Renowned soft-skill trainer Judith Kutty has underscored the need to give prominence to learning of mother tongue before mastering any foreign language, especially English.
“English is a foreign language and to have command over it is not easy as it is not your first language. Love your mother tongue, and only then you can learn foreign languages,” she said.
She was addressing a function recently to release the English bulletin The Mirror , designed and edited by the English club of the Pookoya Thangal Smaraka Vocational Higher Secondary School, Thrikarippur.
Ms. Kutty, a British national, handed over a copy to school manager S. Kunhamed at a simple function at the school auditorium.
The function was part of the ‘Language My Friend’ programme, aimed at developing and enhancing communication skills in English, one of the main objectives of Vision 2020 that has been initiated by the school PTA to raise the school to world-class standards within five years.
One of the basic reasons why students fail to communicate in English language is their diffidence that they would make mistakes, she said.
Teachers and parents have a great role in making them understand that mistakes are permitted when communicating in a foreign language and it is perfectly fine to ask for clarification, when needed.
