E³ English programme by KITE for promoting language proficiency

As part of Public Education Rejuvenation Mission, KITE has made over 45000 classrooms in 4752 Secondary schools Hi-Tech and has also setup Hi-Tech Labs in 9941 Primary schools. The SAMAGRA resource portal of KITE ensures availability of essential digital contents for all classes. Eventhough there are several Teacher oriented programs in place, a proper training programme for the primary students to improve their language proficiency is the need of the hour. It is in this context that Government vide GO (Rt.) No.804/2020/G.Edn dated 17.02.2020 has sanctioned the roll-out of E3 English programme, as a project to improve students from Classes 1 to 8. E³ (Enjoy, Enhance, and Enrich) English will not only help students’ command of the language but also make learning more fun.

There would be three components for E³ English viz Samagra e-Library, e-Language lab and e-Broadcast. Samagra e-library will be a digital library of international quality English books on the Samagra portal. Digital copies of books that children can enjoy and improve their language will be made available in this library. Through e-language lab, a language lab software will be launched, which will provide opportunities for students to hear English, talk, read, and write depending on their learning capability. The third component is e-broadcast. It will include programmes on KITE VICTERS channel that will help students learn how to use English in practical situations through interactive mode.

KITE will monitor the technical aspects of the programme, while SCERT will take care of the academic aspects and their monitoring.

Samagra E-Library

Samagra E-Library is a digital storehouse of world class digital books for promoting children's language, literacy, cognitive and social development. The basic objective of E-library is to enable children to explore the books, read for pleasure and for better academic performance in all subjects.

Presently the E-Library has a repository of high quality English content consisting of 200 stories in 5 modules. Stories in five modules cover themes such as people around me, sounds all around me, colours, sizes and shapes, let’s meet nature, feeling and thinking, science and technology, food, discovery etc covering all subjects such as languages, maths, science and social science.

Stories in modules 1 and 2 are simple in terms of words, content and sentence structure. Stories in Module 5 are the comparatively complex. Stories in Module 3 and 4 are somewhere in between. Story complexity depends on the difficulty of vocabulary and the newness of grammar structures, and sometimes the length of the story. All stories will be available to students and teachers in digital PDF format. Most of the stories will be available to students and teachers in audio, video and animated format too. Students can read, listen, speak, write and enjoy learning English and other subjects using Samagra E-Library.

E-Library Module structure:

• Stories in Module-1 are for all readers at ‘Beginner Level’ especially for those in class-1 and students in lower classes who need more support from teachers

• Stories in Modules 2 and 3 are for ‘Early Readers’ in classes 1,2 and 3,4 respectively.

• Stories in Module-4 are for ‘Middle Level Readers’ in classes 5 and 6.

• Stories in Module 5 are for ‘Advanced Level’ readers in classes 7 and 8.

How to use the stories in the Modules in classrooms:

Stories in the Samagra E-Library in all the five modules are related to the theme, content and the learning outcomes (LOs) of the lessons/units in the text books. The stories are pedagogically and age appropriately aligned class-wise in Samagra Portal. The Samagra E-Library reading programme has been designed in such a manner that it may need to be completed within nine months in the academic year 2020-21. Teachers can select the PDF format, Audio or Video format of the stories from the Samagra Portal and make use of them integrating with the theme, content or the LOs of the lesson/units concerned.

The classroom teaching learning process of the stories such as storytelling, story reading, interactive storytelling, processes involving in teaching-learning stories and facilitating individual reading of stories by the students will be covered in detail during the teacher development programmed by KITE for teachers from classes 1 to 7.

E- Language Lab

The second component of E³ English is e-Language lab, which will have language lab software that will provide opportunities for students to enhance their listening, speaking, reading, writing, pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.The software used in E-Language Lab is developed based on KITE’s experience in the tryout of language lab software for DIETs during 2019-20. The language lab software developed by KITE during 2021 has five levels as in the E-Library. Each level is meant for Beginner Level Readers, Early Readers from classes 1 to 4, Middle Readers from classes 5 to 6 and Advanced level Readers from classes 7 to 8.

At each level learner has to listen and read new vocabulary, read and listen to stories, do a number of comprehension questions, vocabulary based activities, grammar based activities, and written work based on the text as part of reading. Learners can read, listen, record and replay and self-assess their reading fluency and pronunciation. Learners can submit their answers to the teachers and teacher can provide them mentoring and feedback.

Each learner can work on the software of their level and do the activities individually or with the help of the teacher at their own pace. The activities are enjoyable, game like, competency based and assessment is an integral part of the course work.

Teachers teaching English at different levels will be given ICT-cum Language Lab activity based English training and appropriate support by KITE during teacher development programme for facilitating the use of language labs in schools from classes 1 to 7.

E-Broadcast

The third component E-Broadcast includes programmes screened in KITE VICTERS channel. The broadcast lessons will help learners use English in conversational and academic contexts in an interactive mode. Some of the key programmes of E-Broadcast focus on the following aspects of Communicative English:

• Using English for social and conversational functions such as greeting, talking about oneself, making conversation, Likes and dislikes, talking about people and objects, telephoning, suggesting, asking permission, making requests, thanking and saying sorry etc

• Using English for academic purposes such as making speeches, presentations, interview skills, debates and seminar skills

• Writing for academic purposes such as paragraphs, stories, descriptions, reports, rhymes, poems, conversations, essays, scripts, creative writing and related discourses

• Programmes for enhancing grammar, revising and editing, enriching vocabulary etc in meaningful contexts

• Performance based programmes likes skits, role plays, action songs, choreography, dramatisation, installations, film review, reality shows etc

All activities and programmes will be meant for enhancing and enriching the English language proficiency of students in an enjoyable ambience. It is expected that the E-Broadcast programmes will give confidence for students to use English fluently and accurately in conversational and academic contexts. The programmes will be done in collaboration with students, teachers, artists and experts in the domain of English language studies.