Multilingual Education - Stages of An MLE Program

Stages of An MLE Program

A widespread understanding of MLE programs (UNESCO, 2003, 2005) suggests that instruction take place in the following stages:

1. Stage I - learning takes place entirely in the child's home language
2. Stage II - building fluency in the mother tongue. Introduction of oral L2.
3. Stage III - building oral fluency in L2. Introduction of literacy in L2.
4. Stage IV - using both L1 and L2 for life long learning.

MLE proponents stress that the second language acquisition component is seen as a "two-way" bridge, such that learners gain the ability to move back and forth between their mother tongue and the other tongue(s), rather than simply a transitional literacy program where reading through the mother tongue is abandoned at some stage in the education.

Based on the theories of Multilingual Education that are spelled out here, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa have adopted a thematic approach to multilingual education. Using a seasonal calendar within a relevant cultural context has provided a space to the tribal children of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh to rediscover their culture through their language.The Multilingual Education in this approach emphasizes first language first in the child taking the socio- cultural curriculum in to classroom culture and then bridge to second language. In addition to the basic theory of Paulo Freire on critical pedagogy, Gramscian theory on education, Lev Vigostky's scaffolding and Piaget's theory of cognition is applied in the Multilingual Education. The unique thing in this approach is to involve the community in creating their own curriculum and minimise the theoretical hegemony, thereby creating a new set of people who believe in the ethics of creating and sharing knowledge for the society than to limit it to the theoreticians.