‘Rainy Dinot School Jaabor Mon Naathaake, Kintu Nogole Midday Meal Miss Karu-je…’
(We don’t feel like going to school on a rainy day, but if we don’t go we miss the midday meal)
by Mahananda Pathak, PhD participant (ELT), English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad, India.
Abstract
This paper reports an exploratory study to find out if children’s word and world knowledge of L1 (Assamese) help in developing their L2 vocabulary (English)? If yes, then how can their L1 vocabulary knowledge be used?
The study was carried out in a rural, regional medium primary school (Assamese children of Class IV) in a remote village of Assam, one of the north-eastern states in India. What is interesting about this two week experiment is that this does not use the aid of simple translation of words in the new language but uses a cross-referencing method that can be learnt by many a teacher who teaches all the subjects in a village school, a common enough occurrence in a country like India.
Please download the paper in PDF format by clicking this link: http://www.eltweekly.com/ELTWeekly_Mahananda_Pathak_Research_Paper.pdf
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