Teaching Learning Materials in a Multilingual Education Programme

Bedamatta, Urmishree (2013) Teaching Learning Materials in a Multilingual Education Programme. Language and Language Teaching, 2 (1). pp. 38-40. ISSN : 2277-307X

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Abstract

This means that first generation tribal students need to learn to use their mother tongue for academic discourses before moving on to using the school language. In the MLE programme, such TLMs, which call for greater, imaginative use of language, are used only to develop BICS when in fact they can be used to develop CALP as well. Given the kind of TLMs that have been categorized under CALP, it is the teacher who ends up doing all the talking. There is hardly any scope for the children to indulge in ‘academic talk’. Stories, riddles and folk games, if used imaginatively by the teacher, could help initiate BICS and CALP talk simultaneously. Cummins (2008), talks about this simultaneity during his discussion on the evolution of the theoretical constructs of BICS and CALP: “ The initial BICS/CALP distinction was elaborated into two intersecting continua Teaching Learning Materials in a Multilingual Education Programme Urmishree Bedamatta Language and Language Teaching Volume 2 Number 1 January 2013 39 (Cummins, 1981a) that highlighted the range of cognitive demands and contextual support involved in particular language tasks or activities (context-embedded/context-reduced, cognitively undemanding/cognitively demanding) … It was also recognized, however, that these dimensions cannot be specified in absolute terms because what is “context-embedded” or “cognitively demanding” for one learner may not be so for another as a result of differences in internal attributes such as prior knowledge or interest” (Coelho, 2004; Cummins, 1981a, p.74) (my emphasis).

Item Type: Articles in APF Magazines
Authors: Bedamatta, Urmishree
Document Language:
Language
English
Uncontrolled Keywords: Language, Multilinguality, Multilingual Education, Learning Classrooms
Subjects: Language
Divisions: Azim Premji University > University Publications > Language and Language Teaching
Full Text Status: Public
Related URLs:
Note: Published twice a year in January and July, Language and Language Teaching (LLT) reaches out to language teachers, researchers and teacher educators on issues and practices relevant to language teaching. The primary focus of the publication is language pedagogy in elementary schools. LLT proposes to establish a dialogue between theory and practice so that practice contributes to theory as much as theory informs practice. The purpose is to make new ideas and insights from research on language and its pedagogy accessible to practitioners while at the same time inform theorists about the constraints of implementation of new ideas.
URI: http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/1207
Publisher URL: http://apfstatic.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-...

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