BONDAGE OF LANGUAGE - Diversity of classrooms

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important thoughts for language teaching!!

source -
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/435974/diversity-classrooms.html

Diversity of classrooms
Rama Kant Agnihotri, Oct 15, 2014, DHNS

BONDAGE OF LANGUAGE
It is a common experience that languages of children in the school are
ignored. It is assumed that all education can/ should take place through
the dominant regional or official languages of the state. The vernacular
voices of children are silenced and more often than not they do not
understand what is going on in the classroom. The consequences of such a
scenario should be obvious and are there for everybody to see.

The dropout rate from class 1 to 5 and from class 6 to 8 continues to
remain very high and the general levels of school achievement are
miserably low. Even today, of the total number of children who enrol in
schools in class 1, very few manage to complete the middle school or the
high school. In fact, accordingly to the government's own estimates,
about 11 per cent children drop out after class 1 itself and about 16
per cent children drop out after class 5. The State-specific transition
rate from primary to upper primary - class 6 - is 83 per cent for the
whole country. In some of the large states such as Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar, it is between 60 and 70 per cent.

It may not be an exaggeration to say that the country has lost about 40
per cent of its child population in education by the time children reach
class 8. For several additional social, economic and cultural reasons,
this dropout rate (now called the push out rate) is invariably high in
the case of girls (and in other marginalised groups such as the dalits
and the disabled), which may be close to 50 per cent before they can
complete class 8.

Is it possible to conceptualise a pedagogical paradigm that would regard
the multilingualism and linguistic variation available in the classroom
as an asset rather than as a hurdle in the classroom processes? This
alone will not ensure retention rate and quality but may certainly be an
important step in that direction. The classical pedagogical paradigm is
constructed around ‘a teacher’, ‘a textbook’ and ‘a language’. Such a
paradigm throws out of the classroom a whole mine of linguistic and
cultural resources that children bring to the classroom and that could
constitute a solid basis for careful reflection and cognitive growth.


These resources do not have to be printed books or newspapers or
digitised material. They could be arts and crafts, farming practices and
various other linguistic practices and cultural activities of the
community. In the case of languages, it is possible to seek liberation
from the bondage of ‘a language’ and use languages children bring to the
school for enhancing cognitive growth and language proficiency.

The moment a child realises that her language is finding a voice in the
classroom processes, her self-esteem rises immensely and her levels of
participation in the classroom processes becomes reflective and meaningful.
*
Shifting paradigm*
This radical shift in the pedagogical paradigm would immediately empower
children and give space to their voices encouraging peer group learning
and construction of knowledge in which all children, their community and
their teachers become equal partners. To some extent, before we gave in
completely to the misconceived compromise formula arrived at the meeting
of the chief ministers in 1961, there was an effortless use of the
languages of children in the classroom and peer group interaction.

The Three Language Formula evolved in 1961 was fossilised in the 1964-66
report of the famous Kothari Commission; given the scholarship and
sanctity of this report, even such policy documents as the National
Policy on Education 1986 and the National Curriculum Framework 2005 have
found it difficult to transcend the boundaries of the Three Language
Formula. This formula was trying to achieve the impossible targets of
local, regional, state and national harmony and unity with a single
stroke of misconceptualised and misdirected language policy.

It was assumed that every person in the South would agree to learn Hindi
and every person in the North would be happy to learn a South Indian
language irrespective of whether it is of any use to him/ her. It also
showed complete insensitivity to the people of the East, North East and
the West. A lager number of states in the North (where there were hardly
any teachers of South Indian languages) made a mockery of the Three
Language Formula while introducing inadequately taught Sanskrit as the
third language in addition to Hindi and English.

In the South, in general, people preferred their regional language,
English and giving Hindi in general a step-motherly treatment. In some
parts of the Northeast, people were quite happy with just their own
languages and English. In fact, the craze for English has intensified so
much that now almost all states have introduced it from Class 1 without
having any teachers or materials. Jammu and Kashmir declared it the
medium of instruction from Class 1 a decade ago. English does need to
have a place in our education system but it must be located in the
multilingual ethos of India.

It is time that we recognise the diversity of classrooms in our country
and start working on pedagogical paradigms that may become profitable
models for the rest of the world. It is important to recognise that
India is not an object of wonder in terms of having linguistic and
cultural diversity. Once we look carefully around we find that whether
it is Australia or America, England or Europe, China or Russia, Africa
or Latin America, they are all overwhelmingly multilingual and
multi-cultural.

(/The writer is a retired Professor of Linguistics at University of Delhi/)


“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate
integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present
system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom,
the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with
reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their
world.” - Paulo Freire

Gurumurthy Kasinathan
Director, IT for Change | Tel:98454 37730
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