MultiLila event experience: How to disseminate research findings

It was a great honour and pleasure for us to attend Multilila event at English and Foreign Languages university which is known as EFLU, Hyderabad. This event took place on 10-12Feb & we attended on 11 & 12 Feb.

I'm writing this in 2 parts. First, why do we want to attend this event?

Secondly, What did we learn?

1. Why do we want to attend this workshop and how we will relate this with our project?

This is really a good opportunity for the teachers or teacher educators or policy makers who want to know more about multilingualism in education. Actually, multilingual classrooms are a big challenge for the teachers who teach students speaking more languages. Attending this workshop will certainly benefit us in following ways:

We (Nisar &Ashok) are working in ARMS(Action Research and Mentoring Scheme)2019-20 & mentoring 6 teacher researchers to help them in classroom based action research.
Our teacher researchers have Multilingual classrooms. Students use local languages like, Bhilli, Ahirani, Dakhani, Katkari which are local dialects of Marathi, some are tribal students who speak tribal languages in the classrooms. Students also have exposure to Hindi through cinemas, cartoons,etc. And some Muslims students have background of Urdu language.

However, they have to learn standard Marathi as a first language, Hindi as a second language and English as a third language

Joining this workshop will help us to understand how to handle issues related to multilingual students, what strategies, activities or techniques should be used for them to solve problems of multilingualism, what opportunities need to be created for them.

This will certainly benefit us to mentor and support our teacher researchers to solve issues in their classrooms.

We also want to develop our understanding about how multilingualism in education works. Being a teacher educator and mentor we support and train teachers in our districts. After getting insightful knowledge about this topic, we will better understand the issues of teachers who handle multilingual classrooms and we can help them in future regarding multilingualism in education.

We will also get proper information about how to collect evidence regarding multilingual classrooms, what challenges students face and how teachers respond to these issues and how this problem can be solved by providing opportunities for students' growth in multilingualism.

Apart from this, we want to hear first hand experience about the key findings of the Multilila research project.

We're planning to conduct a one day workshop of TRs and local dissemination where we'll share our learning about multilingualism.

Hopefully we'll get a chance to attend this workshop and eager to explore this new dimension of multilingualism in education.

2. What did we learn from the event?

We're (Nisar & Ashok) very fortunate to attend Multilila event along with Hon'ble Mr Dinkar Patil saheb Dir, MSCERT Pune and Dr Subhash Kamble sir Dir. RAA, Aurangabad and other well-known faculties of scert and RAA, Aurangabad. This was a really rich experience. We got many insights about Multilingualism practices. The first hand experience of listening to plenary speakers and other dignitaries was indeed great! We're working on Exploratory Action Research program and this experience provided us knowledgeable information about research, data collection methods, data analysis, disseminating findings and so on.

The word Multilila talks about Multilingualism in education and multiliteracy. Thus Multilila means multilingualism and multiliteracy.This was led by University of Cambridge along with the partners University of Reading, UK, JNU, Delhi, EFLU, Hyderabad, the British Council and NIHMNS, Bangalore.

In schools children come with their home languages as well as other languages. They can speak their mother tongue and are able to understand and communicate in one or two languages apart from L1. E.g. A student whose home language is Telugu and able to speak Hindi, Malayalam and English can be considered as a multilingual student. All over India we can see multilingual classrooms, societies and schools where students, teachers and people know and speak multiple languages.

The aim of the project was:

Do children who learn through a language which is not a home language achieve less than children whose home and school languages are the same?

Home language means L1 or mother tongue. Generally students acquire L1 at home naturally because everyone in the family speaks this language. Children also get acquainted with home language in surrounding areas while interacting with friends, neighbors and people. Mostly in government schools school language is the same as home language.

School language means medium of instruction language. Maybe it is a home language or it is English. In English medium schools, a school language is English.

So the project aims to identify the difference in achieving learning outcomes levels between children whose home language and school language is same and children whose school language or medium of instruction is different from home language.

This was a four year project and conducted in Patna, Hyderabad and Delhi and mainly focused on the children of 4th and 5th grades in government schools living in slum, non-slum (Delhi, Hyderabad), town and non-remote village areas (Patna).

Prof Ianthi Tsimpli (University of Cambridge) in her presentation showed slides and talked about this project.

Research question:

Why do some children in India not benefit from being bilingual or multilingual to the same degree as children in other contexts?

