British Council English Language Teaching and Research Award (ELTRA)

Reading for comprehension in primary school children in India: a teacher training programme

Project introduction

The research project builds on the learning outcomes in government schools in Delhi, Hyderabad and Patna from our Multilingual and Multiliterate in India project.  We found that most children who could read a story in a language they were familiar with understood what they were reading.  In contrast, children attending schools with English-medium of instruction had difficulty to understand what they were reading and to answer comprehension questions due to poor language proficiency and underdeveloped reading strategies.  This project will introduce a teacher training programme that seeks to enhance teaching methods to strengthen reading comprehension in multilingual children from low socioeconomic backgrounds with limited home literacy support.  The programme will target the structured use of home languages to build English vocabulary and encourage verbal reasoning and critical thinking through guided peer-group discussions.  This project began in January 2021 and will be completed in April 2023.

Principal Investigator:  Professor Ianthi Maria Tsimpli

Co-Investigator (India):

The English & Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad (Dr Lina Mukhopadhyay).

Project Partners:

Professor Jeanine Treffers-Daller (University of Reading, advisor)

Professor Victoria Murphy (University of Oxford, advisor)

Professor Theodoros Marinis (University of Konstanz, advisor)