E-C-304. English Language Teaching

Name : Patel Payal G

Roll no : 16

M.A.Sem-III

Paper : E-C- 304. English Language Teaching-1

Year- 2011

Topic: English as a coin in India (Based on “Satan and Sarswati : The Double Face of English in India”)

Submmitted to Mr. Devarshi Mehta

Department of English

Bhavnagar University

Bhavnagar

English as a Coin in India

ABSTRACT:  English language is having duality in India. It is a part of plagiarism, yet it becomes fashion. The need of it, is restricted at the school and college level. It is because of not enough facility of higher education institutions in our mother tongue. Teacher or originator of all these problems needs proper guidance. They are playing with the future of the students. Is our learning need based or is it rather competition based?

 It is well known proverb that every coin has two sides, same as English plays dual roles in India. It is having advantages as well as disadvantages at educational level, as it is having two forms like Satan and Sarswati. The very establishment of India is constructed in English when India got independence, it was paralysed because of the virus named constitution of India which is written in English, not a single country except India is having its constitution in another language but its own national language. The case of plagiarism is clearly visible through Indian constitution. The writers or the makers of it show their torpor which is the greatest disease India is facing ever. English has become a fashion. The condition of people is that whenever they make any mistake they say ‘I am sorry’, sometimes ‘sorry’. So, these words like sorry and thank you have become most public things. What point here comes is, the average students cannot go beyond these ‘sorry’ and ‘thank you’. They learn only those two words which are useful for day to day life, and whatever they study is just competition of information based learning. Do they really want this kind of teaching? It is very difficult for any strange person to a new language or to speak the second language the way he speaks his mother tongue. For example;

“Agr n Aaya p0I xu krxo ?

nhI bulaya p0I xu krxo ? ”

This example clearly makes the point clear that it is very difficult to convey the person’s idea, thoughts and feelings into second or target language. It is something like,

“bgRr xu =`e !ok5anI vedna !”

There is one another example to justify this point, which is as under;

“wat to qava pDe !”

Can one translate it into target language? The translation like, “you have to eat rice” is not accurate to the meaning. It is difficult that is why the translator better writes some sentences to get the close meaning like, “please, have some rice, please ! please!”

It is right that English is the window to peep into the world, but there are some people who have peeped into the world without opening that window. One cannot judge the person’s language.  Students are not genuinely interested in English and fortunately they learn speaking English, it is an achievement. The root cause of not learning the target language the way they speak their mother tongue, is nothing but cultural difference. For instance; English people do not have the concept of marriage. So they are not that much involved in the equipments of marriage like, m>g5sUt/, is>dUr and there are also some other words which they find difficult to translate like guLlI marvI, pEEEsa s5gavva, 3I>gavu, v/t, qlela, etc. cannot be explained in English containing the same sense or meaning. Similarly some facilities are the gifts to India by the English. They have given education system, postal system, railway system, and telephone system, not even that, they connected  Indian princely states and that is why in India higher education is into English. Some words are also derived from it. For example; ‘boy-friend’, which is very difficult to translate into mother tongue. There are many other examples like; ‘telephone’, ‘mobile’, ‘television’, ‘mixture’ (a machine). If Indian try to translate the words, especially in Gujarati, they become refined not the exect meanings because all the things are invented by the English and they gave their own selected names. Though the students are learning English, they do not have some basic knowledge. For example; if there is one Rosy madam who teaches, students call her ‘Rosy Miss’. At what angle this English seems English, it is rather Indian English. Students do not know the day to day words in English and that is why they speak punctured English. These things affect the students’ speaking level. They speak neither English perfectly nor mother tongue but mixture of both.

From 1960-70 English was not studied by students and after that period and when the bill was passed, English became compulsory from 5^th standard. For Indian students the text book is merely the text book but for English students it is course book. They were more interested in grammar but so far as the grammar is concerned Indian students do not know their own mother tongue’s grammar, how can they be expert in English grammar. Even the facilitators do not know Gujarati grammar. They do not teach poems with ‘0>d’,they just simply deal with the poems. Now, a day the teachers who are not graduate or master in English they teach English to the students. This is the current condition of India. The policy-makers are not educated that is why education system suffers. Now the makers have brought the change in policy but the students are not prepared for that. It is difficult to go beyond the mother tongue. For instance, one cannot describe the features of ‘Hanuman’ in English. Because if they say, Hanuman is a servant of Rama, is not correct, as he is not his servant but his ‘das’ and this word cannot be translated according to the English dictionary. There are other words like ‘l>gur, va>dru’,etc. English word for all those words is only monkey, as Hanuman is not a monkey but kip and they do not have the meaning of this word. Indian code is different from their code. India is a multilingual country so, the languages interconnect. For example; the word ‘jEsI kI tEsI’ is somewhat similar to ‘jevI tevI’. Gujarati has borrowed the things. The concept of positive transfer and negative transfer is also applicable to this fraction. The students must have knowledge of mother tongue so that they can see the similarities between target language and mother language. Indian English is different from authentic or real English. For instance; “Wanted Teachers”. Are teachers criminal? Then there is also another example that ‘sir’ must be a man and ‘teacher’ must be a lady. Can not a man be considered as a teacher? There is another example of Indian English that one teacher warns a student for his mischief and says him “ Meet me behind the class when the lecture is empty.”  If one British or any foreigner reads this sentence, he would definitely commit suicide. This is the example of  how language changes.

