In the Indian context, concerns have been raised for many years about the learning outcomes of primary school children (see Banerji, Bhattacharjea and Wadhwa, 2013). The complexity of the issue makes it difficult to advise stakeholders on what needs to be done to improve learning in primary schools in India. As Alcott and Rose (2017) have shown that low socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the key factors which negatively affect learning outcomes, the focus of the Multilila project ('Multilingualism and Multiliteracy: Raising learning outcomes in challenging contexts in primary schools across India') is on educational achievement among children of low SES. In following the development of language, literacy, math and cognitive abilities of primary school children over two years we hope to throw new light on why multilingual children in India do not always experience the cognitive advantages associated with multilingualism in other contexts. This paper focuses on some of the methodological challenges faced by this project. After explaining the rationale for the study in Section 1, we sketch the contribution this project can make to the discussion about cognitive advantages of bilingualism (Section 2). Section 3 focuses on the Indian context and in Section 4 we present the methodology of the project (design, participants, instruments and procedure). Finally, in Section 5 we summarize the key challenges for the project, possible solutions to those challenges and present an outlook towards the future.

India's linguistic diversity is reflected in classrooms across the country, where multiple languages are used by teachers and learners to negotiate meaning and instructiona multilingual, multicultural student body is the norm, whether in urban or rural contexts. This study documents teaching practices in English language and maths lessons in Delhi and Hyderabad, with a specific focus on language use. The findings from 104 classroom observations allow us to profile multilingual practices used in schools with different official mediums of instruction. Results reveal a predominant use of 'language mixing' in the classroom, in both English-and regional language-medium of instruction contextsespecially in English subject lessons. Maths lessons in regional-medium schools did not involve as much language mixing by the teachers but this was still a strong feature for learners. The data also shows differences between language use particularly when comparing English-medium schools in each city. Specifically, lessons in Delhi were characterised by absolutely no occurrences of English used on its own by the teachers (as recorded during five-minute intervals), compared to significantly greater use of English alone in Hyderabad English-medium and Telugu-medium schools. Delhi teachers appear to use a greater amount of language mixing during each lesson.

The aim of the study was to find out to what extent low socio-economic status (SES) children enrolled in government-run primary schools in Hyderabad are ready to receive instruction through the medium of English (English medium instruction [EMI]). To this end we investigated children’s oral vocabulary skills, the lexical complexity of their textbooks, as well as the amount of English input they receive in class. A subsample of 90 children from primary school Grades 4 and 5 who opted to carry out a story retelling task in English rather than in Telugu took part in the study. Results reveal that the children’s oral vocabulary levels are far below the levels required to read the textbook materials. The lexical diversity of the children’s stories as analysed with the Index of Guiraud was also a significant predictor of their reading comprehension scores. We conclude that children from low-SES enrolled in government schools are not ready for EMI, and call for further investigation into the levels of English vocabulary knowledge that are needed for EMI.

This chapter explores the scope of language education in the Indian multilingual context. It reviews the construct of translanguaging and its usefulness in language classrooms with special attention to reading, the cornerstone of primary education. It presents a critical summary of translanguaging practices across the globe followed by teacher-learner practices in Indian classrooms with children from low socio-economic status and/or from migrant workers' families. The review of Indian classrooms with translanguaging practices helps to understand the purposes of use of this pedagogic strategy and its impact on language learning and reading. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the role of using the socio-constructivist theory to scaffold reading through peer interaction. This chapter is a precursor to the next chapter that presents the design of a translanguaging-based reading model built with the help of peer interaction to scaffold reading development in young multilingual learners.

Studies have proven that multilingual children's second language learning and reading comprehension skills are influenced by the complex linguistic repertoire they possess. But when multilingual learners from low SES and migrant families acquire reading through a medium of instruction (MoI) that is not their L1, they face challenges in general language comprehension and literacy development as their L1 knowledge remains untapped as elaborated upon in the previous chapter. Therefore, this chapter proposes a task-based translanguaging model within the socio-cognitive framework for scaffolding reading in low resource Indian classrooms. The scaffold is provided through a series of incrementally complex tasks to build learners' lexical coverage, inferencing skills, and whole-text comprehension through translanguaging pedagogy at pre-, while-, and post-reading stages. The model activates learners' prior knowledge through L1-L2 lexical equivalents, develops inference generation abilities through peer interaction, and aids whole-text comprehension through bilingual sequential summary.