Teaching and Learning English Language through Literacy Drive Policy in Grade 3 in Public Schools: Teachers’ Perception and Challenges

This paper investigates the place of pedagogy in language-in-education policy through an analysis of how the macro-level government policy interacts with the micro-level English language teaching practices. Since 2015, the teaching and learning of English language to grade 3 students, in all public schools of the Punjab, has been carried out through a literacy and numeracy drive called LND. The present study investigated the effectiveness of teaching English to grade 3 through literacy drive policy (LDP) of LND programme. It locates the implementation of LDP, in language in acquisition policy perspective and supports the stance that language teaching and learning is central to language planning and policy research (Johnson, 2013; Menken & García, 2010). It argues that language interventions deployed at any level of education are extension of language education policies which aim to improve the quality of education and to promote the learning of the language. Like all language in acquisition policies, LDP for teaching and learning of English is being executed in the same context of increasing the number of language users through teaching of foreign or second language (Cooper, 1989). The study investigated perceptions of teachers regarding teaching and learning of English through LDP with the notion that effective implementation of any language programme is linked with the understanding and practices of teachers who are the real implementers and final arbiters at micro level (Menken, 2008). The present study included a portion of data from my PhD dissertation. It collected teachers’ experiential standpoints to explore teachers’ awareness regarding implementation of LDP and issues they face inside the classrooms when they carried out teaching learning of English through LDP. The findings of the study revealed that teachers teaching English to grade 3 lack awareness in terms of clear understanding regarding LDP mainly because it is less elaborated and not accessible. It ultimately hindered the successful implementation and poses multiple classroom challenges.