Redesigning the English alphabet teaching methodology for the children of Indian vernacular medium schools

Project Type: Academic Research

Mentor: Dr. Abhijit Padun

Duration: 4 Months

Published Conference: 
Designing for Children with focus on 'Play and Learn'


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Context

  When I moved to Assam for my undergraduate education in design I was fortunate to get exposure to a completely different culture, language, tribes and food. As I started to spend more time with people around I noticed that native people who are coming from vernacular medium education background find it difficult to communicate in English. From there I started my quest to research more on this subject area.

Quick Summary 

This project highlights the importance of the English alphabet in India and the challenges vernacular medium school children face with traditional teaching methods. It describes an experiment aimed at developing a semantic approach to teaching the English alphabet, making it more understandable for young learners in Indian vernacular medium schools.

Target Group

The closest vernacular medium school I had access to is built in an Orphanage where mostly kids from Bodo tribe study.

General observations of a vernacular medium school

• Inconsistent teaching
• Less number of teachers
• Lack of motivation factor for the students
• Under-developed infrastructure
• Class with mixed age group of students / Mixed ability groups

Key insights from the Semi Structured interviews conducted

15 Students were interviewed 

General observations of a vernacular medium school

• Ineffective learning is found when books designed for English medium schools are used to teach the children of vernacular medium schools.
  
  
• Classes are composed of mixed ability groups which is a feature of every vernacular medium school either based in a small town or villages. This sets a problem for the teacher to teach and communicate with the children in a homogeneous way.
  
  
• Unstipulated methodology which focuses on using vernacular language as a medium to facilitate the Alphabet learning process.

Language is a ‘Skill’ to Practice not a ‘Subject’ to remember but in my primary research I found that it is not being taught this way.

Gap Identification   

Problem Statement

How might we design a methodology which can be used for teaching English alphabet facilitated by vernacular language to the primary level children of Indian Vernacular medium schools.