an equally fluent command over manylanguages. Chomsky further talked about LAD(language acquisition device) according to whichthe acquisition of language takes place innately.But this acquisition device is not restricted toone language. A child gets exposed to amultilingual environment and has the capabilityto acquire many languages at the same time.The whole language acquisition process isdesigned to be multilingual; multilinguality isnatural. The ideal speaker/hearer of Chomsky’sidea of language was simply a machine for thescientific treatment of language. However, whenwe look at society today, the scenario looks verydifferent, i.e., ‘language’ can only be defined asmultilingualism (Agnihotri, 2007, 2009).There are many factors that are responsible fora multilingual society. A few obvious reasonsare the necessity and co-existence ofmulticulturalism. Communication is essential forany society. When people move from one placeto another, they need a local language.Multilingualism includes interdependencebetween speakers of two or more languages.In India, it is generally found in states wherethe natives do not share the predominantlanguage, e.g., Santhali is spoken in Jharkhand,where the predominant language is Hindi. Peoplewho have an interest in a foreign language mayalso be multilingual. Sometimes people may findit necessary to acquire a second language forpractical purposes, such as business, informationand entertainment. In countries such as India,multilingualism also stems from education; we


teach children different languages such asSanskrit, Hindi, and English at school. Residentsin border areas between two countries or stateswith different languages are naturallymultilingual. In the Indian context, people mayalso learn different languages for religiouspurposes. Thus, we can say that multilingualismis an outcome of various direct or indirectfactors.

The IIT Patna studyTo substantiate the discussion so far, weconducted a pilot study at IIT Patna. This casestudy highlights the multilingual scenario ofhigher education with the dominance of Englishamong the Indian languages. The study revealedthat there is a mismatch between the languagesspoken by the students, and the languages usedfor teaching in the institution. In fact, the studyof multilingualism in IIT Patna is closely relatedto multilingualism in India. There are abouttwenty languages spoken across IIT Patna;these include Hindi, Rajasthani, Marathi, Punjabi,Telugu, Kannada, English, Assamese, Manipuri,Sanskrit, Bengali, Haryanavi, Bhojpuri, Tamil,Malayalam, Braj, Maithili, Gujarati, Urdu, andMagahi. Almost every student at the institute ismultilingual. There is no student who speaks justone language, or a ‘pure’ language. Theknowledge of these languages is either throughacquisition, as first language; through contactwith speakers of the language; or through formallearning. The percentage of students who speaktwo languages, three languages, and fourlanguages is 37 per cent, 54 per cent and 9 percent respectively. English is included in everystudent’s language profile and is most frequentlyused by the students. An analysis of the datacollected for this research suggests that studentsinteract between themselves and with outsidersin many different languages as per the functionaldomains.

Although multilingualism has always beenappreciated in the society, English seems tocommand a higher status. However, thedominance of English as a medium of instructionat IIT Patna results in students dropping outfrom the course, and performing poorly. Studentsliving in a linguistically rich environment withthe knowledge of so many languages aresystemically forced to go through a situation thatbrings down their performance. Ironically, thesame students are allowed to enter these veryhigher institutes of education even if they donot speak English as the entrance examinationsare available in Hindi. However, when it comesto education, students do not have an option ofeducation in anything other than English.

ConclusionIn schools, students speaking different firstlanguages come together to study where theyinteract with each other without any difficulties.Yet, they are assumed to have problems if themedium of instruction is multilingual. This is thebeginning of the neglect of multilinguality. In thisera of globalization, English is not just thelanguage of the world, but also dominates allIndian languages in terms of status and technicalinformation. However, multilingualism is not athreat or an alternative to English; it is simply asolution to education. It is high time the educatorsrecognize the need for multilinguality as aresource (Agnihotri, 2007).Despite such strong motivating factors forlearning multiple languages, our educationalinstitutes continue to exist in a monolingual world.One needs to ask a significant question: Ismultilingualism a barrier for education or anasset? In a time of domination of English andlinguistic genocide (prohibition of the use oflanguage of the groups in everydayconversation and school), even the theoreticalrecognition that multilingualism is an inevitableaspect of human social fabric and accepting


it as an asset, is half the battle won (Agnihotri,2009). This thought itself has potential for aradical change in the world order, by turningit into a more sensitive, just and equitablesociety. Accepting multilingualism will implyforgoing the populist rigid notion of ‘alanguage’ and recognizing that all languagesare equally rule-governed, rich and complexat the level of sounds, words and sentences.It will also free us from the shackles oflinguistic stereotypes such as distinctionbetween language and dialects. Thereappears to be a general belief that languagesare pure, and dialects are their crude,unscientific versions. There was yet anotherbelief that knowing many languages hamperscognitive development. Hence, we can saythat Chomsky’s idea of ‘a language’ is helpfulonly for theoretical machinery, whereaslanguage in society, i.e. multilingualism, isconsidered as a practical skill.

ReferencesAgnihotri, R. K. (2007). Towards a pedagogicalparadigm rooted in multilinguality. InternationalJournal of Multilingual Research, 1(2), 79-88.

Agnihotri, R. K. (2009). Multilinguality and a newworld order. In A.K. Mohanty, M. Panda, R. Phillipsonand T. Skutnabb-Kangas (Eds.), Multilingualeducation for social justice: Globalizing the local(pp. 268-277). New Delhi: Orient Blackswan.

Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of language: Itsnature, origin, and use. Westport, CT: PraegerPublishers.

Clyne, M. (1998). Multilingualism. In F. Coulmas(Ed.), The handbook of sociolinguistics (pp 300-314). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishing,

Jackendoff, R. (1993). How children learn language?In Patterns in the mind: Language and humannature (pp. 101-111). New York: HarvesterWheatsheaf.

Nilu is a research scholar in the Department ofHumanities and Social Sciences at IIT Patna. She isworking towards her PhD in Linguistics. She haspresented and published papers in applied andtheoretical linguistics. [email protected]

Rajesh Kumar is an Assistant Professor inDepartment of Humanities and Social Sciences atIITM, Chennai. His areas of teaching and researchinclude Language in Education, Structure ofLanguage, and Sociolinguistics.

[email protected]


IntroductionCountries of the global south have long historiesof educating their children through local orregional languages which are used in the villages.They also have a rich literary tradition ofscholarship, which pre-dates the colonialintervention that invariably resulted in theintroduction of European languages,administrations and education systems. Today,with the rapid increase in the mobility of people,and the spread of global technologies, European,North American and Australasian educationsystems are grappling with how to managelinguistic and cultural diversity in the best possiblemanner. Books on bi-/multilingual education,mainly from Western-Northern perspectives(Heller, 2008; García, 2009; Blackledge &Creese, 2010), offer contributions on theutilization and the importance of inclusiveapproaches to education. However, these studieshave limited traction in countries of the ‘South’because they focus on the needs of linguisticallydiverse students who are regarded as minoritystudents in a sub-set of majority mainstreamsystems. Despite increasing evidence ofsubstantial ‘South-led’ research (Agnihotri,2007; Mohanty et al., 2009; Ouane & Glanz,2010; Heugh & Skutnabb-Kangas, 2010),academic contributions of the ‘North’ continueto disregard what has already been practisedand learnt from valuable research in the ‘South’.In this article, I discuss some of the most recent,large-scale research conducted on literacy andmultilingual education systems in Africa; Ibelieve they may offer comprehensive findings

which may be relevant for countries wheremultilingualism and multilinguality (Agnihotri,2007) are the norm, rather than the exception.Kenyan scholar Alamin Mazrui (2002) arguesthat solutions to the current failure of educationto meet the needs of school pupils in Africainclude the dissemination of research regardingwhat works well and what does not work. Hefurther emphasizes the importance ofmultidirectional exchange of information,research and experience, i.e., from Africa tothe diaspora (South-South and South-North),rather than the mono-directional North-Southexchange which has undermined developmentin Africa since the nineteenth century.

‘Invisible’ African education practicesWe know that Africa has experienced at leastthree well-defined periods of multilingualeducational practice which pre-date colonialintervention. These begin with the early Egyptianuse of hieroglyphics, through the Coptic Christianuse of Ge’ez, to the spread of education invarious African languages written in the Arabicscript as evidenced in the manuscripts ofTimbuktu in Mali. Scholarship in variouslanguages, which peaked in the twelfth centuryin Mali, was ahead of the Italian Renaissance.Yet, the late nineteenth century Europeanpartition of Africa ‘invisibilized’ (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2000) African educational practices andrecords of this period. European or NorthAmerican models of education, entirely out-of-kilter with the continent, and designed for

Multilingual Education and Literacy:Research from sub-Saharan Africa

Kathleen Heugh


societies in which there was a single dominantlanguage, were superimposed on the diverseAfrican communities. Such ill-fitting models, ofwhich ‘outcomes-based’ or ‘constructivist’curriculum is the most recent, have not only beencostly and have incurred an Africa-wide debt,but they have also underserved students for onehundred and thirty years.Nevertheless, recent African research (in liaisonwith development agencies such as UNESCOand the United Nations DevelopmentProgramme-UNDP) has uncovered extensivedata in language and literacy education, whichmay be useful for theoretical developments ininternational education and applied linguisticswhere these engage with linguistic diversitybeyond Africa.Part of international contemporary wisdom isthat the longer children are in school, the morelikely they are to access mainstream society andthe economy. It is believed that successfulstudents in mainstream state-provided educationare those who succeed in developing high levelliteracy skills in the language(s) of the immediatecommunity, which can later be transferred tohigh level literacy in a language of widercommunication such as English, French, Spanish,Russian, Arabic or Mandarin. While researchin Northern Europe and North America haspointed towards such findings in alternative-to-mainstream programmes (e.g., immersionbilingual, two-way immersion), in neither settinghave data been drawn from system-wide(mainstream) studies.Such data have however been gathered fromstudies conducted in African countries,particularly in South Africa and Ethiopia, as wellas from other multi country studies coveringSub-Saharan Africa (Alidou et al 2006; Heughet al., 2007; Reeves et al., 2008; Ouane & Glanz,2010, 2011). In addition to this, in an exchangeof South-South research, the findings of aparticularly interesting systemic study of

language education in Ethiopia have recentlybeen debated in relation to multilingual educationinitiatives in Latin and North America, India,Nepal, South-East Asia and Burkina Faso.Scholars from these settings have contributedresearch and theory from the ‘peripheries to thecentre(s)’ (Heugh & Skutnabb-Kangas, 2010).The implications of the Ethiopian and otherstudies of this volume point towards:decentralization of education to regional andlocal authorities, local skills development andcommunity involvement in schools, provision ofmultilingual education, and improved rates ofachievement. While this collection of studiesmay surprise stakeholders who are accustomedto looking North or West, it is generatinginternational interest in what we do in the South.

The Ethiopian studyThe Ethiopian study, which is backed with datacollected from urban, rural and pastoral(nomadic) communities, demonstrates that it ispossible even in one of the poorest countries ofthe world, to accommodate low cost linguistic,ethnic and faith-based diversity across an entireeducation system, and within a ten yeartimeframe (Heugh et al., 2007). The Ethiopian(federal) Ministry of Education adopted a neweducation policy in 1994, which included eightyears of mother tongue education (MTE) alongwith the teaching of Amharic as a nationalsecond language, for all students whose mothertongue was not Amharic (this covered two-thirdsof school students). In addition to this, the policyincluded the teaching of English as a ForeignLanguage from grade one, with a transition toEnglish as a medium of instruction for secondaryeducation (by grade nine). Like Afrikaans inSouth Africa, Amharic was used as a languageof privileged political power and control in pre-1990 Ethiopia. Since Ethiopia had notsuccumbed to colonial rule, English had a limitedrole prior to this point. Political and educationalchanges in Ethiopia occurred along a similar


timeline to those in South Africa during the1990s, with interesting comparisons over the lasttwo decades. By 2010, MTE had beenimplemented for at least six years of primaryeducation in eight out of eleven Ethiopianregions, and for eight years in four out of these(accompanied by language development in 32languages). The uptake of this policy in anenvironment where only Amharic, Afan Oromo,and a little English had been used as languagesof education prior to this point is phenomenal,given the minimal resources at the disposal ofthe federal and regional governments.During the data collection phase of the study onthe medium of instruction in Ethiopian primaryschools in 2006, what was particularly strikingfor the researchers was the availability and dailyuse of locally produced textbooks and learningmaterials in languages of the local community.What was even more remarkable was that, incontrast with the results of the field researchconducted in the schools in South Africa, thesebooks were used in class and taken home forhomework tasks on a daily basis. In SouthAfrica, where commercial publishers produceexpensive school textbooks, these are usuallylocked away in cupboards, seldom given in thehands of students, and rarely allowed home(Reeves et al., 2008). While there have beenconsiderable challenges within the Ethiopianeducation system, and it has serious flaws andrisks, including a recent change in publishingpolicy, South Africa has a great deal to learnabout effective education reform from thisresource-poor country. So do other countriesfrom the South and North, where youth whoselanguages and cultures receive lessacknowledgement either exit schoolprematurely, or face social alienation.The Ethiopian case offers a microcosm of eachof the language education models currentlyimplemented across Africa and in other diversesettings. While there is a single federal languageeducation policy, the regions have implemented

it to different degrees. Systemic assessment ingrade four and grade eight in the years 2000,2004 and 2008 have provided the largestmultilingual education datasets, across theworld. These datasets illustrate the relationbetween the medium of instruction and studentachievement across each of the languageeducation models (zero MTE; 4 years of MTE;6 years of MTE; a mix of 6 and 8 years ofMTE—certain subjects in MT/MT for 6 yearsand another language for 8 years; and 8 yearsof MTE). The findings are historically andchronologically important.Firstly, the data show that students with eightyears of MTE outperform those with fewer thaneight years of MTE. Students with a mix of sixto eight years of MTE outperform those withsix years of MTE, and students with six yearsof MTE outperform those with four years ofMTE. This data correlates with the earlier dataon African studies which indicates that studentsdemonstrate higher levels of achievement withsix years of MTE under ideal (well-resourced,experimental) conditions (Bamgbose, 2000), andwith eight years of less well-resourcedconditions (Alidou et al., 2006; Ouane & Glanz,2010).Secondly, the data suggest that students wholearn three languages in the school system(including at least two scripts/orthographicsystems) have higher levels of academicachievement than those who learn only twolanguages.Thirdly, students’ achievement in sciencedeclines sharply with fewer than eight years ofMTE.Fourthly, students who have at least six yearsof MTE before they switch to English medium,do best in mathematics.Fifthly, where there is a higher concentration ofrural and small urban centres, students exhibithigher levels of achievement than students inthe more urbanized contexts. These findings


correlate with higher community participationin schools and education in the rural and smalltowns. Despite frequent misconceptions aboutthe low levels of involvement and interest ofnomadic communities in education, the Ethiopianstudy revealed that even in pastoral societies,communities hold strong and informed views oneducation and the role of languages in education.There is yet another critical phenomenon inrelation to the data emerging from the Ethiopianstudy. While the MT/home language policy wasimplemented and given strong federalgovernment backing between 1994 and 2002, achange in the education minister wasaccompanied by a change in focus towards agreater prioritization of English throughout theeducation system from 2003. A new set of planswas put in place to increase the role of Englishwhich emphasized the teaching of English inprimary schools. By 2004, an English languageconsultant from the United Kingdom wasbrought in to develop an in-service teachereducation programme to improve teachers’proficiency in English. This diverted 42 per centof the teacher education budget towards acascade model English language improvementfrom 2005, involving one hundred and twentyhours of intensive contact time for Englishlanguage tuition and eighty hours of distanceeducation. Within two years all primary schoolteachers in the country had participated in thisprogramme. The data collected in 2006 eliciteddisturbing information about this programme andits efficacy. The report (Heugh et al., 2007) andthe volume (Heugh & Skutnabb-Kangas, 2010),reveal the impact and ‘washback effect’ ofgreater prioritization of English on theachievement of students in the system at thetime. Despite the enormous cost of providingin-service teacher education in English acrossthe system, student achievement in the 2000 and2004 assessments showed significant declinesubsequent to the focus on English in the 2008systemic assessment, particularly in mathematics

and science. This has occurred subsequent tothe roll-out of the English language improvementprogramme across several regions, and a switchto English medium, especially in mathematicsand science (see Coleman, 2011 for critiques ofover-dependency on English in developingcountries.)

Lessons from the Ethiopian studyThe Ethiopian case offers internationaleducational theory not only large datasets whichvalidate contemporary theory of bi/multilingualeducation, but also four valuable lessons.• The first lesson is that it is possible, even

with minimal expenditure, to develop, andimplement multilingual education inresource-poor countries.

• The second lesson is that high costintervention provided by experts from othercountries (in this instance, a cascade modelfor English language improvement) does notalways show positive returns on investment.In fact, in this case, the evidence points tolower levels of student achievement.

• The third lesson contributes to new theorythat students who learn three languageshave higher levels of academic achievementthan those who learn two languages,particularly in mathematics and science.

• The fourth lesson indicates that studentswith longer MTE followed by a transitionto English have higher achievement levels,particularly in mathematics and science.

The last two points counter earlier unsupportedclaims that the learning of more than onelanguage detracts from students’ potentialachievement in mathematics and science.Finally, Alamin Mazrui (2002) recommends thatin order to transform the education system inAfrica, more attention ought to be directedtowards what can be learned from within thecontinent and from South-South exchanges ofexpertise, rather than looking towards models


outside Africa. In fact, a lot can be learned fromEthiopia, and from a thorough investigation ofeducation on the African continent throughdifferent historical periods dating as far back asancient Egypt. Similarly, exchange of researchexperience between South Asia and Africawould also offer insights to European, NorthAmerican and Australasian investigations onhow best to include linguistic and cultural diversityin the curricula of Northern systems ofeducation, both in respect of indigenous andmigrant minority education.

ReferencesAgnihotri, R. K. (2007). Towards a pedagogicalparadigm rooted in multilinguality. InternationalJournal of Multilingual Research, 1(2), 79-88.Alidou, H., Boly, A., Brock-Utne, B., Diallo, Y. S.,Heugh, K. & Wolff, H. E. (2006). Optimizing learningand education in Africa - the language factor: Astock-taking research on mother tongue and bilingualeducation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Working Papers.Retrieved from http://www.adeanet.org/adeaPortal/adea/biennia l -2006/doc/document /B3_1_MTBLE_en.pdfBamgbose, A. (2000). Language and exclusion.Hamburg: Lit Verlag.Blackledge, A. & Creese, A. (2010).Multilingualism: A critical perspective. London &NewYork: Continuum.Coleman, H. (Ed.) (2011). Dreams and realities:Developing countries and the English language.London: British Council.García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21stcentury: A global perspective. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Heugh, K. & Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2010).Multilingual education works: From the peripheryto the centre. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan.Heugh, K., Benson, C., Bogale, B. & Yohannes, M.A. G. (2007). Study on medium of instruction inprimary schools in Ethiopia: Final report. Retrievedfrom http://www.hsrc.ac.za/research/output/outputDocuments/4379_Heugh_Studyonmediumofinstruction.pdf.

Heller. M. (Ed.) (2008). Bilingualism: A socialapproach. Basingstoke: Palgrave.Mazrui, A. M. (2002). The English language in Africaneducation: Dependency and decolonization. In J. W.Tollefson (Ed.), Language policies in education:Critical issues (pp. 267-282). Mahwah, NJ: LawrenceErlbaum.Mohanty, A., Panda, M., Phillipson, R. & Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (Eds.). (2009). Multilingual educationfor social justice: Globalizing the local. New Delhi:Orient Blackswan.Ouane, A. & Glanz, C. (2010). Why and how Africashould invest in African languages and multilingualeducation: An evidence- and practice-based policyand advocacy brief. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved fromhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/53342036/Why-and-How-Africa-Should-Invest-in-African-Languages-and-Multilingual-Education-9789282011713Ouane, A. & Glanz, C. (Eds.) (2011). Optimisinglearning, education and publishing in Africa: Thelanguage factor. A review and analysis of theory andpractice in mother-tongue and bilingual educationin Sub-Saharan Africa. Hamburg and TunisBelvédère: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning(UIL) and the Association for the Development ofEducation in Africa (ADEA)/African DevelopmentBank. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002126/212602e.pdfReeves, C., Heugh, K., Prinsloo, C.H., Macdonald,C., Netshitangani, T., Alidou, H., Diedericks, G. &Herbst, D. (2008). Evaluation of literacy teaching inprimary schools of Limpopo province. HumanSciences Research Council (HSRC), Education,Science and Skills Development (ESSD) andDepartment of Language Education, University ofLimpopo. Retrieved from http://www.hsrc.ac.za/research/output/outputDocuments /5715_Reeves_Evaluationo fliteracy.pdfSkutnabb-Kangas, T. (2000). Linguistic genocide ineducation: Or worldwide diversity and humanrights? Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kathleen Heugh works at the Research Centre forLanguages and Cultures, University of SouthAustralia and is interested in multilingual educationresearch and policy [email protected]


I was assigned the task of teaching grade threechildren in a government school. Most of thechildren were from lower middle classbackground, and were first generation learners.While the mother tongue of these children wasChhattisgarhi, some of them could speak andunderstand Hindi (a few common words andsentences in kamchalau Hindi, not textbookHindi). I did not know a single word ofChhattisgarhi. I present below a brief accountof some of my initial interventions in the teachingof Hindi to these children.One day, I decided to tell the children a story aswe were not able to make much headway withreading the textbook. When I asked the childrenif they would like to hear a story, all of themshowed a keen interest and enthusiasm. Iprepared a story, and the next day I begannarrating it to the children. But within a fewminutes (I was not able to finish even one-fourthof the story), I realized that the engagement andinterest level in the story had dipped significantly;as many as 80 per cent of the children were notlistening and were engaged in some other work(copying something from a book, playing with abottle or a pen, talking, etc.) I told them to stopwhatever they were doing, and then asked themwhy they were not listening. I did not get anyanswer. Just to check, I asked a few questions,(kahani mein kaun kaun hai?; ped kahanhai?). Once again, I did not receive an answer.Some more questions later, I realized that mostof the children had not been able to comprehendthe story. Their enthusiasm and interest had

vanished as they were not able to understandsome of the key words in the story, and weretherefore neither able to make sense of the storynor make any connections. It was thereforenatural that they had lost interest.I asked a few of them—who seemed tounderstand—to translate the story in their ownlanguage for the others. They were surprised.They could not believe that a teacher was askingthem to translate the story in their language.Some of the children looked at me in confusion,others were feeling shy to come forward, somewere smiling at me, and some may even havebeen thinking what a stupid task I was assigningthem.I then requested a grade five child to translatethe story for the class. He asked me if I reallywanted him to translate it. He reconfirmed thriceto reassure himself, and then with a shy smileon his face, he started translating.There was pin-drop silence in the class.Everyone was listening with rapt attention. Afterthe story was over, I asked the children somequestions, and they were able to answer them.I was quite satisfied. The class did not end thatday, in fact the real classroom transaction startedfrom that day; a lot of children gradually startedtalking to me in the language(s) they knew.At times, when I was not able to understandwhat they were trying to say, they tried tocommunicate with the help of gestures, or bymaking pictures, or by asking another child whothey felt could help. The reverse was alsohappening; they unhesitatingly started asking me

In a Multilingual ClassRajni Dwivedi


to re-explain things if they did not understandwhat I was trying to say.They also started sharing their fights, jokes,songs, experiences of home, functions, field, andthe work that they did, in the class. The childrennot only started speaking up, but they also startedtaking part in the class activities. I also noticeda change in the behaviour of the children whowere initially not listening to me; gradually theystarted helping me. They started participatingin group activities and helping other children, andstopped going out from the classroom wheneverthey wanted to.The entire interaction became very meaningfulfor all of us. We were all learning from eachother, not just about the words of each other’slanguage and the way the verbs, plurals, etc.,worked, but also about how we did differentthings, how we said things, and how we relatedto things. In short, we learnt a little bit abouteach other’s culture. The conversations broughtout the diversity in how people address eachother, how they celebrate festivals, what kindof work their families are involved in, how it isdone, what it requires, etc. There wereconversations around each of them, and therecognition that each of them was worthwhileand contributed in a meaningful manner. We alsotalked about different languages, identity issues,dignity of the individual and culture and itsrelationship to language.This experience of a multilingual class gave mean insight into a lot of important issues relatedto language and communication. I couldappreciate what it took to break through theboundaries of ‘a language’; although languageby itself was not the only tool, but it certainlyplayed a crucial role as it was not only connectedto aforesaid values, but also with meaning-making, thinking, sharing, and communicatingideas.The whole experience made me very reflectiveabout what may have happened in the earlier

classes that I had taught. Had the children beenengaged at all, and had they comprehendedanything? Why had the children been so hesitantto use their mother tongue? It also made methink about the kind of changes I should makein the way I facilitated the classroom, and whatI could learn from the children. I also realizedthat given the opportunity, the children could putin a lot more effort to understand what was goingon, and also follow the teacher and the learningroute proposed by her/him. More importantly,they could make the teacher understand whatthey wanted to convey and thus ensure that theclassroom transactions become more meaningful.Finally, I realized what the term ‘engagement’implies, and how an unfamiliar language couldhamper children’s contribution in the class; whilethe use of their own language could increasetheir participation. Giving a voice to all thelanguages of children in the class could be areally challenging task as it involves a lot of efforton the part of the teacher, but the gains areimmense and more than worthy of the effort.

Rajni Dwivedi works at the Vidya Bhawan EducationResource Centre, Udaipur. Her primary interest is inmaking innovative interventions at the elementaryschool level in the area of language.

