ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue#39 | September 24, 2012 | ISSN 0975-3036
This paper is submitted by Vinod Kumar Bairwa, Lecturer, Dept. of English, SRP Govt. College Bandikui, Dausa, Rajasthan.
Abstract
English as a medium to communicate undoubtedly plays a major role in various aspects of development. There is no denying the fact that English has established itself as a language of trade and commerce. The spurt of technical revolution too conforms to the accessibility of English. English empowers both the young and the adults and its application seems an unavoidable reality right from the kitchen’s oven to military sirens. Moreover, effective English Communication skills provide better job opportunities. With the speedy wings of technology, the scenario in the job market has become more lucrative. The use of English in polishing our life-styles and also in imitating decencies in terms of human behaviour is a fact not to be forgotten. English education in India has always been the top priority of the guardians who want their children to be well-versed and well-conversant in this global language. However, when it comes to speaking out, they feel tongue tied and can’t communicate properly in the absence of exposure to English communication. The main motto of Education is to provide individual children with the knowledge and skills. But, parents’ education level directly correlates to the importance and influence of education in their children’s lives. Academic strengths and weaknesses of a child can be recognized and rectified only if parents are well educated.
The present study makes efforts to improve the quality of education and offer a wider choice to its learners in materials and methods in India. The goals for any language are attainment of a basic proficiency, and the development of language into an instrument for abstract thought and knowledge acquisition.
English is a language brought and popularized in India after the advent of Britishers. Yet, as compared to Hindi or other native languages used by the people of India, Indians’ felicity of the use of English has compelled even the native users to look at us in awe and admiration. The system of education that the British introduced was modeled after the system prevalent in their country. This was particularly true of higher education. The striking feature of this educational transplantation was English, which was not only taught as a language but also became the medium of instruction. While the secondary school certificate examination was conducted only in English till. English was almost exclusively used at the university stage right through the colonial period.
Indian universities were nowhere near it in terms of the quality of education imparted. The content of this education was biased in favor of languages and the humanities as against science and technology, as well as vocational training. The spread of national awakening and growing prospects of independence brought to the fore the question of the national language and the replacement of English by Indian languages in education. A consensus in favor of Hindi as a replacement of English and as the language of all- India communication, deliberation, business, and administration was gradually built up. Regional languages were also expected to be developed once the states were linguistically reorganized.
Later, the nationalist movement resulted in the political mobilization of people on a ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ language basis. If the ‘pro’ stance has helped to develop particular languages to build a communications and administrative bridge for the community, the ‘anti’ stance has prevented the development of a second language to serve intercommunity communication. The ideology of the anti-English stance emphasized English as a symbol of foreign domination and of colonialism and neo-colonialism and its continuation is an affront to the self-respect of the country.
India today equates itself with many developed countries of the world in so far as the use of English is concerned. Beginning with Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel Prize in literature to Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai and of late Arvind Adiga’s Booker Prize, and many others have made every Indian proud and self–confident. A study rightly says that India is the third largest English speaking nation after the U.S and the U.K. The growth and familiarity of English in various forms can be accounted to the proliferation of English medium schools and paying capability of Indian parents. But the picture is not so rosy in every nook and corner of India.
Language is the vehicle of social interaction and effective language functions properly in the work place, social interaction, and indeed, for functional literacy. English as a medium to communicate undoubtedly plays a major role in various aspects of development. Nevertheless, the importance of English should not be exaggerated nor the importance of other languages should be undervalued.
There are lots of characteristics in the Indian education system. But, there are some lapses too. The defects and deficiencies of language instruction are fraught with grave consequences for higher education. Language deficiency has a cumulative effect. Sociolinguistics research has revealed that ‘education tends to make people monolingual in a dominant language’ that ‘the higher on goes in schooling the breather is the demand for the lesser number of languages’. Society and economic status plays a vital role in bringing up and developing a language among the inhabitants of that particular region/area. The two terms ‘society’ and ‘economy’ combined together refer to ‘Socio-economic factors’, which includes in it; the level of family income, parent’s education level, race and gender, all influence the quality and availability of education as well as the ability of education to improve life circumstances, etc.
