Diploma in Elementary Education Pedagogy Of
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D.El.Ed. (06) KRISHNA KANTA HANDIQUI STATE OPEN UNIVERSITY Housefed Complex, Dispur, Guwahati- 781006 DIPLOMA IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION COURSE - 6 PEDAGOGY OF REGIONAL LANGUAGE AND MOTHER TONGUE BLOCK - 1 CONTENTS UNIT 1 : Definitions: Regional Languages and Mother Tongue UNIT 2 : Challenges for Teaching Mother Tongue in a Multilingual Setting UNIT 3 : Resource Development for Mother Tongue Teaching REFERENCES: (For All Units) Subject Experts Prof. Jyotiprakash Tamuli, Dept. of Linguistic, Gauhati University, Assam Prof. Dipti Phukan Patgiri, Dept. of Assamese, Gauhati University, Assam Dr. Seuji Sharma, Dept. of Linguistic, Gauhati University, Assam Course Coordinator : Devajani Duarah & Tarali Pathak , KKHSOU SLM Preparation Team UNITS CONTRIBUTORS 1, 2 and 3 Dr. Palash Nath, Anundoram Borooah Institute of Languae, Art and Culture (ABILAC), North Guwahati Editorial Team Content & Language : Prof. Jyotiprakash Tamuli, Dept. of Linguistic, Gauhati University Format : Devajani Duarah and Dopati Choudhury, KKHSOU January, 2016 © Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University. This Self Learning Material (SLM) of the Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike4.0 License (international): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ For the avoidance of doubt, by applying this license KKHSOU does not waive any privileges or immunities from claims that it may be entitled to assert, nor does KKHSOU submit to the jurisdiction, courts, legal processes or laws of any jurisdiction. Headquarters : Patgaon, Rani Gate, Guwahati - 781017 City Office : Housefed Complex, Dispur, Guwahati-781006; Web: www.kkhsou.in COURSE INTRODUCTION This course on “Pedagogy of Regional Language and Mother Tongue” is the sixth course of the D.El.Ed. programme. The course aims to provide the teacher trainees with a basic understanding of various relevant aspects relating to the teaching of mother tongue and regional languages in the schools. This course has been designed keeping in mind the multilingual and multicultural characteristics of most of the classrooms in our state. Learning becomes effective for the learners if the classroom transaction is done through their mother tongue. The various units in the course are aimed at providing both an understanding of the basic premises of mother tongue and regional languages and also practical strategies for handling the multilingual classrooms in schools. The course comprises of two blocks and a total of six units. There are three units in each block. BLOCK INTRODUCTION This is the first block of the course on “Pedagogy of Regional Language and Mother Tongue”. There are three units in this block. The first unit will familiarize you with the concept of mother tongue, first language and regional languages in the local context. The unit also dicusses the constitutional provisions that exist for promoting regional languages and mother tongue along with the need and relevance of mother tongue teaching in schools. This unit will empower you to provide better teaching of the mother tongue for your students. The second unit deals with the challenges that one might come across while planning and teaching mother tongues in schools of Assam. This unit sheds light on various important aspects of mother tongue teaching in multilingual classes.The unit also focuses on various issues like the attitude of the speakers of a community towards their mother tongue, the lack of resource materials and persons, lack of government support etc. The third unit tries to give you an idea about how to develop simple resources which can encourage the learners to use their languages in the classrooms. The unit also provides you with some ideas which will encourage you to devise your own strategies to use the mother tongue of your learners in the classroom. While going through a unit, you will notice some boxes along-side, which have been included to help you know some of the difficult, unseen terms. Some “ACTIVITY’ (s) have been included to help you apply your own thoughts. Again, we have included some relevant concepts in “LET US KNOW” along with the text. And, at the end of each section, you will get “CHECK YOUR PROGRESS” questions. These have been designed to self-check your progress of study. It will be better if you solve the given problems in these boxes immediately, after you finish reading the section in which these questions occur and then match your answers with “ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS” given at the end of each unit. CONTENTS BLOCK - 1 UNIT 1: Definitions : Regional Languages and Mother Tongue (Marks 18) Page : 5-28 What is a Regional Language : Constitutional Provisions, Constitutionally Recognised Languages in India, Regional Languages in the Context of Assam, Regional Languages Vs. Minority Languages; What is a Mother Tongue : Mother Tongue and the First Language; The Need and Relevance of Mother Tongue Teaching : Double Disadvantage, Disruption of the Development of the Learning Skills, BICS and