Jhingran Educational Strategies for Multilingual Schools

8/14/2019 Jhingran Educational Strategies for Multilingual Schools

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Appropriate Educational Strategies for Multilingual Schools in India

Dhir Jhingran1

India is a multilingual and multi cultural country. Co existence of many languages, manyethnic and social groups in the Indian villages have never been a problem in their socio

economic and cultural development. But since the schools in Indian villages follow the

state language as the medium of instruction, children from diverse language groups facelanguage disadvantage and learning is blocked. Not only rural or tribal India, but in urban

India also the multilingualism plays a vital role to address the children of diverse group in

schools.

The methodology followed in almost all government schools in India is one of

monolingual submersion-teaching through an unfamiliar , second language from the first

day at school, with no effect to make the in put comprehensible to children who come from a

different language background. There is also no effort to develop the childrens firstlanguage. This is definitely the most inappropriate methodology for such situation. The ideal

strategy from the point of view of the childs social, affective and cognitive development,would be instruction in the first language till as late a stage as possible. The educational

policy should support late exit transitional bilingual programme which provide initial

instruction in L1 followed by and L2 fore instruction till the end of the primary stage.

There are four non-negotiable for education programmes.These are

I. Development of the childrens first language should be promoted.II. Textual materials and classroom transaction in the second language should be

in a form that is comprehensible to the children at every stageIII. Teachers should be bilingual, i.e. have fluency in the childrens first language aswell as the language that is being used as medium of instruction in the later

stage.

IV. Use of appropriate first and second language teaching methods.

Factors to be considered for framing educational strategies: The language situations in

schools are very diverse in various part of India as well as with in a state or even a

district. Therefore a range of approaches would be necessary to address the needs of childrenwho are presently studying in a language that is different from their first language.

These arei. Distance of the childrens first language from the school language

ii.Status of childs home language in the society

iii. The motivation of the children, parents and society for the learning of secondlanguage

1 Mr Dhir Jhingran is belong to Indian Administrative Service presently Director of Room to Read, South

Asia Region New Delhi


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iv. The socioeconomic and literacy status of the social group and the exposure to the

standard language

v. Multilingual or mixed language background situation at school

Mother tongue Instruction in Indian Context

Apprehending the multilingual situation in India, some apprehend that, India has too many

languages and it would never be possible to introduce Mother tongue instruction in somany languages. But, Papua New Guinea has maintained 400 languages as the medium of

instruction in primary stage. Countries like New Zealand, Ethopia, Bolivia and many other

countries have established the multilingual education as the programme strategy for equitable

quality education.

Based on the linguistic diversities and language distribution in the society, it

may be inferred that, four kind of approaches would be necessary to address the

childrens first language issuesThese are

a. For areas / schools where the childrens first language is a well developed languagethat is being used as a medium of instruction elsewhere;

b.For areas/schools where the childrens first language is a dialect of the main state

language ( whose standard dialect is used as the medium of instruction in the schools);

c.For areas / schools where the childrens first language is a very different language thatis unwritten and needs to be elaborated and standardized,. And

d. For areas /schools with a multilingual situation

Each of these categories of approaches would include a verities of strategies based on

various situations.

How ever, provision of language use for instruction in the schools is not enough.

1. Early Child hood Education (ECE)

The most important issues to be addressed in using home language of the children is Early

Child Education (ECE). While education for 6-14 years old children has now been

enshrined as a Fundamental Right, there is no provision for making quality pre schooleducation for 3-6 years old children free compulsory and universally available. At

present in India, the biggest pre school programme is implemented through the early

childhood education ( ECE) components of the Integrated Child Development Programme( ICDS) scheme through the Anganwadi centers. Almost all the successful strategies for

education of children belonging to minority language speaking background across the

world includes 2-3 years of pre school education that focuses, among other aspects, onthe development of oral skills in the first language.

At present, while in the states like Andhra Pradesh and Orissa while childrens mother

tongue / home language /first language is used in primary stage, pre school children are


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deprived of their language in the ECE centers. This facilities need to be expanded to the

ECE where children would have the access to their home language.

2. Appropriate Language teaching methods in early grades: A drastic overhaul of language

teaching methods in the early grades is an absolute pre requisite for ensuring a good

foundation in the first language and a successful transition to the secondlanguage.Languague learning does not occur as a result of instructions about the rules

of language , or through repetitive, rote memorization drills. The teaching of second

language , should be initiated in a communicative , conversational mode and should be provide enough opportunities for meaningful interaction in that language. This is

possible when the teachers are trained on language acquisition skill children with

demonstration in the classrooms. Unfortunately our pre service training curricula are

usually modeled on the bachelor of education syllabus where the acquisition oflanguage in primary stage is not discussed.

Sensitization of teachers and educational system on diversity in the classrooms:

The pre service and in service training programme for teachers do not prepare them for theculturally and linguistically diverse nature of classroom. Apart from the issue of

attitudinal orientation that respect diversities among children, educationists andteachers need to understand the need for using strategies appropriate for children who

belong to communities with a predominantly oral tradition and a culture vastly

different from the mainstream community. In identified areas, training of teachers

should include a component of developing an understanding of tribal culture andknowledge system.

Childrens first language as additional subjects:

In some states, in response to the demand from associations and political leadership

of ethno- linguistic minorities certain mother tongues have been introduced as languagesubjects from grade 3 to 5. This has been done more to appease the communities than as

a solution to the language problem faced by the children speaking these mother tongues. In

fact, the additional subject, if it is taught at all, only adds to the childrens burden. Sincethe first language is not introduced in grade I , the children continue to learn the

content in an unfamiliar second language . Often the real objective of the demand by

the organizations is to secure the employment of some youth as teachers for the

teaching of the mother tongue subject. Once a few teachers of the community have been recruited, the representative organization and the state educational administration

quickly forget the objective of mitigating the childrens burden of non- comprehension

has not been addressed at all.

Provision of mother tongue teachers in schools:

A significant proportion of schools in many tribal areas, where a serious language

problem exists, have only one or two teachers and do not function regularly. It is

always essential to provide teachers from the community so that there should not be a gap

between the language of the teacher and language of the child.


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Quality Improvement Activities for Languages

Revision of text books, pre and in service training of teachers, and regular academic

supervision are neglected or delayed for languages used as medium of instruction, other thanthe main state language. Very often, text books

The community should validate the use of their language in schools.

Documents

Jhingran Educational Strategies for Multilingual Schools