The General Education department has launched a seven-month long programme to improve the English language proficiency among primary class students of government schools in Kerala.
Titled ‘English Language Enrichment Programme’, its main target group is the students in Classes V and VI. Sources in the department say that the objectives of the programme are empowering the learners in English language communication, enhancing their confidence level as well as that of teachers in using the language, providing exposure to rich environment for better acquisition of the language, and making learners efficient users of English language in various situations. There is a 100-hour long package for students in Malayalam medium schools. The students will also be encouraged to read books in English language and write effortlessly.
The sources point out that 163 schools in the State, one in each educational sub-district, are part of the programme. Each schools will have teachers in charge of the initiative. The project consists of three themes: Warmth of human relationships, love of nature, and culture and values. Each theme contains activities designed to enhance various language skills, including listening, speaking, reading and writing, ensuring a holistic development of the learners’ English language proficiency.
Activities
One of the activities in the first theme involves identifying and describing feelings using emotional emoji expressions, a teacher associated with the programme says. The teacher displays various emojis on the screen and learners are asked to identify the feelings conveyed by the emojis. The learners are provided with printouts of the emojis. They may be asked to colour them accordingly. Learners may exchange their pictures and assess their products. This is followed by interactions between students.
Later, the teacher presents different contexts or statements to the students such as, “Imagine today is your birthday and you receive a wonderful birthday gift. How will you feel then?”. The students will be asked to hold up the appropriate emoji that represent their feelings in response to the given situation or statement. The students are then encouraged to share their chosen emojis and to state the reason behind their choices.
