English that children understand
CALP stands for Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency: the English children need to understand their school subjects. Since 2020 we have turned the NCERT English books into videos that millions of children watch.
Children were memorising what they didn’t understand
India has many home languages, and most parents choose English-medium schools. When the language at home and the language at school are different, children stop understanding and start memorising. They get through the primary classes, and then struggle when the ideas in higher classes get harder.
CALP was started to close this gap: to build a child’s listening, vocabulary and reading in English, and to help them think in English. Once these grow, speaking and writing follow.
The textbook is enough, if a child really understands it.
It is better to use the resources you have well than to collect more and never use them.
Where the method comes from
CALP is based on A framework for scaffolding to teach programming to vernacular medium students, research by Dr. Yogendra Pal. It looked at how students who studied in their home language can learn in English, step by step, with the right support at each step.
We dedicate CALP to Prof. Sridhar Iyer, who guided that work, and thank Prof. Sahana Murthy and Prof. Kinshuk for their support.
Play the first chapter today
Pick your child’s class on our YouTube channel, play the first chapter three or four times, and listen together.