Online resources for teaching Hindi grammar

Sunil Kumar Bhatt, Instructor, Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts

This project will create online resources to learn Hindi grammar via video tutorials. We plan to create 60-70 short videos tackling one grammar point in each tutorial, covering entire basic grammar for HINU102 and HINU200. Videos will be available to students on Canvas as well as an open resource site where all videos will be shared publicly. Students will have access to them any time and they do not need to wait for the office hours or class to resolve their confusion or not understanding of a grammar point. By allowing self-paced practice and review of grammar concepts, the digital material will free up the class time which will then be utilized to practice communicative language skills and elaborate on the cultural aspect of the second/foreign language learning.

In year 2, I plan to create digital language learning activities and exercises based on the grammar points along with additional videos to cover Hindi script.

Sunil Kumar Bhatt, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts

The second year of the project will create online resources to teach Devanagari and Nastaliq scripts to learn Hindi and Urdu scripts. We plan to create 40-50 short videos to teach entire Hindi and Urdu writing systems: how various letters are written and the letters are connected with other letters to create syllables in Devanagari and also in Perso-Arabic Nastaliq. The videos will have picture in picture format where the instructor will make the correct pronunciation of the letter with description on the main back ground and in the smaller screen on the foreground will show how the letters and different letter combinations are written.

The videos will be shared publicly on an open resource site. The 24 hour access will allow the students to prepare themselves before coming to the class and also review the material after the class. The self-paced methodology will give students autonomy over their learning.

Sunil Kumar Bhatt, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts

The need for the third year of the project arose from the comment and suggestion given on the first year of the project by the TLEF authorities, “It would be beneficial to add captioning to the videos you are creating to enhance accessibility for students” The OER Fund Rapid Innovation Grant has given me funds to add captioning to the videos made in the first year of the project. I am seeking funding to add captioning to the videos already made and are being made in the second year of the project. The video lectures that are recorded in the second year (the current year) of the project are more complicated to caption because they also involve Urdu along with Hindi and English. Some parts of the videos will be captioned in three different languages, each with a distinct script.