In a highly multilingual country like India, challenges and opportunities arise in education and language policy. Although multilingualism is often associated with developmental advantages, Indian primary school children generally show low learning outcomes, specifically on literacy. Here we examine the influence of mother tongue education and…

Most private schools in India follow the Alphabet-Spelling method to teach reading in English. This approach bypasses letter-sound correspondences and focuses on rote memorization and sight-word recognition. In an effort to provide students with more recent evidence-based practices in reading instruction, this study examined how phonics-based…

Foundational literacy is a key lever for achieving higher levels of learning and societal wellbeing. However, with an enrolment of over 250 million children in schools, India is currently challenged by learning deprivation. Growing uptake of English-medium education along with less-than-optimal English literacy instruction practices present an…

This study examined within and cross-language relations, and specifically, the role of phonological awareness (PA) skills in reading among young Hindi-speaking children (L1) who were learning to read English (L2) in Delhi, India. Data was collected from 143 children in Grades 1 and 2 using measures validated for this population. The analyses…

Purpose: Physicians who are primary care providers in rural communities form an essential stakeholder group in rural mobile health (mHealth) delivery. This study was exploratory in nature and was conducted in Udupi district of Karnataka, India. The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of rural medical officers (MOs) (rural…

This study was part of a larger longitudinal study in which we focused on measuring reading acquisition and observing the impact of SES, curriculum and gender on reading subtest scores. In Part 1 of our study (in review), we reported on findings for students in Grade 1. For Part 2 of our study, we report on our findings for students in Grades 3…

The use of technology for second language (L2) acquisition has become ubiquitous, but little thought has been given to the factors that impact the language learning experience. This study aims to use the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework to propose and validate a more comprehensive model for investigating the influence of "presence"…

Research Findings: This study evaluated the impact of Chinese literacy interventions on Chinese language learning of South Asian children and their mothers in Hong Kong. A total of 44 children and eight of their mothers participated in Chinese literacy interventions that consisted of two approaches -- Copying and Morphological Awareness Training…

Widely prevalent in a variety of educational contexts around the world, rote learning practices entail repetition techniques to acquire new knowledge. These practices have long been critiqued because of the emphasis on recall rather than deep understanding. Less attention has been directed, however, at the literacy ideologies underpinning such…

This paper proposes a framework for multilingual language-in-education policy implementation, offered as a critically constructive response to India's recent "National Education Policy 2020" (GOI, 2020). Rooted in India's existing educational language policy, our linguistically inclusive 'Languages for Learning' (LFL) framework is, we…

This paper reports on an international collaborative project working with deaf learners of English literacy (19-28 years old) in five locations in India: Indore; Vadadora; Comibatore; Pattambi; and Thrissur. Indian Sign Language (ISL) was the language of instruction. The project drew on a social practices view of literacy. Deaf peer tutors were…

With digital literacies becoming an essential competency for teachers across the world, recent educational policies in India emphasize teachers' ability to use digital technologies for pedagogic purposes and the use of digital technologies by teachers as one of the evaluation criteria for ranking institutions. In the absence of any properly…

This article examines how a purportedly local, postcolonial reform effort to resist center-based methods is resisted by the students and teachers it seeks to serve. In this context, rather than take center and periphery for granted, the author attempts a processual geography of method. Drawing on data from a 19-month ethnography in the Indian…

This study explores the possibility of adapting specific progress-monitoring tools developed in the US for use in English-medium private schools in Bangalore. In the US, many teachers adopt progress-monitoring tools like the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) and Curriculum Based Measurement (easyCBM) to keep track of their…

The Asia-Pacific region hosts the largest number of refugees and displaced people in the world, and is the place of origin for nearly half of all international migrants. However, data related to the unique language-in-education needs of refugee and migrant children in and from this area is sparse. The report aims to create a stronger knowledge…