Multilingualism and Multiliteracy: Raising learning outcomes in challenging contexts in primary schools across India
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Modern & Medieval Languages
Abstract
This innovative project examines the causes of low educational outcomes in schools in India where many children fail to achieve basic literacy and numeracy levels, while dropout rates, affecting girls more than boys, are very high. A starting point of this research is that bilingualism and multilingualism have revealed cognitive advantages and good learning skills in children raised in western societies. Multilingualism is the norm in India. However, rather than enjoying cognitive and learning advantages, multilingual Indian children show low levels of basic learning skills including critical thinking and problem-solving. This project is innovative in seeking to disentangle the causes of this paradox.
The project builds on Tsimpli's large scale (600K) EU-funded THALES bilingualism project which assessed cognitive and language abilities of 700+ children in five different countries, expanding this project into numeracy, critical thinking and problem solving in multilingual children which are key elements in the Indian context. The PI and co-Is have been preparing this application for the last two years in conjunction with the current project partners and consultants in India with 20k. funding from the British Council and 3k funding from the Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism at the University of Reading. The PI was invited to take part in a Roundtable discussion on Multilingual Education at the British Council in September 2014 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXMhAzgcdzM).The applicants discussed key questions from charities and schools and obtained advice from a range of educational and linguistics experts in Delhi and Hyderabad and visited different schools in both cities in 2014-15.
The key question this project seeks to address is to explore how the complex dynamics of social, economic and geographical contexts affect the delivery of quality multilingual education in India. The growth of literacy and numeracy in children is constrained by complex interactions between elements of the education system, the context in which they are embedded, and the dynamics operating within that system. By conducting research among children living in urban slums in Delhi and Hyderabad as well as in remote rural areas of Bihar where food deprivation, low sanitation, poverty and migration make school attendance and education hard to maintain, the project focuses on structural and language inequalities affecting educational quality in India. Language inequalities arise because a large number of children in India are deprived of receiving mother-tongue support, being instructed only in the regional language and English, often from teachers with poor teaching qualifications and practices or limited knowledge of the language of instruction too. Teaching practices in India are teacher- and textbook-centred with detrimental effects on the development of critical thinking and problem solving abilities. These skills are fundamental in every learning process including numeracy and the understanding of mathematics. The method of this study is highly innovative in a number of ways. A combination of several tasks and questionnaires will address the role of several factors on learning outcomes. Each child's language, literacy and numeracy skills will be evaluated at two time points with a one year interval between them. This design is known to provide reliable findings on the development of learning rather than only on knowledge itself allowing future interventions to build on these findings to ensure improved outcomes. This study will provide policymakers and practitioners with concrete ideas on how to improve learning outcomes in the multilingual education context of India. It will offer a crucial understanding of how these ideas will translate to their specific contexts and institutions in India across regions and states. At the same time, the project will also inform UK stakeholders about educating bilingual children in the UK.
The project builds on Tsimpli's large scale (600K) EU-funded THALES bilingualism project which assessed cognitive and language abilities of 700+ children in five different countries, expanding this project into numeracy, critical thinking and problem solving in multilingual children which are key elements in the Indian context. The PI and co-Is have been preparing this application for the last two years in conjunction with the current project partners and consultants in India with 20k. funding from the British Council and 3k funding from the Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism at the University of Reading. The PI was invited to take part in a Roundtable discussion on Multilingual Education at the British Council in September 2014 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXMhAzgcdzM).The applicants discussed key questions from charities and schools and obtained advice from a range of educational and linguistics experts in Delhi and Hyderabad and visited different schools in both cities in 2014-15.
The key question this project seeks to address is to explore how the complex dynamics of social, economic and geographical contexts affect the delivery of quality multilingual education in India. The growth of literacy and numeracy in children is constrained by complex interactions between elements of the education system, the context in which they are embedded, and the dynamics operating within that system. By conducting research among children living in urban slums in Delhi and Hyderabad as well as in remote rural areas of Bihar where food deprivation, low sanitation, poverty and migration make school attendance and education hard to maintain, the project focuses on structural and language inequalities affecting educational quality in India. Language inequalities arise because a large number of children in India are deprived of receiving mother-tongue support, being instructed only in the regional language and English, often from teachers with poor teaching qualifications and practices or limited knowledge of the language of instruction too. Teaching practices in India are teacher- and textbook-centred with detrimental effects on the development of critical thinking and problem solving abilities. These skills are fundamental in every learning process including numeracy and the understanding of mathematics. The method of this study is highly innovative in a number of ways. A combination of several tasks and questionnaires will address the role of several factors on learning outcomes. Each child's language, literacy and numeracy skills will be evaluated at two time points with a one year interval between them. This design is known to provide reliable findings on the development of learning rather than only on knowledge itself allowing future interventions to build on these findings to ensure improved outcomes. This study will provide policymakers and practitioners with concrete ideas on how to improve learning outcomes in the multilingual education context of India. It will offer a crucial understanding of how these ideas will translate to their specific contexts and institutions in India across regions and states. At the same time, the project will also inform UK stakeholders about educating bilingual children in the UK.
Planned Impact
Who will benefit from this research and how will they benefit?
Five groups of beneficiaries have been identified in India and the UK .
First of all, policy makers at local, regional and national level will benefit in that they will receive the necessary evidence they need to understand the interaction between challenging circumstances and structural inequalities related to gender, geographical area, gender or socio-economic status, the language of instruction in school, and children's cognitive and metacognitive skills, and how these different factors impact on learning outcomes in literacy and maths. The results of the project will form the basis for formulating and implementing new educational policies based on an in-depth understanding of the contexts in which children in rural and urban slums learn.
