The two specific contents in which we plan to bring home English to our learners is language and literature. At junior level, the language part needs to be stressed most significantly as focus should be laid on language abilities.
Let me begin with why we need the English language for academic excellence. See, the current world, intensely global, seems to have rendered nationalistic orientations obsolete.
Long back Karl Marx had foreseen and talked about this territorial compassion which would lead people to ‘Nestle everywhere, settle everywhere and establish connections everywhere”
Considering the above facts, learning English, the universal language as a second language, becomes inseparable branch as also unavoidable in Indian education system, yet the irony is though English has been part of our education system for more than a century, yet it is beyond the reach of most of our young people which makes for highly unequal access.
Today, whenever you appear for an interview for a job, be it a corporate section, an educational institution, Health Sector, you are expected to be eloquent with the nuances of English language.
So knowledge of English for academic excellence is a must because that is going to determine our career. Hence English should be taught in such a way in educational institutions so that our youngsters keep themselves in touch with the living stream of ever growing knowledge.
P. Gurrey in his book ‘Teaching English as a Foreign Language’ writes, “In teaching, it is highly desirable to know exactly what one is hoping to achieve, as it is in all great understandings.” For the foreigner English is not a subject but their way of life but the problem is in most of our schools where the majority of children study it is taught not even as second language but in some cases as third language. So basically the onus falls on the teacher to plan the lessons in such a way with adequate ICT tools, methods and technological pedagogy available that he gets the desired results.
Such aids can make language learning an innovative, interactive and beneficial experience.
As an English Teacher my personal experience with students has been tremendously successful. When students make use of these tools, they themselves explore, learn new methods to improve their communication skills. Not only it helps them learn language in a better way, but they do learn how to present their contents, where to use italics, bold, face type letters. Feathers like screen clipping, screen annotation, spot light tools and recorder help make teaching more interactive, innovative, interesting. In our college we have a multimedia language labs which are well resourced with a number of modern equipments like computer systems, headphones, audio, video systems, wireless headsets, microphones, interactive response pads, camcorder, English language learning software etc., where students regularly have classes to brush up their communication skills.
Language laboratories are playing a significant role in acquiring listening, speaking, reading, writing, and eloquence in pronunciation.The only thing is that teachers should be able to shoulder the task of making technology interactive, interesting and learner-friendly.
Now the problem is that in our country where 75% of our students belong to villages, the environment at home is not conducive to English learning. Many parents of such students have hardly been to college or school. So there are a number of obstacles in learning the English language, such as lack of trained English teachers, overcrowded classrooms, lack of teaching aptitude among teachers who lack job security, work load on the teachers, financial constraints, administrative compulsions, lack of ICT tools, or other technological pedagogy aids.
Yes, we do face many problems in teaching of this language so we need to have a common programme for English language teaching in preschool itself.
The two specific contents in which we plan to bring home English to our learners is language and literature. At junior level the language part needs to be stressed most significantly as focus should be laid on language abilities. Development of semantic (Spoken), phonetic (sound, spellings, pronunciation) graphic (writing) and phonetic cum graphic (reading) should form an important part of English language teaching at junior level itself. English language can be religiously taught at the junior level when a teacher makes the student recognize the English sounds, pronounce with right intonation and stress.
At senior level both language and literature need to be given equal weightage by the teacher. Once he acquires hearing, speaking, writing and reading skills, literary development will become easier.
Renowned teacher trainer Dr. N.S. Prabhu said in All India Seminar on ‘Second Language Teacher Education – Issues and Challenges” emphasized the need of developing comprehensive skills. “Teach comprehension, don’t teach production. The worst teaching is routinization. One of our problem in this profession is that we are looking for methods that work everywhere. Don’t routinize teaching. It is not ideal for every teacher to follow the same method. Only when everyone is groping to see what works, that is more valuable.” I personally believe that the following characteristics need to be adopted to master the English language.
The teacher should try to make students make use of simple and plain words gradually and then slowly-upgrade their vocabulary and work on improving their diction. And most importantly every teacher has to find his own method to educate the students of the language depending upon the capabilities and needs of the student. There can never be fixed or definite rules to follow. Mould your teaching as per your requirement and adaptability of the learner.
Academic realm of the English language and its practical base must be united to bridge the gulf between the two to achieve the desired goals and make our students to confident to face the global challenges in the field of career with self-esteem to quote Kripa K. Gautam, ‘Teaching materials and methodologies have to be developed with a view to achieving as effectively as possible the transaction from learner interim language to his communicative competence.”
Dr Ritu Kamra Kumar, Principal , Mukand Lal National College Yamunanagar, Haryana