Beyond Smoke Screen
Monkey Business of English-teaching
To Crown all, encashing on the mentality of English hungry students, a few well established English newspapers have also launched online English teaching programme. It sounds like teaching someone driving through correspondence course
By Mukesh Sharma
With turnover thousands of crores, English teaching is
evergreen business right from Kanyakumari to Jammu & Kashmir in India.
While the majority of English speaking aspirants of such nondescript so-called
institutes remain disgruntled, the stream of fresh students continues like the
ever increasing population of India. And despite all the confusion and poor
result, the monkey business of English teaching goes on and on - it is neither affected by lax economy nor low
GDP.
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| Monkey Business of English-teaching |
The root of this English learning mania can be traced to 200
years of British subjugation of India. Language of the rulers always affects the
psyche of the ruled. Slaves often imitate the masters. The dent was so deep and
diverse that it could not be mended even after 72 years of Independence. Some
scholars contend that the survival of English is not just because of the
British influence but the need of multi-lingual India where English serves as a
bridge language among Indians of different tongues.
However, the situation has come to such a pass that English
is not just an ordinary language. It has become a symbol of class; a symbol of
status; a symbol of intellect in India. The people at lower strata of society
struggle to join the elite English speaking class. English aspirants get mesmerized
by Queen’s English of people like Shashi Tharoor. They are big fan of a man
who, allegedly, has scant regard for Hindi or Hinduism.
To Crown all, encashing the mentality of English hungry
students, a few well established English newspapers have also launched online
English teaching programme. It sounds like teaching someone driving through
correspondence course.
Apart from that, one can come across ‘English-speaking’
institutes in every third street of small towns and big cities in India. Tall
claims are made - each institute has its own self-certified
pedagogy. The majority of institutes assert to teach English in a few months
through Grammar, translation and mugged up vocabulary. In fact, English is
treated as a subject that has a fixed syllabus/curriculum like other subjects;
it is not taught as a language which is a means of communication, is
related to life, religion nature, universe and God. As a result, based on rote-learning,
students learn English as a subject to pass out the academic exams or any
competitive exams. They never learn English as a language which is, essentially,
a part of life. As an accredited Journalist, this writer has been to many
countries, and even lived in US too for a long time where he was allotted
Social Security Number to perform his duty. So, this author has first-hand
experience to observe and study ‘English’ of native speakers in US and UK.
A close study reveals that words are sounds that
symbolically represent something material or abstract. Sentences which are
action based, are composed to denote what is happening. In other words, a
language can be picked up through relative understanding of words and sentences
to material life only. This is how a native speaker picks up his or her mother
tongue without even the knowledge of so-called grammar or without even learning
to write and read. As one grows up in a
particular tongue, the relative words and sentences get settled in the mind
with pictorial memory through repetitive use. There may be hundreds of people
in US or UK who are not able to write or read but still they speak correct
English, of course, as Hindi or any other Indian language is spoken in India.
Obviously, the wanting method for teaching English as a
second language has led to wide spread confusion, particularly in lower strata
of society. Fake English and Hinglish have
become very popular. Elite English or standardized English which is used by
English newspapers and professionals, and that also makes the basis of English
paper in all the competitive exams, have become rather a problem for a sizable
number of English learning aspirants.
In the light of his experience and research work, this
writer can vouchsafe that the best way to learn any language is to live among
the native speaker of that language. But when one tries to learn it at a place
where it is not the language of the common man, the right way to learn it
through syntax – the Morphology of English sentences, and Semantics
– how a ‘verb’ collocates with a ‘noun’
and how an ‘adjective’ pairs with a ‘noun’, and produce standardized ‘phrase’.
The easiest way is to map mother tongue on English syntax, and learn to think,
may be, in mother tongue but as per the interpreted equivalent Hindi sentence
of English syntax e.g.
“If neta were to
resign, he would have resigned.”
“ If she were to marry
you, she would have married.”
The above mentioned syntax is one of the standardized
syntaxes of English language. Close to such syntax, one can think of scores of
sentences in English. And the same can be followed for other syntaxes also.
Mind you, English, predominantly, is a language of phrases
and idioms. The meaning of a singled out word in a sentence may be different
from its lexical meaning. The solution
to this problem lies in the knowledge of a few hundred key words/root words. (here, the term ‘root
word’( should not be misconstrued with latin/Greek origin). The ‘Root words’
collocate with other words and produce standardized ‘Verb phrases’, ‘Noun
phrases’ or ‘Idiomatic phrases’ which are extensively used in English
Newspaper, Competitive Exams and by the English in daily life. In the same
way, good knowledge of Root Words helps
to build up vocabulary 10-20k. Study reveals that to speak good English one
need just 500-1000 words; to be a writer 1000-4000 words, the great English
playwright Shakespeare used 8000 words, and average English newspaper uses just
2000 words, and rest is sheer repetition.
Once Lord Macaulay made a statement in the Parliament of
England:
“I have drafted such
an education system for the Indian subjects that after 70 years, there would be
black English who would have little sympathy for vernacular tongues, and would
be fit to follow rather unfit to think.”
Evidently enough, Indian examination system which is based
on rote-learning, robs students of thinking power – they eat what there are served; they don’t know
how to cook. It is maintained that a slave population is on the rise in India.
It has become rather a society of followers than thinkers.
What is more, the plight of thoroughly confused students is
like the situation of a blind man who is looking for a black hat in a dark room
which is not there.
It is common knowledge that hustling is the staple diet of
the most of the business in India. So monkey business of English teaching is flourishing
like anything.
