Skip to main content

16th Feb, 2022

It is after Maghrib and ideally I would want to start, rather than end the day, writing my daily log. Nonetheless, I shall write it since practice is important.

I read the National Education Policy 2020 today. I don't really know why I had put it off for so long, but I had. Reading it now makes me realize several of the recommendations I want to prove and make at the end of my research are already the ones mentioned or recommended by the policy. This indicates that storytelling as a pedagogy, experiential learning, and focusing on multiple competencies is somewhere being followed by teachers too. This remains to be assessed however, and the problems and attitudes felt by teachers, students and parents on the ground is what should primarily inform my thesis.

This has also made me question whether I should venture into a purely qualitative research. But considering I am pursuing this as an interdisciplinary study merging literature and language, somewhere along the line I think I will definitely pursue my own study or experiment, fronted by my efforts and maneuverings through this field. Whether it be in terms of a series of case studies across different schools in different areas, held by me, or by other teachers, I think I should nonetheless do it. However, focusing only on "TPRS" in particular will be a gross mistake, since "there is no best method" to teaching, or to teaching a language.

What I must do therefore is repeatedly be in touch with as many language teachers as possible, so I am thoroughly informed. I must also familiarize myself with school students and a handful of parents. This will help me understand what problems each of the parties face, and what actually takes place in a classroom.

Additionally, I would also like to assess the library facilities in different schools. I also need to take a survey of the reading habits of Urdu and English medium students. A comparative analysis might inform my study.

These are the thoughts for the coming two months. As for this week, I must read the key essays on interactive and multilingual classrooms by Allwright and Agnihotri, and also wrap up some of my EFLU assignments.


Lots to do and everyday seems like a race. InshaAllah I will get there!


Best,

Maryam

Labels:
Location: Pune, Maharashtra, India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Setting it up

I thought of starting up a blog so I can literally "log" in my daily thoughts on a relatively stable platform, one that doesn't get lost as easily as my notebooks do. Also, there's a much lower risk of my ink fading out, in this format. Anyhoo, the plan is to note down my progress each day - so I know I'm always moving, meandering and musing. The direction of the flow, I hope, will arise once the pace picks up. For the moment this blog is a private one, in that I haven't really shared it with anyone. But down the course of the river, perhaps a little village may crop up, and this could then be a place for collaboration among teachers, students and fellow researchers. I hope to post on the blog every working day - not in the way of "notes" and summaries of what I'm doing, but in the way of general progress and brainstorming about where I am, where I want to go, and whether there are some interesting sites along the way that I don't mind lookin...
Post a Comment
Read more

28th Sept, 2022

It's been these  many months since I actually made the blog and posted something as part of my daily journal. Probably goes to show how little I have done these past months. Rehmani Urdu High School and Junior College, 24th Aug, 2022. Some updates nonetheless: I appeared for my EFLU exams - unsure of passing in the Grammar paper, but I appeared for them nonetheless. I also participated in the seminar at Kala Bhavan, where I presented a paper on the role of illustrations ton child readers. This helped me explore some aspects of intersemiotics and the concept of interpretation and meaning making, which connects will with John Berger as well. It will be good to add this visual element to my research. I also wrote a paper for UNESCO on their sustainable development goals, but I haven't heard from them since. As for my field work, there is an open door when it comes to Rehmani Urdu School, Alhamdulillah. I still want to check with Sant Ghadge Baba and Anjuman - and progress hasn...
Post a Comment
Read more