Monday 21 November 2016

Abstract: after highlighting certain theoretical aspects of the notion “objectives of language teaching”, we discuss the functionally-determined sub-categorization of language into first language, second language, foreign language and classical language. We then moves to focus on objectives of teaching English as a second language in India.

Teaching English as ‘second language’ in India

By- KAPIL KAPOOR

The concept of English a second language is not a purely pedagogic construct and has to be properly understood in the larger historical, social and education context.

· The term second language is understood in two different ways:

1) English is second language after one or more Indian languages, which are primary and more significantly

2) In school education the second language is what is introduced after the primary stage and has a pedagogical as well as a functional definition, particularly in the context of the ‘three-language formula’.

English in India is a symbol of linguistic centralism whereas the numerous Indian languages are seen to represent linguistic regionalism.

· The conceptual structure has three parts:

1) Modernization

2) Mythology

3) Language policy

To further buttress this argument, a whole mythology got built up around the role of english in which the central metaphor is the metaphor of the ‘window’.

1) English is the language of knowledge (science and technology)

2) English is the language of liberal, modern thinking

3) English is our window on the world

4) English is the library language; English is the language of reason

5) English is link language

6) English is the lingua-franca.

The objectives of language teaching:

The global objectives of language teaching can be defined as helping children learn a language or languages to perform a variety of functions. These range from the sociable use of language for phatic communication and a network of communicative uses to its use at the highest level of '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. Languages in a multilingual setting from a system-network. Each language in this network has a function- determined value contrasting to the function determined values of the other languages. A society or a government can assign a new value to anyone of the languages in the system network in terms of its own policy of language planning, but the society or government must realise that this assignment of a new value to a language will produce a chain reaction in the network. The values of the other language in the network are bound to undergo changes.

The notion of link languages or lingua franca has an important significance in a multilingual setting. It encourages wider morality, national integration, and a sense of tolerance. In enriches other languages in contact and gets enriched by them. Effective bilingualism or trilingualism or even multilingualism is a powerful way of enriching the linguistic repertoire of individuals. These resources offered by plurality of languages can be used for rapid social and economic changes and modernization programmes.

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. Learners are not just passive recipients of socially accepted language patterns. They play an active role in his teaching-learning process. They actively strain, filter and reorganize what they are exposed to. Their imitations are not photographic reproductions but artistic recreations. The learners are meaning-makers. The main objective at every level of teaching should be to help learners learn how to draw out their latent creativity.

Every learner is born with a built-in language-learning mechanism. This mechanism gets activated when the learner is exposed to that language. What is therefore, essential is to create an atmosphere where learning tack place. Children learn the language they hear around them. Exposure to a rich variety of linguistic material is as important in first language acquisition as in second language learning. The teaching of English as a second language, in particular, has often been less successful than it might have been 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.

The emphasis should shift from encouraging learners to memorize paradigms and grammatical rules to helping the 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”. It should also enable them to organize words in sentences and sentences in texts effectively keeping in view “the topic of discourse”, “addresser – addressee relationship”, and “Socio-cultural setting” 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.

Each of the four major 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 learn the major language skills but to enable the learners to play their communicative roles effectively and to select languages / registers / styles 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@ (First 1957: 184).

The object in teaching a language ... its to enable the learner to behave in such a way that he can participate to some degree and for certain purposes as a member of a community other than his own. The degree to which any particular learner may wish to participate will vary. He may seek only to read technical literature, or he may wish to preach the gospel in a foreign country. These varying degrees of participation require different levels of skill in language performance. (Pit Corder 1973: 27)

A teacher full of life and vigour, resourcefulness and innovative power, love and understanding, can turn a dull class into a lively two-way interactional game. A well-qualified, energetic and inventive teacher can be a “living” model, and act as the best audio – visual aid.

Functionally – determined sub – categories

L1 is used for performing all the essential, personal functions. These are gradually expanded to cover all types of interpersonal functions. “In order to live, the young human has to be progressively incorporated into social organization, and the main condition of the incorporation is sharing the local magic – that is, the language” (First 1957: 185). L1 is an indispensable instrument of national culture. It is the 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 expression of the student’s entire personality” (Government of India 1956), for it is learning the basis of all his or her future activities, the means by which he or she is going to learn almost everything else (Abercrombie 1956: 23). The education commission in 1902 recommended mother tongue as the proper medium of instruction for all classes up to the higher secondary level.

