A Communication student of Loyola College, Chennai, 48-year-old Elamurugan laments the basic lack of Basic English, among youth, especially those from villages.

“Hence, it is ideal to catch these people young. We are targeting children even in the age group of 4-7.”

In an interaction with G.Satyamurty, he explains how it is possible to improve the understanding, knowledge and also communication skills of young children. This would ultimately pay dividends when they move higher in the education scenario.

He admits that the opportunities for most of the children in rural areas using English is far less than their urban counterparts. Such children largely tend to memorise because their teachers also do not teach them basics, especially the knowledge of sound. “The sound in the letter we don’t teach.” Thus they are deprived of the knowledge of basic sounds in a system, especially normal English conversation.

Another important flaw is that most of us tend to think in mother tongue and translate it into English instead of trying to think in English itself.

At the same time, he flays teaching English with stereotype tools of learning resulting in the fundamentals of the language failing to be imparted. This might cause adverse effects on the basic foundation of a children’s English skills, especially in the formative period of 4 to 8 years.

Mr.Elamurugan is unhappy with the present curriculum itself. According to him, the focus of the language shifts from language to subject in higher classes. This also drives children into the lap of rote.”There is hardly any opportunity for such children to speak in English.”

He is categorical that children should be provided as much opportunity as possible to listen.

For making them speak fluently, they should be taught the “rise and fall” of the language. He is confident that it is possible to make children learn at least 1,800 words in three years.” One needs a minimum of 3,000 words of vocabulary “.

If children are facing vocabulary crunch, they could easily feel frustrated. “Hence, it is imperative to help them establish a good vocabulary base.”

Mr. Elamurugan, who advocates “phonic-based English learning programme for children”, asserts that phonic skills help children rapidly transform into independent confident readers, who can understand, spell and read correctly.

He says enhancing skills like listening, writing, vocabulary, grammar, reading, spelling, speaking, intonation, phonics and production are very important.

Children should be provided multimodal exposure. First of all they should be exposed to British pronunciation. This will help reduce the influence of their mother tongue. “A multimedia system could be very effective”.

Teachers should learn how to teach English for non-native speakers.

Mr.Elamurugan points out that his organisation has been directly going to the schools to train the teachers. The teacher training includes the Phonic, Accent and Syllable rules of English along with the list of phonics and phoneme sounds to be imparted to the students.” Teachers are enlightened on the exact reasons behind certain principles or practices. This would in turn upgrade the school to international standards.”

He pinpoints the “attitude” of rural students as “90 per cent of the problem. They are shy and lack confidence to articulate\communicate. This definitely hits them hard in interviews though they might have done very well in written exams.

“Institutes like ours do have a significant impact in this regard,” he adds.

In case of group discussions, the participants should have something to say while how to say it is also an art.” It is a skill which you cannot learn overnight.”

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