Choosing the language of instruction in a Class II tea-garden school
You teach Class II in an Assamese-medium lower primary school near Sonapur, Kamrup (Metro). Of 34 children, 26 speak Sadri at home, 5 speak Assamese, and 3 speak Bengali. Attendance is regular, but during oral questioning the Sadri-speaking children go silent, look at the floor, and answer only by nodding. Their copy work is neat and their dictation spellings are often correct, which initially convinced the previous teacher that comprehension was fine. When you ask a child in Assamese why she is quiet, she says, "I don't know the words, madam, but I can write." The Class II Assamese reader is prescribed, and the head teacher expects you to finish the first five lessons by August. You have two weeks before the first unit test. You also have a local part-time worker who speaks Sadri and Assamese and can help for 30 minutes a day.
1. What language policy would you adopt for the first month, and why?
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Adopt a planned bilingual bridge, not an either-or choice. Reasoning: the children's silence is a comprehension problem, not a discipline or ability problem; copy work and dictation test transcription, not meaning. For the first two weeks, use Sadri for oral explanation, story-telling and instructions, and keep all print - labels, word wall, reader text - in Assamese. The part-time worker can pre-teach key Assamese words orally in Sadri for 15 minutes before each language lesson. Do not translate every sentence; instead teach a small set of high-frequency Assamese words (e.g., classroom objects, action verbs) through objects and pictures, then reuse them in Sadri conversation. This follows the multilingual principle in NEP 2020 and the known evidence that home-language support builds, rather than delays, the school language. By week three, shift the balance: Assamese for routines and known content, Sadri only for new concepts. Record which words each child uses spontaneously in Assamese as your progress check.
2. How would you assess comprehension during this transition without penalising children for language?
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Separate comprehension from production. Use picture sequencing, 'show me' responses, matching a spoken Assamese sentence to one of three pictures, and physical action tasks. For the unit test, read instructions aloud in Assamese and allow oral answers for the first two items. Mark content, not pronunciation. Keep a simple grid: can the child follow a two-step instruction, retell a story event, and use five new Assamese words in context. This gives evidence for the report card while the language is still developing. Also compare their Sadri oral retelling with their Assamese retelling: if a child retells well in Sadri but not in Assamese, the issue is language, not comprehension, and the remedial plan should be vocabulary, not re-teaching the whole lesson.