Students cannot express their feelings in English. For example;

“te kale Aa[sk/Im qa2o to he ne?”

“tu maro ip/y imt/ 0e n>[?”

“mne yad krto to ka> ?”

These words like ‘he ne, n[, ka>’ cannot be explained or expressed in English. Students cannot put question tags all the time to translate it. They should be very careful about how it operates or functions to translation of feelings into English. If the students want to learn the language they must use it. They should follow the term, use the language and learn the language.

English is running as a link language in the present time. The British ruled over India more than two hundred years. So, the influence of them is remaining still, although their permanent departure from India. But if English is not seen as the language of communication, what needs is to change the attitude towards English. Learning another language makes one bigger and gives one a wider vision.

There are different forms of one language. For example; English has different names like, ‘Indian English’, ‘British English’, ‘American English’ etc. Thus, the language is having their different forms according to its convenience to the country. Many cities have not accepted Hindi as their national language. For example; Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Bengal etc. do not like Hindi and even that they are not ready to accept themselves as Indians. They have accepted Christianity. Why has this type of situation occurred? Because only India has two official languages at the national level Hindi and English. The reason is very clear why they have accepted English as their national language. English has been considered as the second language and the policy makers have written the Indian constitution into English and have declared Hindi as their national language. It is rather bit difficult for Gujarati because in Gujarat, there are three official languages like Gujarati, Hindi and English. So, it is very challenging to learn other unknown language for the person who is not able to understand or speak his mother tongue.

English has been compulsory but the students do not know its reason as a compulsory subject and still they study that subject. Do the students use English in their routine life whatever they study in school or college? The answer is perhaps ‘no’ because they do not know the English words or some native words like; “Aag5Iyo, ibn- sa>p/daiyk, ]Tkln ib>du, d5, 2rI” etc. Even they do not know what to say if the hinge (Aag5Iyo) is making noise and the oiling is not done. They cannot manage a simple sentence. The perfect sentence is “Hinge creaks when it is not oiled.” But how many students know the perfect answer, rarely they know or perhaps no one knows the answer. Here, it is said that need of the student is more important. So, instructor or the facilitator should concentrate upon need based learning. The syllabus designer should take the need of the students into consideration.

Need- based Learning:

This learning involves the dichotomy between boys’ and girls’ need. One should take into consideration sex and gender, words boys need, words girls need, structure boys need, structure girls need and for that their background is very important. Every age has its demands. For example; what the students of 10^th standard need as far as their teaching is concerned. No doubt, they learn as much as they can but they cannot use their learning in real context or day to day life. English has not become the students need yet. It is just their medium not goal. Students learn English because of higher education and good job. Their point of view is utilitarian not learning. Syllabus designer did not have strategies, plans or aims even those things are borrowed like the identity. So, it is all about the socio- cultural dimensions of English as second language.

R.K. Singh has given an appropriate solution for that, as he writes if the instructor wants his pupils get good command of language, then the instructor must,

(i) encourage a teaching programme that is responsive to their specific needs,

(ii) pursue such teaching activities from which pupils know they are learning something useful.

(iii) adopt a flexible teaching approach that results in success of the pupils.

What, here, he wants to say is, do not buy whatever they sell and be flexible in your own learning and teaching, as it conveys the need analysis. This is how English plays its role as two faces, Satan and Sarswati in India.

Conclusion:

“Whoever knows grammar in one language also knows it in another so far as its substance is concerned. If he cannot, however, speak another language or understand those who speak it, this is because of the difference of words and their formation which is accidental to grammar.”

-         Anon

-         13^th Century.

Work Cited:

E.Annamalai. “Satan and Sarswati : The Double Face of English in India”. Ed: Omkar Koul, “English in India”. Print.

Singh R.K. “Teaching of English: A Plea for Practical Attitude”. Ed: Omkar Koul, “English in India”. Print.