English teaching needs to be reoriented

Updated on: Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The scare of English language among Indian children is more due to the teaching methodologies than the language itself. English teachers in India, particularly those in the semi-urban and rural areas stress on grammar than teaching English as a language for communication.

This is the opinion of Joëlle Uzarski, Regional English Language Officer (RELO) for South Asia, leading and supporting US State Department English language programmes. She agrees that although grammar is important for business and official work, one should not forget that most people need English as a tool to communicate at work places and outside their homes.

“Many teachers follow traditional and outdated methodology for teaching. They get bored with it and so are the students,” she told The Hindu in Hyderabad where she came to interact with teachers undergoing training. The six-week residential training done in association with English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) is aimed at exposing English teachers from the South and Central Asian countries to new methodologies.

Ms. Uzarski says the idea is to help teachers adopt learner-centered approach and to be comfortable with having students working in groups and with the goal of them communicating through English. The curriculum is designed by EFLU faculty and an English Language specialist from the U.S., Mary Ann Christison. Participants return to their countries and conduct training for teachers in their communities using the same materials.

Ms. Uzarski, who earlier worked in South America on similar mission, says there is a lot of English language teaching expertise in India. But there is not much networking among them to share expertise. “We will try to bridge that gap and bring them together for adopting better teaching methods.” She is also highly appreciative of the English Language Teachers Associations (ELTA) in Jaipur, Nagpur and Chennai for their work and her effort would now be to network them with the not-so-active ELTAs in India.

The RELO also offers scholarships as a part of English Access Microscholarship Programme for non-elite youth. It is to make them communicate better in English and compete with convent educated urbanites.

English teaching needs to be reoriented

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