Abstract
This paper examines the critical role of English language pedagogy in India, addressing key issues in teaching and learning English as a second language. The article discusses the importance of English at both national and individual levels — as a “window to the world,” an intranational link language, and a language of upward social mobility. It argues for a shift from teacher-oriented, knowledge-based instruction to interactive, learner-centered approaches that develop communicative competence. The paper explores principles of the audio-lingual approach, pattern practice, sound system instruction, vocabulary management, and the relationship between language and literature in curriculum design.
Keywords: English language pedagogy, second language acquisition, communicative competence, audio-lingual approach, teaching methodology
English as a National and Individual Asset
At a national level, English continues to serve as India’s “window to the world” and thereby function as a language of development. This is due to the access it provides to the growing funds of knowledge in Science, Social Sciences, and Humanities. The continuation of English seems important if India’s science and technology, trade and commerce are to be truly international. As an intranational link language, English is a promoter of interstate mobility contributing in some measure to national unity and integration. As an associate official language, as the official link between the central government and the governments of the non-Hindi speaking states, an international link language, the language favored by all-India institutions, conferences, seminars, legal and banking systems, trade and commerce, and defence, English has important functions to serve internally in addition to its function as the “window of the world.” Gokak emphasizes the importance of English as a means of internal and international communication, noting that until Hindi becomes established, “English may be continued.”
At the individual level, English continues to be “the language of opportunity,” “the language of upward social mobility,” and the language used in transactional interactions. Any individual seeking socio-economic advancement at the national level will find ability in English as an asset. The skills of communication will continue to be at a premium, and teaching will have to try to impart a certain minimal competence in these skills. It is important to identify the English requirements of various groups of students precisely and to provide for each such group the patterns of courses relevant to the needs of learners.
The Teaching-Learning Process
In order to achieve the objectives of teaching and learning English, it is essential to design a variety of courses tailored to the needs of consumers, produce new materials including audio and video materials, introduce function-based training programmes, and bring in changes in attitudes to learners and their language, the system of evaluation, and methodology of language teaching. The main focus must shift from teaching as a unidirectional, teacher-oriented, knowledge-oriented activity to learning as an interactional activity, involving sub-activities like problem solving, group work, drawing inferences, making generalizations, and participating in a variety of other activities.
The teaching and learning of English as a second language may be considered as two mutually defining aspects of the same process, for the teacher is not just a giver but also a receiver and the learner is also an active participant. The teacher comes in as a facilitator of this process, managing class activities, acting as an advisor supplying the language that students need, and at other times as a “co-communicator,” engaging in the communicative activities along with the students.
Language and Literature
Using a language means two things: first, having the ability to make a choice or a network of choices and putting them together in terms of the linguistic and socio-cultural rules and conventions of the language, and second, having the ability to produce texts. The reading of literary text in the original can be an exciting experience and a powerful stimulus to further effort provided learners have the linguistic competence to capture “the real thing” which lies always deeply embedded in layers of language. According to Sinclair, “Language and Literature should be related very closely to each other in an English curriculum but essentially kept distinct.”
Scientific Approach to Language Teaching
A language teacher should not ignore the results of linguistics, the psychology of human learning, the age and education of pupils, or the personality and capacity of the individual student. A scientific approach to language teaching applies the best that is known to each particular class and its students. The language teacher must know the target language well enough to be imitated by students. Proficiency in the target language includes the four skills: understanding, speaking, reading, and writing, but not translation and interpretation, which are separate professional skills.
Principles of Effective Language Teaching
The audio-lingual approach advocates teaching listening and speaking first, reading and writing next. From linguistics we know that language is most completely expressed in speech. Speech cannot be invented by the student; it has to be imitated. The extra effort needed to memorize dialogues in a foreign language enables the student to use them as models and to proceed with further learning.
Establishing patterns as habits through pattern practice is essential. Knowing words, individual sentences, and rules of grammar does not constitute knowing the language. To know the language is to use its patterns of construction with appropriate vocabulary at normal speed for communication. Vocabulary load should be kept to a minimum while students are mastering the sound system and the grammatical patterns. Translation is not a substitute for language practice.
Works Cited
- Robert Lado, Language Teaching, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. Ltd., New Delhi, 1979, p. 201.
- R.K. Agnihotri and A.L. Khanna, Second Language Acquisition, Socio-Cultural and Linguistic Aspects of English in India, Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 1994, p. 96.
- E.C.T. Selections 2. Articles from the journal English Language Teaching, Ed. by W.R. Lee, London OUP, 1967, p. 164.
- Vaishna Narang, Contemporary Themes and Issues in Language Pedagogy, Book Plus, New Delhi, 2006, p. 182.
- Robert Lado, Language Teaching, p. 214.
- Vaishna Narang, Contemporary Themes and Issues in Language Pedagogy, p. 197.