Large-Scale Implementation of WLE Course for Spoken English in Partnership with Government Agencies

Several rounds of the bilingual WLE course have been implemented, mostly through All India Radio, and some on classroom laptops. Over the years, the Marathi-English version has been broadcast in various districts of Maharashtra, and the Hindi-English version in selected districts of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Delhi.
Teacher training focused on the classroom teacher’s ability to facilitate dialogue and conversations modelled by the distant audio teacher. Scaling this training was enabled by master trainers.

Success of WLE

Our own rigorous evaluations during a 3-year action research, together with independent assessments, indicated that large numbers of children enjoyed the radio/audio lessons, and were able to confidently express themselves in simple English.

WLE also successfully met the issue of scaling in government schools, reaching out to thousands of schools and teachers, and lakhs of students. Despite their own limitations in spoken English, the pedagogy and structure of WLE enabled thousands of participating teachers to improve their students’ listening and spoken English skills, and indirectly enhanced their own English skills.

Headmasters and other administrators were appreciative participants in its implementation.