Acquiring Literacy in Pre-Primary and Class 1: Meaning Making in a Trilingual Environment

1. 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 eekimatra, ka , ta. Keeps quiet. I ask “ kyabana?” 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 urdubhisikhatihain • Transfers learning from Hindi to English Uses letter name as letter sound for English language – ka bhi ho saktahaiaursabhi; 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