[email protected]


IntroductionResearch into the role of using learners’ firstlanguage (L1) in a foreign language (FL)classroom has been a subject of much debate.On the one hand, there are researchers such asProdromou (2000), who claim that a learner’smother tongue is a ‘skeleton in the closet’; onthe other hand, there are others such asGabrielatos (2001), who find L1 to be a ‘boneof contention’ in the second language (L2) orFL learning. But in a country such as India,which has an unavoidably multilingual andmulticultural societal set-up, use of the learners’L1 in an FL classroom can help the teacherpreserve learner identity, and simultaneouslypromote language learning. This is especiallyrelevant given the strong support in favour ofmultilingualism by several researchers (Jessner,2008; Agnihotri, 2009) in the last decade, andthe emphasis on using learners’ L1 in L2 andFL classrooms in the national educationaldocuments such as the National CurriculumFramework 2005 and its Position Papers onlanguage (NCERT). Hence, althoughmultilingualism has been accepted as anadvantage, it is not yet a part of common FLteaching practice in India.At the university level, most students often learnforeign languages as their third (L3) or fourthlanguage (L4). It has been proven that effectivelearning entails proceeding from familiar to newitems. Hence, FL teachers could utilize thestudents’ knowledge of their L1 to familiarize

them with the linguistic or extra linguistic featuresof the FL. But not many teachers are convincedabout this, therefore the L1 awareness oflearners remains unused or underused.In the light of the above discussion, this paperreports the findings of a study which aimed atimproving the writing skills of French (as a FL)language learners by using their L1systematically and judiciously.

Use of L1 in the FL classroomProponents of exclusive use of the targetlanguage (TL) (Ellis, 1986; Krashen, 1981) inFL classroom consider learners’ L1 as a sourceof interference in FL acquisition. But as rightlypointed out by Macaro (2005), till date no studyhas been able to prove conclusively thatexclusive use of TL leads to improved learning.On the contrary, there are studies and theorieswhich confirm that L1 can be used as aneffective pedagogical tool in the FL classroom.The proponents of multilingual theory claim thata multilingual class is expected to promote notonly healthy interaction, but also greatertolerance of unfamiliar cultures and languages.In addition, multicompetence (Cook, 1991) hasbeen proved as a facilitator of cognitive flexibility(Agnihotri, 2007) and positive transfer ofcompetence among languages (Kecskes, 1999).Since multilingualism is a widespread reality inthe Indian linguistic map, use of the learners’L1 in an FL classroom can be no less than aboon, as their previous experiences as languagelearners can be utilized in the target languageclassroom.

Role of L1 in Foreign LanguageLearning Classrooms: A Case Study of

Learners of French

Shambhavi Singh


Cook (2005), talks about two languages in thesame mind, and emphasizes the systematic anddeliberate use of L1 to promote L2 learningthrough incorporation of methods which allowthe use of both languages. Similarly, Butzkamm(2003), asserts that selective use of L1 helps inmaintaining a relaxed atmosphere, and reducingaffective filters such as stress and frustration.The present study is also grounded in thesociocultural theory which postulates that L1works as a mediating tool, enabling learners tohave access to things which they cannot achievethrough exclusive TL use in a collaborative task(de la Colina & Garcia Mayo, 2009). Therefore,when a task is challenging and complex in thetarget language, learners turn to their L1 toperform the tasks (Swain & Lapkin, 2005).

Hypothesis and research questionsThis study is based on the assumption thattactical use of learners’ L1 awareness facilitatessuccessful learning of writing skills in French.It attempts to answer the following questions:• Can learners’ L1 awareness be used to

develop their writing skills in French?• How effective is the above approach?

MethodologyParticipants: A case study approach wasfollowed for developing the design of the study.The sample for the study consists of ahomogeneous group of six learners pursuing aBachelor’s degree in French (II year) at EFLUniversity, Hyderabad. They belonged to theage group 19-22 years, and shared the sameL1—Hindi. These learners studied English asL2, and were studying French as L3.Tools for data collection:• Classroom observation schedule• Pre- and post- tests• Semi-structured interview schedule.

Procedure for data collection: Data collectionbegan with the observation of five classes inFrench writing. These were followed by pre-tests in Hindi and French, and then by anintervention and a post-test in French writingskills. A detailed descriptive account of learners’responses to the intervention was maintained.Finally, the learners were asked to share theirexperiences of the intervention in a groupinterview.

Results and discussionClassroom observation: The researcherobserved that the teacher used Hindi fortranslating new words and expressions, andlearners used it for answering questions andparticipating in group work. Furthermore, themain focus of the writing course was not onlyteaching writing skills, but also improving thecomprehension of written texts. Learners wereallowed to use their L1. The class followed afree writing approach rather than a guided one.Pre-tests in Hindi and French: Pre-tests bothin Hindi and French were administered in orderto determine the ability of the learners toperform writing tasks in L1 and L3. The CEFR(Common European Framework of Reference)B1 level assessment grid for writing was usedto score the answer scripts. To maintainobjectivity, the scripts were evaluated by theresearcher as well as a French teacher.For the pre-test in Hindi, questions were takenfrom a CBSE intermediate board examination,and the scripts were assessed by the researcheras well as a Hindi teacher using a CEFR B1level writing assessment grid. Due to spaceconstraint, the citations from the participant’sscripts could not be included in this paper.By minutely analyzing the Hindi pre-test scripts,it was ascertained that the learners did not faceany problems in writing an essay; the averagescore was around 85 per cent. However,


analysis of the French essay revealed that thelearners faced difficulties not only in followingthe morphosyntactic and grammatical rules, butalso in structuring and organizing the essay.Hence, this study focuses only on the structure,organization and revision of writing for abeginner level, as suggested by Brown &Abeywickrama (2010).Intervention: During the five day intervention,a process-genre approach was used to teachwriting as it is considered as the golden meanof three approaches, namely process, productand genre. The content of the intervention andthe type of tasks used were based on theanalyses of the pre-test and classroomobservations, and the socio-cultural backgroundof the learners.The objective of the intervention was to use L1to teach writing skills in French as a FL,wherever necessary. The use of L1 during theintervention was not pre-determined as there isno theory or research that touches upon aboutthe exact situations for using L1. However, thelearners’ pre-test scripts gave an indication ofwhere they needed help.In this study, the learners’ L1 awareness wasused during the intervention for:• Structuring and organizing the essay• Brainstorming• Learning connectors• Revision• Giving instructions.

Comparative analysis of the pre- and post-tests in FrenchAfter the intervention, a post-test was conductedin French, and analyzed to measure the impactof the intervention. This analysis was done intwo stages:• Stage 1: A comparative intra-paragraph

analysis of the students’ writings was done

to determine whether each paragraphconsisted of a main idea and supportingdetails; and that ideas were linked.

• Stage 2: A comparative inter-paragraphanalysis of the students’ writings was doneto determine whether there was anintroductory paragraph, a main body and aconclusion; and that paragraphs were linked.

The regression in the performance of A6 canbe attributed to physical or psychological factorssuch as fatigue, anxiety, illness, etc. (Brown &Abeywickrama, 2010).

ConclusionThe findings of the study confirm that L1 is aneffective pedagogical tool that can beconsciously exploited by making explicitreferences to the learners’ L1 knowledge, inorder to accelerate the learning process in anFL classroom. Also, the interview with thelearners confirmed that their language of thoughtis Hindi (L1), and that it facilitates theunderstanding of new things. Similarly, L1awareness should also be used to reduce thecognitive burden, which in turn may give rise toa high affective filter. In other words, it is aconstructive way of making the most of whatFL learners already know in terms of ideas,concepts, and linguistic and extra linguisticknowledge. Utilization of L1 may lead to


successful learning as it enables us “to learn anew language without at the same time returningto infancy and learning to categorize the worldall over again” (Butzkamm & Caldwell, 2009,p.72).Future studies can perhaps focus on the use ofL1 in relation to different aspects of writing indetail. Also, studies may be taken up withexperimental and controlled groups so that thefindings can be generalized for a largerpopulation.

ReferencesAgnihotri, R. K. (2007a). Identity and multilinguality:The case of India. In A. B. M. Tsui & J.W. Tollefson(Eds.), Language policy, culture, and identity inAsian contexts (pp. 185-204). Mahwah, NJ: LawrenceErlbaum Associates.

Agnihotri, R. K. (2007b). Pedagogical paradigmrooted in multilinguality. InternationalMultilingual Research Journal, 1(2), 79-88.Agnihotri, R. K. (2009). Multilinguality and a newworld order. In A. K. Mohanty, M. Panda, R.Phillipson & T. Skutnabb-Kangas (Eds.),Multilingual education for social justice:Globalizing the local (pp. 268-277). New Delhi: OrientBlackswan.

Alegria de la Colina, A., & Del Pilar Garcia Mayo, M.(2009). Oral interaction in task-based EFL learning:The use of the L1 as a cognitive tool. IRAL, 47(3/4),325- 345.

Brown, H. D. & Abeywickrama, P. (2010). LanguageAssessment: Principles and classroom practices(2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.

Butzkamm, W. (2003). We only learn language once.The role of the mother tongue in FL classrooms:Death of a dogma. Language Learning Journal,28(1), 29–39.

Butzkamm, W. & Caldwell, J. (2009). The bilingualreform: A paradigm shift in foreign languageteaching. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.Cook, V.J. (1991a). The poverty-of-the-stimulusargument and multi-competence. SecondLanguage Research, 7(2), 103-117.

Cook, V.J. (1991b). The development of multi-competence. Proceedings of the 5th Symposium onthe Description and/or Comparison of English andGreek, Thessaloniki, March 27-29, 394-404.Cook, V. (2005). Basing teaching on the L2 user. In E.Llurda (Ed.), Non-native language teachers:Perceptions, challenges and contributions to theprofession (pp. 47–61). New York: Springer.Ellis, R. (1986). Understanding second languageacquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Gabrielatos, C. (2001). L1 use in ELT: Not a skeletonbut a bone of contention. A response to Prodromou.Bridges, 6, 33-35.Jessner, U. (2008). A DST model of multilingualismand the role of metalinguistic awareness. The ModernLanguage Journal, 92, 270-283.Kecskes, I. (1999). Situation-bound utterances froman interlanguage perspective. In J. Verschueren (Ed.),Pragmatics in 1998, Selected papers from the 6th

International Pragmatics Conference Vol. 2 (pp. 299-310). Antwerp: International Pragmatics Association.Krashen, S. (1981). Second language acquisitionand second language learning. New York:Pergamon.Macaro, E. (2005). Codeswitching in the L2 classroom:A communication and learning strategy. In E. Llurda(Ed.), Non-Native language teachers: Perceptions,challenges and contributions to the profession (pp.63–84). New York: Springer.Prodromou, L. (2000). Using the L1 in the classroom:From mother tongue to other tongue. TESOL GreeceNewsletter, 67, 7-12.Swain, M. & Lapkin, S. (2005). The evolvingsociopolitical context of immersion education inCanada: Some implications for program development.International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 15(2),169-186.

Shambhavi Singh is an M. Phil. (French) student atthe English and Foreign Languages University,[email protected]


IntroductionThis article reflects on the process1 of producinga class one primer for the Saora children, andits subsequent field trial. The socio-culturalcontext of the child is seen as the foundation oflearning. In the primer, Saora folklore was usedas the content, and Saora language as themedium of learning, thus ensuring an inbuiltcontext drawn from the children’s environment.Our work showed that it was possible for a childto learn two or more languages at the same timeif her own language is actively used in thelearning process; it also seemed possible toengage children in analytical activities whichenhance their logical and cognitive abilities.

Schools in the Saora context: Issues andchallengesSaora is a scheduled tribe from the Gajapatidistrict of Odisha, India. The tribal populationconstitutes 50 per cent of the total population ofGajapati. They speak Saora, a languagebelonging to the southern Mundari languagegroup. Out of 895 villages with schools, in 440villages Saora speaking children constitute over90 per cent of the population. While 332 schoolshave 90-99 per cent Saora speakers, the rest ofthe 118 villages are completely (100 per cent)inhabited by the Saoras. Children in thesevillages have little exposure to Oriya, the schoollanguage.Therefore, teaching and learningbecome a major challenge in these villages sincethere is a wide gap between the language ofthe teachers, the children and that of thetextbooks.

For this project, about 30 schools were takenup on pilot basis where there were only Saorachildren. Teachers from the Saora communitywere identified and trained to write bilingualprimers. Community tales and songs werecollected from the Saora villages. The Saorateachers, along with resource persons2,conducted workshops on preparation of bilingualprimers in Saora and Oriya.The primer for class one was culturallyidentifiable by the children and teachers. Thebook was entitled Erai Erai (Come Come), sinceit opened with a Saora poem that meant ‘Comecome children, let’s play’. This book took shapein a workshop (see endnote ‘1’) that focusedon the preparation of materials which recognizedthe linguistic potential of children and valued theircultural practices as a resource. The primercomprised 34 lessons that were based on culturalthemes provided by Saora resource persons.These included home, garden, village, mountain,fruits, folktales about birds and animals,cultivation, hunting, market, and many morethemes that represented the experientialknowledge of the Saora children andcommunity.The experience was a departure from theconservative pedagogical texts and practices.It was a space where the content and process,context and language were from the Saoracommunity. A new discourse of indigenousknowledge had been created for the Saorachildren. The thirty-four lessons of Erai Erai,

Language and Culture: About aSaora Class One Primer

Mahendra Kumar Mishra


composed and illustrated in collaboration withthe Saora teachers, perhaps for the first timeprivileged the linguistic and cultural practices ofthe children in the formal domain of school. Thisacknowledged the existence of the historicallydenied language and content of Saoraknowledge system by the dominant school andsocial system. For the Saora teachers andchildren, it was indeed a new dawn.

The field testing of Erai Erai took place overseven days across twenty-four pilot schools inthe Nuagada block. The textbook writersdemonstrated all thirty-four lessons in theseschools and gathered the responses of thechildren.I went to the village of Titising to observe thefield testing. Philip Mandala, the Saora teachernarrated the tale to the children, and the childrengrasped the tale in one go. Next, he showed thechildren pictures depicting the story and askedthem some questions based on the story. Thechildren exhibited very diverse reactions to thepictures. The pictures of the story were speakingmuch more than the written text.

Children’s construction of texts out of textThe Saora children reacted enthusiastically tothe text, and there was a distinct sense ofownership. They provided refreshingperceptions of the tale and the pictures. Theyeven formed new tales out of the picture, which,until now, had been inconceivable for a teacher.A child looked at the picture of the text bookand said, “That tree in which the birds hang abouthas a hollow. A snake lives there. When thebirds are away, the snake will go to the nest andeat the eggs.” (Of course this was text was notfrom the textbook.)I noted that the children knew about snakeseating eggs from the nests of birds, and did not

Using local mythsOut of the thirty-four lessons, an aetiologicalmyth, kadan da kaka (the Heron and the Crow)was used in one of the lessons of the primer.This Saora tale tries to explain how the heronand the crow were born. I have attempted toreproduce the classroom transaction of this tale,as observed by me during the field testing ofthe class one primer.

The tale is as followsSaora 3 English Oriya

Aboi aaniblin baagu anti daakunlinji

In a tree, two birds were living. Gotie gachhare duiti chadhei rahuthile.

Badina aaninji rudilinji One day they had a quarrel. Dine semane kali kale.Arudilinji aasele jaitaa galuliji

As they quarrelled, they fell down.

Kali kari semane tale padigale.

Aboi dukriboi daakuli There was an old woman. Jane budhi thila.Anin bindiaan bindiaanlin kumaabaan aaboi mungbaa daakuitin.

After she had finished cooking, she stored the ash in one place.

Se randhi sari,paunsaku gote jagare rakhila.

Aasaajan baraan aaboi mungbaa daakuitin

She stored the charcoal in another place.

Angara ku au gotie jagare rakhila.

Aayinte aawamti kumablingan lagtule, ani paludun deyle.

One of the birds fell into the ash and became a heron.

Gotie chadhei paunsa upare padila o baga hela.

Butinte aashaajan asailingan laagtulli aani yegaadun deyle.

The other bird fell into the charcoal and became a crow.

Anya chadhei ti angara upare padila au kau hela.


hesitate to talk about it if an appropriate contextwas provided. However, what was particularlystriking was that the high levels of silence thatone usually associated with formal schooling inthe early classes was completely absent.Another child looked at the picture andremarked, “The hut is under the tree, andbecause the hearth is outside the hut, the hutwill catch fire.”The teacher asked, “Why will that happen?”The child replied, “The old woman will cook foodand go for her bath to a brook nearby. Whileshe is away, the hut will catch fire. The womanwill have no house when she comes back fromher bath.”These two creative events narrated by the Saorachildren were clearly experiential, and had beenderived from their cultural context. The snakeeating the eggs of the birds, or huts getting burntin fires, are events which originated in theimagination of the Saora children looking at thesituation in the picture. Their priority, afterlooking at the picture, was not the text that theteacher had narrated, but a recollection fromtheir memory. This in turn helped the teacherconstruct new knowledge from their past events.The teacher (Philip Mandal), puzzled by theresponses of the children, was not ready toaccept the new narratives of the children.However, on being prompted that children learnfrom the known to the unknown, and the factthat they were right when they spoke about thebird, the tree and the fire, he got an insight intothe fact that children had the ability to createnew texts from a given text. Philip’s eyes werebright with a sense of wonder and he confessed,“I thought that children got distracted from themain text.’’Therefore, allowed to construct from theirknowledge, children could create a text withina text. Their language of thought helped themdiscover their own experience, based on whichthey constructed new knowledge of their own.

In this case, they connected their previousexperience with the pictures given in the book.Needless to say, the whole class participatedanimatedly in the discussion between the teacherand children conducted in Saora as the childrendid not feel oppressed by a language they didnot know. The primacy of using languages thatchildren were familiar with was firmlyestablished.

Teachers’ language pedagogyIn the workshop, there were several sessions inwhich participants focused on the analysis ofthe patterns that had evolved from related wordsand sentences. The bilingual words and thegrammatical patterns that were deconstructedfrom the text were easily accessible to the schoolteachers and children; even the non-Saorateachers were able to handle them.Some words from the tale: From Saora toEnglishaboi - one, bagu - two, anin - she/he, anib -tree, badina - one day, aninji ( plural), dukri -old woman, bandin - oven, kuma - ash, assaj -charcoal, dakuitin - stored.Once the grammatical markers were broughtto the notice of the children, they were able tograsp them easily. Some grammatical patternslearnt from the text:1. ‘ji’ is used as plural after the verb in past

tense.Rudilin + ji = Kali + kale (quarrelled)Dakulin + ji = rahu + thile (living) (in thecase of singular it is dakulin , for plural it isdakulinji)Galu + li + ji = padi + gale (fell down,plural) galuli (singular)

Once they had learnt the principle of using ‘ji’in Saora for past tense, the Saora childrenlearned the Oriya verbs very easily by followingthe Saora verbs for past tense. They inferredthat the equivalent of ‘ji’ in Saora is ‘le’ in Oriya.


The verbs were hence transferredspontaneously from Saora to Oriya in the mindof the child. They understood that ‘ji’ was usedin the plural form and it corresponds to objects.

2. Similarly, another principle of grammar wasexplored by the children. They understoodthat the Saora suffix ‘aan’ became ‘ku’ inOriya, and that ‘lingan’ meant ‘re’ in Oriya,and that it corresponds to location in space.Kumab + aan = paunsha + ku (to ash)Assaj+ aan = angara + ku (to charcoal)Kumaab + lingan = pausnha + re (on theash)Assaj+ lingan = (angara + re) on thecharcoal

The grammatical principles were compared withthe Oriya sentences in the given Saora tale. TheSaora children had the content and the languageto learn a new language through a few words,i.e., association of words and objects in bothlanguages. Thus, the text, context and texturewere analysed to unfold new processes oflearning.Once this lesson was taught:• Children could read Saora words that were

known to them;

• They could understand the different formsof related words from their language;

• They could understand the Oriya words inthe picture, and also learnt their spoken andwritten forms;

• They were able to read, comprehend, andwrite a few words in both languages;

• They were able to explore the principles ofgrammar in both languages and arrive atthe conclusion that a language is governedby rules. They also recognized that Saorawas in no way inferior to Oriya;

• The teachers participated actively in thepreparation of the material.

Enam Gomanga, an experienced Saora teacherdrew a picture of a bird eating an apple. Thispicture was shown to a child. The childrecognized the bird, but the fruit was not familiarto her. The child uttered the word Antidan(bird), and then stopped. I asked Enam to changethe picture and draw a mango instead of anapple. Now the new picture was shown to thechild. Under the picture, there was a sentence.We wanted to see how a child was able to readout a text just by looking at a picture. The ideawas to help the child to develop confidence inpicture-reading, which could subsequentlybecome guessed picture-sentence reading in anyother language.

Situation I: Non-contextualAntidan jaan jumte.The bird is eating the fruit.

Situation 2: ContextualAntidan uda jaan jumte.The bird is eating mango fruit.


In situation I, the text was presented to the childand she was expected to read the sentence.In situation II, the child framed a new sentenceusing the word uda (mango), which althoughnot given in the text, was read confidently bythe child. This was not word reading, but picturereading with understanding.These pictures were not created by teachers,but by artists who were not familiar with thechildren’s visual culture. In Saora villages,people are familiar with mangoes but not withapples.

ObservationsWhen the Saora villagers and parents visitedthe school, to their surprise they heard theteachers narrating stories in their spokenlanguage. They could not believe that theirlanguage could be taught in school. For the partof the children, since they could easily graspwhat was being taught, they did not remainabsent from school. The classroom becameculturally responsive, and the teachers werehappy to see that each and every child wasparticipating in the class.The Saora children were talking to the Saorateachers in the classroom; they were askingquestions, giving answers, taking part indiscussions and thinking about the text from ametacognitive point of view. They were exploringtheir own experiences individually as well as insmall groups, focusing on the events in the story.It was possible for them to articulate their reallife experiences as well as their imagined talesand fantasies.When a tale is written down and made into atext for the children, it is accepted as a part ofrecognized curricular text. This reminds us aboutthe power equation between oral and writtentexts in our society. The whole process providesan agency to the teacher which is completelyabsent from the superposed normativetextbooks. For the children, the teachers andthe parents, there was clearly an assertion ofself-identity in this whole process.

ConclusionRespecting diversity means accepting thehealthy democracy in a society where co-existence of man, animal and environment ismaintained. The globe is sustained throughcultural diversities. Perhaps the mostconstructive way of engaging children inlanguage and knowledge construction is to giveplace to their linguistic and cultural practices inthe class.

1 I have been interested in the cultural and linguisticpractices of various tribal communities of Odisha,India. A series of workshops were held during thelate 1990s by several educationists, sociolinguistsand psychologists including Prof Rama KantAgnihotri and Dr Minati Panda. I was deeplyinfluenced by the work and perspectives of ProfAgnihotri and Dr Panda, which encouraged me tofocus on the potential of the child and his/hercultural and linguistic repertoire. It also becameclear to me that the most meaningful materials forchildren must be in their own language, andfolklore could best be produced in collaborationwith the teachers who were going to teach thosebooks. It was against this background that aworkshop was held in Gumma, near Parlakhemundiin Odisha.2 Prof Rama Kant Agnihotri tried to analyseSaora grammar in Guma Block. Prof Agnihotriparticipated in 5 workshops in Odisha during 1998-1999.3 The story teller was Sri Ghasi Sabar, a teacherand a cultural resource person from Rayagadadistrict,engaged in writing the Saora primer.

Mahendra Kumar Mishra is a folklorist and aNational Consultant on Multilingual Education. Heis working as the State Head, Programme andResearch Team, Education, ICICI Foundation forInclusive Growth, Chhattishgarh, India.

[email protected]


Introduction and backgroundIt becomes indeed a pleasant experience for thelearners of a foreign language to be in anatmosphere where the culture of the targetlanguage is present, or has been incorporated inthe teaching. This article attempts to demonstratethe significance and function of culturalelements/artifacts in teaching a foreignlanguage. It is an account of a promising practicewhere the cultural associations of the targetlanguage have been attached to languagelearning. It is an academic reflection, andrecounts the experiences of a teacher whoteaches Gujarati as a foreign language at anAmerican university1. The article gives a detaileddescription of an active classroom whereGujarati vocabulary is taught by integratingcultural elements/artifacts. In the classroom,culture is the main focus of curriculum, henceinfluencing the content and image of the teachingmaterial. For the purposes of this paper, Gujaratiwill be the target language for those whosenative language is English. The goal of the articleis to demonstrate to foreign language teachershow they can incorporate the teaching of culturalelements/artifacts into their foreign languageclassrooms.

Vocabulary in a FL classroomVocabulary is an essential component forsuccessful communication in a foreign language(FL) classroom. When it comes to learning aforeign language, it becomes even more critical.Awareness of words seems to give enough

confidence to learners to produce a language.The task of teaching vocabulary is challengingfor most language teachers, for FL teachers itis especially challenging . The teacher needs tobe very innovative to design a lesson wherelearning the vocabulary becomes an interestingactivity in the classroom. The teacher also needsto ensure that the new words are taught in theappropriate context ensure maximum retention.

The classroom structure and the learnersAt this point, it will be helpful to define classroomstructure and learners in order to understandthis study. For the purposes of this paper, learnersare defined as having beginners’ level familiaritywith Gujarati, and having an awareness of theGujarati culture when they first come to thebeginners Gujarati class. The process ofteaching-learning focuses on communicativeapproach, therefore the classroom activities arehighly dependent on hands-on activities by thelearners.

