LANGUAGE IN INDIA

LANGUAGES OF SCHOOL-GOING CHILDREN
A Sample Survey in Mysore

Jayashree C. Shanbal, Ph.D. Candidate
Prema, K.S., Ph.D.

Abstract

This report covers the findings of a survey conducted to estimate the number of children with different native language background studying in schools with English as the medium of instruction in Mysore city, Karnataka, India. The survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire method. A total of 5 schools in Mysore city were surveyed. The results of the survey showed that most of the children (around 67.9%) came from Kannada as their native language background, followed by Tamil (9.4%), Hindi (9.4%), Malayalam (7.5%) and Telugu (5.7%).

Introduction

The survey was conducted in the year 2004-2005 to estimate the number of children with different native language background studying in schools with English as the medium of instruction in Mysore. The survey was conducted as a part of doctoral thesis work which aimed to study “acquisition of biliteracy in children”. In order to select children for the above study we required information on the number of children studying in a common medium of instruction i.e., English but who have come from different native language background apart from Kannada (which is the official language in the state of Karnataka) was required. This report is based on the findings of the above survey through questionnaire method.

Background and Context

The multilingual and multicultural character of India with high rate of illiteracy (of 33%) poses a large number of problems for the use of languages in education. Grierson (Koul, 2006, para 6) identified 179 languages and 544 dialects in his Linguistic Survey of India conducted during 1888 and 1927. The 1951 census lists 845 languages including dialects, 60 of which were spoken by more than 10,000 speakers each. The 1961 census lists 1652 mother tonguescorresponding to 193 classified languages. The classified languages belong to four families of languages: Austric (20), Dravidian (20), Indo-Aryan (54), Tibeto -Burmese (98) and one of doubtful affiliation. In the 1971, 1981 and 1991 Census, distribution of household population is presented along with the Schedule VIII languages and other major languages. It is important to note that the percentage of speakers of 18 languages included in the Schedule VIII of the Constitution is about 96% out of the total household population. The percentage of speakers knowing two or more languages according to the 1991 census shows that around 24.04% speak languages other than Kannada in the state of Karnataka.

Need for the survey

Language has primarily two roles in education. It is studied as a subject, and is used as medium of instruction. The choice of language as a subject of study and also the choice of language as a medium of instruction has a direct influence on the language in education policy of the country and is determined by various socio-economic and political factors. The so-called globalization and increasing educational technology is also responsible for making a careful choice. Also, it is important to study the language background of children in order to develop any assessment battery to study the acquisition of literacy skills so that the tool is more cultural specific and language appropriate.

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