This paper addresses the need for effective curriculum-based measures (CBMs) to assess foundational literacy skills in India. It seeks to answer the questions: What is the reliability and validity of the FABLe app in the Indian context? What is the efficacy of the FABLe app in identifying students who are at-risk for reading difficulties? There…

This paper explores the learning experiences and literacy practices of a group of female migrant domestic workers from Nepal, reporting on ethnographic data collected between 2008 and 2013. Drawing on the conceptualisation of literacy as a social practice, as well as the notion of translocational positionality, it examines the way in which the…

This paper takes a close look at India's literacy rate by exploring whether the officially "literate" can read and at what level. In a large sample, aged 7+, drawn from four Hindi-speaking states, two methods were used to measure literacy. One was the standard Census Method (CM) which relies on self-reporting and the other was a Reading…

Describes a series of activities designed to teach the content of social studies as well as promote literacy. Most of the activities involve establishing definitions and connections between vocabulary words and key concepts, places, and dates. Includes an exercise using key words and questions to study imperialism and India. (MJP)

Readings on language and literacy within their social context include: "The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages" (Bronislaw Malinowski); "Toward Ethnographies of Communication" (Dell Hymes); "Language as Social Semiotic" (M. A. K. Halliday); "Language and Ideology" (V. N. Volosinov); "Family…