Language Resources

What are these resources?

A recent study by the Azim Premji University has found that 92% of children between the 2nd and 6th grades have lost at least one language skill from their previous class. While there may have been different interventions to reach children either through broadcast programs or online classes, it has been widely documented that these have not reached majority of the students. In particular, these resources would not have been able to create an immersive language learning environment which is essential for language acquisition.

The learning loss in the area of language could be due to a variety of reasons including:

• loss of language competencies acquired due to lack of opportunities to practice the skill
• and delays in the acquisition of new skills due to lack of inputs
• emotional and psychological stresses in the child's life due to the pandemic

The teacher needs to have resources that are able to support the children in language acquisition at the levels they are - ranging from building/ reinforcing early language skills to grade-appropriate reading materials. These are not meant to be supplementary resources for the textbook, rather a set of resources for teachers to address the language learning needs of the children, at the level they are. The resources will focus on building the LSRW skills and will be based both a phonetic approach to language learning as well a whole language approach. This approach can be used both for first language learning and English - though for English (or any other second language) there needs to be a much longer period of instructional activities for listening. The resources are broadly structured along the LSRW competencies, however, their use in classrooms is expected to be seamless.

Scope of resources

Listening and speaking

Objectives

1. Creating an immersive environment for language acquisition
2. Creating and modeling communication opportunities,focusing on language production
3. Strengthening students' listening skills - to be able to listen, comprehend, respond (verbally and non-verbally)
4. Enriching the students' vocabulary

Activities and resources

1. Conversation cards
2. Storytelling, including digital resources for stories
3. Childrens' conversations as the resources
4. Activities for listening and doing/ listening and responding/ listening and creatively expressing

Reading

Objectives

1. Re-introducing the students to the script and sounds of the language
2. Helping students develop reading fluency
3. Helping students become purposeful readers

Activities and resources

1. Combining sounds to create words
   1. Introduction to sounds of the alphabet
   2. Sound-script recognition
   3. Making (meaningful) words with the sounds of the language
2. Reading with comprehension
   1. Words
   2. Phrases
   3. Simple sentence structures

Reading and meaning making

Objectives

1. Helping students become active and purposeful readers
2. Helping students develop reading strategies for different kinds of texts
3. Developing the skills in students for them to be able to read for learning

Activities and resources

1. Familiarity with grammar; to be introduced in conjunction with the reading materials
2. Graded reading materials including children's literature
3. Creating opportunities for extending a given text for more learning (esp for informational texts)

Writing

Objectives

1. Creating and modeling communication opportunities,focusing on language production
2. Become familiar with grammar and rules of written communication
3. Comfort with the script

Activities and resources

1. Expressing their understanding of a story (after listening) through pictures and a combination of pictures and words
2. Expressing their understanding of a reading material through pictures and a combination of pictures and words