* Dawane Chandrashekhar Ashokrao works with Dept. of English, Yeshwant Mahavidyalaya, Nanded.
English due to its international importance is a language to be aspired for. N. Krishnaswammy and Lalitha Krishnaswamy have rightly said:
Much like oil or the microchip, English, today, is used globally. Life will become paralyzed if petrol and computers are not available anymore similarly, we may find it difficult to function if we don’t understand or speak English.1
There are various factors which contribute to the importance of English language. They make it one of the most important languages in the world. It is for this reason that English occupies an important plays in our educational system. In this short paper, we shall focus upon the historical background of ELT in India.
ELT before 1947
The English language came to India in the 17th century with the East India Company. It was formed to conduct trade with India and other countries in the east. Initially the Britishers tried to learn Indian languages to communicate with Indians. They started special colleges for this purpose. They also took the help of the translators. But when their political powers increased, they created the British Indian provinces like Bengal, Madras and Bombay. So the English traders gave more importance to English rather than to Indian languages. Some missionary institutions taught English to Indians.
The East India Company took the responsibility of the educations of the Indians. The Indians were also realizing the importance of the English language. As A.P.R. Howatt notes:
By the 1830s the Indian middle classes were becoming very demanding. They realized that English was the language required for a secure future in a government job, so why was English not taught in the secondary school? Private schools offering this service were already doing good business, particularly in Calcutta. The state was set for the first ‘big moment’ in the imperial history of English language teaching.2
Meanwhile some movements were started by Raja Ram Mohan Roy to introduce western scientific education through English. He wanted to replace traditional Sanskrit and Persian teaching. To take a decision on the issue, a committee was formed. Lord Macaulay was the chairman of this committee. He advocated English as the medium of instruction in the place of Sanskrit and Persian.
Lord Macaulay wanted to make the people Indian in blood and colour but English in taste and opinion. He thought the members of this class would spread their knowledge through English. Macaulay’s purposes were: i) to create the dominance of British culture over the Indians and to have the control over the minds of the Indian people through English. ii) To train Indians and make them fit for the employment. The British Government gave preference in jobs to the Indians who had the knowledge of English.
The type of English education was similar to the type followed in Britain. British students studied English literature as part of their cultural and literary heritage. It was believed that education was for training the mind and teaching the morals. English was the mother tongue of the British. So they did not feel the need to teach the English. But this was not the situation in India. Indian people gave the emphasis on learning English literature. So they lacked the communication skills. The English of Indian people was ridiculed as ‘Babu English’. But some of the Indians acquired fluency in English by studying in England through their hard work. But they were small in number. But the study of English helped the Indians in their struggle for freedom. It helped them to enrich Indian languages and literature.
A number of Indian students found poetry, drama and other writings difficult to get their degrees. Meanwhile many new colleges and universities were formed. The system of English education founded on English literature continued till the independence.
ELT after 1947
India got the independence and the Indian government had to decide its policy towards English. They decided to make Hindi the official language. Regional languages were given the status of national languages. Certain states insisted to make English the associate official language. Universities and schools were increasing rapidly in India. Some of the people from the neglected society also came forward to learn English. English was not limited to a few elite schools and colleges. But there were complains about the standards of English. The government appointed many commissions to improve the standard of English in schools and colleges. All these commissions reaffirmed the importance of English. For instance, University Education Commission says:
English, however, must continue to be studied. It is a language which is rich in literature – humanistic, scientific and technical. If under sentimental urges we should give up English, it would cut ourselves off from the living stream of our growing knowledge.3
The Secondary Education Commission emphasized the same in a similar tone:
The present position of India in the international sphere is partly due to the command that educated Indians have acquired over English. Many eminent educationists and scientists have therefore, expressed the opinion that under no circumstances should we sacrifice the many advantages that we have gained by the study of English.4
In 1958 The Central Institute of English was started in Hyderabad. Regional institutes were established in Bangalore and Chandigardh. But nobody tried to change the literature based system of English. English was studied mainly for education and administration. But because of the revolutionary developments in science, technology, travel, trade, communications and entertainment, English got a new role as the international language of communication. Nowadays it is necessary to learn all the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing English. English teaching has remained unchanged for nearly 150 years, new developments are taking place worldwide in the methods of teaching and learning English. These developments have affected the English language teaching in India also. Previously, English was taught from fifth standard in the non-English medium schools of Maharashtra. Now it is taught from the first standard even in the non-English medium schools. In the past the syllabus was literature based but now it is skill-based. Earlier the evaluation system centered on the written skill only, from the year 2006-07 the oral test is introduced in the secondary and higher secondary schools. People are aware of the importance of English. They are interested in learning the spoken English.
As a result, various courses are developed for teaching spoken English. The use of Language Laboratory and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has created new changes in the teaching of English. The audio cassettes and CDs are being used on a large scale to learn the spoken language. Various software of English teaching are developed and used by a growing number of people. There are many private institutions that run the courses of spoken English. Especially in big cities the language trainers are helping the learners to acquire the required proficiency over the communicative skills in general and the spoken skills in particular. Now Television channels are also working towards improving spoken English. NDTV Imagine is running a programme ’Angrezi Mein Kehte Hain’. All of them cannot be termed as cheap. Dr. Deepti Gupta rightly says:
The irony of situation is that while academicians label these learning centers ‘shops’ or ‘commercial institutes’ It is these establishments that are a major influence behind the changing face of the ELT paradigm in India.5
References:
1. Krishnaswamy N and Krishnaswamy Lalitha, Methods of Teaching English, Macmillan India, 2006, p.1
2. Howatt A.P.R. and Widdowson H.G., A History of English Language Teaching, Ed.2nd, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.145
3. Dash, B.N., Teaching of English, Dominant Publishers and Distributors, 2004, p. 9.
4. ibid, p. 10
5. http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/March_05_dg.pdf. as on 05-07-2008.
Dawane Chandrashekhar Ashokrao: just read your piece on ELT weekly. It was great to see that other researchers understand my point. Keep writing!
Deepti Gupta