"Multi-Competence" of the Inter-State Migrant Students of India: A Comparative Study between Bangla, Hindi, English and Telugu in Terms of Phonology.

In this study, the "multi-competence" of the inter-state migrant students of India who deal with four languages at the same time will be explored. The typological distance and the possible language transfer between Bangla, English, Hindi, and Telugu in terms of segmental and supra-segmental features will be tried to examine. According to the New Education Policy 2020, three-language formula has been adopted in schools of India. Generally, most of the states have taken English, Hindi and the regional language of the respective states to implement the three-language formula in schools. But people who move from one state to another learn their L4 as the third language in schools. For example, when one socioeconomically privileged Bengali moves to Telangana whose mother tongue is Bangla, he/she learns English as L1, Hindi as L2 and Telugu as L3. Here in this paper, along with English and Hindi, Bangla and Telugu have been chosen for this study as the mother tongue of the author is Bangla and the author is a resident of Telangana. This study is relevant for all the inter-state migrant students whose mother tongue is not Hindi or English. These students learn three languages in a formal set up in school in addition to their mother tongue. To learn a language, we need to acquire multiple subsystems of that language, for example, its phonology, vocabulary, writing system, grammar etc. In this study, the phonological differences of Bangla, English, Hindi, and Telugu will be discussed to understand the varied knowledge of the Indian inter-state migrant students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]