85. How shall we make them learn?

[Kerala University English Teacher Educator’s Forum - KUETEF]

Helping our  students learn  English...develop  the necessary competency to communicate effectively  are  matters that concern  committed teachers of  English.

Recently I came across two articles... Given below are extracts from both:

Three factors  could be identified as contributing to the failure of English Language Education in India. They are:

i) the misconception of the nature of language by those involved in policy making and which in turn penetrated down to the level of syllabus designers, text book writers, teacher-trainers and in the end, teachers;

ii) the deep-rooted conviction about  the theories of learning in general and  language /second language learning in particular; and

iii) inadequate, ineffective and  wrongly implemented pre-service teacher training programmes.

One may notice that  the learner appears no where in the  topographies outlined above; he has only been dragged into the wrongly conceived and badly implemented  programme called Indian second language instruction.

[Source: P.15  Guest Article entitled  ‘What  has been ailing  English Language  Teaching- A Reflection by P. Bhaskaran Nair in Research and Pedagogic  Interventions: Peer-reviewed Research Journal in Education (Jan 2012) Vol (1) 13-23 ISSN  2177-3991

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Ramakrishna Rao conducted a study entitled  'Competency-based English Language Teaching at Primary Level'. The study found  that:

i) Competency-based English Language Teaching is superior in effectiveness to conventional method of teaching.

ii) Competency-based English Language Teaching  has a positive  and significant effect on students’ achievement in English  and it helps  in improving LSRW among  primary school students.

[Source : K. Ramakrishna Rao, “Effectiveness of Competency-based English Language Teaching at Primary Level in Edutracks  Vol  12  No. 10 June  2013

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The  first extract is  from a Guest Article and   is based on the author’s own  reflection.  The  second extract is based on a study conducted  on a small sample. Interestingly, Ms.Janet Orr,  a couple of months ago,  in an interview   to an Indian English Daily, spoke about  a research  which she did at the University of Atlanta.  According to her, life experiences  make a lot  of difference in  learning. When students  from rural background  come to  study  in a University located in a city they perform better compared  to secondary school  because  of the exposure  they get from  activities  they were deprived earlier. The fundamental idea is to give the students a lot of opportunities...

Well... does any other idea come to  your mind?  Do share ...

Dr. C. Praveen

Secretary, KUETEF