Many students who complete their schooling in their regional medium or study in government schools have an unknown fear to learn English though they may score well in core subjects. However, many feel that it has gained monster propotion but English is “the easiest” language to learn.
Need to communicate
Geetha Ramanujam of Kathalaya says that language began with man's need to communicate with each other. Sounds, vibrations gestures evolved into words and language. “Today we are more caught up with theoretical knowledge of language and word rather than first laying the oral foundation of learning. We need to speak in order to understand one another and the world around us. What is lacking is, today everyone knows what language is all about including the grammar and the rules. But not effective in communicating the same as the onus is only on the skills of reading and writing and not the foundation of listening and speaking,” she says.
Imbibing new techniques
They use storytelling as a language development tool for effective communication where the stress is laid on “listening, retaining, recalling and re-telling.” She says that children must focus on listening with attention and interest and it will automatically stimulate interest to learn a language. “What better way than through a story or an anecdote well told? All language learning happens when you speak the language frequently and freely and this cannot be done forcibly but only through creating a non threatening environment in the classrooms,” she says.
Teaching English and learning it needs a new approach, she feels. “It is now focused on theoretical approach to teaching like emphasis on phonetics and grammar rather than the simple spoken tongue. It is fine to make mistakes with confidence rather than sticking to the bookish information on the language. The approach should be more research based of the local need than borrowing a foreign text word by word,” Ms. Ramanujam says.
English should be taught more for communicating effectively with people around the world than for blindly reproducing what is irrelevant and from a foreign text. We could adopt the methodology rather than expose a rural or native child to mugging up the language, which is the reality now,” she adds.
