Multilingual Education and India

Dear MLE friends, Long term impact is what really matters. However longitudinal  research is rare. The  Young Lives Project   is a long-term international research project"investigating the changing nature of childhood poverty". India has been chosen as one of their focus countries. The question is asked: "What does the future hold for the 2000 Young Lives index children born in the state of Andhra Pradesh?". As mother tongue is part of the data documented, this research is also relevant to language and education issues. Some findings of the 2008 second round of survey in India http://www.younglives.org.uk/countries/india/index_html : "We  found  that  household  and  community characteristics  greatly  influence  children’s  outcomes, particularly ethnicity, the rural-urban divide (which affects access to services among other things) and parents’  levels  of  education.  Household wealth  is  an

- Dear MLE friends, Attached is more info about the registration for the the November Bangkok Conference on the millennium goals in relation to language and education. Some explanation is below.

Dear MLE friends, Ten more scripts in India! All designed by Professor Prasanna Sree, senior professor, Department of English, Andhra University. See newspaper item copied below or click this link: http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/24/stories/2010072456772000.htm I am not sure it will be of real help and meeting a need, but it is for sure an interesting initiative. Unlike as in e.g. Europe in India script and language are strongly related. Many do not perceive their language as a proper "language" if it does not have a distinct script. However from a pedagogical viewpoint a separate script is a headage as for the learning children.  The transition from the local language to the language of wider communication will be hampered.

Dear MLE friends,   Did I already inform you about the MLE certificate Course in October (11 October to 5 November) offered in Thailand?    I just got some updated information. See details below.

Dear MLE friends, Via this list you have heard before about the  Intl. Conference on Language, Education and MDGs , 9-11 Nov 2010, Bangkok THAILAND. There is now a good website with all needed information. http://www.seameo.org/LanguageMDGConference2010