Culture in language learning: From theoryto practiceAustrian-British philosopher, LudwigWittgenstein, who worked on the philosophy oflanguage stated, “If we spoke a differentlanguage, we would perceive a somewhatdifferent world.” Wittgenstein indicates adefinite relationship between language andculture-society. Culture is often considered asmere information conveyed by the language, andnot as a feature of language; cultural awareness

Thinking Culture in a Language Classroom:Teaching Gujarati as a Foreign Language

Venu Mehta


therefore becomes an educational objective initself, separate from language. If, however,language is seen as a social practice, culturebecomes the very core of language teaching.Cultural awareness must then be viewed bothas enabling language proficiency, and as beingthe outcome of reflection on languageproficiency (Kramsch, 1993, p. 8). Language isconsidered as a human institution. Lado (1964)posits, “language does not develop in a vacuum.It is a part of the culture of a people” (p. 23). Itis clear that language is undoubtedly a socialphenomenon. It is not possible to break apartthe relationship between culture, society andlanguage. Lado (1964) further states, “as thechief instrument of communication, languageattaches specific words and phrases to the mostfrequent cultural meaning” (p. 23). Thus, thebeliefs, rituals, customs, thoughts, mannerisms,and arts of any society or culture are reflectedin and transmitted through its language. In fact,the linguistic development of human beings ismostly a social and cultural process. Conversely,socio-cultural patterns are reflected in languageand in all major aspects of language such asvocabulary, pronunciations, and variations insentence structures. Involvement of socio-cultural theory suggests that human mentalactivity emerges specifically as a result of theinternalization of social relationships, culturallyorganized activity and symbolic artifacts(Vygotsky, 1986; Lantolf & Thorne, 2006). Inthis regard, the integration of cultural artifacts/elements may facilitate and ensure a morecognitive way to foreign language learning as itallows learners to experience a more motivatingenvironment. Another important relevance ofincorporating cultural elements/artifacts is theconsideration of an ‘affective filter’; Krashen(1981) remarks, “… people acquire a secondlanguage only if they obtain comprehensible inputand if their affective filters are low enough toallow the input” (p. 84). This suggests thatintegration of cultural elements/artifacts helpsin lowering the affective filter, and provides‘comprehensible input’ in learning a foreignlanguage.

Rangoli and Toran: Cultural artifacts/elements as a tool and authentic materialIt is now an acknowledged fact that the studyof different cultures aids us to know aboutdifferent people, and is necessary in order tounderstand and respect other peoples and theirways of life. It also makes us aware of thesimilarities and differences in the lives of variouscultural groups. If we provide our learners withjust a list of facts of history or geography, and alist of lexical items, we will not have providedthem with an intimate view of what life is reallylike in the target culture and language.After discussing the relevance and the impactof integrating culture into the teaching of aforeign language, I would like to put down thestyle and method of integrating culture. Thepractice of integrating the culture of Gujarat forexample, should not be limited to simplydescribing its cultural background, but to actuallymaking use of the cultural elements/artifacts ofGujarat as tools and authentic materials in theclassroom to teach new words.I designed a lesson to teach shape and colourvocabulary, where I used a Rangoli and a Toranas cultural elements/artifacts. Rangoli—a folkand traditional art form of Gujarati culture— isa decorative design made on the floors of livingrooms and courtyards during Hindu festivals.They are meant to be sacred welcoming areasfor Hindu deities and guests. In Gujarati, Toranis the name given to a sacred or honorificgateway. It is typically a projecting cross-piecethat rests on two uprights or posts. In Gujaraticulture, Toran may also refer to a decorativedoor hanging, Both, Rangoli and Toran featurevivid colours and shapes.Instead of simply describing the shapes andcolours used in making a Rangoli or a Toran, Iwent one step ahead. I asked the students tomake their own Rangoli and Toran to learn thecolour and shape vocabulary in Gujarati. For thispurpose, I did the following:


1. I showed the learners various designs ofTorans and Rangolis, and made them awareof the importance of these two culturalelements/artifacts. I also familiarized themwith the significance and symbol of differentcolours and shapes in the Gujarati cultureand tradition.

2. The process of showing involved two steps:Displaying a picture of a Toran and aRangoli; and presenting a PowerPointVersion in which all the shapes and colourswere animated to create a complete designof a Toran and a Rangoli. The learners werethen asked to identify the different coloursand shapes.

3. I asked the learners to make their own Toranand Rangoli. For this I gave them variouscolors (special sand colours ) to make aRangoli on the floor. I also gave them papersof different colours to cut into differentshapes to make a Toran.

4. I gave each student a unique designinstruction detailing the colours and shapesthey had to use in the making of the Toranand Rangoli so each learner had anexclusive pattern. The learners thereforehad ample opportunity to explore variousshapes and colours.

5. As soon as the learners were ready withtheir artifacts, I asked them to identify thecolours and shapes of the Torans andRangolis made by the other learners.Therefore, once again they got a chance towork with the shape and colour vocabulary.

6. This learning was then followed by teachingthem to make simple sentences using colourand shape vocabulary. This included askingquestions such as “which colour is this?”;or “which shape is this?”; and thenanswering them.

Observations and discussionThe whole exercise was successful in two ways.Firstly, the learners became aware of the culturalsignificance of Torans and Rangolis in theGujarati tradition and art. Secondly, learningbecame very live and interactive by using andmaking Torans and Rangolis in a hands-onactivity. The experience of interacting withshapes and colours while creating the Toran andRangoli demonstrated learning. It was alsoobserved that such a method of teaching turnedcultural elements/artifacts into authenticmaterials.

ConclusionUnderstanding of the target culture helps tomotivate learners to learn the language. Theclose association of culture and language willbe truly successful only if cultural artifacts andelements are incorporated as tools and authenticmaterials in the narration of theoretical matters.The positive impact of such an exercise enableslearners’ involvement, ignites interest, andmakes learners active participants in the processof learning. Hence, learning activities whichfocus on active learning are best practiced in aculturally enabled environment.

1 I worked as a foreign language teacher, teaching

Gujarati as a Fulbright FLTA for the year 2010-11 atIndiana University, Bloomington, USA.

ReferencesKramsch, Claire (1993). Context and culture inlanguage teaching (pp. 8). Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress.

Krashen, S. (1981). Second language acquisitionand second language learning (pp. 84). Oxford:Pergamon Press.


Lado, R. (1964). Language teaching: A scientificapproach. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Lantolf, J., & Thorne, S. L. (2006). Socioculturaltheory and the genesis of second languagedevelopment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Vygotsk, L. S. (1986). Thought and language.Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Venu Mehta is Assistant Professor at the Departmentof Communication Skills, Charotar University ofScience and Technology (CHARUSAT), [email protected]

Images of Rangoli and Toran used for demonstration

1. Source: Stock pictures taken from the internet

2. Source: PowerPoint animation image sample


IntroductionWriting is a medium to express our thoughts,ideas and views. It is a kind of communicationin which a writer must be able to convey her/his views to the readers. We write because wewant to share and discuss.However, the shape which writing takes in ourclassrooms is in stark contrast to these ideas.We equate writing with ‘copying’ and‘handwriting’. In a typical Indian classroom, onecan find students religiously writing on topicssuch as ‘Ideal Student’, ‘Visit to Delhi’, ‘OurDear Chacha Nehru’ and ‘Benefits ofLibraries’. Students copy content from differentguidebooks and spend hours producing beautifulhandwriting and error-free work. Teachersencourage children to use help material andproduce perfect writing in the first attempt.Writing, thus, gets reduced to a purelymechanical skill where there is no place forexpression. We demand ‘perfection in the firstattempt’ at any cost. Failure in achieving thesestandards results in criticism, lower marks andsometimes even punishment.Research in the field, however, present writingin a different perspective. Studies indicate thatwriting becomes meaningful with the presenceof ‘voice’ (Graves, 1983). Two components areextremely necessary for meaningful writing—desire to convey and sense of audience (Kumar,1996). Thus, students must be encouraged todevelop their writing pieces on the basis of thesetwo factors. Teachers also play an extremelyimportant role in developing students’ interesttowards writing. The feedback provided by

teachers must be meaningful, and mustemphasize on the quality of the content.Exclusive focus on mechanics and criticism frominsensitive audience can end students’ desire towrite (Calkins, 1986; Atwell, 1987; Kumar,1996).Clearly, there exists a gap between recentresearch on writing, and our writing pedagogy.We still design our classes on the basis of drill,practice and reinforcement. Expression,reflection and discussion are currently not valuedin our writing classes. As a result, writing hasbecome a difficult task for teachers as well asstudents since everyone prefers to evade it. Thepresent paper is written with the aim of exploringissues related to writing, and generatingreflections on the status of writing.

Writing in classroomsCurrently, the writing scenario in our classes isquite dismal. Writing and expression areconsidered as completely opposite fields. In thefollowing analysis, the status of writing isexplored from different perspectives to presenta holistic picture of the existing state of affairsin our schools.Faulty teacher training courses: Teachertraining courses are expected to train teachersin foundational as well as pedagogy courses. Itis believed that such training courses will createteachers who are well acquainted in the fieldsof philosophy, psychology, sociology as well aspedagogy. However, the reality appears to besharply different. Decade old syllabi are

Writing in Classrooms: Missing Voices andReflections

Nidhi Kunwar


transacted to teacher trainees without anyreflection or revision, and the pedagogy coursesthat are transacted to students do not includeany of the latest research. The teaching of‘writing’ is not an exception in this regard.Teacher training programmes do not teach thepedagogy of writing in detail. Questions suchas ‘what are the recent researches in the fieldof writing’, ‘what are the implications of recentresearch for classroom teaching?’ and ‘how toapproach writing as a process and not as aproduct?’ are not discussed with the teachertrainees. In fact, the entire energy of aspiringteachers is used on creating fancy teaching aidsbased on the ideas of drill and practice.Unequipped with the knowledge of literacypedagogy, teachers go on to create classes thatare based on traditional and outdated theories.Assumptions of teachers: Teachers are themost important part of our entire educationsystem. Their perceptions, ideas, views, visionsand thoughts greatly influence the students andthe teaching pedagogy itself. If teachers haveknowledge of recent writing research, then theycan plan their lessons in a progressive way; butif teachers’ knowledge is based on outdatedtheories, their planning may replicate the same.A teacher, who feels that writing is handwriting,will create classes dominated by drills forhandwriting tasks; but a teacher who feels thatwriting is expression, will design classes thatvalues content over mechanics. The limitedknowledge of ‘writing’ that informs in-serviceand pre-service training programmes createsteachers who do not know how to use writingas a medium of expression. They equate writingwith ‘handwriting’ and ‘copying’, and this is alsoreflected in their pedagogy. Jyoti (2004), foundthat teachers are not aware of the various formsof writing such as journal, narrative, poetic, etc. They accept writing as a means ofcommunication but they completely neglect itscreative aspect. Hence, students also learn toequate writing with copying.

Assumptions of students: As already pointed out,teachers encourage students to copy and theycreate students who also end up equating writingwith copying and handwriting. Kunwar (2003)studied students’ responses to writing and goodwriters. On being queried regarding their idea ofa good writer, most students believed that qualitiesof a good writer included beautiful handwriting,perfect grammar, correct spellings and neat work.Some students even suggested using gel pens forbeautiful handwriting, ensuring that all letters areof the same size, and copying perfectly from theboard. Sadly, none of the responses spoke aboutthe quality of content; for most students writingwell was connected only with punctuation,grammar and handwriting.Nature of writing work: Writing is generallyviewed as copying in our classes. It does notprovide any space for students’ expression orviews. A study of students’ school writingconducted by Kunwar (2003) revealed that mostof the content was related to conventional andtraditional topics. Moreover, the content wasSanskritized and the language lacked spontaneityand looked rather contrived. There was also asimilarity between the school writing samplesand guidebooks. The teachers’ feedback waslimited to correction of wrong spellings; therewas no productive feedback to students on thecontent of their writing.

Reasons to reflect It is clear from the analysis that writing is taughtas a mechanical skill in our schools. Thepedagogical practices used in schools do notteach students to use writing in a functional orcreative manner. When students are unable touse writing as a medium of expression, we blameit on the ‘poor background’ of students and tryto evade the situation. Although students’background is an important factor in schoolperformance, the time spent with the teacher isfar more significant. Does the current pedagogy


allow teachers to create a meaningful writingenvironment and learning experiences forstudents? The focus shifts even further towards‘pedagogy’ when we realize that the standardsof writing across all types of schools, whethergovernment or private, are similar. This indicatethat it is not the background of students that isthe sole factor responsible for students’ failure,the pedagogy followed in schools is also animportant factor. (Kumar, 1992; Sinha, 2000).It must be acknowledged that pedagogy ofreading and writing is a serious area ofreflection and demands several improvements.A student’s success at school depends onmastering these literacy skills. Now the questionis: What should be the beginning point forbringing a change? Students define ‘writing’ interms of what they are taught by their teachers,and teachers for their part are simply utilizingthe pedagogy style that they have learnt duringtheir training period. This highlights the majorfault of our teacher education courses. It mustbe accepted that there is a huge gap betweenwhat we teach in basic theoretical courses andwhat we transact in pedagogy papers to ourteachers. We educate our teachers about‘constructivism’ and ‘active nature’ of children,but our pedagogical theories do not teach themhow to fit practical teaching into that framework.In the foundation papers, teachers learn that thestudent is not tabula rasa or a ‘blank slate’;but their lesson plans are full of worksheets andaids for drill, practice and reinforcement.In the Indian context, the pedagogy of readingand writing is practically non-existent since mostof the training programmes do not have anycourses on the teaching of these literacy skills.Ironically, the components that we are neglectingin our courses form a core part of students’success in schooling. A teacher unequipped withthe knowledge of pedagogy of literacy skillscannot enable his/her students to utilize theseskills in a functional way. The ignorance ofteachers can be really damaging for the entireeducation system.

Possibilities and alternativesThere is an urgent need to bring about changesin the system. The shortcomings and the flawsshould not be allowed to continue, as they willdamage the entire education system. Thus, onthe basis of the above reflection, I haveshortlisted the following suggestions foreffecting improvements in the system.• Pedagogy of reading and writing need to

become the core components of everyteacher training course, whether in-serviceor pre-service. Knowledge of the latestresearch findings will equip teachers todesign their classes more effectively.

• The syllabus on the pedagogy of literacyskills needs to include detailed units onteaching ‘writing’. The syllabus shouldprovide teachers with the requiredtheoretical framework so that writing is notreduced to the level of drill and practice.The syllabus needs to include componentssuch as developmental stages of writing,importance of voice, role of teacherfeedback, process writing, languageexperience approach, importance ofownership, role of errors, and assessmentof writing. The teachers must understandthe importance of ‘content’ over‘mechanics’.

• It is however not enough to just train theteachers, it is also necessary to provide therequired support system for making writingmeaningful for students. As reading andwriting are connected, classrooms need tobe organized in a way that provides scopefor reading and writing. Provision of aprint-rich environment through classlibraries, space for students to write freely,creation of message corners—these aresome of the opportunities which canencourage students to engage with writingin a functional manner.


• ‘Assessment’ comprises one of the majorphases of the learning process. Ifassessment procedures are traditional,teaching is also forced to become traditional;but if assessment procedures areconstructive and involve scope for thinkingand reflection, teaching also takes a similarshape. This implies that assessment shouldbe developmental in nature, and includemethods such as portfolio assessment,journal entries, writing workshops, and self-assessment. If assessment techniques areprogressive, teachers will also have thefreedom to create meaningful learningopportunities for their students.

These recommendations have been madebearing in mind the current status of writing inour classrooms. If we wish to create meaningfulwriting classes, it is critical to equip our teacherswith the knowledge of pedagogy of writing.Teachers also need to be aware of the latestresearch trends and their implications in theclassroom. It is only by understanding the basicsof literacy instruction that our teachers can dojustice to the potential of writing, and developstudents into ‘writers’ who can write with voiceand reflections.

ReferencesAtwell, Nancie (1987). In the middle: Writing, readingand learning with adolescents. Portsmouth, NH:Heinemann Educational Books.

Calkins, Lucy M. (1986). The art of teaching writing.Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.

Graves, Donald H. (1983). Writing: Teachers andchildren at work. Portsmouth, NH: HeinemannEducational Books.

Jyoti (2004). Teachers’ assumptions about the natureof writing (Unpublished Master’s Thesis). Universityof Delhi. Delhi.

Kumar, Krishna (1992). What is worth teaching? NewDelhi: Orient Longman.

Kumar, Krishna (1996). The child’s language andthe teacher. New Delhi: National Book Trust. Kunwar, Nidhi (2003). Using process writing forimproving writing skills of students (UnpublishedMaster’s Thesis). University of Delhi. Delhi. Sinha, Shobha (2000). Acquiring literacy in theschools. Seminar, 493, 38-42.

Nidhi Kunwar is Assistant Professor, Department ofElementary Education, Mata Sundri College forWomen, University of Delhi. Her specialization isLanguage Education.

[email protected]


IntroductionContinuing Professional Development (CPD)centres on the idea that an individual aims toaugment her/his professional skills andknowledge beyond the training received at theonset of their career, or as part of thequalifications required to carry out a job. Overthe course of any career, it would be reasonableto expect that there are opportunities availablefor informal and formal engagements that assistindividuals in the renewal of their technical skillsand enhancement of thinking. In the case ofteaching in India, after pre-service training, thereare few opportunities for in-servicedevelopment. This is because in-service trainingis dependent on external factors such asinstitutional support, employer’s initiative, policymeasures, etc. As a result, opportunities forgrowth and learning often rest with the individualteacher, and individual learning can be incidental,or evolutionary, or in some cases, planned. Itcan also be isolated and slow. Moreover, CPDas a lifelong career development strategy shouldbe more than just aiming for career progressionor incidental learning because of personalinterest. “[CPD] is the process by which, aloneand with others, teachers review, renew andextend their commitment as change agents tothe moral purposes of teaching...” (Day, 1999,p.4).The paper will discuss the principles of CPDand the importance of evolving CPD from beingan individual and unguided initiative to acollaborative process. It will also suggest somemeans of professional development for teachers

in the field of language education, which maybe adopted or adapted by teachers and teachertrainers.

CPD for teachersCPD should not be treated as an event, butshould be considered as a process that includesknowledge development and change in attitudes,skills, disposition, and practice. Also, CPD doesnot comprise only of knowledge transfer fromfield experts, but has ample scope for experientiallearning, involving participants as activelearners, and facilitating peer group based reviewof practices. According to Harwell et al. (2001),“professional development for practisingteachers must combine the expertise ofresearchers and the knowledge of practisingteachers in a collaborative effort to informinstructional decision making if educators wantto create learning environments conducive toeffective learning among students” (p. 260).Bryant et al. (2001), have also stated that “timemust be allocated for teachers to share theirown personal knowledge about their studentsand teaching and to receive guidance fromexperts on topics” (p. 251).Teachers also need to understand the social,professional and administrative contexts in whichthey work. In a school, CPD can function as acatalyst for change in school-related practices.Conscious analysis of, and engagement with thespecific contexts in which they teach will furtherthe professional development of teachers as wellas the growth of their learners. Julian Edge

Continuing Professional Development: TheWay Forward for English Language Teachers

Kirti Kapur


(1999) defines this as the “professional bodyperspective” wherein teachers “…try to set upstandards and criteria according to whichindividuals can register themselves asprofessionals and demonstrate their commitmentto their continuing development.” Evaluatingoneself vis-à-vis personal goals as well asinstitutional and community goals can provide aframework for constructive feedback, andappraisals can be in the form of self-appraisals,peer appraisal, and feedback from students andconcerned authorities.CPD therefore includes “private, unaidedlearning…informal learning opportunitiesand…more formal learning opportunitiesavailable through internally and externallygenerated in-service education and trainingactivities” (Day, 1999).

CPD for English language teachersAs established above, teacher education needsto be ongoing, onsite, as well as preparatory. Inthe context of language education, the emphasisof CPD initiatives should be on teacherproficiency or familiarity with the language, asthe teacher is often a role model. It will also bea means to cultivate teacher awareness orsensitivity to language learning. (Position Paperon Teaching of English, 2006) Teachers shouldin fact be given opportunities to develop theircompetencies and proficiency in the languagethey teach. Self-reflection is therefore a vitalcomponent of such programmes wherein theteachers can themselves work towardsidentifying and addressing gaps in knowledgeand practice. Opportunities for reaffirmation oftheir own experiences will also boost theirconfidence and have a positive impact on theteaching-learning process.According to Krishnan & Pandit (2003),“Teacher proficiency in English is linked to theteacher’s sense of satisfaction, indeed to his/her willingness to teach English.” Wright &

Bolitho (1993) believe language acquisition isimportant “to develop their sensitivity towardstheir language, as part of a strategy aimed atenhancing classroom teaching and learning.”CPD programmes may therefore addressconcepts such as:• Self-improvement: Improving their own

skills in order to be role models for learnersin terms of listening, speaking, reading andwriting;

• Pedagogy of language education:Emphasizing that language teaching andlearning cannot be mechanical andintroducing new methods and approaches;

• Constructivism: Facilitating learners’construction of own knowledge throughparticipatory activities;

• Critical thinking skills: Integrating peace,values, special needs, gender, environment,culture, inclusiveness and vocational skillsin language teaching-learning;

• Use of grammar and vocabulary in context;• Multilingualism as a resource: Approaching

language education holistically in thatlanguages supplement and complement oneanother;

• Methodologies of teaching English/Secondlanguage: The different methods and acritique thereof;

• Materials development and curricularrenewal: Becoming materials developersthemselves and proactively using locallyavailable authentic texts;

• Assessment and evaluation: Linkingcontinuous and comprehensive evaluationto everyday classroom practices andlearning outcomes;

• Teacher as a researcher: Conducting actionresearch for identifying and addressingproblems in language learning through auditsof their own practices with the aim ofimproving effectiveness.


According to Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin(1996), “Effective professional developmentinvolves teachers both as learners and asteachers and allows them to struggle with theuncertainties that accompany each role…It mustbe connected to and derived from teachers’work with their students.”

Individual ownership/initiativeCPD necessitates a self-developmentperspective on the part of the teachers. Often,constraints such as demanding schedules, lackof motivation and support from authorities aswell as additional expenses can deter individuals.However, teachers must recognize that CPD isa journey, and it is important for teachers toremain learners themselves if they aspire todevelop the qualities required in their careers.Above all, teachers should learn from theirlearners and recognize the value of reflectingon their own performance. Richard Whiteside(2012) sums this succinctly when he says,“…we teachers should endeavour to provide thebest education we can to our students...toconsider our situation and try to identify whatexactly ‘best-practice’ is for us in our context.”For this, regular analysis, and consultation withpeers and colleagues are a must.Here, ICT can play an important role in ensuringthat individuals can transcend institutional andgeographical barriers to interact with their peersand domain experts. Online discussion forums,SIGs, archives and blogs are rich sources ofinformation and best practices. At the same time,face to face interactions, be they peer to peeror individual to expert, can enable participantsto enhance their spoken skills as well as learnfrom others. Writing articles for journals basedon their classroom experiences is another wayof facilitating peer review and feedback.Attending seminars and conferences also boostsconfidence and enhances one’s knowledge base.

Teachers may also:• record and reflect on their own practices

by writing a daily journal;• read and explore about areas of teaching

that interest them;• observes colleagues’ or seniors’ classes;• enroll in training programmes; and• discuss observations with groups.

Institutional supportOften, teacher orientation programmes are time-bound and budget-driven. Moreover, theorganizing bodies (State, NGOs, Teachers’associations) often have narrow/specific andtherefore non-representative agendas whichmay not cater to the needs of all teachers.Consequently, it is critical that managing bodiesfoster CPD in their schools. Schools shouldemerge as spaces where collaborativecommunities are established and which engagewith the shared aspirations and values of allmembers. Lack of information and accessimpact participation by teachers, and these canbe addressed by ensuring relevance to teachers’needs and contexts. Further, investments alsoneed to be made in the development of teachers’materials such as teachers’ packages,handbooks, manuals and journals so that theycan be self-reliant when it comes to updatingthemselves. Rather than imposing a uniformplan, CPD systems should be able to facilitatepersonalization of the CPD process. Offering arange of options will stimulate teacher initiative,experimentation and agency.At the same time, thought must be given to:• defining goals and standards of CPD for

teachers;• identifying the strategies and practices that

will support them;


• developing tools to monitor and assess CPDinitiatives;

• promoting teacher autonomy andresponsibility.

Demonstrating commitment to the continuingdevelopment of employees by facilitating adiscussion on these aspects will boost thestandards of the institution by creating acompetent, adaptable workforce. Also,“people’s professionalism may be considered tobe enhanced” (Evans, 2008), which will have adirect positive impact on the learners.

ConclusionDeveloping teachers’ resources and proficiencyin a language facilitates innovation, andincreases teacher proficiency. CPD is a plannedand systematic activity, and the space and theability to reflect on methodology, content andapproach will help teachers to develop a deeperunderstanding of language learning and makethe English classroom a vibrant centre forknowledge acquisition and development. Afterall, change in education depends on whatteachers do and think.

ReferencesBryant, D.P. et al. (2001). The effects of professionaldevelopment for middle schools general and specialeducation teachers on implementation of readingstrategies in inclusive content area classes. LearningDisability Quarterly, 24, 251.

Darling-Hammond, L & McLaughlin, M W. (1996).Policies that support professional development inan era of reform. In M.W. McLaughlin and I. Oberman(Eds.), Teacher Learning: New Policies, NewPractices (pp. 202-218). New York: Teachers CollegePress, Columbia University.

