Learning a new language the Isai Ambalam way

Language classes often end up being dull, boring and tedious. What if there was a more interesting and fun-filled way to learn a new language? The Language Research Lab at Isai Ambalam School appears to have found a different route to language learning.

When Raghu Prashanth started volunteering at the Isai Ambalam School in 2018, he found the children struggling with English. They could not understand even simple things in their text books. Many of them did not know the difference between ‘him’ and ‘her’. Isai Ambalam is an Auroville outreach school tucked away in a quiet nook right at the boundary line of Auroville. It caters to the children of the surrounding villages. Sanjeev Ranganathan, Executive Principal of the school explains, “These children don’t hear any English in and around their homes. And that’s why they struggle with English.” And the lack of English becomes a bottleneck for the children even in other subjects.

But this is also an Indiawide problem. A report from Care India states that “In India, several large-scale studies have revealed that a significant percentage of our young children fail to reach basic levels of reading achievement.” And Raghu points out, “Whatever money the government is spending on higher education is going to waste as basic literacy skills are lacking in children. When 7th and 8th standard children in a reputed urban school were asked to read English instructions on a wrapper, 40% failed to do it. Children are passing exams by rote learning. There is no proper model to remove this bottleneck.” 

Most schools in India teach English grammar by making students memorize the rules and by working on exercises instead of contextualising the grammar. Till now Isai Ambalam school has been using Glenn Doman techniques and phonics for teaching English. The children could read words but did not really understand the meaning. Often children memorised where English was required to be used. 

Raghu started experimenting with different ways of teaching English. He started teaching rhymes and stories along with action and emotion and found a lot of improvement in the children’s comprehension of words. As the children were responding, he felt he was doing something right. But what? And how to enhance it?

Natural Language Approach

During his research, he discovered the Natural Language Acquisition theory developed in the early 1980s by Drs. Stephen Krashen of USC and Tracy Terrell of the University of California. This approach is based on how a child picks up its first language. According to them, there is a big chasm between conscious learning of language and subconscious acquisition of language. Only acquisition can lead to fluent language. And for that, it is very important that the learner be relaxed and in a stress-free atmosphere. They believe that just as a child unconsciously picks up grammar from the language spoken at home, this can be simulated in the classroom where the students absorb grammar sub-consciously. Consequently, in this method, little or no importance is given to correction of errors or drilling the students or conscious learning of grammar rules.

Total Physical Response (TPR)

Raghu also discovered Total Physical Response (TPR), which is in alignment with the Natural Language Approach. TPR was developed in the 1970s by James J. Asher, a professor emeritus of psychology at San Jose State University.  

In TPR, instructors give commands to students in the target language combined with body movement and students respond with whole-body actions. For example, the instructor will say “jump” and model the action by jumping. The students follow the action. This may be repeated a few times. Thus the word ‘jump’ gets internalized, in fact, it becomes a ‘muscle memory’ available for long term recall. Later, longer commands may be given, for example, “Kumar, tap Jack on top of his head after he completes writing on the chalkboard.” TPR activates the kinaesthetic sensory system (or muscle learning) in the same way that any manual skill like cycling, skating, swimming activates it. 

TPR is very useful in the initial stages of learning a new language. Asher says that language body communication can be used to teach any language and to any age group, and also may be a useful alternative teaching strategy for students with dyslexia or related learning disabilities. In fact, he declares that TPR can be used to enhance understanding of any subject. The secret lies in transforming the declarative statement into the imperative. That is, instead of “telling”, demonstrate through actions, pantomime or drawing.

The language team at Isai Ambalam uses many different inputs in preparing a lesson plan. First, the new words in a story or rhyme are taught through TPR and context creation. Rhymes and stories are taught with a lot of action. Stories depicted through art work are also used in conjunction with actions to make them even more memorable. The smaller children get to colour a drawing from the story they are listening to. There are activities like ‘listen and draw’, language games, role plays and even mindfulness activities have been added in the lesson plans. 

This new approach was initially testing for some of the teachers. Shree Lekha, who looks after content creation says, “I had to re-do the lesson plans several times. Sometimes, I would get really frustrated and shout at Raghu. He kept on coming up with new ideas and the lesson plans would have to be changed all over again. In addition, when we go to the classroom, we find we have to change the lesson plan again, depending on the level of understanding and interest of the children.” Says Raghu, “We cannot just dump some lesson plans we have already prepared on the children. We have to tailor them according to their individual level and needs.” The team has also developed a systematic way of keeping track of the development of each child.

Kavitha who teaches 5th Standard English says, “Initially, I was somewhat hesitant about using these new methods. I was used to teaching English through the text book and by telling stories. For the past three months, I have been using these new methods and I find they really work. Children very quickly comprehend the meaning of a word or sentence. Earlier, they used to memorise, but now I find they understand and are able to narrate in their own words and even write, though with some spelling mistakes.”  Kavitha says the children really enjoy the class now and so does she.

Tata Chemicals has employed these new methods of teaching English in six Village Learning Centres they have set up around their chemicals plant in Cuddalore, and they are very happy with the results.They want to scale it up and use these methods for an additional 13 Village Learning Centres in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat with the help of Isai Ambalam School. Raghu says at the moment they don’t have the people to implement this expansion, but he is considering introducing an internship programme at the school to train people in these methods of teaching, for these methods are still new and untried in India.