She reads perfectly and understands nothing
Your Class IV has 36 children. English is a second language for all of them; Nepali is the home language for 31, and Bhutia or Lepcha for 5. The school calls itself English medium and parents expect children to 'speak English', but outside the English period almost no English is heard. When you ask Pema (age 9) to read aloud the eight-line lesson about a cat on a mat, she finishes in 40 seconds with two mispronunciations. When you then ask, 'Where is the cat?', she looks at the floor. When you ask the same question in Nepali, she answers correctly in Nepali. In the last class test, 27 of 36 children scored full marks on 'read and copy', but 21 could not answer three who/what/where questions on a passage they had just read. The textbook has 12 units of one page each. You have 40 minutes a day, five days a week, and no audio player.
1. What exactly does Pema's reading show, and what will you assess next?
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It shows accurate decoding with no meaning construction. Forty seconds for eight lines with two errors is word-level fluency; the failure to answer 'Where is the cat?' is not a decoding failure. Crucially, her correct answer in Nepali proves the concept of 'where' and the content of the picture are available to her - so the gap is in English vocabulary and English sentence processing, not in understanding or intelligence.
Assess next, briefly and orally:
- Vocabulary: does she know cat, mat, sat, on? Point to pictures. If 'mat' is unknown, no strategy will rescue the question.
- Listening comprehension: read three familiar sentences and ask her to arrange picture cards. This separates listening from reading.
- Answer format: can she answer in one word ('mat') even if not in a sentence? If yes, the problem is production demand; if no, the problem is comprehension.
- Transfer: ask the same question on a Nepali passage in Nepali - expected to be fine, which confirms the diagnosis.
Do not conclude 'weak student' from a floor-staring response; the test measured the wrong thing.
2. Plan one 40-minute lesson on the same cat-and-mat text that builds meaning rather than only decoding.
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The text stays; the sequence changes. Everything is oral and physical because there is no audio and almost no English outside the room.
- 0–5 min, prediction: show the picture only. 'What can you see? Cat. Mat.' Accept one-word answers and Nepali for the rest; write cat, mat on the board.
- 5–13 min, vocabulary with realia: a paper cat and a paper mat. Teacher says 'The cat is on the mat', places it, children place theirs. Then under, near. Physical response, no translation of the whole sentence.
- 13–20 min, listen and do: teacher says four sentences; children move their paper cat. Errors are visible to you without anyone being singled out.
- 20–28 min, paired reading: pairs read the eight lines to each other, twice. No round-robin reading - with 36 children it gives 30 passive listeners and one anxious reader.
- 28–36 min, comprehension: three questions answered first in one word, then with the frame 'The cat is ___ the mat.'
- 36–40 min, exit ticket: each child says one sentence to a partner using on.
Every stage makes the words do something, so meaning is carried by action, not by translation.
3. How much Nepali should be in your English class? Justify your position with reference to this class.
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Planned, limited and tapering - not banned, not a running translation.
Three permitted uses:
- Complex instructions, once, especially safety and task organisation. With 36 children and 40 minutes, a misunderstood instruction costs more English than it saves.
- Concept checks before English practice - 'Is the cat under the mat or on it?' asked in Nepali first, to confirm the concept is available, then in English.
- One abstract word that has no picture and no action (for example 'afraid'), explained, then immediately reused in English.
What is not permitted: translating the whole passage line by line. That teaches children to wait for the Nepali and to read English as a code to be decoded later - exactly the habit behind the 27 full marks on 'read and copy' with 21 comprehension failures.
Justification for this class: 31 of 36 share Nepali, so it is a genuinely efficient resource, not a detour. For the 5 Bhutia/Lepcha speakers, pair them with a Nepali speaker and check their faces during the physical-response stage, where comprehension is visible without speech. In Class IV, use Nepali for the frame; insist on English for the task.