Day, C. (1999). Developing teachers (pp. 4). London:Routledge Falmer. Edge, J. (1999). Managingprofessionalization or “Hey, that’s mydevelopment!”. IATEFL Issues, 149, 14-16.

Evans, L. (2008). Professionalism, professionality andthe development of education professionals. BritishJournal of Educational Studies, 56, 20-38.Harwell, S. H. et al. (2001). Technology integrationand the classroom learning environment: Researchfor action. Learning Environments Research, 4, 260.Krishnan, M. & Pandit, M. (2003). English at theprimary level: Coping with disparities. The Hinduaccessed from http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/edu/2003/05/13/stories/2003051300050200.htm on 16 Dec,2012 at 18:53 hours, ISTNational Council of Educational Research andTraining [NCERT], 2005. National focus group onteaching English, Position Paper, 1.4, pp. 3.Whitseside, Richard (2012, March 30). Teacherdevelopment: Walking your own path [Web logpost]. Retrieved from http://www.tesoltraining. co.ukaccessed on 16 Dec, 2012 at 19:17 hours, ISTWright, T. & Bolitho, R. (1993). Language Education:A missing link in language teacher education. ELTJournal, 47(4), 302.

Kirti Kapur works in the Department of Educationin Languages at the National Council of EducationalResearch and Training, New Delhi, India. She has atotal of 24 years of teaching experience in the areasof English Language and Literature. At NCERT, shedesigns curriculum and syllabi, develops text books,conducts teacher trainings and research andprovides consultancy to national and internationalinstitutions.

[email protected]


IntroductionThrough this article, I have attempted to studythe designing of a second language (L2)curriculum. The aim is not to suggest a newtheory of L2 curriculum, but to describe in simplenon-technical language the existing theory andits essential components. I will also explore howthe various components of the theory have beenused to design an L2 syllabus. The overall aimis to describe the theory and its practice overthe years for the benefit of non-specialistteachers assigned the role of teaching L2.A second language (L2) curriculum designershould begin with the question: Is he/shedesigning a new syllabus or revising an existingone? In the case of a new syllabus, the designershould decide the three components ofcurriculum theory, as propounded by Taylor &Richards (1979). These comprise:• Curriculum philosophy (in this case, it could

be rationale for teaching L2);• Conceptualization, of: (a) goals; (b) means

of attaining the goals; and (c) testing oflearners;

• Management and implementation, involving:(a) development; (b) implementation; and(c) curriculum evaluation.

In the case of revision of an existing curriculum,the exercise could start with a critical analysisof the existing syllabus in the light of the threecomponents. It may also be useful to studyprevious revisions, if any, to see how the syllabushas evolved.

Curriculum philosophy (rationale forteaching L2)An important aspect for consideration is therationale for teaching L2, and the nature andbackground of the learners. The designer shouldbe clear about the justification for teaching thesecond language, e.g. teaching of English in Indiain the post-independence period has a historywhich has a bearing on syllabus designing.Learners’ profile and learning infrastructure:Another important factor that needs to beevaluated is the profile of the learner. Thisincludes information such as identifying who thelearners are, their socio-economic background,age, motivation, emotional state, aptitude andprevious experience in L2 learning, attitudetowards the target language and its speakers,learning strategies, learning environment athome, personality, entry behaviour, needs, goalsand expectations. It is also useful to know theteacher’s profile, instructional time available,class size, and learning infrastructure such aslearning/teaching aids, technology and resources.

Conceptualization of the three components1. Goals and objectivesThe goals and objectives of the curriculum areformulated based on the needs of the learners.The needs are identified using various researchtools: Surveys, questionnaires, interviews, polls,and so on. The identification of needs is essentialfor drawing up a syllabus, selecting and grading

Designing Second Language Curriculum

S. C. Sood


the content for teaching, and for working outinstructional strategies. However, learners’perception of their own needs have beenquestioned on various grounds because in reality,it is the institutions and their representatives whodetermine the language needs of the learnerson the basis of their experience.There are however some prominent studies ofsuch ‘needs analyses’. For learning English, forexample, there are: Threshold Level by van Ek(1975), published for the Council of Europe, andFunctional and Notional Needs described byWilkins in Notional Syllabuses, 1976. Munby(1978) suggests needs analyses in terms of thesettings in which learners will use the targetlanguage for specific purposes, e.g. Hindi forScience and Technology, English for AcademicPurposes, and so on.

2. Means of attaining goals/objectivesTeachers have used different methods andinstructional materials at different times to helplearners learn the target language. These canbe discussed under two heads: (i) Pre-scientific,and (ii) Scientific.

a. Pre-scientific: Grammar-translation methodWe are all familiar with this once widely-usedmethod. In fact, it was not a method in the truesense of the word, as it was not based on atheory of language or language learning. Thatis why it was called ‘pre-scientific’. Moreover,its purpose was not to teach language; grammar-translation was simply a way of translatingclassics from one language into another.

b. Scientific: The scientific approach to languagelearning takes the theory of language andlearning into consideration. The analysis oflanguage has given us two ways of looking atit—language as a structure of structures, andlanguage as a tool for communication. Hence,in the history of language teaching, we have twotypes of approaches—structural andcommunicative.

b1. Structural approach: This approach tolanguage learning evolved under the influenceof structural linguistics. Language was definedas a structure comprising phonemes (sounds),morphemes (words) and syntax. Classroomteaching was influenced by Skinner’sbehaviourist theory of learning in which learninga language was looked upon as learning a newbehaviour for which the learner neededmotivation, repetition and reward. Structuralapproach is still followed in some classrooms.Since language is infinite, the principles ofteaching suggest that we select some items forteaching, grade them, and then present them tothe learner in meaningful contexts. So, at eachstage of learning, specific structures wereselected along with certain vocabulary items andthe learner was exposed to them. Therefore,the classroom practice was mimic, memorize,repeat, and drill, until the structure became ahabit with the learner, e.g. the teacher holds apen in her uplifted hand and says:

Yeh pen hai (This is a pen).and the students repeat:

Yeh pen hai (This is a pen).The sentence was repeated and drilled a numberof times.Errors were strictly avoided, and the emphasiswas on grammatical competence. It wasexpected that this repetition would help learnerslearn structures and consequently the language.

b2. Communicative approach: This approachwas ushered in by socio-linguists. They talkedof language not as an abstract system but as atool for communication in society, in meaningfulsituations. They also redefined languagecompetence as communicative competence,which meant (1) accuracy/grammaticalcompetence, and (2) fluency, i.e. familiarity withthe rules of usage, which included socialappropriateness. There can be many types of


communicative syllabus based on the situation.Possible themes include:• functions and notions, e.g. thanking,

apologizing, seeking help, giving help• Situations, e.g. at the railway station.• Topics, e.g. weather, shopping• Authentic tasks and activities,• Role play and simulation,• Analyses of discourse structure -

conversational analysis and discourseanalyses–to help learners learn thestrategies of how the target language is usedto make meaning.

The goal of all these syllabuses is to help learnersfocus on communication rather than the formor structure of the language. It is not unusual toselect subjects such as Social Sciences, History,Economics or Commerce; or themes such aspopulation, environment, Aids; or genres suchas prose, poetry, fiction, drama, etc., for helpinglearners practice language forms and functions.

3. Classroom proceduresCommunicative syllabuses consider language asa tool for communication, and language learningas a cognitive activity. This perspective has astrong bearing on the role of materials, theteachers and the learners, and the syllabusdesigner outlines these details. In this method,learners are seen as active participants in theprocess of language learning rather than just apassive receptacle. The role of the teacher iscomplex, and much of his/her effort goes intoproviding the right learning environment,selecting the right task/activity, creating anappropriate setting, and supervising the learningprocess. Since interaction is an integral part ofcommunication, the class is arranged in pairs orgroups.

Integrated syllabuses: It is believed currently,that for effective language teaching, integrated

syllabus (integration of structures and functions)is the right solution. However, to implement anintegrated syllabus, materials need to be selectedand graded to suit the learner’s needs,coordinated with the class below and above, andcorrelated horizontally with different texts andskills.

Testing: Syllabuses must also provide for testing/evaluation of learners to assess whether thestated objectives were achieved. What shouldbe tested (content or skills); how and whenshould the assessment be done (internal orexternal assessment and what is the weightageof each component); will the evaluation becontinuous (formative) or end-programme(summative); who will test; how will learnersbe scored; how will objectivity and uniformitybe ensured–these are questions that need to beanswered before implementing a testing process.Impact of Information and CommunicationTechnology (ICT)During the last two decades, many researchers(Kern 2006, Nguyen 2008) have written aboutthe use of ICT in second language teaching andits impact on what Richards (1990) terms as‘design’ and ‘procedure’. This includes thenature and types of teaching-learning materials;the roles of teachers, learners, and instructionaltasks and activities; and the nature and kinds ofteaching-learning practices and behaviours. Theuse of ICT in second language instruction is anemerging but fast-developing field, and itsadvantages and drawbacks ought to be kept inmind by language syllabus designers.

Management, implementation and feedbackThis is an important process of any project andL2 syllabus designing is not an exception. Thereare three steps under this head: (a) Projectdevelopment, (b) Implementation, and (c)Evaluation.


(a) Project developmentOne of the criteria for the success of a projectis that it should follow a ‘bottom up’ movementin all aspects, in this case syllabus, materials andmethods, testing, and teacher training. Initiationfor language syllabus revision must come fromthe local authorities after a wider consultationwith all stake-holders. They themselves mustredefine their needs from time to time and seewhat is wrong with their existing situation, andseek a solution either on their own or incollaboration with other agencies – local orforeign.The nature and role of local agency is crucial.Is this the right agency for initiating andcompleting this project or are their other localbodies concerned with this area? Does this localagency have the necessary expertise to assistthe ‘community’–the teachers—or will it seekcollaboration with other local agencies or aforeign agency. If the job is outsourced to aforeign agency or their collaboration is sought,what their status and role would be. Rivalriesamong various local agencies can pose aproblem in developing and implementing aproject. In India, for example, any differencesbetween the National Council of EducationalResearch and Training (NCERT) and theCentral Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)for drawing up a language syllabus for teachingat schools can be harmful for the success of alanguage project. Hence a proper localcoordinating authority ought to be in place toassist the ‘community group’.

(b) Implementation

For effective implementation, the L2 projectwould require teaching/learning materials to beproduced, teacher training to be executed andtesting and evaluation procedures to be workedout. Will there be just one group to handle all

the above three areas or will there be one groupeach for these areas? Since not all the teacherscan be involved, a selection from the ‘communitygroup’ has to be made. Who will be selectedand how? What would be the role of the localpre-service and in-service teacher traininginstitutes in the initiation, designing andimplementation of the project? Since the newcurriculum must be understood by classroomteachers, their willing participation inunderstanding the change must be ensured. Allthese points are important, and need to beheeded when taking up a curriculum project.1

(c) Feedback and evaluationThis step is vital to assess the new curriculum,and to find out the extent to which it has achievedthe stated goals. Monitoring and feedback maybe ‘formative’ (assessed during the stage ofimplementation), or ‘summative’ (evaluated atthe end of the project). Two people need to bedesignated, one to monitor and give feedback,and the other to evaluate the project once it isput into operation.

Cyclical nature of curriculum/syllabusdesigningThe aim of the feedback and evaluation is notto criticize those responsible for designing thecurriculum/syllabus, but to learn lessons for thefuture and to initiate new changes in thecurriculum in accordance with the feedbackreceived. Curriculum designing is a cyclicalprocess, and changes and updating are requiredto be made from time to time.

1 Those interested in such projects may find moreuseful hints in Tribble (2012). This collection ofpapers and case studies, though these relate toTeaching of English as a Second Language, can provea useful guide for language teaching in general.


ReferencesKern, R. (2006). Perspectives on technology inlearning and teaching languages. Tesol Quarterly,40(1), 183-210.Nguyen, L. V. (2008). Technology-enhanced EFLsyllabus design and materials development. EnglishLanguage Teaching, 1, 2, 135-142.Munby, John (1978). Communicative syllabusdesign. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Richards, Jack C. (1990). Language curriculumdevelopment. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.Taylor, P. H. & Richards, C. (1979). An introductionto curriculum studies. Windsor: NFER PublishingCo.Tribble, Christopher (Ed.) (2012). Managing changein English Language Teaching: Lessons fromexperience. London: British Council.van Ek, J. A. (1975). The threshold level. Strasbourg:Council of Europe.Wilkins, D. A. (1976). Notional syllabuses. Oxford:OUP.

S. C. Sood is a former Reader at Dyal Singh College(Even.), and Professor at Dilla College of TeacherEducation, Ethiopia under UNDP. He is presently apractising ELT professional.

[email protected]


IntroductionIn 2008, the Orissa Primary EducationProgramme Authority (OPEPA) issued a leafleton the mother tongue based MultilingualEducation programme (MLE) in the State,entitled ‘Education for Tribal Children in Orissa’.In the leaflet, programme planners categorizedTeaching Learning Materials (TLMs) for MLEunder two track strategies—Track I, whichlooked at the Cognitive Academic LanguageProficiency (CALP); and Track II, whichevaluated Basic Interpersonal CommunicativeSkills (BICS). Track I focused on correctnessand accuracy, and imbibing new knowledge; itincluded alphabet charts, alphabet books, numbercharts, number books, and Math books—all ofwhich helped develop CALP. Track IIcomprised picture books such as the big bookand the small book, experience stories,environment studies, games, sports, songs, talesand riddles, and focused on meaning andcommunication, and exploration of the child’sexperiences. Going by Jim Cummins’ originalBICS/CALP distinction, such categorization ofTLMs under BICS and CALP seems to be acase of conceptual conflation. In Cummins’sown words (2008), “ The distinction betweenbasic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS)and cognitive academic language proficiency(CALP) was introduced by Cummins (1979,1981a) in order to draw educators’ attention tothe timelines and challenges that second languagelearners encounter as they attempt to catch upto their peers in academic aspects of the schoollanguage. BICS refers to conversational fluency

in a language while CALP refers to students’ability to understand and express, in both oraland written modes, concepts and ideas that arerelevant to success in school” (p. 71).Mohanty (2011), simplifies this in the context ofMLE, “ From using language for socialcommunication or, what has been called, basicinterpersonal communication skills (BICS, forshort), children must develop to use languagefor reflective engagement with academiclearning and purposeful thinking or to the levelof cognitive and academic languageproficiency” (p. 2).

The MLE programmeThis means that first generation tribal studentsneed to learn to use their mother tongue foracademic discourses before moving on to usingthe school language. In the MLE programme,such TLMs, which call for greater, imaginativeuse of language, are used only to develop BICSwhen in fact they can be used to develop CALPas well. Given the kind of TLMs that have beencategorized under CALP, it is the teacher whoends up doing all the talking. There is hardlyany scope for the children to indulge in‘academic talk’. Stories, riddles and folk games,if used imaginatively by the teacher, could helpinitiate BICS and CALP talk simultaneously.Cummins (2008), talks about this simultaneityduring his discussion on the evolution of thetheoretical constructs of BICS and CALP: “The initial BICS/CALP distinction waselaborated into two intersecting continua

Teaching Learning Materials in aMultilingual Education Programme

Urmishree Bedamatta

Dell

Sticky Note


(Cummins, 1981a) that highlighted the range ofcognitive demands and contextual supportinvolved in particular language tasks or activities(context-embedded/context-reduced, cognitivelyundemanding/cognitively demanding) … It wasalso recognized, however, that these dimensionscannot be specified in absolute terms becausewhat is “context-embedded” or “cognitivelydemanding” for one learner may not be so foranother as a result of differences in internalattributes such as prior knowledge or interest”(Coelho, 2004; Cummins, 1981a, p.74) (myemphasis).It is evident that the distinction invoked in theMLE programme to separate TLMs is the resultof conflation. Not only that, one is also led toread a hidden agenda in such an invocation. Theexperience stories, songs, riddles and folk gameswhich are categorized under BICS are simplymeant to draw the tribal students into theclassroom; the academic language register isthat of the dominant state language. The TLMsin the mother tongue which are used for BICS,could be used to develop academic discourse(CALP), but that would displace the establishedacademic register. Also, since the mother tongue-intensive TLMs are seen to be useful only forBICS, they may not be considered fit materialsfor academic discourse as the grades advance.Cummins also relates the difference betweenconversational and academic language registersto Gee’s distinction between primary andsecondary discourses. The following explanationby Cummins (2008) is crucial in understandingthe argument of this paper: “Secondarydiscourses can be oral or written and are equallycentral to the social life of non-literate andliterate cultures. Examples of secondarydiscourse common in many non-literate culturesare the conventions of story-telling or thelanguage of marriage or burial rituals which arepassed down through oral tradition from onegeneration to the next. Within this conception,academic language proficiency represents an

individual’s access to and command of thespecialized vocabulary and functions of languagethat are characteristic of the social institution ofschooling. The secondary discourses ofschooling are no different in principle thanthe secondary discourse of other spheres ofhuman endeavor—for example, avid amateurgardeners and professional horticulturalists haveacquired vocabulary related to plants andflowers far beyond the knowledge of those notinvolved in this sphere of activity. What makesacquisition of the secondary discoursesassociated with schooling so crucial, however,is that the life chances of individuals are directlydetermined by the degree of expertise theyacquire in understanding and using this language(my emphasis)” (p. 75-76).

Cognitive transferThe success in acquiring the ‘secondarydiscourses associated with schooling’, however,may be crucially dependent on the ‘secondarydiscourse of other spheres of human endeavor’.Beach’s study (1995), for example, providesimportant insights into how cognitive transfer isbetter when there is a strong relationshipbetween schooling and work practices, or whenparticipating in the practices of schooling andwork are experienced as commensurable by thelearners (Cobb & Bowers, 1999, p. 7). In thestudy which focused on ‘transitions betweenwork and school’, Beach compared thearithmetical reasoning competencies of 13shopkeepers attending adult education classes,and 13 high school students apprenticed to ashopkeeper in a Nepali village. The shopkeepersperformed better than the students as theywanted to learn because they felt that by learningarithmetical reasoning, they would be able toincrease profitability in their shops. The students,on the other hand, had to learn school arithmeticas an end in itself, as well as to generate profitas a shopkeeper. Cobb and Bowers (1999, p.7) cite Hanks (1991) who says, “if both learning


and the subject learned are embedded in learnedskills must rely on the commensurability ofcertain forms of participation.” In another study,Rampal et al. demonstrate how a domesticworker helps her daughter who is a fifth graderand is confounded by algorithms, by breaking aproblem into manageable parts1 . That is howshe does her everyday arithmetic. The purposeof these examples was to illustrate the necessityof using the ‘secondary discourse of otherspheres of human endeavor’ to help the studentsacquire the ‘secondary discourse associatedwith schooling’. This secondary discourse ofother spheres of human endeavor is embeddedin the numerous stories, riddles, folk games andwork practices of rural tribal communities.Panda and Mohanty (2009), both directors ofthe MLE Plus programme in Odisha haveillustrated in their study on seventh grade Saorachildren, how a folk game called Aphuchhi canbe used to teach probability.Community knowledge, which includes workand play-related discourse, can therefore beregarded as a secondary discourse and a sourceof ‘academic language’. But the MLEprogramme planners seem to have missed thispoint. The MLE programme, for all its success,depends on the transfer of learning from themother tongue to the school language. If theacademic component of the secondarydiscourses conducted in the mother tongues ofnon-literate cultures is not exploited forclassroom use, there is little hope of effectivetransfer of learning from the mother tongue tothe school language. Under thesecircumstances, it is impossible to hope that MLEcan rehabilitate community knowledge in theschool curricula. To illustrate the point, one findstraditional measurement practices labeled as‘non-standard’ in the MLE Math textbook.To conclude, the title of the MLE leaflet says itall—‘Education for Tribal Children in Orissa’.The aim of the programme is to make studentsproficient in Odia which is the ‘cognitiveacademic language’. But how this aim can be

achieved when language-rich TLMs (from themother tongue) are categorized under BICS isnot clear. It is therefore essential to plan a carefuluse of TLMs for the so-called ‘two trackstrategies’.1 The fifth grader has to divide 180 by 3. The motherfirst separates 50 thrice. Of the remaining 30, sheputs 10 along with each of the 50s so that at the endshe has three separate 60s.

ReferencesBeach, K. (1995). Activity a mediator of socioculturalchange and individual development: The case ofschool-work transition in Nepal. Mind, Culture, andActivity, 2, 285-302.Cobb, Paul & Bowers, Janet (1999). Cognitive andsituated learning: Perspectives in theory and practice.Educational Researcher, 28(2), 4-15.Coelho, E. (2004). Adding English: A guide toteaching in multilingual classrooms.Toronto: Pippin Publishing.Cummins, Jim. (2008). BICS and CALP: Empirical andTheoretical Status of the Distinction. In B. Street, &N. H. Hornberger (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Languageand Education (2nd ed.). (Vol. 2: Literacy, pp. 71-83).New York: Springer Science + Business Media LLC.Cummins, J. (1981a) Age on arrival and immigrantsecond language learning in Canada. Areassessment. Applied Linguistics, 2, l32-l49.Hanks, W. F. (1991). Foreword. In J. Lave & E. Wenger(Eds.), Situated learning: Legitimate peripheralparticipation (pp. 13-26). Cambridge, MA:Cambridge University Press.Panda, M. & Mohanty, A. K. (2009). Languagematters, so does culture: Beyond the rhetoric ofculture in multilingual education. In Mohanty et al.(Eds.), Multilingual Education for Social Justice:Globalizing the Local (pp. 295-312). New Delhi:Orient Blackswan.Rampal, Anita, Ramanujam, R. & Saraswathi, L. S.(1998). Numeracy Counts! National LiteracyResources Centre Publication.

Urmishree Bedamatta is Assistant Professor at theDepartment of English, Ravenshaw University,Odisha.

[email protected]


IntroductionWhen I first visited Poorna, an inclusive,‘alternative’ school in Bangalore and spent timewith the students, I was struck by their candourand easy articulation, and most of all by theirfree and fluent expression. They showed acomplete lack of self-consciousness aboutbackground, class, caste and religion, in forgingrelations. I wondered how social rights andequality, expressed so matter-of-factly by theseyoung ten-year-olds, had come to be a part oftheir lives. In a school hallmarked by its socio-economic and cultural diversity, how did theidentities and expression of the students, escapefrom falling into class traps?I wanted to observe how these learners hadchartered this journey, and whether classdistinctions had initially played a role in the waythey expressed themselves. Therefore, armedwith Bernstein’s theory of language codes, Irevisited Poorna at the beginning of theiracademic year, and observed and spoke tochildren and teachers of the youngest classes.

Bernstein’s theoretical frameworkBasil Bernstein, a British sociolinguist, made asignificant contribution to education with histheory of language codes. Bernstein studied theinfluence of the structures of class, power andideology, and their impact on language. He founda strong relationship between societal class andlanguage. He derived the terms ‘restricted code’and ‘elaborate code’ to explain his findings.

While Bernstein’s restricted code speaks of alanguage that is highly contextual and isunderstood only by those aware of circumstantialspecificities, the elaborate code is more universalin its outlook. The elaborate code refers to anexplicit language that does not assume that itsaudience will be homogenous. Bernstein foundthat learners from a working class backgroundspoke a restricted code and performed poorlyin language-related subjects, while their middleclass counterparts performed better at language-oriented subjects and spoke an elaborate code.However, his analysis did not stop at thissuperficial level. Bernstein viewed language notonly as an instrument of communication, but alsoas an expression of mental structures shapedby a symbolic differentiation of classes.According to Grimshaw (1976), Bernsteinbelieved that the language one used wassymptomatic of internalized class structures, andrevealed one’s Weltenshauung (one’sconception or apprehension of the world basedon one’s specific standpoint).Although criticized for being a deficiencytheorist, Bernstein sought answers as to whydiscrepancy between language codes occurredand pinpointed pedagogical and curricularaspects that hindered or fostered elaborate code.To understand this discrepancy, he coined theterms classification and framing. According tohim, classification refers to the separationbetween the subjects taught in school. Strongclassification means the boundaries betweensubjects are clearly defined, while weak

Do Language Codes Affect Multilingualism?:A Case Study of an Inclusive School

Sneha Subramaniam


classification allows for links to be madebetween subjects. By being able to relatedifferent subject matters to each other and totheir everyday life, students gain the ability totranscend context and speak in a manner thatpeople beyond their class can understand, i.e.using elaborate code. However, if, for instancethe language used in a Mathematics classcannot be used in an English class, then oneremains in the restricted code, able to conferonly with an audience that has exactly the sameinformation. It then becomes very difficult forthese learners to go home and tell their parentswhat they learnt in the Maths class if the parentsthemselves are not in the Maths class, becausethe general concepts do not seem to transcendthe boundaries of the class into actual life.The framing of the classroom reveals who hasthe right to expression. While high framingsuggests that it is mostly the teacher who isrelaying information, low framing implies thatthe dialogue in the classroom is structured sothat the students too are able to contribute todiscussions and express themselves. Bernsteinnoticed that classrooms which have low framing,encourage students’ expression and createenvironments for an elaborate code, so that thestudent’s own words and home contexts findrelevance with the subject matter.