There is no denying the fact that English has established itself as a language of trade and commerce. The spurt of technical revolution too conforms to the accessibility of English. English empowers both the young and the adults and its application seems an unavoidable reality right from the kitchen’s oven to military sirens. Moreover, effective English Communication skills provide better job opportunities. With the speedy wings of technology, the scenario in the job market has become more lucrative. The use of English in polishing our life-styles and also in imitating decencies in terms of human behavior is a fact not to be forgotten. It has become a language of communication and does not seem to be a liability in our everyday life. But to say that it has attained a hundred percent familiarity is not true. There are still many districts in India where despite the procreation of modern amenities of life, English seems to be revered as a very prestigious language and its users a facilitated lot. The reasons for the slow pace of its spread are varied. A major chunk of population has started realizing the need of subtle nuances of using English more as a skill than merely as a subject. The significance of this study is to fill that gap, which is widening. Its importance can easily be understood when one goes through particular terms like ELT, EFL, ESL, TESOL, etc. which deal with the study of English language as per requirement for specific purposes and situations.
Present-day English is an immensely varied language having absorbed material from many other tongues. It is spoken by more than 300 million native speakers, and between 400 and 800 million foreign users. It is the official language of air transport and shipping; the leading language of science, technology, computers, and commerce; and a major medium of education, publishing, and international negotiation. For this reason, scholars frequently refer to its latest phase as World English. Undoubtedly, English has become a world language rather than the language of only the English speaking countries such as the UK and the USA.
There are enough indications that English as a Global Language is gaining recognition as a special phenomenon. Journals like ‘World English’s and ‘English World-Wide’, and books such as “English as a World Language”, “English around the World” and “English in the World” are indicative of the fact that Global English is being recognized as a field of study in its own right.
English education in India has always been the top priority of the guardians who want their children to be well-versed and well-conversant in this global language. However, when it comes to speaking out, they feel tongue tied and can’t communicate properly in the absence of exposure to English communication. The simple reason for this is that in classrooms more emphasis is attached to improving writing skills than to speaking ones.
The use of English language in India has been a unifying factor. From educational point of view, English language plays a prominent role. English is a symbol of people’s aspirations for quality in education and a fuller participation in national and international life. It is being demanded by everyone at the very initial stage of schooling Good quality higher education and advanced studies are not possible without English language.
In India, about 75% of the students are from rural areas and they are coming through regional language medium schools. Hence, it is necessary to go for a detailed discussion as to whether the existing curriculum is fulfilling the need of the hour and suitable to the students in achieving their goals, the present methods for testing the proficiency of the students are suitable and opinion and suggestions from the teaching faculties of the English language in technical institutions are to be obtained.
The present English teaching strategy in India is a hit and miss affair. The domineering nature of traditional teaching strategy renders learners passive in class. This may be due to:
- The use of regional language in the lower classes of the primary school;
- Some pupils do not understand the grammar because their teachers themselves do not know it; and
- In most cases English language teachers in the senior primary schools resort to the use of mother tongue to teach and explain the English language even up to the secondary school level.
In recognition of the importance of English language for enhancing educational attainment as well as for improving communication ability of citizens, the government has made the subject a core subject. Although English language retains its dominant position in the education delivery system, the thrust of educational language policy is the use of the mother tongue or the language of the immediate community in pre-primary and primary education.
The quality of English language education in majority of Indian schools presents a very appalling picture. As per the teaching and learning of English in Indian schools, following categorizations may be considered:
- English-medium private/government-aided elite schools: Proficient teachers; varying degrees of English in the environment, including as a home or first language.
- New English-medium private schools, many of which use both English and other Indian languages: teachers with limited proficiency; children with little or no background in English; parents aspire to upward mobility through English.
- Government-aided regional-medium schools: schools with a tradition of English education along with regional languages, established by educational societies, with children from a variety of background.
- Government regional-medium schools run by district and municipal education authorities: they enroll the largest number of elementary school children in rural India. They are also the only choice for the urban poor (who, however, have some options of access to English in the environment). Their teachers may be the least proficient in English of these four types of schools. (Position Paper Teaching of English-NCF – 2005- NCERT) (p 2)
The difference in the teaching-learning situation, learners’ exposure to the language outside the schools and parental support further divides each category into many levels.
English communication skills, which lend a helping hand to candidates opting for various jobs, cannot be ignored. The importance of communication skills is manifold. This paper reveals the lapse either in syllabus designing, or in teaching materials or many other geographical factors and traditional beliefs that affect not only learning but teaching process. The outcome of the study suggests different ways of teaching English communication skills, which ensures that the teacher and the taught can co-operate in an amicable atmosphere where knowledge becomes a treasure to be shared and ennobled by both. Its results are based on real life problems faced by both the giver and the taker. The true spirit of teaching English communication skills gets satiated by the feeling that it has started generating meaningful noise in the classroom and outside world.
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