Second, NGOs such as Digantar (http://www.digantar.org/), and as well as textbook developers in India such as the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT, http://www.ncert.nic.in/index.html) in India will benefit from the insights provided by the project in that they will be better equipped to develop the teaching materials children in different contexts need in order to obtain higher levels in literacy and maths. The Communication Trust (https://www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/) and charities such as Reading Quest (http://www.readingquest.org.uk/), will benefit from the insights obtained in India because there are over a million children with English as an additional language in the UK who study through the medium of English. The current project will provide crucial evidence regarding the best ways to support multilingual children in schools in the UK. The organisation Bilingualism Matters (http://www.bilingualism-matters.org.uk/) will benefit in that it will receive the research evidence regarding the impact of multilingualism and multiliteracy on language learning and children's cognitive and metacognitive skills, which it needs in order to be able to advise bilingual families and policy makers in the UK and abroad.
Third, teachers and teacher trainers will benefit from the research in that the project will provide key information about the role of critical thinking and problem solving skills in raising learning outcomes in literacy and maths to practitioners and those responsible for teacher training and Continued Professional Development of teachers. The British Council India (http://www.britishcouncil.in/) and the Delhi-based Language and Learning Foundation (http://www.languageandlearning.in/) will be very important beneficiaries because improving the quality of teachers and teacher training is a vital aspect of their work.
Fourth, the schools which take part in the study will benefit because they will obtain evidence regarding the effectiveness of their teaching methods for literacy and maths by comparison with those of other schools which have opted for different approaches.
Fifth, bilingual and multilingual families in rural and urban areas in India will benefit in that they will be able to use the results from the project to make informed choices about the most appropriate school type for their children, because the project will deliver evidence about the advantages of different types of education (English-medium or mothertongue-based education) in terms of learning outcomes, taking into account the different contextual factors mentioned above. Bilingual and multilingual families in the UK will benefit from insights obtained in this project because they too need information about the best ways to support language and literacy development of their children at home and in school. Insights from this project will also be crucial to families in the UK to make informed choices.
Five groups of beneficiaries have been identified in India and the UK .
First of all, policy makers at local, regional and national level will benefit in that they will receive the necessary evidence they need to understand the interaction between challenging circumstances and structural inequalities related to gender, geographical area, gender or socio-economic status, the language of instruction in school, and children's cognitive and metacognitive skills, and how these different factors impact on learning outcomes in literacy and maths. The results of the project will form the basis for formulating and implementing new educational policies based on an in-depth understanding of the contexts in which children in rural and urban slums learn.
Second, NGOs such as Digantar (http://www.digantar.org/), and as well as textbook developers in India such as the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT, http://www.ncert.nic.in/index.html) in India will benefit from the insights provided by the project in that they will be better equipped to develop the teaching materials children in different contexts need in order to obtain higher levels in literacy and maths. The Communication Trust (https://www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/) and charities such as Reading Quest (http://www.readingquest.org.uk/), will benefit from the insights obtained in India because there are over a million children with English as an additional language in the UK who study through the medium of English. The current project will provide crucial evidence regarding the best ways to support multilingual children in schools in the UK. The organisation Bilingualism Matters (http://www.bilingualism-matters.org.uk/) will benefit in that it will receive the research evidence regarding the impact of multilingualism and multiliteracy on language learning and children's cognitive and metacognitive skills, which it needs in order to be able to advise bilingual families and policy makers in the UK and abroad.
Third, teachers and teacher trainers will benefit from the research in that the project will provide key information about the role of critical thinking and problem solving skills in raising learning outcomes in literacy and maths to practitioners and those responsible for teacher training and Continued Professional Development of teachers. The British Council India (http://www.britishcouncil.in/) and the Delhi-based Language and Learning Foundation (http://www.languageandlearning.in/) will be very important beneficiaries because improving the quality of teachers and teacher training is a vital aspect of their work.
Fourth, the schools which take part in the study will benefit because they will obtain evidence regarding the effectiveness of their teaching methods for literacy and maths by comparison with those of other schools which have opted for different approaches.
Fifth, bilingual and multilingual families in rural and urban areas in India will benefit in that they will be able to use the results from the project to make informed choices about the most appropriate school type for their children, because the project will deliver evidence about the advantages of different types of education (English-medium or mothertongue-based education) in terms of learning outcomes, taking into account the different contextual factors mentioned above. Bilingual and multilingual families in the UK will benefit from insights obtained in this project because they too need information about the best ways to support language and literacy development of their children at home and in school. Insights from this project will also be crucial to families in the UK to make informed choices.
Organisations
- University of Cambridge (Lead Research Organisation)
- Jawaharlal Nehru University, India (Collaboration)
- British Council (Collaboration)
- English and Foreign Languages University (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF READING (Collaboration)
- Language and Learning Foundation (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE (Collaboration)
- Tribhuvan School (Project Partner)
- University of Reading (Project Partner)
- Digantar Shiksha Evam Khelkud Samiti (Project Partner)
- The Communication Trust (Project Partner)
- Little Angels High School (LAHS) (Project Partner)
- British Council (Project Partner)
- Reading Quest (Project Partner)
Publications
Bosch J
(2023)
How English-Medium Instruction affects language and learning outcomes of children in the Maldives
in Journal of English-Medium Instruction
Lightfoot A
(2021)
Measuring the multilingual reality: lessons from classrooms in Delhi and Hyderabad
in International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
Lightfoot A
(2021)
Measuring the multilingual reality: lessons from classrooms in Delhi and Hyderabad
in International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
Lina Mukhopadhyay
(2021)
What guides inference generation? A study of young Hindi learners studying in challenging contexts in India.
in Indian Educational Review, National Council of Educational Research and Training Journals.
