Abstract
The paper assesses the teacher’s perception on language learning gap and tries to understand the challenges of language teaching in elementary education. The ability to read and express oneself in a language is universally recognized as an important aspect of developing academic skills. Competency in a language opens up the pathways to ones learning across the curriculum. However, it is seen that some of the students’ encounter learning difficulties in this area. Condemning the ‘decline of learning’ among the school education cohort the World Development Report 2018 (Learning to Realise Education’s Promise), the first-ever devoted entirely to education pronounces the decline as a ‘moral and economic crisis’. Likewise, USI (2017) data from 2010-2015 reveal that only 51.4% of the population complete primary education, with the percentage dropping to 37.5% for the completion of lower secondary and 26.8%for upper secondary. Indian elementary school children have been reported to have severe learning deficits captured by all different International and national reports such as the World Development Report 2018, Annual Status of Education Report (ASER 2017: Beyond Basics) and National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017. These surveys merely present descriptive data however the reason for the ‘decline’ in the learning level of students is not debated. The research is empirical-field-based, using a qualitative approach for the purpose of data collection. The findings suggest that language classrooms are merely textbook centric and focus largely on defined syllabi rather than helping the child to learn a language in contextual manner.
Presenters
Richa Ms.PhD Research Scholar, Department of Education (IASE), Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, India, Delhi, India
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Language Learning Gap, Perception of Teachers, Reading, Elementary School
