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This paper proposes a framework for multilingual language-in-education policy implementation, offered as a critically constructive response to India's recent "National Education Policy 2020" (GOI, 2020). Rooted in India's existing educational language policy, our linguistically inclusive 'Languages for Learning' (LFL) framework is, we believe, structurally flexible, socioculturally feasible, economically viable and academically relevant. It aims to foster equity and also to ensure first language support and cognitive independence. Before presenting the framework, we critically review the multilingual policy guidance offered in "NEP 2020," then lay out a theoretical foundation for the LFL framework based primarily on current translanguaging theory, and also discuss the history of India's much maligned three-language formula (TLF), which forms the core of language policy in India. The framework itself is presented with reference to specific contextual challenges in India that may also serve to indicate its relevance for other multilingual contexts around the world. As such, the LFL framework is offered as a more multilingually-appropriate alternative to the reductive construct of 'Medium of Instruction', which itself originates in the monolingual habitus of historically outdated language-in-education policy theory. We invite critical evaluations of the utility of our framework, both for India and other multilingual contexts.

ESL/EFL teachers, especially those working in higher education, across the world were required to teach online after the spread on COVID-19. Many empirical studies have been conducted in the last 1 year to investigate various aspects of online teaching and learning of languages. However, online ESL teaching in South Asian contexts remains almost unexplored. This paper reports a multiple case study that aimed to bridge this gap and explore online formative assessment (FA) and feedback practices of three ESL teachers working in three universities in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Data were collected through classroom observations, interviews and document analysis. The results indicate that all three teachers actively engaged their students in a variety of FA practices, although they did not use the obtained information from assessments properly and there remained many areas of improvement. Their feedback practices, which involved the integration of a few digital tools, were regular and student-friendly. The study is significant in that it is the first of its kind. Future researchers can conduct large scale studies to verify if the findings of the study are true for other university ESL teachers who are teaching online.

With digital literacies becoming an essential competency for teachers across the world, recent educational policies in India emphasize teachers' ability to use digital technologies for pedagogic purposes and the use of digital technologies by teachers as one of the evaluation criteria for ranking institutions. In the absence of any properly established policy on in-service training in digital technologies for teachers, such policies cannot be expected to promote effective learning. Moreover, little effort is being made to keep track of the impact of training in digital technologies on teachers' pedagogic practices. In light of the above background, the proposed multiple-case study aims to explore changes in the practices of three English for Science and Technology (EST) teachers in India. The main objective of the study is to compare the teachers' technology integration practices before and after they participated in a 12-hour need-based training programme in digital technologies. Data for the study were collected through questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations, field notes and e-portfolios. Results suggest that the programme had a positive impact on their practices and there was difference in the way the three teachers selected, used and thought about digital technologies. Factors such as motivation, administrative support, students' response to the use of technologies, and awareness about students' language needs shaped their practices.

This article presents a qualitative study concerning the experience of three pre-service Dalit teacher trainees with their upper caste classmates, programme instructors and coping strategies adopted by them to counter social and academic challenges at a well-known public university in India. Data for the study were collected through interviews with the Dalit and upper caste trainees and three programme instructors and observation of classes. Although no evidence was found to indicate any caste-based discrimination by the upper caste classmates and instructors, it was evident that the instructors were not empathetic towards the academic needs of the Dalit trainees. The trainees had individual coping strategies which included obtaining help from their upper caste classmates, maintaining self-motivation and staying away from people around them.