By Tricity News
Chandigarh
24th April:- A five days International Training Programme under the (Content
Language Integrated Learning) CLIL@India initiative of Erasmus+ (European Union programme for education) to
propagate and promote regional languages (Punjabi and Hindi) in the region was
inaugurated today at Chitkara University, Punjab campus . “Boot Camp- Seasoning
to Enhance Teaching Learning Experience” themed informative Training Programme
will highlight CLIL powered teaching.
Harjinder
Kaur, Chairperson, CCPCR (Chandigarh Commission for Protection Child Right) was
the Chief Guest and Key note speaker in the inaugural session today. In
her address, she expressed her concern that today the education system is only
focusing on developing the professional skills using English as a medium of
instruction. Due to this, language development has taken a backseat. She
suggested that the textbooks and curriculum needs to be amended to provide
space for regional languages. In her conclusion, she shared that language is to
be adored and not imposed.
The
session was followed by Introduction to CLIL@India by Prof. Neeta Inamdar, Coordinator
CLIL@India & Head-Department of European Studies, Manipal Academy of Higher
Education. In her key note address she expressed concern over textbooks in
higher education in India for various subjects, which are largely published in
English. She compared the scenario with Germany, where in order to preserve
their own language; the medium of instruction in classes is their mother
tongue. She highlighted that since India is a multilingual nation, it faces
many challenges in adopting the European CLIL model. So, CLIL@India can come as
a rescue to protect the regional languages.
Chitkara
team conducted an orientation session –An Ice Breaking Digestive Walk Through.
This was further followed by a session on ‘CLIL Methodology’ which included
comprehension strategies and activities. A workshop was also conducted today by
Dr. Luciana Pedrazzini & Dr Andrea Nava, Department of Foreign Language and
Literature, University of Milan, Italy for the in-service Private and
Government Primary School Teachers with an objective to promote innovative
teaching practices, innovative learning practices, mother-tongue-based
education and multilingual pedagogy.
Recounting
her experience as a student, Vice Chancellor of Chitkara University, Dr. Madhu
Chitkara reiterated the need for multilingualism as a way to connect with
people, and voiced out her opinion on how training professionals immensely
benefits the learner. She also added that eventually our forth coming
generation is losing the touch of mother tongue in their daily life, which is
of equal importance. Therefore, to bridge this gap the pedagogy should
incorporate the usage of vernacular language as it has better impact on the
students”.
The
day 2 of the program will focus on interaction strategies and activities
followed by methods to enhance interaction in a CLIL class.
Vice
Chancellor Prof. Gurmeet Singh, Pondicherry University will be giving a
felicitation address. A workshop devoted to going through the books of grade 4
government and private school students will be organised wherein participants
will be given an overview to frame learning objectives based on ‘Bloom’s
Taxonomy’ .
Day
3 will be an academic tour of Chitkara International School, cultural
mediation, focus on material evaluation, implementing material for a CLIL
class, active learning strategies with respect to Indian classroom perspective
and hands-on–developing active learning strategies.
The
fourth day of the session involves rolling out of production strategies and
activities, developing a CLIL lesson plan, presentations of CLIL lessons
followed by feedback by all the partners.
The
day 5 of the programme will be dedicated to an assessment in a CLIL class. The
prominent points of the workshop to go on air on Radio Chitkara 107.8 FM.
