ABSTRACT
Most studies of language learning situations focus on the production of speech or writing, since the output is the easiest aspect of language competence to see and measure, and also the first to be mastered for basic communication. More mysterious (and maybe more important) for children from Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in English-medium classrooms is comprehension: What are the pictures forming in their minds as speech or text in an only partly known language, on topics not closely connected to their lives at home, drifts by them? Are those the images the teacher thinks are the ones being communicated?
This chapter takes a look into the nature of linguistic comprehension and tries to picture what happens in EWS children’s minds when they engage with extended discourse in English in the classroom and what blocks the exchange of information. It also posits strategies that take account of what the child already knows to put across verbal and text information more effectively in the classroom.
