The Action Research Mentoring Scheme (ARMS) was a British Council initiative that awarded grants to support teacher educators and academics in mentoring small groups of English language teachers through classroom-based research projects in multilingual teaching.

Launched in June 2024 and completed in May 2025, the year-long programme created a structured framework that enabled teachers to:

  • experiment with new approaches and ideas
  • strengthen their reflective practice
  • make informed choices about teaching styles
  • build confidence in their professional roles
  • enhance student learning outcomes

Applications were invited from institutes and organisations across India specialising in English Language Teaching.

The 2024–25 ARMS awardees were:

  • Department of English Language Teaching (ELT), Gauhati University
  • Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing (IIITDM), Kancheepuram
  • National Institute of Technology (NIT), Warangal

The scheme successfully fostered a culture of teacher-led research, collaboration, and innovation, highlighting the vital role of teachers in shaping multilingual and equitable classrooms.

Learn more about the project’s impact in From Insight to Action: Teachers Leading Change – a collection of teacher impact stories available in the Downloads section.

Project title: Using translanguaging strategies to develop multilingual learners’ English language skills in an EMI context in Assam 

Project overview and objectives: 

This project set out to mentor teachers of English — both as a subject and as a medium of instruction — in multilingual classrooms, helping them explore ways to support learners’ English language development through translanguaging strategies.Translanguaging, as defined by Canagarajah (2011) and García (2009), refers to “our use of any or all of the resources (words, bits of grammar, paralinguistic features, etc.) in our full linguistic repertoire – including all the languages we speak – to maximize communicative potential” (Anderson, 2023, p. 46).

Aligned with the National Education Policy (2020) and its emphasis on multilingual literacy, the project aimed to:

  • explore learners’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds to design inclusive teaching activities in or for English that value their home languages
  • identify strategies already used by learners to acquire English or study other subjects in English, and assess how these support English proficiency
  • design and pilot translanguaging strategies with multilingual learners
  • analyse the effectiveness of these approaches in improving learners’ English skills
  • reflect on the action research process and its relevance to teachers’ own professional contexts

By the end of the project, participating teachers had not only experimented with translanguaging strategies in their classrooms but also developed greater confidence, reflective practice, and a stronger sense of agency in shaping inclusive multilingual education.

Project title: Designing Translanguaged Language Learning Materials for Multilingual Indian ESL Classrooms 

Project overview and objectives

This project worked with ESL teachers in Tamil medium schools in Tamil Nadu to design and try out a translanguaging pedagogy – a teaching approach that draws on both Tamil and English to make learning more meaningful and effective. The aim was to see how translanguaging could strengthen students’ metalinguistic awareness and help them build stronger connections between the two languages.

Teachers, with support from mentors, adapted two units (six chapters) from SCERT English textbooks into multilingual lesson materials. These included:

  • Bilingual texts in Tamil and English
  • Bilingual classroom instruction
  • Bilingual learning tasks

By using these strategies, students and teachers were encouraged to notice how Tamil and English work — looking at words, grammar, and meaning — and to confidently use their full linguistic repertoire.

Alongside classroom implementation, teachers were also guided to:

  • keep reflective journals to capture their experiences
  • engage in peer feedback with colleagues
  • share insights on how translanguaging supported learning

By the end of the project, teachers reported feeling more confident, reflective, and innovative in their practice. The study highlighted how translanguaging can make English learning inclusive, engaging, and relevant for multilingual learners.

Project title: Effective use of multilingualism in classrooms: a study in Telangana state 

 Objectives of the project 

The project successfully:

  • Raised awareness among teachers about the what, why, and how of exploratory action research.
  • Provided opportunities for teachers to identify and find solutions to their own classroom challenges.
  • Enabled networking and collaboration among teachers across different districts.
  • Strengthened professional development (CPD) by helping teachers understand its importance and encouraging them to stay professionally active.
  • Built a community of practice in the state of Telangana that fostered shared learning and peer support.
  • Enhanced awareness of multilingualism and its role in language acquisition among teachers in Telangana.

Through these efforts, the project nurtured a culture of collaboration, reflection, and innovation among teachers, leaving behind a strong foundation for continued professional growth and classroom transformation.

 
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