LEP Context

“Language is not everything in education, but without language there is nothing in education.”

- Ekkehard Wolff (linguist)

India has a rich tradition of stories and folk pedagogies. We also live in a multilingual society; our classrooms are multilingual in nature. Several state governments in India have announced that they will open more English medium schools due to parents' strong preference for having their children gain competency in English. Yet, English teaching in India, especially in government schools, comes with challenges for students and teachers.

Stories as resources for teaching and learning can help all students, regardless of their background or their current level of learning. Learners tend to achieve a deeper connection with the stories they listen to, and tell, and often better communicate those stories to others who listen. Apart from supporting students to become more comfortable with words and expressions, through the use and acquisition of language, stories also help students, teachers and others involved in education to develop a deeper understanding of the contexts, facts and socio-cultural aspects that the stories convey. Storytelling is thus a very important tool for all teachers. One can develop stories in the form of audio/video and other materials with the help of digital technologies in order to reach the learner and make resources more contextual.

Children invariably enjoy listening to stories and are familiar with the elements and techniques used to make meaning in a story (such as theme, plot, characters, etc.). Stories can provide an ideal introduction to a language lesson, as they present language in a repetitive and memorable style. Storytelling can also offer an opportunity to practice language in the safe and relaxed environment of a classroom, encouraging friendly and cooperative interaction between classmates. This lowers learners’ affective filter so that learning acquisition takes place more easily (Read Krashen’s hypotheses for a discussion on the ‘affective filter’) .

Developing the ability to create their own digital stories will enable teachers to enhance their own skills with respect to creation of resources using digital tools. Teachers who they work with will be inspired to create such materials as well and will be able to use them in their classrooms to provide students with more language inputs and opportunities for listening, speaking and reading. Why should we create stories digitally? It is very attractive and engaging for students. It helps them improve listening skills, learn pronunciation, be introduced to new words, and get interested in reading. The digital medium allows us to create, revise, reuse and share easily. This creation can be done with the help of various Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) tools such as LibreOffice Impress for creating slide presentations, Audacity for recording and editing audio files, VokoscreenNG for creating videos through screencasting, and Kdenlive for editing videos.

	Myth	Understanding	Action required
1	Correct pronunciation is a very important thing when children are acquiring language	During language acquisition phase, fluency is more important than accuracy. Accuracy will come over time	Do not correct pronunciation mistakes explicitly. Ensure environment is friendly and without any fear
2	While speaking and writing one should never make grammatical errors	During acquisition, students can make errors. They will learn over time	not correct grammar and any other mistakes explicitly (instead say the correct version without connecting to the mistake)
3	Written exams are the best and only feasible tool to find out whether children have learnt	Oral/spoken, movement and drama-related activities can be very effective	Provide multiple ways of assessment (oral, games, drama, art)
4	We have to speak like ‘native’ speakers using either British English or American English	All languages have many different varieties based on the region or culture in which it is spoken	Do not explicitly correct students. When you speak, use what you think is appropriate and over time, students will follow suit
5	Giving more space to L1 development reduces space for L2 development	Languages develop in an inter-related manner, as ‘thinking’ is at the base of all languages and when one language develops, thinking develops	All languages grow together. As and when one language is strengthened, the others become stronger too
6	Lot of writing practice is needed to learn	Anything children do must be meaningful. Reading or writing without meaning will make learners less interested and less engaged in the process	Try hard to make every language learning experience meaningful. Reduce non-meaningful experiences to minimum.