Mukhopadhyay L
(2023)
Exploring Opportunities and Challenges Using Translanguaging Pedagogy to Develop Reading Comprehension: A Study of Indian Multilingual Classrooms
in Journal of Educational Studies
Tsimpli I
(2019)
Multilingualism and multiliteracy in primary education in India: A discussion of some methodological challenges of an interdisciplinary research project
in Research in Comparative and International Education
Description | The Multilingualism and Multiliteracy (MultiLila) project is a four-year research study (2016 -2020). It aims to identify whether or not children who learn through the medium of a language which is not the same as their home languages have different levels of learning outcomes than those children whose home and school languages are the same. Data has been collected in Delhi, Patna and Hyderabad, from children in Standards IV and V. A total of 2500 children were assessed on their literacy, numeracy and cognitive skills. Classroom observations were also done in their schools to explore teaching practices and how languages are used during English and mathematics lessons. The data tells us that: • The number of languages a child speaks at home and whether any of them are also used at school has an effect on the child's school and cognitive skills. • Poverty, lack of rich print exposure at home, and migration do not necessarily create cognitive disadvantages. Children living in slum areas in Delhi either did not differ or in some cases, outperformed, children living in non-slum areas. The slum/non-slum distinction did not seem to lead to significant differences in most data from the Hyderabad children. In Patna, there were no differences between children in non-remote rural areas and children in the town areas in Hindi literacy skills, but there were differences in non-verbal IQ with town children performing better. • Children from Hyderabad showed a strong positive relationship between aspects of cognitive skills and knowing and using many languages. • The teachers in all three sites used multiple languages as an informal strategy to support learning. Language mixing is used more frequently than the official medium of instruction - both in English medium and regional-language medium schools. • The majority of lessons observed involved mainly teacher-centred practice which did not encourage children to demonstrate their understanding or skills in a meaningful way. • Children from monolingual homes in India benefit in their cognitive skills from a linguistically diverse environment at school and in the community. |
Exploitation Route | The outcomes of this funding can be taken forward in the following ways: a. changing perceptions among teachers and teacher trainers including British Council India (already accomplished), b. changing pedagogical practice by sharing good practice in schools participating in the project (partly accomplished) c. promoting changes in teacher training to enable teachers to use learner-centred pedagogies which further critical thinking in literacy and maths (to take forward); d. making recommendations to the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in India for developing materials and encouraging the use of regional languages and English in primary schools (recommendations already proposed to NCERT); e. adapting critical thinking tasks, narratives and mathematics tasks in a range of languages (to take forward). |
Sectors | Education |
Description | Following a discussion with the Delhi Minister of Education (Manish Sisodia) and his advisor Atishi Marlena there is active interest from the Delhi government to engage with the project's key findings which can inform multilingual practices in primary schools (July 2018). In February 2020, following the final dissemination event of the project in Hyderabad, the PI visited the Minister of Education in Telangana state and presented the findings and recommendations of the project (in written form in Telugu and in English) and discussed the opportunity of engaging with government schools in Telangana to promote multilingual practices for teaching across subjects. The Minister was open to further collaboration and provided consent to access to schools for further research and interventions. In the period since the 2019 Researchfish submission I delivered online two public talks in India: • "Exploring Multilingual Classrooms in India". Webinar British Council India. 21/10/2020. • "N.E.P meets international research: The case for Multilingual Education in India" Iconic speaker at the 3rd Annual Education Conclave 2020 - The Bengal Chamber of Commerce - Kolkata 9&10 October 2020. Both events had a significant uptake by teachers, policy makers and academics. Several pieces (opinion pieces, articles in newspapers, blogs) appeared since the last submission: The Economic Times, 17.10.2020, 'Honing multilingualism is smart: Using wealth of India's languages in the classroom'; US News, 28.09.2020, 'India's Schools Aren't Speaking in 1 Voice' ; India Today, 'Medium of Instruction and Learning: finding balance with multilingualism' (opinion piece by Tsimpli), 24.12.2020 In November 2021, in a public speech by the Education Commissioner of Maharashtra, completely unprompted, he mentioned that he had read a copy of the MultiLila research project report and thought it was excellent and just the type of thing they needed to consider for their state education system. This was reported back to the PI by Amy Lightfoot, Director of Insight and Innovation for British Council's English for Education Systems programme. The research reports (brief and long version) have been forwarded to Ministries of Education across India as well as to the central government. |
First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
Sector | Education |
Impact Types | Societal Policy & public services |
Description | British Council India |
Geographic Reach | Asia |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | • Providing evidence to inform the direction of the British Council's policy and practices relating to multilingual education, in its large-scale development work in India and wider South Asia. There is clear evidence that through its involvement in the MultiLila project, the British Council is able to strengthen its internal understanding and therefore external policy and advocacy work around the important area of the promotion of multilingual education, one of British Council's central aims [1]. The project has influenced the British Council's position paper on EMI in basic education in low- and middle-income countries and several subsequent projects undertaken particularly in South Asia [2,3]. [1] Testimonial from Barbara Wickham OBE, Director, British Council India [2] British council publications: [2a] Anderson, J. and Lightfoot, A. (2019) The school education system in India: An overview. British Council. (Reference to the research is made on p. 26 of this report); Simpson, J. (2019) English language and medium of instruction in basic education in low- and middle-income countries: a British Council perspective [3] British Council Blog, http://blog.britishcouncil.org.in/multiple-perspectives-on-multilingualism/ |
URL | http://blog.britishcouncil.org.in/multiple-perspectives-on-multilingualism |
