Teaching English as Second language in India :Focus On Objectives

Name                -            Vyas Foram Y

Roll no:             -            21

M.A.Part-2       -           Sem-3

Paper                 -          04, Ec-304

Paper name    -           English Language Teaching

      

Topic for assignment  -

Teaching English as a second Language in India: Focus on objectives.

Submitted To: Mr. Devershi Mehta

  Department of English,

  Bhavnagar university,

  Bhavnagar.                  

Topic: -         Teaching English as a second Language in India: Focus on objectives.

-        Shivendra K. Verma

ð    Abstract :-

ü                After highlighting certain theoretical aspects of the notion “objective of language teaching,” we discuss the functionally – determined sub-categorization of languages into first language, second language, foreign language and also classical language.  We then focus on the objectives of teaching English as a second Language in India.

ð    The objectives of Language Teaching :-

ü              The global objectives of language teaching can be defined as helping children learn a language or also languages to perform for a variety of functions.  These range from the sociable use of language for phatic communion and a network of communicative uses to its use at the highest level of “Cognition”, “Catharsis” and “Self – expression”. Underlying these functions are two fundamental functions: helping children learn how to ask questions, the most important intellectual ability man has yet developed, and helping children use this language effectively in different social networks.

ð    Language in a multilingual Setting form a system - network:-

ü                Each language in this network has a function – determined value contrastive to the function – determined values of the other language.  A society or a government can assign a new value to any one of the language in the system network in terms of its own policy of language planning, but the society or government must realize that this assignment of a new value to a language will produce a chain reaction in the network.

          The nation of “Link language” or “lingua Franca” has an important significance in a multilingual setting.  It encourages wider mobility, national integration, and a sense of tolerance.  It enriches other languages in contact aphid gets enriched by them.  Effective bilingualism or twilingualism or even multilingualism is a powerful way of enriching the linguistic repertoire of individuals.

          Teaching is not a unidirectional process of pumping bits and pieces of unrelated and undigested gobbets of knowledge into empty sacks.  It is a bidirectional, interactional process.  The main objective at every level of teaching should be to help learners learn How to draw out their latent creativity.  Every learner is barn with a built – in language – learning mechanism.  This mechanism gets activated when the Lerner is exposed to that language.  Exposure to a rich variety of linguistic material is as important in first language acquisition as in second language learning.  The teachings of English as a second language, in particular, has often been less successful than it might have even as a result of the restricted variety of linguistic contexts with which students are provided.  Learners should ideally be exposed to a variety of contextualized language materials.  They must hear and see language in action.

ð              The emphasis should shift from encouraging learners to memorize paradigms and grammatical rules to helping them interact with people using different registers of language in a variety of situations.  In that process the learners internalize not only the linguistic but also the sociolinguistic rules of the game, so that they capture the system which enables them to focus on “what to say when and how.” Learning a language is not just a question of learning to produce sentences and utterances which are grammatical and acceptable; they must also be appropriate.

ð              Each of the four skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Understanding, is composed of a hierarchy of sub skills what is necessary is to identify the sub-skills that are to be strengthened and expanded in the process of teaching a first language, a second language or foreign language (s).  The objective of teaching a language or languages is not simply to make the learner the major language skill but to enable the learners to play their communicative roles effectively and to select language according to the roles they are playing.  Every social person is a bundle of personae, a bundle of parts, each part having its lines.  If you do not know your lines, you are no use in the play.”  A well-qualified, energetic and inventive teacher can be a “living” model and act as the best audio – visual aid.

ð    Functionally – determined Sub Categories :-

ü    First Language (L₁) :-

·                               L₁ is used for performing all the essential, personal functions.  These are gradually expanded to cover all types of interpersonal functions.  L₁ is an indispensable instrument of national culture.  It is primary means for the transmission of culture.  It is primary means for the transmission of culture from one generation to another. “Learning through the mother tongue is the most potent and comprehensive medium for the expressions of the student’s entire personality.”

ü   Foreign Language :

·                               It is used by a select group of learners in a very restricted set of situations.  The main objective of learning a foreign language is to have direct access to the speakers of these languages and their cultures.  English as a second language is used in India as an alternative way of expressing Indian Patterns of life and also a classical language like Sanskrit provides access to ancient culture.

ü   Objective of teaching English as a second language in India :-

·                               The objective has to be formulated in the light of what we perceive our needs for English to be in multilingual setting, at both the national and individual levels.  What are the roles of Hindi, English, Regional languages, classical languages, foreign languages, and languages, and languages of the minority group in our multilingual setting? What is the kind and amount of English that the learners will need?

            At the national level English must serve as our “Window on the world”, as the language of science, economics and international relations, English will be important for industrial and economic development, where the medium of instruction is to be some language other than English, the “Library language” function of English may have to be stressed.  At the Individual level, English continues to be “the language of opportunity” and “the language of upward social mobility.”

ü   What are the objectives of teaching Language?

·                               (I) the ability to read easily, and with understanding books in English written within a prescribed range of vocabulary and sentence structure.

·                             (ii) The readiness to proceed, to a more advanced reading stage, that of reading un-simplified texts, particularly those bound up with personal studies and interest.

·                             (iii) The ability to understand a talk in English on a subject of general experience and interest.

·                             (iv) The ability to write comprehensible in English, and without gross errors, on a familiar topic which leads itself to expression within the rang of vocabulary and sentence structure to the rang of the syllabus.

·                             (v)The ability to carry on comprehensibly a conversation in English on a topic fully within the range both of their experience and interests and the range of active command by the syllabus.

          To Conclude, It is important that we should be able to identify the English requirements of various groups of students precisely, and try to provide for each such group the pattern of courses which ill be relevant to the needs of learners.  This is important because not all students will need English to the same level of competence.  We must ensure that English.

·                             (i) Functions as a “Service-language” for the various categories of learners.

·                             (ii) Promotes intellectual and cultural awareness content of the contemporary world e live in, and.

·                             (iii) Provides “information Content” necessary for the modernization of our country.

          It is also important that Special opportunities are made available to help the weaker sections of our society to acquire an adequate competence in English so that they do not remain forever disadvantaged in areas of higher education and in terms of upward social mobility.

ð              In order to achieve these objectives we will have to introduce changes in our syllabus, methodology of language teaching, materials, training programs attitudes to learners and their language, and the system of evaluation.  We may need to change the school – its physical structure, its atmosphere, its functions, its facilities, its roles and responsibilities.