Second Language (L2)

L2 may be used as an auxiliary or associate language, as a slot – filler, performing those functions which are not normally performed by L1. For a vast majority of educated people living in towns and cities, English as a second language functions primarily as an interstate or international link language . Some of them also use it as an question here is : is L2 the main or associated medium of instruction at all levels or at a particular level, or is it taught as a subject listed under “other languages?” When an “exoglossic” language is used by a country as its official language and / or as a medium of instruction at all levels, it generates its own problems.

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. It enables the learners to participate in a foreign society in certain roles and certain situations. A foreign language like Russian is used in India for absorbing the cultural patterns of the USSR: English as a second language is used in India as an alternative way of expressing Indian patterns of life.

Classical language

A classical language like Sanskrit provides access to ancient culture, learning and philosophy of life and is assumed to contribute to the intellectual enrichment of its learners. Its real value cannot be measured in terms of what it helps you do in everyday life but in terms the modern languages and offering “insights” into a variety of linguistic problems.

Objectives of teaching English as a second language in India

The objectives have to be formulated in the light of what we perceive our needs for English to be in a multilingual setting, at both the national and individual levels. This is related to the following questions: What are the roles of Hindi, English, regional languages, classical languages, foreign languages, and languages of the minority group in our multilingual setting? What are the topics and situations that will necessitate the se of English? 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 in which nearly all contemporary knowledge is accessible. As the language of science and technology, trade and commerce, political science, economics and international relations English will be important for industrial and economic development. It will function as the “language of development”. Our scientists, technologists, engineers, doctors and economists must be able not only to have access to professional literature in English but also to contribute to it, and to communicate with their counterparts in other countries. The continuation of English seems important if our science and technology, trade and commerce are to be truly international. It is heartening o note that English-based Indian bilinguals constitute the third largest pool of trained and technical manpower in the world. As an international link language (restricted at the moment to urban, educated bilinguals), it is a promoter of interstate mobility contributing to national unity and integration.

As the associate official language, an international “link language”, the language favoured by all-India institutions, the legal and banking systems, trade and commerce and defence, English has important functions to serve intently, in addition to its role as our “Window on the world”.

English may continue to be the medium of instruction in several faculties at the college level. These students will need a greater proficiency in the skills of listening, writing and (perhaps) speaking than students being taught through other languages.

Where the medium of instruction is to be some language other 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” Any individual seeking socioeconomic advancement will find ability in English an asset.

It is clear, therefore, that English has important functions in communications of diverse types. The skills of communication will continue to be at a premium, and teaching will have to try to impart a certain minimal competence in these skills.

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paper 11 Assignment

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Assignment

Name: Trivedi Disha Hiteshbhai

Paper no: 11

Topic: Notable postcolonial theorist and critics

Year: 2015-2017

M.A.Sem=3

Submitted to: Smt. S.b.gardi department of English m. k. Bhavnagar University

ü Topic: Notable postcolonial theorist and critics

To understand post colonial study first we have to make understanding on what is colonial.

Ø WHAT IS COLONIAL ?

Colonialism is the basis of the concept of mercantilism, which is an imperial idea that suggests that colonies exist for the benefit of the mother country and should be governed accordingly. When a country develops colonies, or acquires them, it becomes an empire. "The sun never sets on the British Empire" because at any given time, the sun was up somewhere in the world where a British colony existed.

There are other types of colonialism, such as economic colonialism. When your economy is the dominant source of trade and jobs for another country or region, it could be said to be a type of economic colony of the larger one.

****http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/whatr-colonialism-66951

Ø WHAT IS POST COLONIAL?

Post colonial is a term related to the post colonial literature which is the product of the third world countries which share certain formal and discursive features. They demonstrate ‘resistance’ and subversion’ of the imperial ‘centre’. The post colonial discourse refers to the writing and reading habits rooted in colonial psyche as a consequence of European expansion and exploitation of other worlds. Bill Ashcroft identifies three common features of post colonialism

“ The silencing and marginalizing of the post colonial voice by the imperial centre; the abrogation of this imperial centre within the text; and the active appropriation of the language and culture of that centre.

It means post colonial studies critically analyses the relationship between colonizer and colonized, from the earliest days of exploration and colonization. It focuses on the role of texts, literary and otherwise, in the colonial enterprise. It examines how these texts construct the colonizer’ superiority and the colonized inferiority. With regard to literature, it argues that ‘English literature’ and ‘American literature’ have in the post-war period been replaced by ‘literatures in English’ a term that captures the multicultural and multiethnic nature of current writing in English.

