‘National Conference on Early Learning: Status and the Way Forward’ Acquiring Literacy in Pre-Primary and Class 1: Meaning Making in a Trilingual Environment Rekha Sharma Sen Jamia Millia Islamia ‘National Conference on Early Learning: Status and the Way Forward’ 25-27 Sept., 2013

The Situation Many children complete primary grades without being able to read and write

Field Site: The School Self financing; afternoon shift; government school building ; administered by University English medium Textbooks in pre-primary and primary

Field Site: The Community School located in Muslim dominated area in Delhi Urdu - mother tongue Fluent in Hindi English rarely spoken in the family or community

A view of the classroom

Difficulties arise Literacy introduced mechanically Child’s active agency compromised Child’s socio-cultural context and extent of exposure to particular language – print and spoken – is ignored

Analysis of process Similarity in approach across the three languages, the eight teachers and the two classes Learning to read seen as decoding Decoding – letter naming, drawing and writing spelling words and repetition repeating sentence fragments r-a-t = rat; adha sa, ka mein bade oo ki matra, la – skool c-r-i x 3 ; e-d x 3 = cried x 3 Meaning making compromised Letter-sound correspondence - only for English vowel Drilling – Memorization - kis ko yaad ho gaya? Kaun padhwaega?

A page from the English textbook in pre-primary

A page from the Hindi textbook in pre-primary

Naming Letters Phonetic association/ phonemic awareness cannot be assumed to happen through letter naming and drawing L for tiger; tha se botal; k for chabi Teacher too may not be explicitly aware – p ki awaaaz aa rahi hai? Drilling leads to providing memorized tag word irrespective of alternate picture– n for nest; net (VIDEO) Use of pictures - caused confusion – zakhira – tamatar; fell – tree

Reading Words and Sentences Spell – Read - repeat – each word is tackled ab initio In reading new words jumps to conclusions on basis of memorized words ball = b-a -n = ban Reading letters and matras separately Decodes but cannot combine to say the word “tikat” - ta, ta par ee ki matra, ka , ta. Keeps quiet. I ask “ kya bana?” She says ‘kata’ Recitation while looking at the teacher - No connection with where these words are on the page Context bound Memorization instead of reading Learning ineffective strategies Intuitive grasp of phonics – on the road to being readers

Oral Expression Minimal Teacher’s imagination

Meaning Making No focus on helping children to understand meaning one time activity holistic meaning pictures caused confusion referred to meaning indirectly – shop explained meaning using another English word Was not the meaning in context of text pretty girl hoti hai

Children’s Competencies in Meaning Making Hindi Most children know meanings of many Hindi words In most cases meanings are near approximations and had been constructed by children through their everyday experiences. English Majority of children do not know meanings of English words; Net - “madhumakhi ka ghar’; ‘chidia ka ghar’; Hard and soft – bhari and halka Inaccurate meanings constructed due to the pronunciation of children (pen as pan)

Children as Meaning Makers Make some correct and some incorrect inferences Intuitively compares letter sound correspondences across languages Provides Hindi word for English letter and sound – b says ba; ba se batakh, bat , ball Provides Urdu correspondence for English letter sounds - A says ae – ma’am urdu bhi sikhati hain Transfers learning from Hindi to English Uses letter name as letter sound for English language – ka bhi ho sakta hai aur sa bhi; cap – sap; gap – jap Link English letter with Hindi translation of said word - l se seedhi; k se chabi

Constructing Meaning Against Odds Rekha - Hard kya hota hai? Child – jo dabta nahin hai Rekha - Soft kya hota hai? Child – jo dabta hai Rekha – aap ko kaise pata? Child - maine khud socha.   She has circled house (circling to be done for soft objects) Rekha – ghar kya dabta hai? Child - khillone ka ghar dabta hai.

Written Work Dominance of writing – correct written work Seen as evidence of understanding Writing as copying – few instances of words generated by children; no sentences Very good to fairly good written work

Teacher Centric Objective of the day’s lesson set from teacher’s perspective Whole class teaching with no attempt to uncover individual learning and meaning making Performance of group as performance of individual children Teacher's impatience with the process

Teachers’ Beliefs Incremental step by step process Unaware of approaches to reading – whole word, phonics, organic reading Phonics is a one time isolated activity Children learn by memorizing Agreed that children did not understand meaning Expectation of prior learning through a play school or nursery school Expectation of parental support Do not question their teaching method until explicitly challenged. A few are aware of their teacher centric way of teaching but justify it.

Conclusion Languages at varying distance from learners but taught through the same process Onus on the child but meaning making while reading and child’s active agency was compromised Building communicative competence before introducing reading and writing Children did not own the English words – organic reading? The pressure of the system on the teacher

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