Description | British Academy Humanities and Social Sciences Tackling Global Challenges Programme 2020 |
Amount | £48,857 (GBP) |
Organisation | The British Academy |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2021 |
End | 03/2024 |
Description | English Language Teaching Research Award |
Amount | £19,974 (GBP) |
Organisation | British Council |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2021 |
End | 04/2023 |
Description | GCRF GIAA |
Amount | £12,531 (GBP) |
Funding ID | RG99354 |
Organisation | University of Cambridge |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 12/2018 |
End | 03/2019 |
Title | Child Language Questionnaire |
Description | This tool has been created to understand primary school children's language usage, development and background in regions where bilingualism and multilingualism is the norm. |
Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | This is yet to be employed. |
URL | https://universityofcambridgecloud-my.sharepoint.com/ |
Title | Headteacher/Principal Questionnaire |
Description | The questionnaire focuses on the principals of the participating schools in the States of Bihar, Hyderabad and New Delhi with a particular interest on language education, the three-language formula policy adopted by India and their own discourse towards English medium and mother-tongue education. |
Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | This will provide a further perspective in terms of language discourse set up by leaders, their attitude towards language education or tolerance to languages (other than the formal medium of instruction), and attainment outcomes with respect to literacy and numeracy. |
Title | Teacher Questionnaire |
Description | This teacher questionnaire is designed with a particular focus on teachers and their experience of language education and development in challenging contexts. |
Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | This will provide the teachers' perspective to language education, strategies and materials for teaching and learning, and the challenges faced in a multilingual/bilingual classroom |
Title | Teacher/Classroom Observation Tool |
Description | This is an observation checklist tool that focuses on the teaching practice, environment and languages used within the classroom. It also examines student response during the lessons. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | The application of this tool will provide us an overview of the classroom environment, teaching practice, languages employed and in situ examination of teacher (and student) activity and teaching strategies. This will enhance our understanding of how to raise outcomes in children in challenging contexts. |
Title | The MultiLila database |
Description | The database includes 35000 data points from 2500 children from three sites in India (Patna, Hyderabad and Delhi) tested on 14 tasks and a number of questionnaires. 1800 children were tested twice during the project, so there are quasi-longitudinal data from them. All children are from low socioeconomic backgrounds from primary schools that are government-funded. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | when the database becomes public it will be accessible to other researchers working on educational attainment, multilingualism and cognition. |
Description | Co-Investigator, India |
Organisation | English and Foreign Languages University |
Country | India |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We contributed our expertise on research tasks involving language and cognition, the tools we created for the project and training of RAs which will take place in April 2017 as the first step of capacity building in preparation for data collection. We contributed the ethics information so that EFLU, and guided the direction of their participation and project. |
Collaborator Contribution | As this moment, the partner has helped organise meetings with the government in Bihar and New Delhi, obtaining approval for ethics and the project by the State government and hiring RAs. |
Impact | This collaboration is multidisciplinary as the co-investigator is from the Department of Materials Development and Evaluation, and works with English language education. At this stage, outputs include: Obtaining institutional ethical clearance and government approval for the project in Hyderabad, hiring 2 RAs and helping with the design of one task. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Co-Investigator, India |
Organisation | Jawaharlal Nehru University, India |
Country | India |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We contributed our expertise on research tasks involving language and cognition, the tools we created for the project and training of RAs which will take place in April 2017 as the first step of capacity building in preparation for data collection. We contributed the ethics information so that JNU can also apply for approval. |
Collaborator Contribution | JNU has offered their expertise on school sampling, RAs who will work on data collection and analyses, organisation of the venue and training sessions for the next meeting in April, and expertise on adaptations of tools and tasks into Hindi. |
Impact | This is a multidisciplinary collaboration as it merges psychology and multilingual education with linguistics. The outcomes from this early collaboration include: ethics and government approval in New Delhi, hiring of RAs, and some help with translation of tasks in Hindi. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Co-Investigator, India |
Organisation | National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences |
Country | India |
Sector | Hospitals |
PI Contribution | At this stage, we have overseen all project activities, and guided the direction of the project. We have widened their network by building connections. We contributed our expertise on research tasks involving language and cognition, shared the tools we created for the project. Training of RAs which will take place in April 2017 as the first step of capacity building in preparation for data collection. We contributed the ethics information so that NIMHANS can also apply for approval. |
Collaborator Contribution | The collaborators have ascertained the suitability and adaptation of cognitive tasks, government and institutional consents for the project, development of the semantic fluency tasks we will be using and providing guidance with the letters drafted and tasks created. |
Impact | There are limited outcomes as yet the project is at its early stages. This is a multidisciplinary collaboration linking language to cognition and neuroscience. The collaboration has facilitated ethics approval, semantic fluency tasks and hiring of RAs alongside. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Co-Investigator, UK |
Organisation | University of Cambridge |
Department | Department of Engineering |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | At this early stage there is limited contribution towards this collaboration but we have overseen all project activities, shared our knowledge, ethical practice and approvals, and the network. |
Collaborator Contribution | The partner has shared their Maths Anxiety Scale tool (which will be translated in other indian languages), and input from a maths education and psychology perspective. |
