English Language Acquisition and Beyond: Evaluating the Impact of Stories in an Urdu-medium Classroom in India

Abstract

This thesis investigates the effectiveness of reading stories, mediated through a multilingual dialogic pedagogy, in fostering English language acquisition among Urdu-medium students. Urdu-medium schools in India, often overlooked in terms of infrastructure and resources, face persistent challenges of high drop-out rates and low academic achievement, especially in English language proficiency. Despite these challenges, Urdu-medium schools remain under-resourced and under-researched. Addressing this gap, this study introduces a teaching intervention modelled on key theories of Second Language Acquisition, such as Krashen’s Input Hypothesis (1982), Swain’s Output Hypothesis (2005), and the concept of reading for pleasure, in tandem with dialogic and critical pedagogies situated within the framework of multilinguality (Agnihotri, 2014). The intervention, implemented with Standard 8 students at an Urdu-medium school in Pune, India, examines the impact of a story-based pedagogy on both linguistic and extra-linguistic skills, particularly those of motivation, learner autonomy, and critical thinking. The study adopts a mixed-methods framework, involving a quasi-experimental design, complemented by semi-structured interviews with students, teachers and parents; survey questionnaires; classroom observations; and case studies. Findings reveal significant improvement in students’ language skills, such as in reading comprehension, writing fluency, and vocabulary. Qualitative insights further reveal students’ evolving desire for and exercise in learner agency and critical reflection. These observations highlight how dialogic engagement with stories encouraged students to read, reflect, collaborate, and engage in meaning-making processes, while maintaining an anxiety-free environment. This thesis demonstrates the transformative potential of a story-based, multilingual, and dialogic pedagogy in low-resource educational contexts. It argues that exposure to a print-rich, learner-centric, and multilingual environment enables students to enhance their English language acquisition through meaning-focussed instruction, establish a complementary relationship between English and their home languages, and embrace learner autonomy and critical agency.