ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue#9 | February 27, 2012 | ISSN 0975-3036
Abstract
Indian Pupil has less chance to listen proper pronunciation, as well as he/she faces trouble in learning English as A second Language because of varieties in pronunciation, differences in the structure of sentences, no firm rule of grammar. Present paper is the description of this all causes which make trouble in learning English as a second language by Indian Pupil.
Introduction
English is the divine gift by god to the human being. It is the only language which is considered as ‘International Language’ and has been playing a role of lingua-franca (link). It is dynamic and flexible language in the world which is administrative and official language in India. Apart from that it is library language and key to the store the knowledge.
Importance of English as Globe
Different philosophers defined need and importance of English language in different way as well as justify how it is needed for individuals mental, spiritual aesthetical and all round development and growth. That’s why the First Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru explained his view on English as “English is the major window of the world[1].” While Dr. Radhakrishnan University Education Commission defined it as “ It(English) is the language which is rich in literature-humanistic, Scientific technology[2].” In the word of C. Rajgopalcharrya , “We are in our anger and the hatred against the British people and Should not throw away the baby (English) with the bath water (English people)[3].” F.G.French states as “No ancient and modern language we can compare with the English language [4].” Thus, acquiring English language is equally important to food, cloth and shelter to the human being. English language is taught all over the world either as first language or second language.
In India, English is taught as second or foreign language. Learning a foreign language is an artificial and unnatural way, process and method. The atmosphere here is not natural as it is in the case of mother tongue. That’s why, it is said that the first language is ‘caught’ and the second language is ‘taught’. When the student learns his mother tongue, his mind is slate, but at the time of learning a second or foreign language, he has already learnt his mother tongue. In the words of Robert Paul, “When we learn our first language [L1], we face the universe directly and learn to clothe it with speech; when we learn a second language[L2]. We tend to filter the universe through the language already known [5].” This is the difference between first [L1] and second language [L2] learning.
Need of Learning English as a Second Language in India
Following are the needs of learning English language as a second one in India:
1) Economic Reason: Jobs, economic facility and central service.
2) Contact or Link Language: English is link or lingua-franca in the world and in India.
3) Social status: It becomes sign of social status in our nation.
4) Three Language Formula: According to Kothari Education commission declared Three Language Formula, It’s provides the place to English as Second Language in all the states of our nation.
5) Educational Opportunities: Competitive examination IAS, IPS, IFS and other entrance examinations are organized through English language only.
Why We Face difficulties in Acquiring English as Second Language?
Indian student find difficulty in English. There are some reasons behind it. They are as follow.
1) Less Practice of Reading and Speaking: These two are the main skills of language. It is the major problem in the way of learning English as second language to pronounce the word correctly because of the differences in pronunciation. It is greatly influenced by regional language and dialect. The sounds of words are not used in their mother tongue, it is difficult to pronounce correctly and even there are no firm rules for pronunciation regarding the spellings i.e. ‘put and cut’ and similarity of the pronunciation though differences are there in spellings e.g. ‘write – right’; ‘Principal-Principle.’ Such words make them confused, they usually try to compare it with mother-tongue and get disturbed.
2) Writing and Spelling of Word: Another problem is to write the words correctly. In the second language teaching, students usually make spelling errors. The main reason for committing spelling error is that there is no uniformity in writing, and speaking of English. colonel, Psychology the pronunciation of these words are not match with spellings and students get confused and errors arise in writing spellings.
3) Comparison of Grammar and Structure of Sentences with Mother-tongue: It is also related to writing English correctly. The students should form sentence grammatically correct. The student should follow the rules of grammar. It is very essential for us to learn the knowledge of grammar and sentence structure which is major problem of learning English as a second language. There is major difference in writing English and mother tongue of Indian students. Take the example of Hindi- the National Language- structure of English in writing simple sentence is as : subject+verb+object and Hindi follows structure as sub+object+verb. According to cognitive theory of learning, while learning any new knowledge, individual always try to compare it with previous knowledge. This method works as a barrier in learning English as a second language to Indian pupil because of differences in grammar and structures of both languages.
Even there are no firm rules for the past regarding verb: Verb is an action word from the sentence which is called heart of the sentence because it gives the complete meaning of sentence. There are different types of verb in English language such as main and helping, transitive and intransitive, regular and irregular, strong and weak etc. and no firm rule to translate the verb into past or past-participate as shown in below table:
|
Say |
said |
Said |
|
Write |
wrote |
Written |
|
Play |
played |
Played |
|
Go
|
went |
Gone |
|
Cut |
Cut |
Cut |
These are few examples of some verb where Indian students find difficulty.
Moreover there are varieties in plural forms of English; there are different rules to make the plural form of the noun and subject as below;
Singular- Plural
Pen pens
Tooth teeth
I we
You you
He them
That’s why Indian students feel trouble or confused to use English as mother-tongue.
Nest important factor is transformation of gender differences. While learning English as a second language, we come across number of words which are known as gender. We will find varieties in transformation of gender such as:
Masculine feminine
Hero heroin
Cock hen
Ox cow
Actor actress
Husband wife
Along with these, there are problems in alphabet i.e. in English there are 26, where as in mother tongue like Marathi, we have more than 26. The sound system of English and that of any Indian language are different e.g. example English has 20 vowels sound and Hindi has only 10.
4) Difference in Pronoun: This is main reason of errors in English speaking as well as writing. We can call it as culture difference also. In British culture, ‘he/she’ is used for both senior and junior or it doesn’t matter a person is elder or youngest, while Indian context, it is very difficult to use this to introduce our parents or any other seniors by referring ‘he/she’. That’s why Indians make error in using English language. Due to hesitation, they use ‘they’ instead of ‘he/she’ as a pronoun for seniors.
Conclusion: Above mentioned points indicates the various causes of difficulties by Indian students in learning English as a second language. No firm rule to translate the genders, past tense of verbs, plural forms etc. even the difference between two languages i.e. L1 and L2 in the formation of sentence structures. Culture difference is also one barrier to speak in English as second language. One should practice to use English language regularly to have the proper command over English language.
References:
- www.google.co.in.English in India
- V.V. Yardi, ‘Teaching English in India Today’.
- Dr. Y.K.Singh, ‘Teaching of English’.
- Chomsky, ‘Methods and Approaches of Teaching English.’
- Richardson and Kristen ‘Teaching English as a Foreign Language.’