The Linguist

16 The Linguist Vol/61 No/1 2022 thelinguist.uberflip.com FEATURES Every student found the exercise useful or was neutral about it, with none saying it was not useful. A third would use the technique for exam essays, a third for speaking cards, and a third for all types of work listed (exam summaries and creative writing in addition to essays and speaking cards). The project highlighted to students the importance of checking the accuracy of their original sentences – be it gender and adjective agreement or abstract vs concrete nouns – prior to building their own image- based linguistic narrative. Additionally, they must recognise whether a word is a noun or an adjective. For example, in the standardised table for 'Egyptian mummy', the student used the incorrect adjective ending (Aegypter), confusing the word for an Egyptian man with the adjective 'Egyptian', resulting in an inaccurate sentence. Take-away points The focus should remain on the sentence, linked to clear, colourful and uncluttered images to quickly flag up content via personalised schemata. This is especially important during timed assessments and spontaneous speaking. For dual coding to be successful, learners have to apply an element of metacognition in terms of understanding the function of particular vocabulary and grammar in a sentence. Best summarised by Fabiani, our memory can be enhanced using the imagination. 3 The images must be well defined, but not excessively, in order to avoid unnecessary overloading. We must also modify them and give them characteristics that can link them to the concepts we want to store. This also holds true for the platform being used – be it Quizlet, Kahoot or Word – as well as for the information being personalised. Notes 1 Fabiani, P (2016) 'How Mental Associations and Imagination Can Help Your Study'. In Wall Street International – Science and Technology 2 Noroozi, O, Järvelä, S, Kirschner, P (2019) 'Multidisciplinary Innovations and Technologies for Facilitation of Self-Regulated Learning'. In Computers in Human Behaviour, Elsevier, 295-297 3 Op. cit. Fabiani Lakshmi-Raj Amin considers the many A country rich with linguistic diversity, India has occasionally experienced turbulence and trouble in managing its many languages. Opposing attempts to streamline this diversity, particularly in the realm of education, communities have fought to retain and preserve their linguistic identities through demonstrations and fasts. One of the first anti-Hindi protests occurred in 1937 when the study of Hindi was made compulsory in schools in Madras. Despite this, governments have generally tried to embrace India's linguistic diversity, proud of its plethora of languages (the state of Maharashtra alone has 39 languages). It may appear surprising that a country of 1.3 billion people can be governed in 22 languages, but India is an inspiration in this regard. The pandemic has created new difficulties, however. How has India managed such an enormous public health emergency in multiple languages? Has the government ensured consistency in the messages it has delivered in various languages? Even within hospitals, there is a challenge in using appropriate and accurate medical terminology in so many languages while maintaining the same standard of care across the country. Did India have the infrastructure to communicate important guidelines efficiently in these unprecedented times? Not entirely, but its pragmatic approach has helped. It is clear that a blanket Hindi (or English) approach to managing the pandemic cannot work for such a linguistically diverse population. It is estimated that only around 10% of citizens speak English to some extent. The production of information in local languages is therefore crucial. There have been instances where the failure to use local languages has led to problems that inhibit national efforts to combat Covid-19, such as dangerous assumptions about the virus and the spread of hoax treatments (e.g. splashing turmeric water for sanitisation). Furthermore, issuing guidance primarily in Hindi or English could cause communities to become isolated if they do not speak those languages, leading to a dismissal of Covid entirely. They may treat it as a threat that can never affect them since its existence has not been announced in their language. This is evidenced by BBC reports that the situation was often worse in rural areas, where people did not go to hospital until their condition was dangerous. This may, in part, be due to the lack of information available in their languages, which meant that they were not aware of the severity of the virus. Covid safe in 2

• Cover