Impact | This is a multidisciplinary collaboration as it brings psychology, maths education and linguistics togethers. For the moment, the outcomes are limited to sharing the Maths Anxiety Tool and others. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Co-Investigator, UK |
Organisation | University of Reading |
Department | Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Our contribution to this collaboration has been multifold. The project has brought the partner University funding, broadened their multilingualism network, guided their projects timeline and direction, and created the space to apply their work beyond what is familiar. |
Collaborator Contribution | This collaboration has helped in developing the project and experimental tools; securing the relevant partners and co-investigators and shaping the project; impact activities; coordination of ethical approval in the UK. |
Impact | This collaboration has resulted in wide-ranging outcomes and include, developing the project, securing partners and co-investigators in India and the UK, creating some of the project tasks, establishing the members for the Impact Board, and critical feedback on all procedures, tasks and process of development. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Partner, India |
Organisation | Language and Learning Foundation |
Country | India |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We have invited them to participate in the Impact Board of the project and as partners. |
Collaborator Contribution | The director Dr Dhir Jhingran is a consultant with expertise on education, literacy and numeracy issues in schools in India |
Impact | The project is still in the early stages of development, and data collection is expected to begin in the summer of 2017 but this collaboration has commenced with Impact Board activities. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Partners, India |
Organisation | British Council |
Department | British Council in India |
Country | India |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | We have contributed to this partnership by providing expertise on mother-tongue education, bilingualism/multilingualism and cognitive abilities. Further contributed by participating in the Roundtable discussion on Multilingual Education organised by the British Council in September 2014. |
Collaborator Contribution | The partners have contributed with the project groundwork, engaging with government officials, securing meeting with the Ministers and sourcing Research Associates. |
Impact | This is a multidisciplinary partnership as it entails Multilingualism and English language education with linguistics. The current outcomes that have resulted from this partnership include widening of network; drafting letters for, and securing meetings with Ministers for project approval; locating RA's in Bihar and providing support with on-ground issues. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | 14th Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition conference (GALA 14), 12-14 September 2019, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Professor Theo Marinis (Co-investigator at University of Reading) gave a keynote speech "Multilingual Education in India: Effects of Language of Instruction on the development of Literacy and Mathematical Skills" at the 14th Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition conference (GALA 14) on 12th September 2019. The Conference was hosted by the University of Milano-Bicocca. His speech was based on the key findings from the project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.mam.mml.cam.ac.uk/news/MarinisGALA2019 |
Description | 2nd International Conference on Indigenous Languages (ICOIL-2), 14 February 2020, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Vasim Tamboli, Kankan Das and Lina Mukhopadhyay (Co-investigator at Hyderabad) gave a presentation "Inference generation as part of a child's Theory of Mind: A study of Indian primary grade learners" at the 2nd International Conference on Indigenous Languages (ICOIL-2), IIT Madras, Chennai. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.mam.mml.cam.ac.uk/news/ICOIL-2 |
Description | A Keynote Speech by Professor Theodoros Marinis (Co-investigator at Reading) at the Conference 2018, Australian Research Council on 27th July, Macquarie University |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Professor Theodoros Marinis gave a keynote speech at the CCD Conference "Current Issues in Child Bilingual Development", organised by the Australian Research Council at Macquarie University. He presented some preliminary findings and sparked discussion afterwards how more than half of children around the world grow up in bilingual environments, including some English-speaking countries, such as Australia. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://www.ccd.edu.au/events/conferences/2018/bilingualdevelopment/index.php |
Description | A presentation by Dr. Lina Mukhopadhyay (Indian Co-investigator) at the South Asia Panel in the Language and Development Conference on 27-29 November 2017 at Dakar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Over 250 participants including international policy makers, development professionals, members of the NGO and private sectors, arts and creative sector representatives, researchers, and all those with a perspective on the role of language in society attended the conference. The Language and Development Conference was hosted in association with seven strategic partners, including Senegal's Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation; their Ministry of National Education; CODESRIA; the International Organisation of La Francophonie; SIL International; SOAS University London; and UNESCO. Dr Lina Mukhopadhyay (co-Investigator from EFL-U, Hyderabad, India) introduced the project so as to raise awareness across India as well as internationally. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.britishcouncil.com.sn/en/programmes/language-development-conference-2017 |
Description | A presentation in the May meeting of the Irish Research Network in Childhood Bilingualism and Multilingualism, 3rd May 2018 at the Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Ianthi Tsimpli gave a presentation, "Multilingual children in underprivileged contexts: literacy, numeracy and cognition in primary school children in India" at the May meeting of the Irish Research Network in Childhood Bilingualism and Multilingualism. The Irish Research Network in Childhood Bilingualism and Multilingualism is a network of researchers from a wide range of disciplines, policy makers, teachers, early childhood educators, educational psychologists and speech and language therapists who have an interest in advancing knowledge and improving practices in the area of childhood bilingualism. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://childbilingualismresearch.com/may-2018-meeting/ |
