Learning a language

Dr. Krishna Kumar (an eminent educationist) on teaching language and reading

It will be sufficient to quote Dr Krishna Kumar from his handbook–
‘The child’s language and the teacher’ (published by NBT): Of all the challenges that teachers of young children must face, the challenge of introducing children to reading is perhaps the most difficult as well as the most exciting. No teacher needs to be reminded of the role that sound reading skills play in child’s overall development. Yet,
it seems that few teachers know precisely what ‘sound reading skills’ are and how they can be developed. Unless a child can make sense of what he or she reads, or relate it to something else that he already knows, we cannot tell he is reading sound.
It is important to start with meaningful units, such as words, sentences or a story, rather than the letters of the alphabet. If we first help children to become familiar with a set of words or short sentences forming a simple story, we can then draw their attention to the letters used in each word and also the sound-values these letters stand for.
Dr. Krishna Kumar emphasises that visual familiarity implies that the child will treat the word itself as an image. The opportunity to ‘read’ sizeable number of words with the help of this kind of visual memory does wonders to build self-confidence and motivation for future reading. Don’t bother to correct minor mistakes in a child’s reading. For example, if the sentence ‘rain came’ is read as ‘rain comes’, do not correct such an error. After all, the error does not damage the meaning. Alphabets were the starting points of teaching a language in the 19th century because the overwhelming majority of population communicated orally and abstractions of a written language could not have been introduced in any other way.
Children’s use of language is closely related to the things they do with their hands and bodies and the objects they come in contact with.
Words and action go together in childhood. Actions and experiences create the need for words, and words provide access to an experience after it is over.
It is important to start with books – rather than with flash cards, charts, or wooden letters – because ultimately, it is books that we want children to be able to read eventually. But let us first be clear about what kind of books we are talking about, and then, what to do with them. When the story is over, it is over, and it is time to move on to something else unless a child wants to say or ask something. But as a teacher, (one) must spare book-reading sessions from questioning.
Poetry is also a very powerful tool for teaching language. By listening to poetry regularly little children get accustomed to the basic patterns of a language. The important question for the teacher is: ‘How to select good poems and where to find them?’ The poems that most primers and textbooks carry are often of a low quality and have little value in the development of language – most poems we see in textbooks and magazines are moralistic and dull. Very different kinds of poems are needed for building the foundations of children’s reading skills.
‘A single conversation across the table with a wise person is worth a month’s study of books’
— Chinese proverb

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