CALP, Intergenerational Transmission of Heritage Language and Culture. UNIT 2: Challenges for Teaching Mother Tongue in a Multilingual Setting (Marks 12 ) Page : 29-45 Using Students' Mother Tongue in Multilingual Classroom : Pedagogic Materials in Students' Mother Tongue, Teachers' Proficiency in Students' Mother Tongue, Community's Attitude Towards Their Mother Tongue, Implementation of Language Policy for Promotion of Minority Languages, Training and Orientation for Teachers. UNIT 3: Resource Development for Mother tongue Teaching (Marks 20 ) Page : 46-67 What is Resource Development ? Need and Relevance of Developing Pedagogic Materials : Need for Language and Literacy Skills across the Curriculum, Incorporating Learners' Existing Knowledge, Facilitating Collaborative Learning, Maintaining Traditional Knowledge and Culture; Kinds of Teaching-Learning Materials : Pre-readers, Primers, Story Books, Big Books, Listening Stories, Picture Posters; Steps for Developing Resource Material. UNIT 1: DEFINITIONS: REGIONAL LANGUAGES AND MOTHER TONGUE UNIT STRUCTURE 1.1 Learning Objectives 1.2 Introduction 1.3 What is a Regional Language 1.3.1 Constitutional Provisions 1.3.2 Constitutionally Recognised Languages in India 1.3.3 Regional Languages in the Context of Assam 1.3.4 Regional Languages Vs. Minority Languages 1.4 What is a Mother Tongue 1.4.1 Mother Tongue and the First Language 1.5 The Need and Relevance of Mother Tongue Teaching 1.5.1 Double Disadvantage 1.5.2 Disruption of the Development of the Learning Skills 1.5.3 BICS and CALP 1.5.4 Intergenerational Transmission of Heritage Language and Culture 1.6 Let us Sum up 1.7 Further Reading 1.8 Answer to Check Your Progress 1.9 Model Questions 1.1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After going through this unit, you will able to- describe the concept of regional language and mother tongue discuss the constitutional provisions for regional languages and mother tongue explain the need and relevance of teaching mother tongue in your school and familiarize yourself with various theoretical underpinnings of the teaching of mother tongue and its positive effect on the learners. Pedagogy of Regional Language and Mother Tongue 5 Unit 1 Definitions : Regional Languages and Mother Tongue 1.2 INTRODUCTION Language plays a pivotal role in the overall development of a person and the society. It helps people to exchange ideas and information, and to communicate with the outside world. Even right now when you are going through these lines, think for a moment, how the language has helped you to understand what is written here. A transmission of information and idea from the book to you has been taking place through a specific language (English, in this case). Think about your own classroom. While teaching a lesson, you always use a language both in the spoken and written form to put across the ideas to the students. And the students also communicate with you through a specific language to express their views and answer any questions. Now think about the time that you spend with your family. Don't you use your language to talk with each of your family members? Imagine a situation where none of your family members knows a language. Or just imagine the next morning you find yourself in the planet Mars with some aliens around you. You do not understand their language at all, neither can they understand yours. In such a situation will you be able to communicate even a simple message across to them? The above situations and examples probably help you to understand the importance of language in our lives. It is one of the most indispensable elements in human lives which enables us to communicate, exchange opinions, information and express our emotions in an effective way. Language also plays a very crucial role in the teaching-learning process. As has already been mentioned, in the classroom you always need to use a particular language in order to teach the lessons in various subjects like English, Mathematics, Science, Social Science etc. But India being a multilingual and multi ethnic country, in almost all the classrooms around the country, there are students from different language backgrounds. Have you ever wondered whether all the students in your class understand the language you are using to teach the lessons? Have you ever come across confused looks mostly among the back benchers who do not seem to 6 Pedagogy of Regional Language and Mother Tongue Definitions : Regional Languages and Mother Tongue Unit 1 understand what is being taught? You must have talked to this set of students and have tried to understand the root cause of their difficulty in understanding the lessons. In that process you might have found out that one of the reasons behind this problem is their difficulty in understanding the language used in the class. They face this difficulty because that language is different from the language they use in their homes, with their family members. Just think about a situation where these students could have been taught the Science, Mathematics or Social science lessons through their home language or the language they are most comfortable with.