LANG 01: English Teaching in Primary Classes
The Syllabus for classes at the Elementary Level,
NCERT 2005, states that “It should be the
effort of the Indian educational system to reach
English
to every Indian child and to ensure that she/he gains
a sufficiently high level of proficiency in it and
not suffer discrimination for lack of it.”
All of us agree with this. At the same time nobody
believes this should be achieved at the cost of the
mother tongue or local language. This fact has also
been amply emphasized by NCERT while speaking about
the objectives of language learning – “One
of the major objectives of language teaching is to
equip learners with the ability to read and write
with understanding and to make them autonomous learners.
Our effort is to sustain and enhance the degree of
bilingualism and metalinguistic awareness that children
have.”
Simply stated, no matter what language children
study, they should acquire the ability to
- Read and understand
(comprehend)
- Write
or speak to express themselves
Where are we?
When children come to school for the first time,
they are,
- as comfortable with English
as their mother-tongue (This can be the case
in some urban schools);
- know some English (words and structures) but
are not as comfortable with it as their
mother-tongue;
- know only those words
that have got into their mother-tongue like “phone” or “cigarette”.
We can expect any starting class (pre-school or
Class 1) to have a mix of children belonging to the
three categories mentioned above. In a given school,
it is also possible to assume that most children
will belong to one of the three categories. For example
category 3 children will predominate in rural schools.
Nevertheless, a teacher must cater to all children
and plan to bring all of them to a certain
level in a fixed time span.
We hope this course will help teachers decide
on
- The level for each elementary
class
- Strategies that can be employed to cater to
each category of children
Note: This course is not
structured class-wise. We define levels instead.
Level 0: Children have no idea of English
Level 1: Children understand few words and structures
(phrases and simple sentences). They don’t
know how to write.
Level 2: Children can understand simple English and
can write (letters and small words)
Level 3: Children can speak and write simple sentences
comfortably
Level 4: Children can use the context to identify
word meanings, can reproduce more complex sentences
and have a greater vocabulary to express themselves.
These levels are broad.
Each level will have many sub-levels (except Level
0).
The levels are also relative. What a good vocabulary
is for one teacher can be a poor one for another.
In any given class, it is possible to expect
children belonging to all these levels. The
aim is to strive
for all children to attain Level 4 by the time
they finish Class 5.
Course Outline
Session 01 – A bit of theory
Session 02 – Mapping the path from Level 0
to Level 1
Session 03 – Strategies for reaching Level
1
Session 04 – Mapping the path from Level 1
to Level 2
Session 05 – Strategies for reaching Level
2
Session 06 – Mapping the path from Level 2
to Level 3
Session 07 – Strategies for reaching Level
3
Session 08 – Mapping the path from Level 3
to Level 4
Session 09 – Strategies for reaching Level
4
Session 10 – Moving on …
Session 11 – Consolidation
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