According to Homi Bhabha post colonial perspective emerge from the colonial testimony of third world countries and the discourses of ‘minorities’ within the geopolitical divisions of east and west, north and south. They formulate their critical revisions around issues of cultural difference, social authority and political discrimination in order to reveal the antagonistic and ambivalent moment within the rationalizations of modernity.

The major writers of post colonial discourse are from 1960’s and 1970’s; they are 2wilson Harris (Guyana) yambo ouologuem (Mali) Chinua Achebe (Nigeria) Soyinka, Derek Walcott (saint Lucia) who reflect their immediate cultural environment in their works, they also defined their culture and themselves in their own terms. They focused on cultural self-definition and political self-determination is their writing. It is noted that for these writers English is often their second language.

ü NAME OF THE THEORIST AND CRITICS:

In English literature we find many postcolonial theorist and critics. From many I have taken one i will give some information about their life and works.

1) Salman Rushdie :-

ü Early life and family background

Rushdie was born in Bombay, then British India, into a Muslim family of Kashmiri descent. He is the son of Anis Ahmed Rushdie, a University of Cambridge-educated lawyer turned businessman, and Negin Bhatt, a teacher. Rushdie has three sisters. He wrote in his 2012 memoir that his father adopted the name Rushdie in honour of Averroes (Ibn Rushd). He was educated at Cathedral and John Cannon School in Mumbai, Rugby School in Warwickshire, and King's College, University of Cambridge, where he read history.^[4]His father Anis Rushdie was rusticated from the Indian Civil Service (ICS) after the British government found out that he had fudged his date of birth.

ü Religious and political beliefs

Rushdie came from a liberal Muslim family although he now identifies as an atheist. In an interview with PBS, Rushdie called himself a "Hardliner atheist".

In 1989, in an interview following the fatwa, Rushdie said that he was in a sense a lapsed Muslim, though "shaped by Muslim culture more than any other", and a student of Islam. In another interview the same year, he said, "My point of view is that of a secular human being. I do not believe in supernatural entities, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Hindu."

In 1990, in the "hope that it would reduce the threat of Muslims acting on the fatwa to kill him," he issued a statement claiming he had renewed his Muslim faith, had repudiated the attacks on Islam made by characters in his novel and was committed to working for better understanding of the religion across the world. However, Rushdie later said that he was only "pretending".

His books often focus on the role of religion in society and conflicts between faiths and between the religious and those of no faith.

Rushdie advocates the application of higher criticism, pioneered during the late 19th century. Rushdie called for a reform in Islam in a guest opinion piece printed in The Washington Post and The Times in mid-August 2005:

What is needed is a move beyond tradition, nothing less than a reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age, a Muslim Reformation to combat not only the jihadist ideologues but also the dusty, stifling seminaries of the traditionalists, throwing open the windows to let in much-needed fresh air. It is high time for starters, that Muslims were able to study the revelation of their religion as an event inside history, not supernaturally above it. Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance; open-mindedness is the sibling of peace.

Rushdie is a critic of cultural relativism. He favours calling things by their true names and constantly argues about what is wrong and what is right. In an interview with Point of Inquiry in 2006 he described his view as follows:

We need all of us, whatever our background, to constantly examine the stories inside which and with which we live. We all live in stories, so called grand narratives. Nation is a story. Family is a story. Religion is a story. Community is a story. We all live within and with these narratives. And it seems to me that a definition of any living vibrant society is that you constantly question those stories. That you constantly argue about the stories. In fact the arguing never stops. The argument itself is freedom. It's not that you come to a conclusion about it. And through that argument you change your mind sometimes. … And that's how societies grow. When you can't retell for yourself the stories of your life then you live in a prison. … Somebody else controls the story. … Now it seems to me that we have to say that a problem in contemporary Islam is the inability to re-examine the ground narrative of the religion. … The fact that in Islam it is very difficult to do this makes it difficult to think new thoughts.

Rushdie is an advocate of religious satire. He condemned the Charlie Hebdo shooting and defended comedic criticism of religions in a comment originally posted on English PENwhere he called religions a medieval form of unreason. Rushdie called the attack a consequence of "religious totalitarianism" which according to him had caused "a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam".

Religion, a medieval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today. I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity. ‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion.’ Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.

He strongly supports feminism.

Political background

In the 1980s in the United Kingdom, he was a supporter of the Labour Party and championed measures to end racial discrimination and alienation of immigrant youth and racial minorities.

