- Class VI students of a Bengali-medium school were given biscuits in class and what followed was a discussion on breakfast in English
- Class VII students were taken out to water the plants and then they discussed nature in English
An organisation conducts English classes in a government-sponsored school in Dum Dum where most of the children are first-generation learners.
Instead of teaching them only from textbooks, the children are taught experientially so they can apply what they are learning in their everyday lives.
Unless they are given the context, the usage of words won’t be clear to them, said the head of the organisation conducting the classes.
Most students in Dum Dum Sarbodaya Balika Vidyapith are first-generation learners whose fathers work as daily wage earners and mothers as house helps.
“The children know the words that they have learnt in class but were unable to understand the application or the usage,” said Manjir Ghosh of Educhange Foundation.
“We are trying to teach them by using books that are not textbooks. Often parents who are not first-generation learners also fail to understand that to know and speak a language one cannot only depend on textbooks,” said Ghosh.
The foundation takes three classes a week and each class has a module.
For example, there are days when the students make juice in class and are told to use words like ‘drink’ and ‘sip’ while drinking it.
The classes began six months ago and address reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.
The school said it had noticed a change in the attitude of students after attending the classes.
“Their inhibitions have reduced and their body language is more confident now. We can see a change in them,” said Snigdha Sen Mondal, teacher-in-charge, Dum Dum Sarbodaya Balika Vidyapith.
“The girls have become more spontaneous. It is not that they are fluently speaking in English but they are using some English words, which is an improvement.”
To make parents more aware of why such sessions are important, the school will be addressing the parents in the new session this month.
A teacher said: “These classes are to tell the children that despite studying in a Bengali-medium school they can speak in English and they are doing so.”
Many aspirational parents want their children to have English speaking and writing skills and despite financial constraints, they want to put them in English-medium schools.
A teacher said they were trying to dispel such a notion and convince the students and their parents that their English can improve even in a vernacular
school.