1. ‘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

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

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

4. 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

5. A view of the classroom

6. 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

7. 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?

8. A page from the English textbook in pre-primary

9. A page from the Hindi textbook in pre-primary

10. 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

11. 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

12. Oral Expression
Minimal
Teacher’s imagination

13. 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

14. 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)

15. 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

16. 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.

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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.

20. 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

21. THANK YOU