Description | An interactive presentation and discussion activity on the role of nutrition in cognitive and linguistic development - Kolkata 5/2/2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Professor Ianthi Tsimpli presented the ESRC-DfID project as an ongoing research activity investigating cognitive and linguistic development in children schooled in challenging contexts. She linked this work with a current collaborative impact activity with NNEdPro, the University of Cambridge and the Remedy Clinic Study Group. She introduced the project and sparked questions and discussion about the impact of nutrition on children's learning. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://mediaindia.eu/social-vibes/teaching-kitchens-to-accelerate-nutrition-education/ |
Description | Bilingualism Matters Research Symposium 2019, 21st September 2019, University of Edinburgh Holyrood Campus |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Around 80 researchers in the field of bilingualism and language learning from around the world attended the event. Professor Ianthi Tsimpli was invited to give a keynote speech, "Multilingualism in underprivileged contexts: effects on cognition and school skills." She presented the findings from the data from 800 children from urban primary schools in Delhi and Hyderabad, all from deprived socioeconomic backgrounds. She disentangled which aspects of language experience (multilingualism) affect school skills and cognitive abilities of primary school children in India. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | http://www.bilingualism-matters.ppls.ed.ac.uk/bilingualism-matters-research-symposium-2019-2/ |
Description | Blog in UNESCO's IIEP Learning portal |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Blog piece "India: investigating multilingual classrooms", UNESCO 25.11.2020. I have no measures of outcomes or impacts but given the visibility of the UNESCO portal I believe the outreach should be considerable. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://learningportal.iiep.unesco.org/en/blog/india-investigating-multilingual-classrooms |
Description | CCLS (Cologne Center of Language Sciences) Lecture Series, University of Cologne, 5 November 2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Tsimpli gave a presentation, "Literacy, numeracy and cognition in primary school children from underprivileged contexts in India: the role of multilingualism and medium of instruction: in CCLS lecture sereis. The CCLS especially supports students and junior researchers and assists all linguists in practical matters. The main aim of CCLS is to strengthen the interdisciplinarity within the linguistic field and to make room for the implementation of new methods and ideas, in academic teaching and research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism, University of Reading |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Dr Lina Mukhopadhyay (Co-investigator at Hyderabad) was invited to give a talk "Does translanguaging in narrative retelling reveal differences in L1 & L2 learning?" at the Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism, University of Reading. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.mam.mml.cam.ac.uk/news/CeLM |
Description | Conference on Multilingualism 2019 (COM2019), 1-3 September 2019, Leiden University (The Netherlands) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Over 80 researchers from around 15 countries from the fields of psychology, linguistics, neuroscience and education attended the conference to discuss the latest developments in multilingualism. Professor Theo Marinis (Co-investigator at University of Reading) gave a keynote speech "Multilingual Education in India: Effects of Language of Instruction on the development of Literacy and Mathematical Skills" on 3rd September 2019. His speech was based on the key findings from the project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.mam.mml.cam.ac.uk/news/MarinisCoM2019 |
Description | Final dissemination event - Multilingualism in education: evidence in practice and policy, 10 to 12 February 2020, Hyderabad |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Over 200 teachers, headteachers, government officials, university academics, and NGOs workers attended the event which was held over three days. The first two-days workshop's program was for teachers. It aimed to: - orientate participants about the project and its overall objectives - disseminate the findings about growth in multilingual children's linguistic, mathematics and cognitive abilities and the factors that appear to have influence - continue the dialogue around the need for multilingual education strategies and policy in India - provide teachers with practical ideas and resources that can work toward resolving some of the existing challenges identified in the three sites. The last day workshop's program was for policy-makers. It aimed to: - orientate participants about the project and its overall objectives - disseminate the findings about growth in multilingual children's linguistic, mathematics and cognitive abilities and the factors that appear to have influence - engage with key government officials and policymakers to explore providing greater support to teachers and learners and improve learning outcomes - continue the dialogue around the need for multilingual education strategies and policy in India. A joint press release was agreed between the University of Cambridge, EFLU and the British Council to announce the event and the main findings of the research. The press release was shared in English, Hindi and Telugu: 1. Hindi Milap, 13th February on page 18 2. Prajapaksham, 13th February on page 7 3. Telangana Today, Education Telangana, 17th February on page 8. Dr Debanjan Chakrabarti from the British Council is also exploring the possibility of publishing an opinion piece in an English language newspaper. Overall, 93 per cent agreed (53 per cent) or strongly agreed (40 per cent) that they acquired new knowledge and skills during the Event. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.mam.mml.cam.ac.uk/Con/FinConFEb2020 |
Description | First dissemination event: The languages of education in multilingual India: exploring effects on reading and mathematics, New Delhi, July 12-13 2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | On 12 and 13 July 2018, British Council India, the University of Cambridge and the University of Reading hosted a two-day dissemination event as a key part of the MultiLila project. The two-day dissemination event featured plenary sessions (including a panel discussion) on Day 1, followed by a plenary session on Day 2 and three sets of parallel interactive sessions. A varied audience including policy makers, government officials, academics and teachers were invited to participate. Mr Manish Sisodia (Education Minister/Deputy Chief Minister Delhi) was invited to inaugurate the event. Unfortunately, at the last minute he was required to attend a crisis elsewhere in the city. Mr Sisodia deputed Ms Atishi Marlena, education advisor to the Delhi government, to represent his office. Press were invited to the inaugural event, with a press release distributed to the media by the British Council marketing team. An interaction between the press, Atishi Marlena (representing the Delhi government), Professor Ianthi Tsimpli (the project's Principal Investigator, University of Cambridge) and Alan Gemmell (Director British Council, India) was arranged immediately following the inaugural. A total of six publications attended to cover the event: • Hindu Business Line • Times of India • IANS (newswire) • Careers 360 magazine • The Print • UNI A piece later appeared in November in The Indian Express, picking up on the themes from the project: https://indianexpress.com/article/education/english-medium-schools-may-not-benefit-indias-poorest-students-study-5463611/. An opinion piece relating to the themes of the conference was submitted for consideration by news outlets, via the British Council's PR agency - Text 100. This was published on 2 December 2018 - http://www.businessworld.in/article/Language-Matters-In-Science-And-Maths-In-Primary-Schools/02-12-2018-164719/. 