Framing research questions is a really challenging task for us while working in the Exploratory Action Research program. This Multilila experience was quite good for knowing basic information about research, data collection methods, research question, analysis of data,and coming to conclusions, etc.

Researchers in the Multi Lila project framed a very specific research question.

The real problem is lower learning outcomes in primary schools. As per the ASER tools standard 5 level students are not able to read fluently the text of standard 2 level students and numeracy skills are also not satisfactory. Bilingual and multilingual students can excel in literacy, numeracy and cognitive skills. They benefit from being bilingual or multilingual. But why do some children in India not benefit from being bilingual or multilingual? This was the question.

Ianthi shared a few advantages of being bilingual.

While talking about background she told that bilingual students perform better in cognitive flexibility and creativity skills rather than monolingual students.

The main focus was examining literacy, numeracy and cognitive skills because they support learning and development. So to answer this, a set of tools were designed shown in the above slide.

ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) tools for checking literacy and numeracy skills were used as well as classroom observations were done. Data was collected from Delhi, Hyderabad from slum, non-slum areas and non-remote area of Patna. Regional as well as English language was used.

Some findings:

Children from slum areas perform better than non-slum areas children.

Using flanker's task accuracy and speed was examined of the students living in slum and non-slum areas. And the above conclusion was drawn. This examined cognitive ability.

Children from slum schools have better numeracy than children from other schools.

This was assessed by using the ASER tool of subtraction and division tools.

This is one of the major findings that children who are multilingual at home had higher English literacy scores compared in a monolingual home.

Literacy skills including naming letters, reading single words, sentence reading and few comprehension tasks were used to examine English reading skills. ASAR tool was used for this.

Children having multiple languages perform better in cognitive skills as well. (Working memory and fluid intelligence)

Fluid intelligence is an ability to reason and think quickly.

While analysing data age, location, gender, socioeconomic conditions were considered.

Literacy in regional languages is greater than literacy in English.

This shows that children learn better and comprehend well in regional languages in comparison with English language as medium of instruction.

Researchers observed several lessons and they came to the conclusion that teachers didn't encourage students to demonstrate their understanding or skills in a meaningful way. The lessons were teacher centered and not student centred. Less opportunities or no opportunities were given to children. This is a really major finding. So the situation in Delhi, Patna and Hyderabad is the same. Teachers across India are following traditional ways of teaching.

While observations researchers used observation codes. This is new learning for me. Teacher activity codes, children's response codes and language codes were used for observation purposes. So this coding system is very useful and effective for data collection and analysis.

Some useful recommendations:-

Encouraging use of home language in the classroom improves learning and development of social value. This is a very fruitful recommendation for all the teachers, teacher educators and policy makers. Cognitive development of students can be achieved only by using home languages where students can't comprehend English as medium of instruction. They felt solving word problems challenging. Whereas students whose school and home language is the same perform better. This happens only because of children's understanding.
Teachers need training in how to use multilingual approaches to teach students.Teachers' development programmes should be arranged focusing on using multilingual approaches so that they can deal with multilingual classrooms better.
Students can't understand school language to solve word problems, in this case teachers should use daily language to explain mathematics and other key concepts.
Students should be encouraged to communicate their understanding in their preferred or strongest languages. This is also one of the major recommendations. Especially in EMI (English medium of instruction) schools students are restricted to speak only English language and due to lack of proficiency children don't dare to share their understanding. Home language is not a barrier to express children's views, but it supports to develop cognitive skills and critical thinking skills. So the researchers have greatly honoured the home languages of the children. This is really noble and praiseworthy! Respecting home languages means honouring children!
Appropriate language use and effective teaching strategies are also important. To enhance literacy, numeracy and cognitive skills apt use of appropriate language and various teaching strategies are highly recommended.
Teachers can use story telling techniques in multiple languages.

How can we connect this learning experience with our Exploratory Action Research program?

This Multilila event helped us to understand multilingualism and multiliteracy through plenary sessions and listening to some dignitaries.
Many key concepts regarding research were helpful to develop our insights.e.g. research question, data collection methods, tools, data analysis, coding system used for observation purposes, dissemination of findings, etc. This will certainly be useful for us in our Exploratory Action Research dissemination event.
We also got first hand experience listening to plenary speakers like Prof Ianthi Tsimpli, Victoria Murphy and other well-known dignitaries who have been in touch with MultiLila project.
We'll certainly connect our learning in next coming events and share with the teachers in our vicinity.

Thanks to British council for giving us this golden opportunity to attend and learn new area of Multilingualism practices!