Arriving at a hypothesisOn my first day at Poorna, I observed thechildren interacting with each other and theteacher in the UKG class. I remarked somethingcurious which I thought related to Bernstein. Ayoung girl S, from an affluent background, toldme immediately after meeting me that she spokeHindi at home. She said this in English, she talkedto her friend in Hindi, and in her Kannada class,she seemed to be most vociferous, even thoughthis was her third language. On the other hand,another young girl C from a migrant labourerfamily whose first language was Kannada,

remained largely quiet, and mostly played alone.Even during the Kannada class she seemed toexpress herself only by making inarticulatesounds and gestures.This observation led me to wonder whetherchildren who spoke in a restricted code found itharder to grasp a second language. Does beingable to traverse contexts relate to being moreeasily able to traverse between entire languages?I was inclined to think so. Therefore, I decidedto investigate whether one’s language code hadany implications on multilingualism.

MethodTo study the impact of language code onmultilingualism, I undertook classroomobservations, watched out-of-class play, andconducted teacher interviews for class I atPoorna . During classroom observations, severalquestions were going through my mind. Someof these were: Was the language in theclassroom mostly the teachers’? Was thereformal or informal use of language? Howdid the teacher cue/ restrict students’response? When students spoke who did theydirect their speech to and was it self-regulated? What did students use their speechopportunities for? How did the teacher dealwith students’ mistakes? Did students’ degreeof expression vary depending on thelanguage being taught and familiarity withit?

Findings and analysisThe language used in the classroom wascontrolled mostly by the teacher, who led theclass, and chose the song and the activity carriedout. While the teacher used formal language,she did not hint at any correction when thechildren expressed themselves using incorrectgrammar. Her focus instead was on theexpression itself. Students spoke to each other


and to the teacher in the class, sometimes aboutrelated topics, asking questions, giving theircomments, and sometimes saying unrelatedthings. They did not self-regulate, which wasindicative of low framing.When students made mistakes while repeatingthe songs being sung, the teacher did notreprimand them. Instead for S, she reiteratedthe instructions once again and for C, sherepeated the instructions in Kannada. Hence,while initially it seemed that C’s expression inEnglish was limited because she did not knowthe language, as she became familiar with theclasses she became the loudest of all. The factthat she did not know the language very wellwas never emphasized, and special translationswere made for her. As a result, she never feltthat her expression should be limited.The analysis of C’s teacher vis à vis her potentialfor expression and her propensity towardsmultilingualism ties in with Bernstein’s ideas ofclassification and framing. The teacher tookpride in the fact that C did not havepredetermined boundaries dictating how sheshould behave and what she should say inschool. If she walked out barefoot from herhome, she was happy to do the same fromschool. She had a strong connection betweenher school life and her everyday life, and thisimplied that classification of activity—whichprecedes the classification of subjects in achild’s education—is a non-entity.As far as out-of-class play was concerned, Capplied her learning in everyday life as well asin play. In fact, while playing by herself in thesandpit, I heard her say, “mele, kelegede, up,down,” (up, down in Kannada and then inEnglish) and making corresponding handgestures and laughing to herself as she recitedthe words.S brought her knowledge of language to all theclasses, and sometimes made an effort toensure that all the children understood her, thus

stressing upon a non-particularisticunderstanding.This observation illustrates that these studentsare generally not aware of any class distinctionsin the classroom, and even if they are, it doesnot shape or influence the way they interact orexpress themselves. There are no feelings ofsuperiority or inferiority based on class or caste.This is fortified by the fact they are never everdisparaged in class for not expressing themselvesin a ‘correct’ manner, nor are they evercompared to one another. These are, perhaps,social factors that influence whether one hasan elaborate or restricted code in early primaryschool years, in the sense that they are probablyhighly influential in determining whether a childwho speaks a restricted code in the primary yearsis able to arrive at the elaborate code expressionlater. The very fact that societal class does notimpact the children’s lives outside of theirhome—at school where they spend most of theirday, means that they are not given a chance tointernalize class differentiation as mentalstructures. At this stage, therefore, C’s workingclass background does not seem to precipitateher speaking in a restricted code, nor does itseem to have any effect on her inability to relateto another language besides her mother tongue.On the contrary, she seems to be makingmeaning of what she is learning in the classroomoutside the class, in Kannada and in English.It seems likely, therefore, that the relationshipbetween class, language codes andmultilingualism depends firmly on the curriculumand the pedagogy of the school, and is highlysusceptible to classification and framing, just asBernstein suggested. In the case of Poorna, infact, the curriculum and pedagogy deliberatelyaddresses differences in language exposure inthe classroom, which in turn seems to dissolvethe stratification of language codes so that oneis not affected by the other.


ConclusionWhile Bernstein undertook his research inBritain, this study demonstrates that his theoriescan also be applied in the Indian context. Withregards to whether language codes do or do notrelate to multilingualism, I am not sure whethermy findings will be replicated if this study isconducted in Britain. Perhaps, this is largelybecause the majority of India is multilingual, andmultilingualism is often a matter-of-fact part ofour day to day living. Moreover, in India,multilingualism is mostly acquiredconversationally, rather than in academic arenasand is part of informal socialization, rather thanpedantic expression. When a language is learntinformally, then the connections between codeand language acquisition seem to disappear, asin the case of Poorna.Finally, I believe that this investigation intoBernstein’s theories emphasizes just how crucialit is for educators to be cognizant of the largerresponsibility and influence they have, whichgoes far beyond transacting the transmission ofinformation. It is with this hope that we mayuse Bernstein’s theory to foray into criticalthinking so that learners and teachers alike maystep back and examine the structural forcesimposed upon them, in order to consciously andconcertedly use our own understanding andexpression to transform prejudice. My studyestablishes that there is absolutely no relationshipbetween the societal class and the potentiallinguistic ability of a child. Such stratifyingconnections seem to be hegemonic constructsthat we as educators must work towardsdissolving with what seems to be a rather sturdyscaffolding of weak classification and lowframing. If the autonomous beings we helpshape, develop in this solid environment, asopposed to crumbling under the subjectedexpression of others, I am sure they will be ableto hold their own and exude their own identitiesand worth.

ReferencesGrimshaw, A. D. (1976). Polity, class, school, and talk:The sociology of Basil Bernstein. Theory andSociety, 3 (4), 553-572. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/656814Dillon, D. & Searle, D. (1981). The role of language inone first grade classroom. Research in the Teachingof English, 15 (4), 311-328. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40170931

Sneha Subramaniam is pursuing an M. A. inEducation at the Azim Premji University. She isinterested in language and curriculum development.She loves to travel and enjoys the serendipity ofconversations when meeting new people.

[email protected]


How do we approach teaching at primarylevel?All our methods of teaching have been derivedfrom the insights that we have generated throughlively interactions with children, observations andsimple experiments. We would all agree thatchildren learn by feeling things, throwing them,banging them, observing them, by askingquestions, by listening to others, byexperimenting, by narrating, etc. While doing allthis, they are constantly connecting to theirprevious experiences and building on it. Thus,the education processes in our schools are gearedtowards providing opportunities to childrenwhere they learn by connecting to their previousknowledge and achieve understanding in thedesired domain (at least we advocate it throughour curriculum documents!).

What is language?According to Halliday (1993), “language is theprototypical resource for making meaning” (p.1). A child uses a language to understand theworld around her/him. Higher the ability to usea language for detailed descriptions of concepts,and explaining phenomenon, deeper will be itsunderstanding. Krishna Kumar (1986) adds,“language shapes the child’s personality,including perceptions, abilities, attitudes, interestsand values” (p. 9). Therefore, language is atthe heart of all kinds of learning.According to the NCF (2005), “………….allteaching is in a sense language teaching” (p.39).

How should we approach language teachingat the primary level?Observing children to understand how theyacquire their mother tongue should give us aninsight into how we should approach languageteaching in schools. For example, at the age offour, when children call an object ‘a bag’ theyare not referring to a particular bag, but areidentifying bags in general. They identify it eventhough the bag may be of plastic or jute or cloth.They won’t necessarily be able to tell that thesebags are of different material, but definitely,identify and say that these are bags. If we lookat this example a little closely, we realize that inorder to identify a bag, one needs to know thatit has a handle, and a space to keep something.The handle may be of different kinds, butchildren are still able to recognize it. Theyrecognize that all handles share a certainsimilarity—all handles are U-shaped, more orless. Sometimes, they may refer to a steelcontainer with a handle as a bag, but this isprecisely how a child learns new words orconcepts, by accommodating changes.Therefore, a child enriches his concepts whenhe understands that not everything that has ahandle and a space is called a bag—this, forme, is a lifelong process.Therefore, when a child identifies objects, heknows their concepts well—to the extent hisage and exposure permits. If we ask a child ofage four years to categorize some objects, she/he would display a conceptual understanding ofthe objects, even though that understanding mayor may not be acceptable in the world of adults.

Language across Curriculum: Principle toPracticeNisha Butoliya

‘Language is best acquired through different meaning-making contexts, and hence all teachingis in a sense language teaching.’ (NCF, 2005, p. 39)


Also, she/he may not be able to explain therationale behind the categories (due to fear/hesitation/other similar factors), but she/he wouldhave an understanding about their uses, shapes,sizes, where they may be found, whether theyare edible, etc. To my mind, this understandingis holistic, and not YET divided by theboundaries of subjects—since I know shapes, Iknow Math; since I know uses, I know EVS;since I call it correctly, I know language.Further, when a child describes a bag in minutedetail—its size, shape, material, design,embroidery or painting, number of pockets withzips or buttons, etc., two processes take placesimultaneously. On the one hand, she/he is useslanguage to describe the bag, and on the otherthe description of the minute details using alanguage help her/him to understand the bagbetter. Numerous such examples are availablearound us. To generalize, language learning inchildren takes place along with conceptformation and cognitive engagement with theworld around them.Secondly, the use of appropriate linguisticcomponents (words, gestures, stress, intonation,etc.) is not only an indicator of a person’slinguistic abilities, but reveals much more. Whichwords can be used with whom? Where to putthe stress? What is the point one is making?How to respond? Where is the gap in thearguments? What is the essence of the talk?Analyzing all this also requires sound knowledgeof the subject matter being discussed, apart fromthe skills of analysis, synthesis, questioning,responding, etc. Although these cognitiveacademic skills are transferable, the knowledgeof the subject matter can only be gained throughactive engagement with the content. Thus,conceptual understanding requires language, andfor learning a language we need conceptualunderstanding. We cannot separate the two.

Today’s scenarioIn schools, we teach mathematics, twolanguages and EVS as the ‘main’ subjects, andother subjects such as art, craft, and P.E.(physical education) are considered as co-curricular activities. How many Scienceteachers help children to understand and analyzethe text, or engage them in meaning-makingprocesses? For instance, how many of us havereally had an opportunity to derive meaning outof the term ‘photosynthesis’ through our ownengagements in relevant activities. That issupposed to be the responsibility of a languageteacher. Conversely, in how many languageclasses do the students find time to take upscience concepts and analyse and discover itsmeaning. Different kinds of lessons—History,Science or Geography—given in a languagetextbook get the same treatment. Thus, it is clearthat school subjects are so isolated from eachother that collaboration among teachers teachingthe same classes is also rare.The second related notion is that of ‘languageas a medium of instruction’. One only looks atlanguage in the context of other subjects, as justa medium of instruction. When a languageteacher was asked for an opinion, the reply was,the language in which the majority of subjectsare taught should be given importance andshould be taught in the class. This implies thatthe one who instructs needs a language. Since,a child is there just to follow, she/he either doesnot require a language, or can manage with thelanguage of instruction. To my mind, there is aserious flaw in this scenario. Where is the placefor the child’s language? What will happen tothe concepts that a child forms while acquiringor learning a language? Since we look atlanguage simply as a medium of instruction, wedo not advocate the utilization of the child’slanguage. Under such circumstances, the entirepractice of school teaching is set up for failure.


The problem under considerationThe syllabus is compartmentalized, and so is themeaning; the children fail to understand theholistic perspective and the teachers find itdifficult to provide meaningful opportunities.

Way forwardThe only way to sort out this problem is to followthe ideal of ‘a language across the curriculum’.According to the NCF (2005), “A language-across the-curriculum perspective is perhaps ofparticular relevance to primary education.Language is best acquired through differentmeaning-making contexts, and hence all teachingis in a sense language teaching” (p. 39).A language-across the curriculum approachfocuses on providing hands-on experience to thechildren so that they can discover, explore andquestion the world around them. Language playsan important role in this, because a child’sabilities flourish through her/his own language.He feels respected and included in the teaching-learning process; his language flourishesbecause she/he works with other children aswell as a group of teachers who speak differentlanguages. As mentioned earlier, she/he useslanguage to understand the world, and in turnthis process enriches the language itself.In order to promote ‘theme based teaching andlearning’ process in schools by demonstratingits efficaciousness, my team1 and I attemptedto apply the concept of a language across thecurriculum.We analyzed the curricula and syllabi of all thesubjects taught at Primary level (Classes 1 to5). We identified the concepts that needed tobe discussed, the skills that needed to befostered, and the abilities that were required tobe nurtured from classes 1 to 5. We found thatthere were three themes that ran through allfive classes, and addressed most of the conceptsmentioned in the syllabus. These themes were‘Myself ’, ‘Water’, and ‘Trees in the

playground’. We selected the themes based onthe following criteria:- Themes should be very specific.- Children should be able to get a first-hand

experience.- They should be age appropriate and

interesting.- They should not be too broad, such as ‘Our

earth’. This is because at that age, a childwill not be able to actually feel ‘the earth’,or comprehend its vastness.

For one year, we worked on three themes. Wewove the concepts, skills, and abilities aroundthem in such a way that we progressed fromclass 1 to class 5. Thus, we got concentric circlesaround each of the themes. Figure 1 illustrateshow various concepts such as shape, size, colour,kinds of roots, angles, breadth, length, leaves,and photosynthesis can be woven around thetheme ‘trees in the playground’. The concentriccircles correspond to different levels of difficulty.This simple example gives us a glimpse of howa simple theme can be used to explain concepts

Fig 1Once the themes were finalized and the conceptsand skills were woven around them, we choseage appropriate literature and other readingmaterials for all the subjects from various


sources including text books, to get the relevantmaterial. With the content ready, we startedthinking about interesting and challenging theme-based activities which would bind the conceptsand skills of all the subjects together. We cameup with a lot of activities which providedopportunities for exploration, analysis, collectionof data, deriving conclusions, questioning andinterviewing, public speaking, etc. Figure 2illustrates how the activities were woven withthe concepts2

Although the activities were not new, they gaveus a glimpse into how meaning-making contextwas readily available with us. We were able toeasily remove the boundaries between subjectsand shake the notion that language was just amedium of instruction.We came to the conclusion that theme-basedplanning takes time and effort, but once it is donechildren LEARN in the true sense of the word.They even learn the school language by masteryof the concepts. This, I feel, is ‘learning withoutburden’. But for this, there cannot be any one

prescribed book for the children, they may referto and read several books out of their interestfor exploration.In primary schools where one teacher teachesall the subjects, implementing theme-basedteaching and learning is easier. In schools wherethere are different teachers for differentsubjects, they all can collaborate to apply theme-based teaching learning.

ReflectionsWhile doing activities such as the ones listedabove, I found that my students of class 3 hadbecome more vocal—they asked morequestions, they started explaining concepts toeach other, they suggested different ways inwhich class 2 students could participate in skits,they wrote poems, and drew pictures. Theyeven wrote their own answers, and framed theirown questions. Even though these were far fromperfect, it was their own work. For me, this wastruly (language) learning in context.

1 We, the team of teachers at the Aditya Birla Public School,Kharach were guided by an educationist Shri Rasik Bhai Shahto implement theme-based teaching learning.2 Both these webs are developed by me. The first one is madein powerpoint, while the second is created using mind map.

ReferencesKumar, Krishna (1986). The child’s language andthe teacher: A Handbook, United NationsChildren’s Fund, 1986.Halliday, M. A. K. (1993). Towards a language-based theory of learning. Linguistics andEducation, 5, 93-116.National Council of Educational Research andTraining (2005). National Curriculum Framework2005. New Delhi: NCERT.Dhankar, Rohit (October-2009). Importance oflanguage. Learning Curve, XIII, 10-12.

Nisha Butoliya worked as a Primary Teacher for 6years. Presently she is working as Coordinator,Academics and Pedagogy in the UniversityResource Centre of Azim Premji [email protected]

Fig 2


IntroductionVocabulary and its accurate pronunciation playa pivotal role in learning a language. When weconsider the phonological aspect of vocabulary,it includes both the vowels (monopthongs anddiphthongs) and consonantal sounds. Teachingand learning of English and its vocabulary areunsatisfactory in Assamese medium schools,especially in rural areas. The present articleattempts to study the learning of some difficultsounds of English language, especially fricativesand affricates. Through the article, I have triedto identify the reasons behind the phonologicalproblems encountered by English languageteachers and students in Assamese mediumschools, and recommend remedial measures inorder to improve the second language teaching-learning scenario.Fricatives and Affricates are the two classes ofconsonantal speech sounds that Assameselearners of English either pronounce wrongly,or find most difficult to pronounce. In thearticulation of fricatives, the active and passivearticulators form a stricture of closeapproximation, and the air escapes through thenarrow gap, causing audible friction. Affricateson the other hand, are a combination of a plosiveand a fricative. Instead of a complete closureof the vocal tract, there is a delayed release inthe articulation of affricates.The objective of this research is to ascertainthe accurate pronunciation of these two classesof speech sounds of English language.Learning the vocabulary of a language is indeed

a complex process. The primary aim of studentswhile learning vocabulary is to have the abilityto recall a word at will, and to recognize it in itsspoken and written forms. The principles oflearning English vocabulary in a proper andsystematic way are based on the assumptionsthat learners can be taught, and can teachthemselves. Teaching and learning is acomplementary process since the teacher hasto follow the same principles that are requiredby the student for learning purposes. Hence,language learning is not an activity that takesplace in vacuum.Vocabulary is central to language and is of greatsignificance to language learners. David Wilkins(1972), summed up the importance ofvocabulary for language learning: “withoutgrammar very little can be conveyed, withoutvocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (p. 111).It has been observed that most Assameselearners seem to have an instrumental motivationfor learning English. They learn English simplyto fulfil the school requirement, since English isa compulsory subject like any other subject. Inthe indigenized varieties of English (IVEs)setting, “the reasons for studying English andthe skills desired are overwhelmingly the onesnormally labelled instrumental” (Shaw, 1981, p.121). Often, lack of motivation becomes one ofthe main reasons that a majority of the studentsfail the examination, or remain low achievers.Students find the English period uninterestingand difficult, and that also impacts motivationlevels.

Fricatives and Affricates of English: A CaseStudy of Assamese Learners of English

Anima Baishya


The problematic consonantal phonemesAs mentioned earlier, Assamese-speakinglearners of English language find consonantalphonemes of English difficult and problematic.These problematic consonantal phonemesinclude seven out of nine English fricatives, andtwo affricates of English. These are:Fricatives: are non-existentin Assamese.For example, many Assamese students wouldfind it difficult to pronounce ‘fan, van, thin, they,zebra, ship and measure’ accurately.Affricates: are also non-existent inAssamese.These sounds appear in words like ‘church andjudge’.

Assamese rendering of soundsIt has been observed that the English fricativesand affricates as spoken by the Assamese showdifferent properties as compared to the wayfricatives and affricates are pronounced by thenative speakers of English. It should be clearthat it is NOT the case that the Assamesechildren hear the native sounds and render themas plosives or fricatives. On the contrary, theyreproduce what they hear from their teachersand may be parents. They seem to be replacedby some easier and similar sounding sounds, inaccordance with the law of least effort asproposed by Ferdinand de Saussure (1966).These sounds are:

Causes of the phonological problemsTeachers play a crucial role as far as secondlanguage teaching is concerned as they havethe authority to adopt effective approaches ormethods as well as suitable teaching strategies.However, for this language teachers have to beproficient enough in the language they areteaching to be role models for their students.They also have to be cautious of their ownshortcomings as wrong pronunciation on theirpart may result in a negative image of thelanguage in the minds of their students. Gatenby(1967) is right when he says, “If we can trainthe teacher, make him efficient, and give himconfidence, he can himself remove or get rid ofmost of the other drawbacks” (p. 213).Some of the reasons for the problemsencountered by English teachers of Assamesemedium schools while teaching Englishpronunciation include:• The teachers themselves do not know the

correct pronunciations.• In-service training programmes are not

compulsory for teachers and are generallyconducted for a short duration. Moreover,the notification regarding training of teachersnormally does not reach schools on time.Also, very often, school authorities arereluctant to send the teachers for trainingas the number of professional trainers is verysmall.Thus, teachers of English in Assamesemedium schools are not normally exposedto the phonetic features of the Englishlanguage so as to teach their students correctpronunciation of English words. Most ofthem have a lack of comparative knowledgeof English sounds and Assamese sounds,not being able to correct the spoken formof English words of their students.

• Oral work is not encouraged or practisedsufficiently by the teachers.


• Most of the English language teachers inAssamese medium schools do not have aspecialization in English. Some of them arejust matriculate, and surprisingly, they areallowed to teach English without having abasic knowledge of the languagethemselves.

In order to have a clear picture of the teaching-learning scenario of English in the upper primarylevel of Assamese medium schools, the problemsfaced by learners are also a subject of concern.It is evident that when Assamese students learnEnglish, they come across speech sounds thatare quite different from those of Assamese. Theyoften find it difficult to articulate these sounds.Therefore, they substitute these English speechsounds with speech sounds of Assamese. Thispull of Assamese causes unintelligibility. Suchproblems are meant to be handled by thelanguage teacher in the classroom. However, itis debatable whether the language teacher takesnote of these problems and makes the necessarycorrections. Also, Assamese students do notget enough exposure to English. Not only doesthis contribute to difficulties in articulating thecorrect pronunciation, but it also impactsspellings, as the students are not able to perceivethe correct spelling as a result of faultypronunciation.

Suggestions and recommendationsI have made an attempt to suggest academicprinciples in general and pedagogical practicesin particular that underline the teaching ofphonology of English vocabulary in the contextof Assamese medium schools. These can helpus to understand the problems related toteaching and learning English and its vocabularyin such schools.

Academic factors• In-service training programmes should be

made compulsory for teachers, and they

should be conducted for a longer duration.The concerned authorities must ensure thatthe notification regarding training of teachersshould reach the schools on time. Theschool authorities should allow the teachersto go for training so that they can improvetheir skills as well as equip themselves withthe new teaching methods and moderntechniques.

• Teachers of English in Assamese mediumschools should be exposed to the phoneticfeatures of English language, so that theycan teach their students correctpronunciation of English words. They shouldalso have a comparative knowledge ofEnglish and Assamese sounds, so that theyare able to correct the spoken English oftheir students.

• Efficient and knowledgeable teachersshould be recruited to teach English. Theselection of teachers should be impartial andfair.

• Oral work should be encouraged andpractised.

Pedagogical issuesCareful attention must be accorded topronunciation as it is an essential part ofvocabulary teaching if the new English lexis isto be used effectively, or understood withoutdifficulty. The degree of attention paid to thepronunciation of a lexical item depends on theimportance of the item in spoken English, andthe extent to which it poses a problem for thestudents.Before teaching new pronunciations, theteachers should highlight the new vocabularywhile writing it on the blackboard. They shoulduse the technique of ‘Mimicry-Memorization’through repetition drills to teach pronunciation.In addition to this, teachers may use minimalpairs to teach two similar sounds that are


problematic for the students. Error-analysis andcorrection in different areas of pronunciationhelps students distinguish between vowelsounds—in rounding or reduction of rounding,in the lengthening or shortening of vowels, andin the consonant sounds absent in Assamese orin consonant clusters.In order to teach the pronunciation ofproblematic fricatives and affricates of English,the teacher should utilize the following sequence:1. Articulate the sound in a word.2. Articulate the sound by itself.3. Get the students to repeat the sound, in

chorus.4. Contrast it with other reinforced sounds.5. Get individual students to repeat contrasting

sounds.

The teacher may also write down all new wordsthat the students have encountered during theweek on the board. He/she should thenarticulate the words, and the students shouldrepeat them. Then the learners should take turnsarticulating the words independently and theteacher should give them feedback on theirpronunciation.The articulation of the fricatives

in the lexis must be givenspecial attention as they do not have equivalentsounds in Assamese. Similarly, alsoneed special care, and the language teacher mustmake sure that these are articulated andpronounced correctly.a) For the production of /f/ and /v/, the

Assamese medium learners have to be toldto keep their upper teeth very close to theirlower lip, and not to bring their upper andlower lip into contact. The air in the vocaltract must be allowed to flow continuously,causing friction. It is important to alsounderstand the difference between the

voiceless (when the vocal chords are notvibrating) and the voiced (when the vocalchords are vibrating) sounds. /f/ is voicelessbut /v/ is voiced. In fact, that is the onlydifference between these two sounds.

b) For the production of /è/ sound, the learnersshould be told not to touch their teeth withtheir tongue, but to keep it very close to them,and subsequently allow the air to escapeslowly and continuously.

c) With regard to /ð/, the learners have to forma stricture of close approximation insteadof a stricture of complete closure. Theyhave to be taught the basic differencebetween a fricative and a plosive. Onceagain, in order to articulate this sound thelearner needs to bring the tongue very closeto the teeth without touching them. Althoughthis needs a bit of practice, the languageteacher can handle it in the classroom. Oneshould also remember that /è/ is voicelessand /ð/ is voiced.

d) In order to articulate , the Assameselearners of English have to be asked to raisethe blade of their tongue to touch the hardpalate, keeping the tip of the tongue levelwith the teeth ridge and rounding the lipsslightly. Note that is voiceless.

e) For the production of /z/, the learners haveto be taught to lower the body of the tongue,and place the tip of the tongue very close tothe alveolar ridge so that the air can escapecontinuously through the narrow gap insteadof touching the hard palate with the bladeof the tongue. One should remember that/z/ is voiced.

f) The Assamese medium learners can betaught to pronounce by raising the bladeof the tongue and placing it very close tothe hard palate, getting the lips slightlyrounded.


g) For the correct articulation of , thelearners must understand that is acombination of /t/ and . During thearticulation of , there is a completeclosure of the oral passage and then thereis a delayed release or continued flow ofair. The learners have to be taught to stopthe air passage by firmly placing the bladeof the tongue on the teeth ridge in /t/ position,build up air pressure between the palate andthe tongue, and then to release the pressureby quickly bringing the tongue to position.

h) The same remedial measure is suggestedfor acquiring . The language teacher hasto demonstrate the difference between avoiced sound and its voiceless counterpart.The learner then needs to acquire the voicefeature by regular practice.Note that isvoiceless and is voiced.