11 Facebook posts and 18 Twitter posts about the event were shared prior to and during the event using the British Council's @TeachEngIndia Twitter handle and Teach English in India Facebook page as the primary channels, with the hashtag #MultiLila. All of the plenary sessions and the panel discussion were filmed and recordings are available via the British Council's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUwf3cy5FZziDV2SiwouIAfBO8OMMw4ij) and the MultiLila project page (https://www.mam.mml.cam.ac.uk/). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.mam.mml.cam.ac.uk/Con/Conjuly18/July2018 |
Description | Flensburg, 10th October 2018. Invited seminar, University of Flensburg |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Professor Jeanine Treffers-Daller (Co-investigator at the University of Reading) was invited to give a talk at the Invited seminar at the University of Flensburg on 10th October 2018. She presented preliminary findings from the project and compared the findings with a small scale study carried out in the UK who have English. Her talk expanded the scope of the study outside India. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.uni-flensburg.de/kurs/kurs-kalender/calendar/show/EventIndex/calendarlist/%401537912800/... |
Description | Impact Activity - India meeting with Co-Is, Consultants and Partners |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This meeting allowed for the formal structure of the project to be conceived, the areas of investigation, tools of inquiry and disparities were considered alongside building firm relationships. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | International Symposium on Bilingualism and Cognition, 1 November 2018, University of Hyderabad |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Dept. of Biological Sciences at BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus and Centre for Neural and Cognitive Sciences (CNCS) at the University of Hyderabad jointly organized a 3-day International symposium on "Bilingualism and Cognition" from Nov 1-3, 2018. The core themes of the symposium were to discuss the effects of bilingualism on cognitive functions like speech, rehabilitation through speech therapy, memory, investigating the science of bilingualism, effects on neurodegeneration, identifying the cortical structures involved in language processing, cognitive aspects of communication disorders and treatment of communication impairments, cognitive control focus on language switching, psychology of language and communication with a focus on syntax and semantics and many more. Abhigna Reddy S. (Hyderabad) and Anusha Balasubramaniam (Reading) gave a presentation "Multilingualism in underprivileged contexts: Cognition in children from urban slum and non-slum schools and different medium-of-instruction". 12 keynote addresses were organized as part of the conference by Indian and International research experts in the field of bilingualism and its effect on Neurophysiology and Cognition. Dr. Suvarna Alladi from NIMHANS, Bangalore spoke about how bilingualism could provide resilience against Dementia. Prof. Bhoomika Kar from the Centre for Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Allahabad spoke about the temporal dynamics of proactive control in bilinguals in her keynote address. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.mam.mml.cam.ac.uk/news/GOA2018 |
Description | Interview for national Education Channel in India |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | One of the consultants in our project, Professor Ajit Mohanty, gave a live telecast in NCERT (National Council for Educational Research and Training) channel on a discussion on Mother Tongue and Education issues on the occasion of Mother language Day. The YouTube link to this discussion is: https://youtu.be/ZvEDqam7_XA |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://youtu.be/ZvEDqam7_XA |
Description | Interview for the US News & World Report |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Interview with a Shefali Anand, a journalist for US News & World Report https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2020-09-28/indias-revised-education-policy-targets-use-of-mother-tongues The interview was to present the evidence of multilingual classrooms and how the new National Education Policy of India and how MultiLila converge or not in their recommendations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2020-09-28/indias-revised-education-policy-targe... |
Description | Keynote presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | • Multilingual Education for Inclusion and Resilience. Keynote address at the 7th International Conference on Language and Education "Multilingual education for transforming education systems and resilient futures." UNESCO-Bangkok and the Asia-Pacific Multilingual Education Working Group. October 2023, Bangkok, Thailand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ECYKZD4jNU |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/7th-international-conference-language-and-education-multilingual-... |
Description | Language@Leeds, 14/6/2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Ianthi Tsimpli was invited as Distinguished Speaker by Language@Leeds to give a talk on "Multilingualism and multiliteracy in primary school children in India: Linguistic and cognitive effects" at the University of Leeds. She introduced her project that seeks to understand how structural and language inequalities affect educational quality. Language inequalities arise because a large number of children in India are deprived of receiving mother-tongue support, being instructed only in the regional language and English, often from teachers with poor teaching qualifications and practices or limited knowledge of the language of instruction. Teaching practices in India are teacher- and textbook-centred with detrimental effects on the development of critical thinking and problem solving abilities. These skills are fundamental in every learning process including numeracy and the understanding of mathematics. Her talk also reported preliminary findings from 9- to 11-year-old children from unprivileged backgrounds. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.latl.leeds.ac.uk/events/languageleeds-distinguished-speaker-2017-18-professor-ianthi-tsi... |