Rushdie supported the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, leading the leftist Tariq Ali to label Rushdie and other "warrior writers" as "the belligerati'". He was supportive of the US-led campaign to remove the Taliban in Afghanistan, which began in 2001, but was a vocal critic of the 2003 war in Iraq. He has stated that while there was a "case to be made for the removal of Saddam Hussein", US unilateral military intervention was unjustifiable.

Paul Auster and Rushdie greeting Israeli President Shimon Peres with Caro Llewelyn in 2008.

In the wake of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in March 2006—which many considered an echo of the death threats and fatwā that followed publication of The Satanic Verses in 1989—Rushdie signed the manifesto Together Facing the New Totalitarianism, a statement warning of the dangers of religious extremism. The Manifesto was published in the left-leaning French weekly Charlie Hebdo in March 2006.

Rushdie and Bernie Sanders in 2004

In 2006, Rushdie stated that he supported comments by the then-Leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw, who criticised the wearing of the niqab (a veil that covers all of the face except the eyes). Rushdie stated that his three sisters would never wear the veil. He said, "I think the battle against the veil has been a long and continuing battle against the limitation of women, so in that sense I'm completely on Straw's side."

Marxist critic Terry Eagleton, a former admirer of Rushdie's work, attacked him, saying he "cheered on the Pentagon's criminal ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan". Eagleton subsequently apologised for having misrepresented Rushdie's views. At an appearance at 92nd Street Y, Rushdie expressed his view on copyright when answering a question whether he had considered copyright law a barrier (or impediment) to free speech.

No. But that's because I write for a living, [laughs] and I have no other source of income, and I naïvely believe that stuff that I create belongs to me, and that if you want it you might have to give me some cash. My view is I do this for a living. The thing wouldn't exist if I didn't make it and so it belongs to me and don't steal it. You know. It's my stuff.

When Amnesty International suspended human rights activist Gita Sahgal for saying to the press that she thought AI should distance itself from Moazzam Begg and his organisation, Rushdie said:

Amnesty … has done its reputation incalculable damage by allying itself with Moazzam Begg and his group Cageprisoners, and holding them up as human rights advocates. It looks very much as if Amnesty's leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy, and has lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. It has greatly compounded its error by suspending the redoubtable Gita Sahgal for the crime of going public with her concerns. Gita Sahgal is a woman of immense integrity and distinction.... It is people like Gita Sahgal who are the true voices of the human rights movement; Amnesty and Begg have revealed, by their statements and actions, that they deserve our contempt.

Rushdie supported the election of Democrat Barack Obama for the U.S. presidency and has often criticized the Republican party. In Indian politics, Rushdie has criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Rushdie was involved in the Occupy Movement, both as a presence at Occupy Boston and as a founding member of Occupy Writers.

Rushdie is a supporter of gun control, blaming a shooting at a Colorado cinema in July 2012 on the American right to keep and bear arms.

Rushdie supported the vote to remain in the EU during the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016

v His works

Ø Novels

· Grimus (1975)

· Midnight's Children (1981)

· Shame (1983)

· The Satanic Verses (1988)

· The Moor's Last Sigh (1995)

· The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999)

· Fury (2001)

· Shalimar the Clown (2005)

· The Enchantress of Florence (2008)

· Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights (2015)

Ø Collections

· Homeless by Choice (1992, with R. Jhabvala and V. S. Naipaul)

· East, West (1994)

· The Best American Short Stories (2008, as Guest Editor)

Ø Children's books

· Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990)

· Luka and the Fire of Life (2010)

Ø Essays and non-fiction

· The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey (1987)

· "In Good Faith", Granta, 1990

· Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981–1991 (1992)

· "The Wizard of Oz: BFI Film Classics", BFI, 1992.

· "Mohandas Gandhi." Time, 13 April 1998.

· Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992–2002 (2002)

· "A fine pickle." The Guardian, 28 February 2009.

· "In the South." Booktrack, 7 February 2012

· Joseph Anton: A Memoir (2012)

Ø Awards

· Aristeion Prize (European Union)

· Arts Council Writers' Award

· Author of the Year (British Book Awards)

· Author of the Year (Germany)

· Booker Prize for Fiction

· Booker of Bookers for the best novel among the Booker Prize winners for Fiction awarded at its 25th anniversary (in 1993)

· The Best of the Booker awarded to commemorate the Booker Prize's 40th anniversary (in 2008), winner by public vote

· English-Speaking Union Award

· Hutch Crossword Book Award (India)

· India Abroad Lifetime Achievement Award (USA) ETC...

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