Conclusion

So far, we have looked at the difficulties of theAssamese learners of English and how theypronounce native English fricatives andaffricates differently; the fricatives /f, v, è, ð/are replaced by stops /ph, bh, th, d/ unlike

in place of which they use fricatives. Similarly, instead of affricates, fricatives

are used. The learners must be made aware ofthe basic difference between a fricative and aplosive, and between an affricate and a plosive.Finally, the language teacher must take intoaccount the fact that in addition to the inputreceived from teachers and parents and the peergroup, the law of least effort is one of the causesof sound replacement; they should accordinglymake changes in the language teaching process.

ReferencesGatenby, E. V. (1967). The training for languageteachers. In W. R. Lee (Ed.) ELT Sections II. (pp. 65-70). London: Oxford University Press.Saussure, F. de (1966). Course in general linguistics.(W. Baskin, Trans.). New York: McGraw-Hill. (Originalwork published 1915).Shaw, W. D. (1981). Asian student attitudes towardsEnglish. In L. E. Smith (Ed.), English for cross-culturalcommunication (pp. 108-122). London:Macmillan.Wilkins, D. A. (1972). Linguistics in languageteaching. London: Edward Arnold.

Anima Baishya is a Ph.D. Scholar at the Departmentof Linguistics, Assam University.

[email protected]


Vijay Kumar (VK): Most people have aperception that teaching is a very relaxedpart-time job. Do you agree?Navnit Kumar (NK): No, not at all. If takenseriously, it is one of the most tiring, challengingbut also satisfying professions. That is why Ichose this profession. In fact, my whole familyis in the teaching profession. I was alsointerested in teaching. Therefore, I chose to bea teacher, and at present I’m teaching in agovernment school.

VK: Can you tell me something about yourschooling? How was it different from the presentday scenario in terms of the teaching-learningprocess, the curriculum, the textbooks, etc.?NK: I did my entire schooling in a governmentschool in Bihar. During our days, teaching wastextbook-centric. Generally, students would readthe text and teachers would explain it. However,when stories or anecdotes were used, studentscould understand the concepts more easily andthe class became more interesting. In our times,there were fewer public schools; consequentlythere was a good mix of students from differentsocio-economic backgrounds–a sort of commonschooling. It was very different from what wesee these days in the government schools inDelhi, where most of the students are from pooror extremely poor families.

VK: What was the linguistic background of thestudents in a class? What was the medium ofinstruction and how effective was it?

NK: At school level, the medium of teachingwas Hindi. In my class, most of the studentsused to speak Hindi (standardized Khari Boli)at home, but some spoke Maithili, Bhojpuri,Bangla or Magahi (a variety of Hindi) at home.The vocabulary of these languages is similar tothat of Hindi with minor variations. In fact, Hindihas more than eighteen related varieties. So,Hindi was the medium of instruction, but at timesone could see the influence of native languageson the Hindi used in class. For example, Hindiverb forms vary with gender, but in Magahi,the verb forms are gender neutral.

VK: What did the language classes of that timelook like? What was the pedagogical process/strategy adopted in language teaching? To whatextent was it successful in the teaching of thesecond language?NK: We used to enjoy our language classes,especially the prose (stories, novels etc.) part.The poetry part used to be comparatively lessinteresting. The reason for this was that mostof the Hindi poetry, from Aadi Kal to Riti Kalhas been written in Braj Bhasa, Awadhi orMaithili. Understanding standardized Hindi isnot a problem for a child even if his mothertongue is a variety of Hindi, because he knowsit through textbooks, newspapers, magazines,TV, radio, films, etc., but understanding acompletely different variety is more difficult.Also, traditionally, while teaching poetry thereis an emphasis on the chhand (meter), alankar(figure of speech), etc., which is generally dry

InterviewFace to Face with Navnit KumarVijay Kumar

Mr. Navnit Kumar is a language teacher (PGT Hindi) in a Delhi government school. He has done his teacher training fromthe Department of Education (CIE), Delhi University.


and uninteresting for a child. I wish thesetechnical aspects of poetry could be taught in amore interesting way.

VK: Moving on to your teaching experience,can you tell us something about the socio-economic and linguistic background of yourstudents?NK: My students are generally first generationlearners. Their parents are mostly daily wageearners, labourers, helpers, etc. In fact, most ofthem are first generation learners from the ruralvillages of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand,Bihar, Rajasthan and Haryana. Most of thechildren either speak Hindi, or a variety of Hindiat home.

VK: Having children belonging to such diverselinguistic backgrounds, how do you manage yourclasses? Do you face any problems?NK: Most of my students use different dialectsof Hindi in class, which has an impact on boththeir spoken and written Hindi. Sometimes, theymake mistakes because of the variation in theirmother tongues from standardized Hindi. Iexplain to them that some of their mistakes arecommon and are simply a reflection of theinfluence of their mother tongues. Then Idemonstrate to them that there is a certainpattern in their mistakes. The idea is to makethem proud of their mother tongues, while atthe same time making them aware of its variationfrom the standardized language, so that they canpronounce and write correctly.

VK: What do you think about the effect of themother tongue on the acquisition of otherlanguages? Is it negative or positive?NK: I feel that the mother tongue helps in theacquisition of a second language. Through themother tongue, a child is already acquainted witha language system. Therefore, a word of asecond language can be learnt as a synonym of

the corresponding word in his mother tongue.Similarly, grammatical constructions can belearnt as a model, with certain variations ascompared to the mother tongue. But, as I havealready said, sometimes the influence of themother tongue on the second language cannotbe ruled out. For example, a child tends to makemistakes in the pronunciation and grammaticalconstructions of Hindi as a result of the influenceof the mother tongue: a child whose mothertongue is Haryanvi may pronounce ‘bulb’ as‘balab’, or a child whose mother tongue isMagahi may make mistakes related to verbforms because her/his mother tongue is genderneutral.

VK: What pedagogical process/strategy do youadopt while teaching Hindi in school? In whatway is it different from the way teaching wasdone in your school days?NK: In our school days, the emphasis was ontextbooks. There was also a lot of stress on thetechnical aspects of literature. I feel that thoughthese technical aspects of language teaching areimportant, the manner in which these weretaught was not very appropriate. I try to teachthese topics through discussions, examples,anecdotes, debates, etc. I suggest to my studentsto read newspapers, magazines, novels, stories,etc., because one can’t master a language byfocusing on the textbook only. I also tell them toread about the topics that are referred to in thechapter. Interdisciplinary approach, accordingto me, is always better.

VK: I had a chance to attend a presentationmade by you at Ambedkar University, Delhi.You explained how a difficult chapter ‘Kootaj’(name of a plant), written by Hazari PrasadDwivedi, could be made interesting for children.Could you tell me a little more about thismethod?


NK: Unfortunately, when I was in school, thischapter had been taught in a linear, one-dimensional and uninteresting manner. I foundthat ‘Kootaj’ encompasses or touches ondiverse areas such as Geography, History,Mythology, practical wisdom, zest for life, satireon corruption, etc. Therefore, while doing thischapter with the children, I touched upon allthese topics. Similarly, if there is a reference inthe chapter to plate tectonic theory, I encouragethe students to refer to this topic in theirgeography books. If there is a reference toIndo-European languages, I encourage them toindependently find similarities between variouslanguages. In the same way, if there is areference to Rahim, a child can betterunderstand the point if he is aware of the storyof Rahim, his achievements as a poet, etc. Ifthe author has written a satire on corruptpractices, the teacher should initiate a discussionon it. The students can be asked if they haveencountered any corrupt practices, and whatchanges have been made to curb thesepractices. Thus, I work on the premise thatinter-disciplinary approach in teaching is one ofthe prerequisites of language classes.

VK: What is your opinion regarding languagecurriculum at various levels of schooling. Is itrelevant and interesting?NK: As far as Hindi is concerned, certainchanges have been made. For example, at thehigher secondary level, some relevant topicsrelated to creative writing and journalism havebeen introduced. However, in the junior classes,instead of including poetry or prose chapterswritten in archaic, older or different forms ofthe language, chapters written in thecontemporary form of the language should beincluded. Unnecessary emphasis on alankarsand chhands in Hindi poetry at the junior levelof schooling should be avoided.

VK: Children fear grammar. In fact, I too dreadgrammar. Do you think grammar should betaught in the manner it is taught?NK: During my school days, I used to considerSanskrit as the most difficult subject. It has somany dhatu-roops, sabda-roops, rules, etc.,and one has to memorize all of them. In Hindi,the grammar portion, particularly the technicalparts certainly creates disinterest amongstudents. However, this does not mean thatgrammar should be totally neglected; in fact, theword-building aspects of grammar such asupsarg (prefix), pratyay (suffix), etc., shouldbe taught in an interesting way. Topics shouldbe chosen in a manner that grammar teachingdoes not become a tedious and boring exercise.

VK: What modifications would you suggest inthe course content of Hindi textbooks to makeit compatible with the recommendations madein NCF 2005?NK: The recommendations of NCF 2005 aregood, but its problem areas are implementationand training. As I have already told you, emphasisshould not be only on the technical aspect of alanguage. The language curriculum should besuch that it should directly or indirectly touch ondifferent disciplines and subject areas such asSociology, Political Science, Philosophy, History,Natural Science, Mathematics, etc.

VK: Thank you for sharing all this.NK: Thank you for such a nice discussion.

Vijay Kumar, M.A. (Linguistics) and M.Phil (Libraryand Information Science) from the University ofDelhi, is a language and library science researcherand activist.

[email protected]


Noam Chomsky’s 1959 review of B. F. Skinner’sVerbal Behavior is widely acknowledged ashaving sounded the death knell of behavioristapproaches to human learning and knowledge,and as paving the way for the ‘cognitiverevolution’ in the decades to follow. Over fiftyyears later, Chomsky’s remarks are not merelyof historical significance, as they are still relevantto the contours that an enquiry into humancognition and behavior must have.At its most basic level, Chomsky’s critique ofbehaviorism claims that children’s firstlanguage(s) acquisition is directed by the stimuliprovided by adults through a reinforcement ofcasual observation and imitation by children.What Chomsky is suggesting in this early articleis that much of the child’s linguistic knowledgeis expressed in contexts where no reinforcementis ever available. As research has progressedin the area, a more complete picture of theinaccuracy of the behaviorists’ fable hasemerged. Parents neither reinforce children’sgrammatical utterances, nor pay any specialattention to their grammatical wellformedness;and children also resist any attempts atcorrection. Furthermore, while children may wellimitate the linguistic utterances of adults, suchimitation does not form the basis of the linguisticknowledge they put to use. The following twosets of dialogues—which form part of researchconducted after Chomsky’s review—demonstrate this:

A) Adult: Where is that big piece of paper Igave you yesterday?Child: Remember? I writed on it.Adult: Oh, that’s right, don’t you have anypaper down here, buddy?

B) Child: Want other one spoon, DaddyAdult: You mean, you want the other spoon.Child: Yes, I want other one spoon, pleaseDaddy.Adult: Can you say “the other spoon”?Child: Other … one … spoonAdult: Say “other”.Child: otherAdult: “spoon”Child: spoonAdult: “other … spoon”Child: other … spoon. Now give me otherone spoon.(Pinker, 1995, p. 281)

The first set of dialogues (A) show that thereinforcement that a child gets, through parentalagreement in this case, is for an ungrammaticalutterance. Simply put, parents care more aboutthe meaning and truth of their children’s linguisticacts, than about their grammatical form. Theexchange in (B) illustrates that while imitationis something that a child may easily do, neitherdoes she/he see the injunction to imitation as areinforcement behavior by the adult, nor doesshe/he let the imitated utterance form the basisof her own utterances.

LandmarksChomsky’s Innateness Hypothesis:

Implications for Language Learning and TeachingAyesha Kidwai


Add to this the fact that the nature of reinforcingbehavior may itself be full of ‘noise’, as verbalcommunication is full of false starts, stops,incomplete utterances, etc. If a child were torely on this flawed input as the basis for learninglanguage, the speed with which she/he acquiresthe basic grammar of her/his language wouldbe unexpected. Across languages, a normallydeveloping child has a complete grasp of its rulesof sentence formation (syntax) by the time sheis five. Beyond that age, even as children (andthe adult) continue to learn new words andphrases, very little syntax learning needs to takeplace; in fact, by the beginning of the teens, verylittle syntax learning can take place. An oft-mentioned example in this context is that of achild named Genie, who was rescued from anabusive father at the age of thirteen. Genie hadbeen kept in an outhouse, chained to a pottysince the age of one, and while food was pushedinto the shed twice a day, she had never beenspoken to by anyone. After her rescue, Geniemade rapid strides in cognitive development, buther overall linguistic skills remained poor, andshe could never produce grammatical utterancesof even average length.It is also rare for a child to hear ungrammaticalsentences as part of the stimulus. However, if achild’s knowledge of ‘ungrammaticality’ is also

the product of reinforcement, how is thisknowledge ever arrived at? This is especiallyrelevant when we consider the number ofmistakes that children do not make. A simpleexample is that of a phrase order in a sentence,which in a language such as English is of theorder of Agent-Action-Recipient-Object-Location. As Roger Brown observed in the1970s, while the earliest utterances of childrenin the age group 2-2.6 years conform to thisbasic order, and the difference between theiroutput and that of an adult lies mainly in the factthat children’s outputs have more omissions.These omissions can be due to a variety offactors, some acquisition-related factors andothers extra-grammatical. An example of thelatter is that children often allow the discoursecontext to do the talking as it were, so if anobject can be pointed to, they do not linguisticallyrepresent it. For example, sentence (f) belowcould be accompanied by a pointing gesture tothe object that is to be laid on the floor. A caseof grammatically-conditioned omission couldhowever be made out for the systematicomission of prepositions in the entire set ofexamples – clearly the realization of prepositionsas markers of spatial relations cannot beproduced at this early stage of acquisition.

(C) Agent Action Recipient Object Location (Mother gave John lunch in the kitchen.) a. Mommy fix. b. Mommy pumpkin. c. Baby table. d. Give doggie. e. Put light. f. Put floor. g. I ride horsie. h. Tractor go floor. i. Give doggie paper. j. Put truck window. k. Adam put it box.


In the examples above it will be noticed thatwhile the early utterances of children do notuniformly realize the full frame of Agent-Action-Recipient-Object-Location (as shown in theadult sentence Mother gave John lunch in thekitchen), they do have knowledge of the frame.If they did not, then children should have beenequally likely to produce Mommy fix as well asfix Mommy to mean ‘Mommy fixed it’; however,they do not. Similarly, if this frame were notavailable, we would expect that the childrenwould have used example (f) to describe anevent when the floor was being laid in a building(i.e., when the floor was interpreted as theObject), but that was never the case – (f) wasused when something was to be laid on the floor(i.e., the floor was location).Children also do not make certain mistakes thatthey would be expected to make were theygeneralizing from observed patterns. As Pinker(1994) points out, if British/American English-speaking children were generalizing fromobserved patterns, we would expect that onobserving the patterns in (D), they would utterthe ungrammatical (Eii). However, British/American English-speaking children never makethis mistake.

(D) (i) Irv drove the car into the garage.(ii) Irv drove the car.

(E) (i) Irv put the car into the garage.(ii) *Irv put the car.

Since the 1970s, this line of reasoning has cometo be known as the ‘poverty of the stimulus’argument: Given that the data children receivefrom the input is woefully underdetermined toserve as the basis for language acquisition, andgiven that children nevertheless do acquire thegrammar(s) of their native language(s), it mustbe that the child’s learning of language is guidedby some form of innate linguistic capacity. Theexistence of a critical period—a window of time

in which environmental exposure stimulates aninnate trait—for language acquisition suggeststhat this innate endowment is genetic, “spurredon by the unfolding of the genome duringmaturation” (Pinker, 1995)Finally, if grammar is what this innateendowment must be, then this human cognitiveability is an instance of domain-specificintelligence, unrelated to the development ofgeneral intelligence and cognitive abilities.Research, both preceding and followingChomsky’s (1959) Review has confirmed thisin a number of ways. The human brain hascircuitry in the left hemisphere exclusively forlanguage, and there are a few inheritedsyndromes that target language alone. One suchsyndrome is Specific Language Impairment(SLI), which recent research has establishedas genetic. SLI is a purely linguistic inheriteddisorder caused by mutation in the gene FOXP2.Moreover, intact language has been found tocoexist with severe retardation, as in the famouscase of Christopher, who was born withhydrocephalic brain damage, and was severelyretarded, but had unique and prodigious languageabilities—he could read, write and communicatein any of fifteen to twenty languages (Smith andTsimpli, 1995).For language teachers of young children today,Chomsky’s nativist ideas point towards aprofound question—how much of the innateendowment is implicated in the construction oflinguistic knowledge? Chomsky’s answer wouldbe much along the same lines as his observationsin the Creation and Culture Conference inBarcelona in November 1992:Most problems of teaching are not problems ofgrowth but helping cultivate growth. … Typically,they come in interested, and the process ofeducation is a way of driving that defect out oftheir minds. But if children[’s] [...] normalinterest is maintained or even aroused, they cando all kinds of things in ways we don’tunderstand.


It is therefore important to question whether themethodology we employ assumes that first orsecond language learning is primarily graphic,and that the process is deductive, requires rotememorization, role playing and structure drilling,and stress habit formation as a means oflearning language. These are all behaviouristassumptions. Teaching first or second languagesthrough grammar is not really teaching languageat all, because what is taught is a system ofprescriptive rules that linguists/grammarianshave come up with to describe a language. Totell students that they must not split an infinitivewith an adverb is to teach an aesthetic choice—i.e. the ‘correct’ form is not I want to quicklytell you but I want to tell you quickly—becauseall native speakers of English actually agree thatboth alternatives are grammatical. Teachingyoung students the grammatical jargon for theform ‘I am reading” is the present progressive,is not teaching language, but grammar, and whilean appreciation of grammatical analysis is animportant aspect of learning, this is asophisticated skill and not suitable for very youngchildren. At the heart of our teaching must liethe understanding that children already knowtheir first language, and that this knowledge canbe harnessed to acquiring other languages aswell. Finally, while the focus on writing is crucial,it must not be at the cost of encouraging childrento fully ‘activate’ their developing knowledgeof language, by learning new vocabulary (theonly aspect of language acquisition that carrieson throughout one’s lifetime) and using all thesyntactic constructions they have an innatecompetence in.Awareness of the innateness argument shouldalso enable us to critically evaluate theinstruments by which we teach language—textbooks, storybooks, readers, etc. While onecan be misled into thinking that a particular lesson‘teaches’ some aspect of language, quite oftenthe lesson’s content simply piggybacks on thechild’s tacit knowledge of language. For

example, no textbook would ever attempt toexplain the linguistic properties of the Hindi useof apne-aap, or the English themselves. In factmany crucial properties of language are not thesubject matter of lessons at all. ConsiderChomsky’s (1983) example of the kind ofsophisticated knowledge that children must haveto be able to process their parent’s utterances(even before they can themselves producesimilar ones):Take the sentence “John believes he isintelligent.” Okay, we all know that “he” canrefer either to John or to someone else; so thesentence is ambiguous. It can mean eitherthat John thinks he, John, is intelligent, orthat someone else is intelligent. In contrast,consider the sentence “John believes him to beintelligent.” Here, the pronoun “him” can’t referto John; it can refer only to someone else.

Now, did anyone teach us this peculiarity aboutEnglish pronouns when we were children? Itwould be hard to even imagine a trainingprocedure that would convey such informationto a person. Nevertheless, everybody knows it– knows it without experience, without training,and at quite an early age.The ‘Chomskyan revolution’ has had animportant impact on language teachingmethodologies, particularly in the developmentof content-based communicative approaches.These approaches make active learnerparticipation the centrepiece of the activity, andaim at providing appropriate language input andincreasing communicative competence.However, there are still many other fruits thatremain to be picked. One of them is theimplication that the Chomskyan revolution hasfor mother tongue education and multilinguallearning.Although we have not mentioned it thus far, theChomskyan perspective argues that the innate


mechanism enables children to acquire as manylanguages as there are in the input provided achild’s environment. So, if a child has parentsthat speak to her in two languages, sayMalayalam and Bangla, and her playmates andother caregivers speak to her in Hindi, she willacquire at least three languages in her childhood.By the time she is five, she will be roughly equallycompetent in all three (provided, of course, thatthe input is regular and use of all three languagesis not discouraged). It has been observed thatonce children start going to school, this incipientmultilingualism gets eroded, and some of thelanguages get restricted to the home domain,often withering away. However, imagine aschool in which the languages of all childrenwere encouraged, where homework involvedlearning poetry in more than just one or twodominant languages, and where these otherlanguages were brought to the classroom andshared. In that world, children’s cognitivedevelopment and linguistic creativity woulddevelop more rapidly, and they would be moreaware of differences and the rights of others.In such a scenario, even though education mayultimately move in the direction of one or twolanguages, the richness of the initial multilingualresource would ease the transition.In the world we live in, however, many, if notmost, children are often educated in a languagethat they have never heard as the input. Whilethis language could be English, it could also be amajor regional language not spoken in their homeenvironment. This imposes a tremendouscognitive burden on the child who is expectedto gain ‘knowledge’ through a medium that she/he does not comprehend. This creates afundamental inequity between her/him and otherchildren who do have access to the language ofeducation, an inequity that cannot serve as theedifice on which true learning can be built.

ReferencesChomsky, N. (1959). A review of B.F. Skinner’s VerbalBehavior. Language, 35, 26-58.Chomsky, N. (November 1983). Things no amount oflearning can teach, Noam Chomsky interviewed byJohn Gliedman, Omni, 6, 11. No page numbers.Retrieved from http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/198311—.htm on 14 December 2012.Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct. New York:Morrow.Pinker, S. (1995). Language acquisition. Why the childholded the baby rabbits: A case study in languageacquisition. In L. R. Gleitman, M. Liberman, and D.N. Osherson (eds.), An invitation to cognitivescience. Volume 1: Language. pp. 107-133 Cambridge,MA: MIT Press.Smith, N. & Tsimpli, I. M. (1995). The mind of aSavant: Language learning and modularity. Oxford:Blackwell.