Description | Meeting with the Minister of Education at Patna, Bihar. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | The meeting between our research team and the Minister of Education in Bihar, Dr Ashok Choudhary (and a representative from the British Council India, Joydeep Bordoloi) in April 2017 was to introduce our research project. This meeting was helpful to obtain approval so that we can carry out studies in Bihar. Also, during the meeting, we identified a potential project partner which might be helpful in our project at Bihar, the A.N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies http://www.ansiss.in/. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/ioe-news-and-events/2017/05/25/researchers-from-cambridge-and-reading-vis... |
Description | Multilingualism and multiliteracy workshop: Multilingualism and educational challenges, 28 & 29 November 2019, Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Nearly 50 academics and researchers from India and the UK attended the workshop. The project team presented the findings and sparked questions and discussions on the benefits and challenges of multilingualism in the classroom and the society. Also, the project team worked out a publication plan including recommendations to the policy makers in India in April. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.mam.mml.cam.ac.uk/Con/MultiLilaWorkshop/MultiLilaWorkshop |
Description | Opinion piece in published in The Economic Times and ET Prime the online portal |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | The opinion piece "Honing Multilingualism is Smart" co-authored with Debanjan Chakrabarti, Director British Council East and Northeast India. Publication: ET Prime Headline: Honing multilingualism is smart: Using wealth of India's languages in the classroom Daily Page Views: 47 million hits/day Daily Visitors: 17 million visits/day Monthly Users: 16 million Publication: ET Print Headline: Honing multilingualism is smart Circulation - 707,035 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/honing-multilingualism-is-smart-using-wealt... |
Description | Oxford Comparative and International Education Seminar Series - Raising Learning Outcomes in the Education Systems of Developing Countries |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The seminar series, organised by the ESRC-DFID Programme Research Lead brings together researchers from across the portfolio of research grants to present their questions, their thinking, and their learning. Seminars are given at 5 pm on Tuesdays in the Syndicate Room, St Antony's College. PI gave a talk on 6th March (Week 8) on the overall project aims and presented some preliminary data from Delhi on numeracy and Raven's. The talk was very well received. A representative from ESRC was also there and she was very complimentary and suggested that at some point (perhaps next year), PI should go talk to them for discussion on future research activity. Also, David Johnson (https://www.socsci.ox.ac.uk/news/raising-learning-outcomes-in-developing-countries) who organised the seminar series, made a proposal for a Special Issue in some Education journal where PI can present her assessment tools. He expressed interest in two thematic articles from us, one on literacy, narratives and cognitive tasks and the other on numeracy and cognitive tasks. We, as all other RLO teams, have been also invited to write a chapter on a book series on RLO in the volume on "challenging contexts". |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://www.oxfordcie.org/seminarseries2018 |
Description | Plenary lecture presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | • International Symposium on Linguistics, Language Applications and Translation Studies in the Big Data Era. City University of Hong Kong. June 2023 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://lt.cityu.edu.hk/Research/cred/Symposiums/event/?vSubFID=5&Topic_ID=2129 |
Description | Prague Workshop on Bilingualism, 24-25/9/2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Ianthi Tsimpli (Cambridge) gave a presentation "Literacy, numeracy and cognition in multilingual children from underprivileged contexts: a study of primary school children in India" at the Prague workshop held at the Charles University, Faculty of Arts, Jan Palach Square, Prague. The Prague workshop on bilingualism flags the start of a 3 year collaboration between the University of Cambridge and Charles University on the study of bilingualism. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.ff.cuni.cz/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/prague-workshop-on-bilingualism.pdf |
Description | Professor Lina Mukhopadhyay (Indian Co-Investigator) gave a presentation in the Connect'M Conference 2018 at the University of Reading Malaysia on 16th-19th July |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Professor Lina Mukhopadhyay gave a talk on "Creating translangauging: classrooms in EFL contexts" at the 2nd Connect`M International Conference, 16 - 19 July 2018. She explained the translanguaging and ESL classroom in India, gave examples from an MLE study in India, showed some example Tasks in Math & English and summed up: Pedagogical & Assessment benefits. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.reading.ac.uk/celm/news-events/16th-19th-july-2nd-international-connect-malaysia-connect... |
Description | Public lecture |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This was a public invited lecture "Socioeconomic disadvantages, multilingualism and resilience in school children", part to the seminar series ""Multilingualism and Diversity: Impact on Education, Health and Society". IoE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, October 2022 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/events/2022/oct/socioeconomic-disadvantages-multilingualism-and-resilience... |
Description | SLEG seminar 22/10/2018 at Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Professor Tsimpli presented some preliminary findings of the project in the seminar. She illustrated the norm of multilingualism in India. However, learning outcomes for many school children appear low and hard to improve. Focusing on the comparison between children from urban slums with those from urban non-slum areas also from poor families, she explained the effects of medium of instruction on literacy, numeracy and cognitive skills in primary school children in India. Results from 400 children in Standard IV living in Delhi revealed that children educated in Hindi-medium schools performed better than those in Hindi/English or English-medium schools in some of the tasks. Some unexpected differences in task performance were also found in children from slum areas. Results were discussed in relation to linguistic and social factors. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/112582 |
Description | School Visits- Hyderabad and New Delhi |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | The PI and the Co-Is visited schools in Hyderabad and Delhi that were low socio-economic strata government schools, and some private schools. This was helpful not only in getting accustomed to the pedagogical practice and structures in India but also to establish firm networks. This has also resulted in our choice of areas for schools. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Short film |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | • Global Humanities-Cambridge film |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffLFg1-moX0 |