Chapter 4. Microstructural properties in the narrative retellings of young English learners in EMI schools in India

Abstract

The present study investigates narrative microstructure in the English oral retellings of primary school children from disadvantaged backgrounds in India. For these children, the combination of rich linguistic diversity and English as the medium of instruction is a challenge since exposure to English is almost exclusively in the school context. Measures of microstructure include syntactic complexity and finiteness marking as well-known indices of English language ability. Microstructural properties are examined in relation to literacy performance in order to identify possible links between the two modalities. Participants’ language background was included to investigate a possible (dis)advantage associated with minority language speakers exposed to English as the medium of instruction. Our findings suggest that finiteness errors and number of function words are associated with performance on reading comprehension. English input in the classroom selectively predicts performance on complex syntax but not other aspects of microstructure measures. Children speaking minority languages at home are not disadvantaged in their English performance compared to children speaking the majority language (Telugu). Finally, error analysis suggests similarities between types of errors found in other studies of child L2 English. This study sheds light on English L2 narrative skills in a multilingual and underprivileged context with learners exposed to low levels of English language input.