Ayesha Kidwai (Ph D, Linguistics, JNU) is AssociateProfessor of Linguistics at JNU, Delhi. Her specialareas of interest include linguistic theory, withparticular reference to generative syntax andmorphology, philosophy of language, the politics ofEnglish and language [email protected]


Second LanguageAcquisition andUniversal GrammarBy Lydia White (2003).Cambridge Textbooks inLinguistics Series.Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.Paperback ISBN:9780521796477, pp. 316.Reviewed by: Pritha Chandra

Lydia White’s book is on interlanguage grammars(ILGs) and the mechanisms used by secondlanguage learners in acquiring them. Theconcept of an ILG first came up in the 1970s.Researchers commonly held that ILGs aresystematic, with ‘errors’, that on closer probe,turn out not to be random mistakes butrule-governed behavior. Therefore, while theyappear to be beset by faults, these languageshave grammars just like other adult grammars.The second language (L2) speakers using themtherefore have complex linguistic systemsunderlying their linguistic competence.White takes the debate surroundinginterlanguage or L2 grammar representations alittle further. She suggests that ILGs areconstrained by the principles and parameters ofa Universal Grammar (UG). The principles andparameters model of grammar (Chomsky, 1981)builds on the premise that there is a specializedmodule of human language in the brain of everynormal infant. This module comprises a UG withinbuilt invariant principles (the requirement thatlexical information of individual words must notbe lost while building structures using them, morepopularly known as the ‘Projection Principle’)

and parameters to allow variation betweennatural languages (the ‘Verb-ComplementParameter’ that allows languages to either havetheir objects to the right of the verb or to itsleft). These principles and parameters have forlong been argued to shape the linguisticcompetence of native speakers of first languages(L1); they give the speakers the ability to buildgrammars in the face of impoverished input datain a surprisingly short duration, and without muchexplicit instruction. Not surprisingly, research intoL2 acquisition has also largely been directed bythe objective of investigating whether or not UGmechanisms are at play in this domain. A secondquestion concerns the extent of L1 grammarmediation in learning the target L2. Since L2learners already possess the grammar of at leastone adult language, it presents the potential riskof intervention in the target (L2) language.The literature, as many second languageresearchers point out, is often unclear betweenthe roles given to UG and Language AcquisitionDevice (LAD) in shaping linguistic competence.As White very succinctly points out, UG is atheory relevant to the issue of linguisticcompetence, i.e., it is a theory on the nature ofgrammatical representations. It provides ahypothesis space for grammars, i.e., it constrainspossible grammars in the course of acquisition.However, it is not a theory of acquisition.Unfortunately, many researchers incorrectlyassume it to be an equivalent to LAD. Inactuality, however, it is more appropriate to thinkof UG as just a part of an LDA or as a part of alanguage faculty. For language acquisition ingeneral, and L2 acquisition in particular, wetherefore do not just require a theory ofconstraints on IL representations, but also a

Book Reviews


theory of development that would tell us howthose representations are acquired.As for the role of UG, there is a lot of work onwhether parameters are at use in L2 acquisition,as for instance the research into head positionor the pro-drop phenomenon (i.e., subject-lessconstructions) by White herself. There arebroadly three approaches in this regard. The firstis the ‘parameter (re)setting’ approach, whereresearchers probe for instances of parameter(re)setting in ILGs, with a certain parameterdepicting an early stage L1 value and a laterstage L2 value, with relevant clustering ofproperties. The main idea of these works is thatwhile L1 settings prevail initially, subsequentlythey change into L2 settings. Then there is the‘no parameter resetting’ hypothesis which statesthat L2 grammars are UG constrained, and failto reset parameters. According to yet anotherapproach, L2 settings are attainable without prioradoption of L1 settings.White’s work is a defense of the significant rolethat UG plays in the formation of ILGs. Sheillustrates with several ‘poverty of stimulus’cases, where the phenomena in question areunderdetermined by the L2 input and cannot beeasily inferred by looking at frequency effects,or learned on the basis of instruction, analogicalreasoning etc. It is also explicitly suggested thatthe phenomena under study work differently inthe L1 and L2 domains. The subtle and abstractknowledge that L2 learners display is thereforenot due to the knowledge of the L1 grammaralone.It has previously been pointed out in Bley-Vroman’s influential 1983 paper that “work onthe linguistic description of learners’ languagescan be seriously hindered or sidetracked by aconcern with the target language” (p. 2) andthat “learner’s system is worthy of study in itsown right, not just as a degenerate form of thetarget system” (p. 4). Therefore, several UG/

SLA researchers, White included, emphasize onthe need to consider ILGs as a separate arenaof study. In more explicit terms, this amounts toconsidering whether ILGs are natural languagesystems, instead of merely comparing L2learners to native speakers of the L2.Researchers have variously tried to argue thatif the focus in on properties of the ILGs, onemay arrive at interesting results that show thatL2 learners arrive at grammars that account forthe L2 input (though not in the same way as thegrammar of the native speaker). The questions,then, are (a) whether the ILG is a ‘possiblegrammar’ and (b) how learners arrive at thesegrammars in the face of impoverished data.Some researchers argue that L2 learners arriveat their target grammars using a completelydifferent set of analyses than L1 speakers ofthe same language. To illustrate, while learninghow to form questions, they do not usedisplacement of the wh-phrases, instead optingfor a base-generated analysis for them. L2learners, according to these authors, thus choosevery different learning mechanisms from theones chosen by L1 speakers.In sum, White’s work is a defense of a nativistaccount for L2 learning. It is a very clearexposition of theoretical assumptions and novelempirical evidence indicating the significant roleof innate mechanisms in language learning. Inrecent years, a number of alternatives have beenproposed in opposition to Chomsky’s‘representational nativism, commonly known as‘emergentism’ (see O’Grady 2010 for acomprehensive survey). Contemporaryemergentism often tries to explain linguisticdevelopment by reference to the operation ofsimple mechanisms (essentially inductivegeneralizations) that extract statisticalregularities from experience. White, whileendorsing the view that language acquisitionmechanisms are not limited to innate biologicalprinciples, shows us how UG based studies canlead us to a better understanding of language


learning. She also makes a very strong case forwhy ILGs should be studied in their own right,instead of relating them to the adult nativegrammars of the same languages. This studycan therefore be considered as a landmark inthe study of L2 learning.

ReferencesBley-Vroman, R. (1983). The comparative fallacy in

interlanguage studies: The case of systematicity.Language Learning, 33, 1-17.

Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on government andbinding. Dordrecht: Foris Publication.

O’Grady, W. (2010). Emergentism. In P. Hogan (Ed.),Cambridge encyclopedia of language sciences(pp. 274-276). Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Pritha Chandra (PhD, Maryland) is anassistant professor in the Department ofHumanities and Social Sciences at the IIT Delhi.She has wide range of teaching and researchexperience in the areas of Theoretical Linguistics(Syntax) and Formal Semantics. She haspresented several papers at various prestigiousmeetings in Linguistics. She has publishedseveral papers in reputed journals of [email protected]

Advanced EnglishGrammarBy Ilse Depraetere &Chad Langford (2012).New Delhi: BloomsburyISBN: 1441149317,9781441149312, pp. 376Reviewed by: Bidisha Som

Learning and teaching language as a cognitiveactivity has been part of most literate societies

since ancient times. The debate about thecorrect method of teaching language is also old,perhaps starting with the Greeks (Horrocks,2010). The modern world has seen variouswaves of theories regarding language teachingmethods, the most traditional among them beingthe grammar translation method. The book,“Advanced English Grammar: A LinguisticApproach” is the fruit of labour of twoexperienced teachers of English language whohave tried to bridge the gap between traditionalmethod of teaching English, and a thoroughlylinguistic analysis of language. This was aneffort to make clear to the students “that thereis a logical system underlying the rules they werelearning by rote memory”, which is apt for thetarget population of this book, namely advancedlearners of English.The book is neatly laid out in six chapters. Afterdiscussing the primary notions of variousgrammatical forms and functions in the firstchapter, the authors move on to describe theimportant notions in English grammar from alinguistic analysis vantage point. An importantaspect of the design and choice of topics in thisbook is that it discusses the relevant notions oflanguage structure that will help the student bettergrasp the concept rather than burden them withlinguistic theories and terminologies. The chapteron ‘Verb and its Compliments’ addresses somemain basic notions of verb morphology in thelanguage, including the classification of verbsinto lexical and auxiliary verbs, and the passiveand complement structure of verbs. ‘Nouns andthe Noun Phrase’ (or the noun morphology)covers the expected ground of modifiers,determiners and subject-verb agreement. Thetreatment of the ‘genitives and possessivedeterminers’ in this section is a welcomesurprise, and has been dealt with clearly andwith adequate examples. ‘Tense and aspect’ isdiscussed in a separate chapter in great detail.A significant aspect of this chapter is that the


authors take care to show the relationshipbetween time and tense, and the different typeof mapping possible between them, such aspresent tense to talk about future time etc. In aclear departure from traditional approaches, thebook aims to teach the students that “choice oftense… follows from a few basic generalizationsrelated to how time is perceived in English”,referring to the underlying perceptual factorsresponsible for language structures. ‘Modals andModality’ is a detailed chapter; it discusses thedifferent ways to use modal verbs tocommunicate either epistemic or non-epistemicmeaning. The discussion brings out the equationof modal meaning with respect to temporalreference and aspectual distinctions, thuscreating a holistic picture of the rules governingthe function of verbs in this language. The lastchapter on discourse is short and crisp. At theend of the chapters, there are exercises on eachchapter, which is of great use to the languageteacher as these exercises can be used inclassroom teaching as well as by the studentsthemselves to sharpen their skills.On the whole, this is a very welcome book thatfills a gap between traditional grammar approachand pure linguistics analysis, and is written in astyle that steers clear of the intimidating proseof linguistic analysis and the prescriptive natureof traditional grammar. It is perhaps because ofthe long teaching experience of the authors thatthere is a conversational attitude in the writingthat can be expected to be student-friendly.Though the book is primarily addressed to thenon-native learners of advanced level English,it could also prove useful for the native speakersas a reference book, owing to the systematicanalysis of the underlying rules of the language.The idea of a nagging necessity of teachinglanguage through linguistic theories is not entirelynew, and books with this approach have beenfruitfully engaged to fill the gaps (Wardhaugh,2002). All in all, this book provides the readerswith a refreshing viewpoint of the traditionalmethod of teaching English and a linguistic

analysis of language. In addition, there iscompanion website to accompany the book,from where users can download resources.

ReferencesHorrocks, G. (2010). Greek: A history of its language

and speakers. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell.

Wardhaugh, R. (2002). Understanding Englishgrammar: A linguistic approach, (2nd ed.).Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Bidisha Som (PhD, JNU) is an assistantprofessor in the Department of Humanities andSocial Sciences at the IIT Guwahati. She hastaught various courses in [email protected]

Masti Ki Paathshala (in Hindi)By Kamalanand Jha (2009).New Delhi: Publication Department, Ministryof InformationandBroadcasting,Government ofIndia.ISBN: 978-81-230-1621-4, pp.153.Reviewed by: Parmanand Jha

Stephen Spender, the celebrated British poet, inhis famous poem, ‘An Elementary SchoolClassroom in a Slum’, portrays, with down toearth realism, the depressing faces of schoolchildren confined within the four walls of theschool classroom. On the room wall are thepictures of Shakespeare, the Tyrol Valley and amap of the world—all far removed from theinterests and concerns of the children comingfrom a socially and economically backwardbackground, and whose world is represented by


the foggy world of slums. Spender concludesthe poem, emphasizing that education should helpthese children re-establish contact withnature and life. Kamalanand Jha’s Masti KiPaathshala not only vindicates Spender’s viewsto a considerable extent, but further examinesvarious issues and concerns underlying schooleducation in India. Based on the personalexperience of Jha’s stint as a school teacher,and his findings as a research scholar at JNU,the book covers all the aspects of teaching schoolchildren. The fourteen chapters of the book,divided equally into two parts, have a niceintroduction. The first part focuses on issues suchas the relevance and role of course books,question-oriented education, self-image ofteachers and students, cultural context ofmodern education and the role of children’smagazines. The second part of the bookexamines the challenges and relevance ofhomework, and suggests interesting methods ofteaching poetry, story, drama, essay, socialsciences and grammar.Course-Books, Jha believes, are fundamentalto teaching but they should be child-oriented;related to children’s lives and backgrounds;completely free from communal, political orsectarian biases; and be taught by trained andcompetent teachers who understand thepsychology of children and rise above class andcaste contempt. Jha’s concern for a propertraining for teachers so that they may createtargeted support programs in schools for childrencoming from underprivileged backgroundsstands vindicated by a recent survey conductedamong more than a lakh of class 5 students in6602 schools across India under the aegis ofNCERT. “After fairly exhaustive questions inMathematics, Environmental studies andlanguage, it was found that the performance ofstudents from scheduled caste and scheduledtribe backgrounds was rather worse than thatof students occupying the general seats.” (TheTelegraph, 14 September. 2012).

Jha favors attempts to encourage inquisitivenessin children rather than disciplining them intosilence. In one of the chapters, AadhunikShiksha ka Nachiketa, Jha frankly admits thateducation for children has become a source ofboredom in place of an interesting and delightfulactivity. When scoring marks becomes thebe-all and end-all, the whole purpose of impartingeducation is reduced to an exercise in futility.Jha’s views are fully corroborated if one readsAnil Thakkar’s remarkable defense of the poorperformance of Indian students in the 2009Program for International Student Assessment(PISA) on the grounds “that a standardized testcan produce any sort of objective picture ofstudents’ abilities is a ridiculous proposition.”(Times of India: Counter View,7 September2012).Cultural disconnect, according to Jha, has led toa gnawing gap between tradition andmodernity—the biggest irony of moderneducation. Only by striking a balance betweentraditional and the modern strategies of teachingcan we make our education meaningful andrelevant. Jha mentions educationists such asGijubhai Badheka, Prakash Chandra Shukla, AnilSadgopal, Krishna Kumar and Rama KantAgnihotri, whose contributions to the field ofeducation have been significant and havegenerated fruitful debates and discussions allover the country. Books authored by them havehelped tremendously in honing the skills ofteachers. Jha suggests three specific magazines(Eklavya from Bhopal, and Primary Shishakand Bharatiya Aadhunik Shiksha by NCERT)that may improve the standards of teachingsubstantially. The last chapter of the bookcondemns banning of books or portions thereofdue to vested interests, and strongly advocatesa shift of marginalized materials to the centre.Part 2 of the book begins with a realistic accountof the challenges faced in the teaching of SocialSciences, and offers strategies to handle them.History teaching, Jha holds, requires objectivity


and impartiality on the part of teachers who mustalso have a historical insight. Geography andCivics can be made more interesting by relatingthem to the children’s‘ immediate surroundings,and through group activities and team work.While assigning homework, the teacher musttake note of the different levels of students inthe same class. The next five chapters exploreinnovative methods to make the teaching ofpoetry, short story, drama, essay and grammarmore interesting and delightful. Traditionalmethods of teaching these genres have alsobeen critically examined. Jha concludes byasserting that many of the old methods need tobe dispensed with in favour of new ones whichmake the students stay connected and enjoywhat they read.Masti ki Paathshala is indeed a seminal work,which presupposes that education grows out of,and is impacted by the socio-economic-culturalenvironment. Education, as Stephen Spendersays, should instill in students the spirit offreedom and enjoyment. Jha wants to add theelements of fun and frolic in the teachingmethodology so that we allow children to retaintheir childhood and learn the lessonssimultaneously.

Parmamand Jha (PhD, LNMU) is an associateprofessor and Head of the Department ofEnglish at the C M College, Darbhanga. Dr Jhahas a rich experience of teaching undergraduateand graduate courses. [email protected]

Call for PapersLanguage and Language TeachingLanguage and Language Teaching (LLT) isa peer-reviewed periodical. It is not an ELTperiodical. It focuses on the theory and practiceof language-teaching and English is only one of the languages one might consider. Since thereare already many journals devoted to ELT, weparticularly welcome articles dealing with otherlanguages.Papers are invited for the forthcoming issues.Please follow the Guidelines given in the currentissue. The references must be complete in ALLrespects, and must follow the APA style sheet.Papers may address any aspect of language orlanguage-teaching. They MUST be written in astyle that is easily accessible to school teachers,who are the primary target audience of thisperiodical. The articles may focus on the learner,teacher, materials, teacher training, learningenvironment, evaluation, or policy issues.Activities focusing on different languages arealso invited. The article must be original andshould not have been submitted for publicationanywhere else. A statement to this effect mustbe sent along with the article.

No paper should exceed 2000 wordsincluding references and the bio-note of thecontributor. The bio-note should not exceed25 words.Last date for the submission of articles:January Issue: October 30July Issue: April 30Articles may be submitted online simultaneouslyto the following email IDs:[email protected]@[email protected]

They may also be posted to:Vidya Bhawan SocietyFatehpura, Udaipur 313004Rajasthan, India


VocabularyBy John Morgan and Mario RinvolucriELBS (EducationalLow-priced BooksScheme)Oxford UniversityPress, UKFirst Published: 1986ELBS edition firstpublished: 1991ISBN: 019442135X(Paperback)

Vocabulary is part of the ‘Resource Books forTeacher’ series. It provides the teacher with aguide to some of the key concepts of languageteaching. Intended as a book for teachers ofEnglish as a foreign language, the book exploresthe process of vocabulary learning and suggestspractical classroom activities that can helplearners acquire vocabulary. There is no lineardivisioning as such in the book, and one sectioncan be read independently of the other. Thesectioning follows the authors’ core underlyingintuitions regarding the acquisition ofvocabulary—that it is not linear but a branchingprocess; it is not an impersonal but an intenselypersonal process; that it is not a solitary but asocial process and finally, it is not a purelyintellectual/effortful process but an experientialand ‘hands on’ process. The book also givesfreedom to the teacher to plan lessons thatreflect the required styles of activity rather thanfollow any sort of progression within the text.

The book is divided into seven sections of which

sections A and B deal with vocabulary in writtentexts. Section A comprises exercises that drawthe student’s attention to new or knownvocabulary, and offers a psychological reasonfor reading. Section B lists exercises such asguessing words in the target language from agiven context. Section C is concerned with theimagery of words, and the associative power ofimage and gesture. Pictures, for example, canhelp in remembering words, and children canbe asked to draw all the words related to acertain concept which can then be labeled. Thebasic idea being explored is that children tendto remember things that they have created ordiscovered for themselves. Section D deals withthe set theory of words—why and how wecategorize words internally thematically incausative and/or temporal chains, throughassociations that derive from reading or clichésand prejudices. There are activities to exploreword profiles, intelligence tests, unusual wordfamilies, collocations, classifications, etc. SectionE encourages the learner to explore personalresponses to words (‘power words’ for instancethat are important in view of the learner’s lifeexperiences), while section F suggests ways inwhich the dictionary can help in creativelearning. From the point of vocabularyimprovement, section G is crucial in that it givesnovel as well as traditional ways of coping withvocabulary revisions. Apart from the traditionalbilingual ‘lists’ of words, there is also scope forinteractive learning of vocabulary from someof these exercises, which makes this book anextremely effective resource book for teachers.

Suggested Readings


Language Teaching Games and ContestsBy W. R. LeeSeries title: AppliedLinguistics andLanguage StudyOxford UniversityPress, UKFirst Published: 1979/1994Pages: 214ISBN: 019 4327167 (Paperback)

Language Teaching Games and Contests,now considered a classic, is designed foreffective and enjoyable learning of language.Although it includes games for all age groupsand language levels, it is especially suited foruse with large classes. There are ten chaptersin all and each chapter begins with a shortintroduction followed by an explanation ofa game. The chapters have suitable titles:‘Structure games’, ‘Vocabulary games’,‘Spelling games’, ‘Pronunciation games’,‘Number games’, ‘Listen-and-do games’,‘Read-and-do games’, ‘Games and writing’,‘Miming and role play’, ‘Language club games’and ‘Discussion games’.An underlying tenet of the book is that alanguage is learnt by using it in situations andcommunicatively. Language teaching throughgames not only improves the performance ofstudents (games are typically played to outstripanother’s performance), but also provesenjoyable given the involvement of classmates.An advantage of using language games is thatoften, these games distract the learners’attention from the study of linguistic forms perse: “They stop thinking about the language andinstead use it, receptively or productivelyas a means of considering something else”(p. 2-3). Repetition of successful and interestingcommunication is an enjoyable and encouragingway of learning language. Each chapter suggests

different games dealing with various aspects oflanguage learning. Chapter 1 for instanceproposes structure games that expose the learnerto the syntax of the target language. Alsoincluded are ‘guessing games’, which encouragelearners to communicate what they think is theright answer to the questions. These can belearnt at an elementary level (example: yes/noanswers), intermediate level (example: brushingup vocabulary with here/there kind of answers),or advanced levels (example: conditionals/hypotheticals such as “I would visit…”,and tenses/reported speech). Likewise, Chapters2 to 5 give various examples where vocabulary,spelling, pronunciation and numbers may belearnt at an elementary, intermediate oradvanced levels. Chapters 6 and 7 may beparticularly useful in that they deal withconventional listening and reading skills oflanguage learners. The former includes gamesthat help in the recognition of oral commands,listening and communicating via storytelling/drawing etc, while Chapter 7 gives variantsof games that help in responding to familiarcommands in an unfamiliar print medium,and facilitates word recognition, etc. Chapter 8introduces and thereby encourages meaningfulwriting practice through games (from elementarylevel games that familiarize learners with theletter-shapes: A is like a hut, S like a snake, andT like an umbrella; to advanced levels ofsentence relay type of games). Finally, Chapters9-10 include games involving miming, role playand discussion that ensure maximum classparticipation and enjoyment while learning. Thishandy book should be on the ‘must read’ list ofall teacher training programmes.

Suranjana Barua, has a PhD in Linguistics from theUniversity of Delhi. She is currently working atthe Centre for Assamese Studies, Tezpur University,Assam. Conversation/Discourse Analysis,Language Teaching, Gender Studies and TranslationStudies are her areas of interest.

[email protected]


Meri Badi Kitab (in Hindi)By Franz HohlerTranslated in Hindiby Amrit MehtaVani Prakashan,DelhiFirst published in2009Hindi edition 2012Pages: 316ISBN 978-93-5072-205-3

Meri Badi Kitab—a collection of short storiesby Franz Hohler, the famous writer and cabaretperformer from Switzerland—is a valuableaddition to children’s literature published in Hindi.Unfortunately, since writing for children has notyet become a serious and viable business in Indiafor authors and otherwise also, it lacks diversityof form, style and content. At the same time,children reading Hindi and other Indianlanguages hardly get an exposure to worldliterature (not even Raduga Publishers’ Hindititles from Russia, which used to be a staplediet for the previous generation).The stories in this collection, written originallyin Swiss, have all the characteristics which markFranz Hohler’s literature. His stories oscillatebetween the real and the imaginary. They havea narrative that is often grounded in fantasy, butthe fantasy in these stories is such that it willfascinate even those readers who may not havea particular liking for things intangible. This isbecause these stories are contextualized in thereal, everyday world. The fantasy in Hohler’sstories does not aim to mesmerize or mystify; itgives a subtle element of comic and humorous,e.g. a chimney visiting a doctor for sore throat(Saaf-Saaf Mamla, p. 155), or Mr. Tsogg’sclothes going to his office to attend duties whenhe refuses to get up on time (Mr. Tsogg’s ke

Kapre, p. 137). These stories also have a widerange of how and why stories (such asMendhak aur Toothpaste, p.152), etymologicalstories (such as Beemar Bahane ya Nursen,p. 266), and a story with seven different endings(Luhar aur Naanbai, p. 168) which compelschildren to analyse a situation and reflect on it.Many of the stories in the collection have thequintessential Hohler feature of having a socialrelevance. They covertly focus on the problemsof society (as in Shahar me Van ki Zameen, p.253). Thus, Hohler’s stories are different fromthe kind of stories Indian children get to savourusually in terms of form, craft and content.Another attraction of the Hindi edition is theartistically done original colour illustrations.While these stories are refreshingly enjoyablefor children, they also give them exposure to adifferent culture. In fact, these stories are alsoa good resource material for teachers to use inthe classroom. Given the fact that the book isbulky and the stories have different levels withregard to background knowledge (Maskhari,p. 258), abstraction (Srijan, p. 78, Ek Doosarip. 80, Aadmi ka Baccha p. 268) etc., theteacher can pick and choose specific stories forpleasure reading according to the level of thestudents.

Mukul Priyadarshini, teaches in the B.El.Ed.programme at Miranda House, University of Delhi.She was associated with the preparation of the NCF2005, the language syllabi and Hindi textbooks ofthe elementary level at NCERT and SCERT, Delhi.Her areas of interest are language education, writingsfor children and politics of language.

[email protected]


Activity 1: Dominos Fun

Objectives

• To build listening skills by hearinginstructions;

• To enrich vocabulary.

Materials

• Picture cards of words and letters;

• Counters or Buttons or Dominos.

Scope: Group Activity for pre-primary classesand classes 1-2.

Procedure

• Divide the class into groups of five. Giveeach child in the group a counter.

• On each table, give 5-6 picture cards. Tellthe children that when they are shown aletter card, they have to quickly find thepicture that starts with that letter, and keepthe counter on it. For example, if you showthe card for the letter ‘L’, the children shouldput the counter on the card of a lion, lamp,leopard, or whichever ‘L’ picture card isavailable on their table.

• The group which does this first for all theletters is the winner.

• For Classes 1 and 2: Picture cards can alsobe used to reinforce the concepts ofsynonyms and antonyms. The teachershows the children some picture cards. Thechildren have to put the counter on thepicture card which is the synonym/antonymof the word card shown by the teacher.

Classroom ActivitiesActivity 2: Searching SpreeObjectives• To be able to use logical thinking and

comprehension skills;• Vocabulary enhancement.

Material• Worksheet attached herewith or another

similar one designed by you;• Crayons or counters;• Letter cards.

Scope: Pre-primary and primary classes.

Procedure• Give one activity sheet to each child.• Tell the children to look carefully at the faces

on this sheet.• In lower classes, they have to listen to the

name of that face and place the letter cardwith which the name starts on the pictureof that face.

In higher classes, students have to choose thepicture which is described by the teacher. Forexample, identify Bill who has curly hair and amoustache. Or identify John who has a beard,wears spectacles and has a centre parting inhis hair.

Bhavna Tandon has been teaching primary classesin DPS International School, R.K.Puram, New Delhifor the past seven years. She also taught in BalBharati School, Rohini, Delhi for five years.

[email protected]


Activity 3: Say only ‘yes’ or ‘no’Objectives• To develop observational skills;• To develop the ability to classify;• To enable children to think, and ask precise

and accurate questions.

Material25-30 objects of various shapes, thickness andmaterials (e.g. an eraser, scale, comb, folder,key, key rings, etc.) that one can easily find inthe school/classroom.

Scope: Young learners of classes 3-5

ProcedureDivide the class into two groups. Name thegroups (the names could be A and B).Put all the objects in the centre of the class (orat a suitable place) so that both the groups cansee all the objects.Now ask any one person from one of the groups,say group ‘A’, to look at the objects carefully,and select any one object and write its name ona piece of paper without disclosing it to anymember of either group. This piece of paper isthen handed over to the teacher.The other group, i.e. group ‘B’ has to guess thename of the object that has been written on thepiece of paper by asking questions to theteacher. There are certain conditions:1. They can ask a maximum of 10 questions

from group A.2. All questions should be of ‘yes/no’ type, e.g.

‘Is it made of plastic?’ Informative questionsare not allowed.

3. Similarly, direct questions such as ‘Is it alock?’ or ‘Is it a rubber?’ are also not allowed.

The group may/may not guess the name of theobject in ten questions. In case they are not ableto guess the name, the other group takes a turn.

