Reimagining Multilingualism in English Language Textbooks: A Comparative Study from India
This study employs a comparative qualitative analysis of NCERT's Class IX English textbooks, *Beehive* and *Kaveri*, to demonstrate that while both recognize multilingualism as an educational resource, *Kaveri* more effectively integrates it across content, pedagogy, and multimodal design in alignment with recent curricular reforms.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
In India, a child's classroom is rarely a place where only one language is spoken. A student might arrive speaking a regional dialect at home, hear a different language on the street, and sit in a room where English is the official medium of instruction. For decades, educators and policymakers have debated how to handle this reality. The old view treated these multiple languages as a hurdle to be cleared, often insisting that students focus solely on English to succeed. A newer, more hopeful perspective sees this mix of languages as a resource. It suggests that a child's full range of speech—their home tongue, their local dialect, and the global language of English—can work together to build deeper understanding. This idea, known as multilingualism, is now central to India's national education plans, which argue that learning thrives when it connects with a student's own life and culture. The question remains, however, whether the books sitting on school shelves actually reflect this shift, or if they still treat English as a separate, isolated subject.
To find the answer, researchers Shubham Kumar Pati, Ravneet Kaur, and Rishabh Kumar Mishra turned their attention to two specific textbooks used for ninth-grade students. These books represent two different eras of Indian education. The first, Beehive, was designed under a curriculum framework from 2005. The second, Kaveri, was created much more recently, following the National Education Policy of 2020 and a new curriculum framework from 2023. The researchers wanted to see if the newer book had truly changed the way it handles the many languages of India, or if it was just a cosmetic update. They did not simply count how many times a foreign word appeared. Instead, they performed a careful, line-by-line reading of both books, looking for four specific things: how words from other languages were used, how cultural stories were told, what kinds of classroom activities were suggested, and how pictures and digital tools were employed to support learning.
The study reveals a clear evolution in how these textbooks approach the student's mind. In Beehive, the older text, multilingualism is present but mostly passive. The book includes words from Indian languages, such as the names of musical instruments or local games, but these words appear almost exclusively inside stories and poems. They are part of the narrative scenery. When a student reads a story about a musician playing a shehnai, they encounter the word for that instrument, but the book rarely asks them to compare it to a similar instrument in their own village or to discuss the word in their home language. The activities that follow the stories focus almost entirely on English grammar and comprehension. The book acknowledges that India is diverse, but it keeps that diversity locked inside the literary text, treating the student's own language as something outside the classroom walls.
Kaveri, the newer textbook, opens those walls. While it still uses stories and poems, it actively invites the student's home language into the learning process. The researchers found that Kaveri includes tasks that ask students to bring in songs, poems, or proverbs from their own languages to share with the class. It encourages learners to compare how a specific idea is expressed in English versus how it is expressed in their mother tongue. For instance, instead of just reading a text about a famous Indian athlete, the book might ask students to discuss the athlete's achievements using terms from their local dialect or to find similar stories from their own communities. The book treats the student's existing knowledge not as a distraction, but as a tool for learning. It suggests that a child understands English better when they can anchor it to the words and concepts they already know deeply.
This shift is also visible in the pictures and digital elements. In Beehive, illustrations mostly serve to decorate the text or help a student visualize a scene in a story. They are static windows into the narrative. In Kaveri, images and graphics are used as starting points for discussion. A photograph might be shown before the text is read, asking students to observe details and relate them to their own experiences. The book also makes extensive use of QR codes, which link to digital resources. While the linked content is still largely in English, the design encourages students to explore beyond the printed page, using technology to extend their learning. The visual layout of Kaveri is more interactive, using charts and prompts that guide students to think about their own cultural context, rather than just absorbing information.
Despite these significant improvements, the researchers note that the job is not yet finished. Neither textbook fully embraces the idea of "translanguaging," a concept where students fluidly switch between languages during a single lesson to make meaning. In both books, the formal grammar exercises and tests remain almost entirely in English. The new book Kaveri suggests many ways to use home languages, but it does not yet provide a complete system for testing or assessing a student's progress using those languages. The researchers suggest that while the vision in the newer book is much closer to the ideal of a multilingual classroom, the actual practice of teaching still relies heavily on English. The book provides the map, but the teacher must still build the road.
The study concludes that a textbook is more than just a container for words; it is a guide for how teachers and students interact. The move from Beehive to Kaveri shows that Indian education is slowly moving toward a model where a child's entire linguistic life is welcomed into the classroom. The newer book does not just mention diversity; it builds activities around it. However, the researchers caution that a book alone cannot change a classroom. For the vision of the new policy to become reality, teachers need support to use these new methods, and schools need to create environments where speaking multiple languages is seen as a strength rather than a problem. The textbooks have taken a vital step forward, turning the page from a passive acknowledgment of diversity to an active invitation to learn through it.
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