Now group B will choose an object from thecentre of the room, and group A will try to guessits name.The teacher may keep count of the number ofquestions each group has asked. This makesthe activity more challenging for the groups asthe students try to think carefully in order to askaccurate and the least number of questions. Forthis they need:1) to observe carefully each object, including itsshape, colour, material, use, etc., in other wordsthe properties of the objects. For example, thestudent may ask questions such as ‘Is it madeof plastic? Is it round?’ etc.2) to think about the usage of the object, e.g., isit used for keeping papers? Is it used forwriting?’ etc.3) to think about various categories of objects,i.e. stationery, electronic, wooden material, etc.?This activity may lead to learning outside of whatis described here. Conduct the activity in yourclassroom, and find out what happens.

Rajni Dwivedi on behalf of Vidya Bhavan ResourceCentre, Udaipur.

[email protected]

Activity 4: Writing PoemsObjectives• To familiarize the learners with idiomatic

expressions (in English) that include colour;• To enable the learners to write simple poems

in English.

MaterialA few objects that share the same colour, e.g.,leaves, lady finger, broccoli (for green);sunflower, lemon, picture of sun (for yellow).

Scope: Individual activity for middle schoollearners (Grade VI to VIII) for task 1 - ‘MyColour’ poem.


Procedure• The teacher takes a few similarly coloured

objects to the class, and asks the studentsto name the colour of the objects. He/shealso asks them to name a few other objectsassociated with that colour.

• The teacher then asks the students to thinkof a colour of their choice, and write thenames of different objects associated withthat colour. He/she encourages the learnersto write in the following pattern: ‘As (nameof colour) as a (name of object)’.Examples: As red as a tomato; as red as aletter box; as red as blood etc.

• The teacher narrates a poem based on theabove examples to give the learners an ideaof how to write a poem using a colour, andthe objects associated with it.

Red is the tomatothat I relish eatingin my salad;

Red is the letter boxthat helps me reachmy distant relatives;

Red is the bloodthat flows freelyin my veins.

• The teacher asks students to write a poem(in English) based on their favourite colourand the objects associated with that colour.The students may name their poems ‘Mygreen colour poem’, ‘My red colour poem’and so on. (The students may draw picturesrelated to their poem, or write them on aposter. The teacher can put up the work onthe notice board to encourage the learners.)

USP: The above-mentioned task encourageslearners to write a poem independently. Poem-writing, in this task, is a step-by-step procedure.It takes the learners from controlled writing toguided writing, and then from guided to freewriting. The task aims at nurturing the creativityof learners by giving their imagination a freerein.

Activity 5: Rhyme in lineObjectives• To enable the learners to create a string of

similar sounding words (rhyming words) inEnglish;

• To enable the learners to write a poem inEnglish, using rhyme as a poetic device.

MaterialA few folded slips of paper (each slip must havea word written on it), shuffled together.Skill involved: Group writingScope: Middle school learners (Grade VI toVIII)Procedure• The teacher divides the class into groups of

5-6 learners each.• The teacher picks up a slip from the bunch

of shuffled slips, opens it and reads aloudthe word written on it. She then utters 3-4words that rhyme with the word on the slip.Example:o Word: nighto Rhyming words: bright, white, light,

height, might, tight, flight• The learners of each group are asked to

follow the teacher’s example. A memberfrom each group picks up a slip, reads outthe word to her/his group. The members ofthe group discuss and write down wordsthat rhyme with the announced word. Theteacher helps the learners wherevernecessary.


• Once all the learners have completed writinga set of rhyming words, the teacherencourages them to make small sentencesusing the words at the end of the sentences.The sentences are then clubbed togethercohesively to make a small poem. Theteacher uses the words in the ‘night’example and makes up a poem to help thelearners understand the idea better.

Example:

The sun was shining bright

In came the lightI woke up, brushed my teeth white

Then, went on the roof to fly a kiteMy kite reached great height

Happily, I went to bed at night.

5. Each group writes a poem/poems usingsimilar sounding words (to the word in their slip)in a cohesive manner to make a poem. Theteacher asks the groups to share their poemswith the rest of the class either by reading themaloud, or by writing them on a paper for thedisplay board.

USP: In the above mentioned task, learnerswrite poems in a progressive manner in a group.Encouraging writing in a ‘step-by-step’ mannerremoves the fear of creative writing from theminds of the learners. Tasks performed in groupsenable and motivate even the shy or weakerlearners to listen and learn from the quicklearners.

Manu Gulati, TGT English in Sarvodaya KanyaVidyalaya, Panjabi Bagh, New Delhi

[email protected]

Activity 6: Playing with meaningIntroductionReading is the ability to decode and makemeaning. There is a difference between makingmeaning from a word, a sentence, or a group ofsentences, popularly called, ‘textual meaning’.A text can be oral or written. Irrespective of itsform, a text consists of sentences with a threadrunning through them that binds them. The threadis called cohesion and it refers to the relation ofmeaning that exists within the text. In fact, thetechnical meaning of the term cohesion is therelation of meanings that exist within the text. Itoccurs when interpretation of some elementsof the text depends on another element. In aclassroom, generally, the word meaning as wellas the sentence meaning is taught. It is oftenassumed that textual meaning is a combinationof meanings of sentences put together, and so itneed not be taught explicitly. An explicit teachingof textual meaning is however necessary formore effective literacy and for enhancing thelevel of awareness of the language itself (calledmetalinguistic awareness). The following activityrepresents a basic level of cohesion.ObjectiveThe objective of the activity is to explicitly teachtextual meaning.Scope: This game can be used with any classfrom 5 to 7. The complexity of the passageneeds to be increased for higher classes.Procedure• A text is given which has several blanks.

Students have to fill in the blanks from thelist of options given.

• Give the following instructions to students:• This is a small story with several blanks

numbered 1, 2, 3, etc.• A set of options numbered 1, 2, 3, etc., is

also given.


• Fill in each blank selecting from thecorresponding set of options. To illustrate,blank number 1 has to be filled in byselecting the answers from option number1, blank number 2 with options from 2 etc.

• Caution: Ensure that you do not mix up thenumbers in the blanks and the numbers inthe options.

• You are free to select any word/phrase fromthe list of options as long as you do not mixup the blank numbers and the optionnumbers.

• No answer is right or wrong; they are eitherappropriate or inappropriate.

• After filling in the options, read through thestory to make sure that it makes sense.

Extension activities

• Encourage the students to play withdifferent options and then read through thepassage to see if it makes sense, identifyspaces where it does not make sense, anddiscuss the reasons.

• Encourage the students to play with thesentences in the text by substituting thewords and phrases.

Outcomes

• Students will be able to define the meaningof textual meaning;

• Students will be able to identify places wheretextual meaning is violated, and understandreason for it.

Tips for teachers for creating the stories

• Create five to six identical texts usingdifferent options. Ensure that the texts arethe same.

• Remove all the options and place themtogether in accordance with their blanks

For example, text with blanks:

,d ekg igys Option I tc eSa Option 2 vkSjOption 3 eq>s yxk fd Option 4 ’kk;n rqeusigys dHkh vuqHko fd;k gks eq>s Option 5 vkSj,glkl gqvk fd eq>s Option 6 Option 7 tks esjkfe= gS] mlus eq>s ,d fnu iwoZ Option 8 lstqM+h Option9 fd leL;k ds ckjs esa crk;k FkkeSa Option10 FkksM+k ijs’kku Fkk vpkud lsOption 11 ns[kk Option 12 vkSj eSaus rqEgsa bldsckjs esa crkus dk fu.kZ; fy;kA

Option I

Option 2 Option 3 Option 4

• ,d v¡/ksjh rwQkuh jkr esa

• ,d vthc ?kVuk esjs lkFk gqbZ

• D;k gqvk • rqe ;dhu ugha

djksxs • D;k gqvk lquks

• 'kgj esa Fkk • ?kj ij Fkk • xf.kr fd d{kk

esa Fkk • ?kj ds ihNokM+s

esa Fkk • jlksbZ esa Fkk • gksVy esa Fkk

• Q+ksu ij ckr dj jgk@jgh Fkh

• iwjh [kk jgk@jgh Fkk@Fkh

• vius cky lq[kk jgk@jgh Fkk@Fkh

• iSny py jgk@jgh Fkk@Fkh

• vk/kh uhan esa Fkk@Fkh • vkbuk ns[k jgk@jgh

Fkk@Fkh • cSBk gqvk Fkk@Fkh

• eSa eqlhcr gw¡ • dksbZ eq>s ns[k

jgk gS • dqN Bhd ugha

gS • dksbZ cncw vk

jgh gS • eSaus ?kM+h ugha

iguh gS • eSa ,d NksVk

cPpk gw¡A


Devaki Lakshminarayan leads the Azim PremjiUniversity Research Centre. Before joining theFoundation, she was working with Central Instituteof Indian Languages, Mysore for over 20 years. Shepossesses a Doctoral Degree in Psychology fromthe University of Mysore and Masters in Linguistics,from Groningen University, The [email protected]

Option 9 Option 10 Option 11 Option 12 Write another friend’s name

• mUgsa ysdj • mls ysdj • ;g lksp dj

• esjh vk¡[kksa us • eSaus vkbZus esa • eSaus nhokj ij

fy[kk ns[kkA • eSaus isM+ ds ihNs • njokt+s ls fdlh

dks vkrs ns[kk

• ,d Hk;kud lp • ,d dqÙks dks HkkSadrs ns[kk • ml lp dks ftls eSa

ut+jvankt dj jgk Fkk • ml O;fDr dks ns[kk ftls

eSa ns[kuk pkgrk Fkk • viuh ek¡ dks • ,d cqjs LoIu dks

Option 5

Option 6 Option 7 Option 8

• vpkud Mj yxk

• [kq'kh gqbZ • Hk; yxk • cgqr vPNk

yxk

• dksbZ fu.kZ; ysuk gksxk • dqN djuk gksxk • Luku?kj tkuk gksxk • lkus tkuk gksxk • vius ckyksa dks tYn

lq[kkuk gksxk • fdlh dks cqykuk gksxk • lp dk irk yxkuk

gksxkA

Write your friend’s name

• iqfyl • lM+d ds

dqÙks • iz/kkukpk;Z • ek¡ • firk • fdlh vifjfpr


BackgroundThe Sansarg group comprises a team of peopleworking together on different aspects ofeducation ranging from theatre to teachereducation. In collaboration with UniversitySchool Resource Network (USRN), the teamhas successfully created a functional networkbetween schools, teachers, education collegesand the Department of Education (CIE) of theUniversity of Delhi, an outcome of which is aseries of material development workshops in thepast few years. These workshops focus onunderstanding the use of the current material,as well as developing new material forpedagogical use in schools. The materialdeveloped in these workshops has been ‘tried’in some schools that were part of the USRNproject. It is theme-based and most of thesethemes cater more to the areas of Languageand Environmental Studies.This six-day workshop on MaterialDevelopment, conducted at District Institute ofEducation and Training (DIET), Daryaganj from25 to 30 June 2012, was a continuation of theprevious workshops but with a more focusedgoal—reviewing the material developed till date,and improving upon it. During the course of theworkshop there were numerous discussions onthe theoretical foundations of material use inclassrooms, particularly in light of NCF 2005and the syllabus based on it. The participantsincluded trainee teachers from various coursessuch as B El Ed, DIET and ETE.

ReportsWorkshop on Material Development

June 25-30, 2012

Suneeta Mishra

ObjectivesThe sessions of the workshop were planned insuch a way that ‘Material Development’ wasnot seen as a solitary process, unrelated to thebasic philosophical and psychological tenets ofthe teaching-learning process. Anotherunderlying objective was to counter theprevalent notion of material being limited tosomething concrete, as well as limited by theparticular pedagogy areas. With theseobjectives, the sessions were basically of threekinds: 1) Theory-based (discussions aroundNCF, CCE, etc.); 2) Activity-based (materialdevelopment); and 3) Review and analysis (film-screening, material review, etc.).These sessionswere not restricted to any specific category.

SessionsDay one began with the participants sharingprevious teaching experiences, along with theresource material/teaching aids used by them.The discussion brought out many assumptionsand expectations that the teaching-learningprocess is based on. This was followed by adiscussion on some of the basic tenets of theNCF, such as ‘local to global’, ‘home languageto school language’, ‘spiralling of curriculum’,etc., along with an understanding of a broaderconcept framework. Finally, there was a ‘hands-on’ session where the participants took updifferent pedagogical themes/areas and workedin pairs to chalk out a lesson plan and select theappropriate material required for it, based onthe discussion.


This discussion, anchored in the link betweentheory and practice, continued on the secondday as well. Day two also included debates onthe components of CCE, and the scope of theuse of material other than just paper and pencil,in the CCE system of assessment.The Arts faculty of DIET, Daryaganj conducteda session in which the participants learned howto use paper, pencil and paint as powerful toolsto represent abstract ideas.Day three and four were mostly spent in thereview of existing material that had beendeveloped in the earlier Sansarg workshops. Theparticipants made presentations on the gaps inthe existing material, and how these could beeliminated by adding more content. The sharingof material review brought up many interestingissues and ideas that helped to enrich it further.For instance, many participants, while reflectingon the language used in some of the stories takenas material for various themes, changed it tomore a child-friendly and familiar language.They also included the addition of local languagewords wherever possible. In some text-basedmaterial, participants even added pictures.Different types of writing -descriptive, analytical,narrative, etc. were also discussed, keeping inmind the basic philosophy of considering readingand writing a medium of learning rather thanskills to be learnt separately.On the fourth day, the Science faculty and thePrincipal of DIET, Daryaganj, jointlydemonstrated how a simple, workable Sciencekit could be developed out of waste material.Participants prepared a pool of material thatcould be used effectively in the teaching ofscientific concepts, and developed easily by thestudents themselves.The Arts faculty from DIET, Daryaganjconducted a session on mask-making from‘papier mâché’ and plaster of paris. This wasfollowed by a discussion on how masks couldbe used as a resource in classrooms for the

purpose of story-telling, enactment, ordramatization of various concepts.Picking up on the previous day’s discussion onthe use of masks, the role of material inmotivating students was explored further on dayfive. There were debates on how variousmaterials could reduce the negative competitivespirit between students, and lead to healthy groupwork and peer-learning. The experiences sharedby the participants brought up once again thedifferences between assessment and evaluationin CCE. Participants discussed the tasks andactivities that could be used for assessmentwithin the teaching-learning process rather thandesigning tasks especially for evaluation. Thus,the difference between assessment andevaluation was also addressed.On the last day, a film was screened, andfeedback on the workshop was collected fromthe participants. The film, entitled ‘A teacher’sjourney’, was based on the life of a schoolteacher in a rural, single-teacher school. Itpresented the struggles faced by the teacher inhandling multigrade classes without muchsupport from the system, and the gradualsuccess in developing effective ways of dealingwith the situation. The post-screening discussioncentred on the effectiveness of locally-available,cost-effective material; use of childrens’knowledge and repertoire as resources; positiveuse of peer-learning in a multigrade class; andthe integration of knowledge across differentsubject areas.

Feedback and suggestions for futureendeavoursThe feedback and suggestions from theparticipants provided a valuable learningexperience for the Sansarg team. A largenumber of participants suggested sharing thematerial that they develop in their teacher-education courses, across colleges whereSansarg could provide a common platform and


space. Participants from Jamia expressed theneed for more workshops, particularly thoserelated to language pedagogy, and the screeningof films pertaining to educational and socialissues. Some participants asked for a focusedworkshop on major educational psychologistssuch as Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner.

Suneeta Mishra, M.Phil. (Linguistics), teaches at theInstitute of Home Economics, University of Delhi,Delhi. She has written this on the behalf of the SansargGroup.

[email protected]

Workshop on Language and LanguageTeaching in Schools at SCERT, Patna

July 19-21, 2012Amresh Chandra

IntroductionA workshop on language and language teachingin schools was held from 19 to 21 July 2012 atthe SCERT, Patna campus. It was organizedby SCERT in collaboration with Vidya BhawanSociety, Udaipur. It was attended by the facultymembers of DIETs and Primary TeacherTraining colleges, people from Gyanshala, teammembers of Vidya Bhawan, faculty membersof SCERT and an education specialist fromUNICEF.The purpose of the workshop was to present tothe language teachers a platform on languageteaching that was innovative, in tune to innateand natural ability of the child (however, it alsofocused holistically on the entire gamut of thelearning process of the child at the school level).The event was unique in the sense that for thefirst time, teacher educators and all otherparticipants got opportunities to think on differentdimensions of language and its teaching processin the schools that till date are largely archaicand not willing to give ‘space’ to the child in thewhole activity.

ProceedingsThe workshop began by a brief introduction ofthe guest experts, Prof Rama Kant Agnihotri,renowned linguist and Prof A L Khanna (bothformerly at University of Delhi). It was followedby the introduction of participants wherein theywere also asked to mention the language/languages they knew. More importantly, theparticipants also mentioned what they expectedfrom these types of workshops and the kind ofdifficulties they faced in language and in itsteaching. It was also reiterated by the expertsthat the workshop was not on Hindi languagebut on language and on language teaching.Multilingualism is natural and inseparable wasevident in the introductory session of theworkshop when attendees mentioned their abilityto write and speak these languages - Hindi,English, Sanskrit, Bhojpuri , Magahi , Angika,Bangla, Urdu, Punjabi, Maithali, Santhali,Himachali, Vajjika etc. It reflected that generallyone person knows more than one language andmultilingualism is quite natural. This factualrevelation emphatically underlined the fact thatall countries of the world are multilingual. Thereis no regional language but there is a region oflanguage. The other things which prominentlysurfaced in the introductory session were themistakes a child normally commits in matra,varna, ucharan (pronunciation), linga(gender).To them these mistakes are due toenvironment, society they are/ were in. Theywere also willing to know mechanism toovercome these problems.After the completion of the introductory session,a sheet was given to each participant containing10 statements about different aspects oflanguage. A few are reproduced below:1. Hindi is not the national language of India.2. India has over 1500 languages.3. There are 18 languages in the 8th schedule

of the Indian constitution.


Some of the statements seemed to testinformation but through these statements anattempt was made to assess the conceptualthinking of the attendees on language. The paperwas not meant to gauge the knowledge level ofthe participants; contrary to it, it was aimed atunderstanding opinion, attitude, views andthinking process of participants on language andits teaching process in the schools. Responsesof the participants reflected their understandingon the status of language, constitutionalprovisions for languages, evolution of Indianlanguages, status of Sanskrit (people generallyconsider it the mother of Indo-Europeanlanguages of the world; Sanskrit is actuallymother of only Indo-Aryan languages), statusof Hindi language in the country, learningprocess of language of a child. Most of theparticipants were not aware that Hindi is notour national language. This exercise was doneto get the wider perspective of the attendees ondifferent dimensions of languages and role ofsocietal, political and historical factors in therecognition and status of languages. Emphaticattention was drawn on multilingualism and areminder that the constitutive feature of India isheterogeneity of language, religion and cultureand this unique feature supports and hastensrather than retards the process of learninglanguage/ languages.The concluding session of the first dayconcentrated on the structure of words.Participants were asked to write some wordsof different languages in Roman script and wereasked to think on what could be said on thisbasis. Taking into account the views of theattendees, Prof Agnihotri underlined the fact thatscript has nothing to do with language and alllanguages of the world could be written in onescript. It was also shown that words in Englishand most Indian languages follow the structureof CVCV (C = consonant, V = vowel) and itwas also suggested that approximately 98%languages of the world follow this structure. Theparticipants also tried to examine the rules for

CCCV = i.e., the cluster of consonental soundsthat could appear in word initial position. Theysoon figured out that C1 could only be ‘s’ andC2 = ‘p, t or k’ and C3 = ‘y, r, l, w’.Second day of the workshop started with thefeedback of the participants. In it, attendeeswere asked to highlight their take on previousday’s proceedings and what new they had learnt.In the first session, it was underlined that thescience of language looks at - SAC i.e.,Structure, Acquisition and Change. There is acertain structure of language, there is processof acquisition and on temporal basis there ischange in it. The other thing figured prominentlyin the session was subtle evolution of ‘R’. Forexample, ‘R’of mar is without swar [vowel] butwith swar in ram etc.Prof. Agnihotri did not subscribe to the commonnotion of the people that there is linkage betweenone’s ability to learn language and one’s abilityto hear/listen and speak it. Use of sign languageis a testimony to this fact. He also opined that ifgovernment can afford availability ofinfrastructure to schools then a large number ofphysically challenged, deaf and dumb childrencould get access to educationIn the post lunch session of the last day, he drewsome universal rules on the basis of somesentences. After their responses, Prof Agnihotrioutlined the rules regarding a) Person, Numberand Gender (PNG) of Verb and b) rulesregarding the agreement between verbs, subjectsand objects.On the last day of the workshop, it was firmlystated that the meaning of a word is not innately(by origin) linked to its form; it can vary withplace. Structure of language is intricate andcomplex, and a child understands thesecomplexities without any external help. Againstthe misconception of the participants, hereiterated the fact that existence of language isnot possible without grammar and the latter doesnot contradict the former. There is no slavery inlanguage and it knows no boundary.


January 2013International Conference on Empoweringthe English Language ClassroomDates: January 18-19, 2013Deadline for abstracts/proposals: 15November 2012Organization: Malaviya National Institute ofTechnology, JaipurThe conference will focus on significant issuesrelated to English Language Teaching in thetechnology-dominated academic andprofessional environment, and will also exploremodern pedagogical approaches which canempower the teacher in the English LanguageClassroom.http://www.mnit.ac.in/new/cms/uploads/2012/10Brochure_International_Conference_Jan.18_-19,_2013_.pdfContact person: Dr Preeti Bhatt and Mrs NannyTripathi

IAIRS: International Conference onEnglish Language and Literature (ICELL- 2013)Dates: 19-20 January 2013Organization: International Academic andIndustrial Solutions (IAIRS)Location: The Golkonda Hotel, Hyderabad,A.P, IndiaRegistration: 25 December 2012Website: http://www.iairs.org/eng_hyd/ENGLISH.htmlContact person: Conference Secretary

ForthcomingEvents

The concluding session of the workshopemphasized the need to apply these things atthe target level (schools) and at the teachereducator level. Language teachers who arelooking for more effective and interesting waysto teach language/languages left this three dayworkshop with many practical ideas that theycould apply in their classrooms to enliven theirlessons/ class. They gained confidence abouthelping their students learn the seeminglydifficult things with great ease and scientificbase, particularly in language. The workshopcreated grounds to assist in addressing thecontinuing need to provide professionaldevelopment opportunities that enhance theteaching skills of language teachers in Bihar’sschools and in the training colleges. Theworkshop’s emphasis on “What a child knowsbefore coming/joining to school” tried to bringin the issue to the fore that a child knows manythings (including language structure) before sheenters the school premises.

Amresh Chandra (PhD, JNU, New Delhi) works inVidya Bhawan Education Resource Centre, Patna.His interest in language stems from his father, whospent time with eminent scholars such as HajariPrasad Dwivedi and Ramchandra Shukla, both ofwhom have greatly influenced Amresh.

[email protected]


invited for publication in the GSTF Journal ofLaw and Social Sciences (JLSS) (Print ISSN:2251-2853, E-periodical: 2251-2861) which isindexed by EBSCO, CrossRef, ProQuest,Ulrichsweb and Cabell’s Directories. Best Paper Awards and Best Student PaperAwards will be conferred at the conference (inorder to qualify for the award, the paper mustbe presented at the conference). L3-2013 willalso constitute a Special Panel Session.Panel Proposals are invited for submission tothe L3 2013. A minimum of three papers centringon a specific topic will be accepted forsubmission under Panel Category.Website: http://www.l3-conference.orgContact person: Penny Jing

July 2013ECLL 2013 - The European Conferenceon Language Learning ConferenceDates: 18-21 July 2013Deadline for abstracts/proposals: 1 March 2013Conference Theme: “Shifting Paradigms:Informed Responses”Location: Brighton, United KingdomOrganization: IAFOR (International AcademicForum)Publishing Opportunities: Authors of acceptedabstracts will have the opportunity of publishingtheir associated paper in the official conferenceproceedings, and a selection of papers will beconsidered for inclusion in the IAFOR Journalof Language Learning. For more informationabout IAFOR journals, go to http://www.iafor.org/journal.html.Website: http://ecll.iafor.org/index.htmlContact person: Mr Kiyoshi Mana

Haobam Basantarani is Ph.D. Linguistics,Osmania University, Hyderabad and isinterested in Sociolinguistics and [email protected]

February 2013Confluence: The 4th Annual InternationalConference on Teaching and LearningEnglish as a Second LanguageDates: 22-23 February 2013Location: Nagpur, IndiaLast date for submission of abstracts: 15December 2012Last date for submission of full papers: 15January 2013Enquiries: [email protected] address: http://www.confluenceindia.co.in

March 20133rd International English LanguageTeacher Educator ConferenceDates: 16-18 March 2013Organization: British Council, EFL-U (Englishand Foreign Languages University), ELTAI(English Language Teachers’ Association ofIndia) and IATEFL (International Associationfor Teachers of English as a Foreign Language)Location: Hyderabad International ConventionCentre, Hyderabad, India

June 20132nd Annual International Conference onLanguage, Literature and Linguistics(L3-2013)Dates: 17-18 June 2013Organization: Global Science and TechnologyForum (GSTF)Location: SingaporeThe Conference Proceedings (Print ISSN: 2251-3566, E-Periodical ISSN: 2251-3574) will beindexed by EBSCO, CrossRef, ProQuest, andUlrichsweb, and will be submitted to Scopus,ScienceDirect and Cabell’s Directories amongstothers,where applicable.Depending on their importance, originality,quality, relevance and other editorialconsiderations, eligible research articles will be

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INSIDE

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