Role of L1, L2, L3, Foreign Language, Classical Language, Objectives of Teaching English as Second Language in India, Functions of a Language, Languages in a multilingual setting , Teaching, a non unidirectional process, Learners’ language-learning mechanism.. and more..

1. Teaching English as a Second
Language in India: Focus on
Objectives by Shivendra K. Verma
Central Institute of Foreign Languages Hydrabad
M.A. English Sem.3
ELT Unit 1: The role of English in India
Department of English,
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

2. • Focus on objectives of language teaching
• Functionally-determined sub-categorization of
languages
– First Language (L1)
– Second Language (L2)
– Foreign Language
– Classical Language

3. Objectives of Language Teaching
• Helping learners to learn language/languages
to perform variety of functions
– Sociable use of language for phatic
communication
– Network communicative uses: cognition,
catharsis, and self-expression

4. Two fundamental functions
– Helping learners how to ask questions, the most
important intellectual ability man has yet
developed
– Helping learners to use language effectively in
different social networks

5. Languages in a multilingual setting
from a system-network
• Function-determined value contrastive
language in this network has a function-
determined values of the other languages
• The notion of “link language” or “lingua
franca”
– Encourages wider mobility, national integration,
and a sense of tolerance
– Effective bilingualism, trilingualism or
multilingualism enriching the linguistic repertoire
(range) of an individual

6. Teaching, a non unidirectional process
• Teaching – a bidirectional process / a two way
process
• Teaching – an interactional process
• Learners are not passive recipients of socially
accepted language patterns. They play an
active role in this teaching-learning process
• Learners actively strain, filter, and recognize
what they’re exposed to.
• The learners are meaning makers.

7. Learners’ language-learning
mechanism
• The mechanism gets activated when exposed
to that language
• Create an atmosphere where learning can
take place
• Learners learn the language they hear around
them
• Exposure to rich variety of linguistic material is
as important in L1 acquisition as in L2
acquisition

8. The Paradigm Shift
• From memorizing grammatical rules to
helping them interact with people using
different registers of language in a variety of
situations helps learners to understand
linguistic and sociolinguistic rules so learners
learn “what to say when and how”
• Helps the learners to organize words in
sentences and texts effectively keeping in view
‘the topic of discourse’

9. • “the addresser-addressee relationship”
• Socio-cultural setting
• Learning language – not just a process to
produce sentences and utterances which are
grammatical and acceptable; they must also
be appropriate

10. Each of four major skills
• LSRW skills help learners to play their
communicative roles effectively
• Helps in selecting
language/languages/registers/style according
to their roles
• “Every social person is a bundle of personae, a
bundle of parts, each part having its lines. If
you do not know your lines, your are no use in
the play (First 1957:184)

11. “The objective of teaching a language… is to enable
the learner to believe in such a way that he can
participate to some degree and for certain purposes
as a member of a 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 the 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)

12. • A teacher full of life and vigor, 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.

13. Functionally determined subcategories
• First Language (L1) : used for performing all
essential, personal functions – interpersonal
functions.
• “In order to live, the young human has to be
progressively incorporated into social
organization, and the main condition of that
incorporation is sharing the local magic – that
is, the language “ (Firth 1957:185)

14. • L1 is an indespensable instrument of national
culture. It is the primary means for the
transmission of culture from one generation
to another.
• “Learning through mother tongue is the most
potent and comprehensive medium for the
expression of the student’s entire personality.”
(Government of India 1956)

15. • 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) may be used as an
auxiliary or associate language, as a slot-filler,
performing those functions which are not
normally performed by L1.

16. • English as a second language functions
primarily as an interstate or international link
language. Some of them also use it as in
international language of knowledge, trade
and industry.

17. Foreign Language
• Used by select group of learners in a very
restricted set of situations.
• The main objective to learn 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 language like Russian is used in India
for absorbing the cultural patterns

18. 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 of refining enriching the modern
languages and offering “insights” into a variety
of linguistic problems.

19. Objectives of Teaching English as a
second language in India
• Needs for English to be in a multilingual setting,
at both national and individual levels
• What are the roles of Languages at different
levels?
• English – our “window on the world” at national
level
• Language of science and technology, trade and
commerce, political science, economics and
international relations, and industrial
development

20. • English-based Indian bilinguals constitute the
third largest pool of trained and technical
manpower in the world.
• English as an associate official language favored
by all-India institutions, the legal and banking
systems, trade and commerce and defense
• English – medium of instruction in several
faculties at the college level – greater proficiency

21. • The “library language”
• English at individual levels – the language of
upward social mobility – individual seeking
socio economic mobility – language of
opportunity

22. Primary aim of Teaching English as a
Second Language
• The ability to read easily with understanding
• The readiness to proceed to more advanced
reading stage – reading and comprehension
• The ability to understand a talk in English on a
subject of general experience and interest,
clearly spoken and restricted in vocabulary
and sentence structure to the range of the
syllabus

23. The aims continue..
• The ability to write comprehensibly in English,
and without gross errors, on a familiar topic –
range of vocabulary – sentence structures
• The ability to carry on comprehensibly a
conversation in English on a topic based on
experience and command postulated by the
syllabus

24. The level of active command
• The level of active command to be aimed
should be adequate
• Groups and group patterns – English functions
as “service-language” – promotes intellectual
and cultural awareness of the contemporary
world we live in – provides “information
content” – necessary for modernization of our
country

25. • To achieve these objectives – introduce a change
in our syllabus, methodology of language
teaching, materials, training programmes,
attitudes to learners and their language, and the
system of evaluation
• Infrastructural changes – atmosphere, functions,
facilities, roles and responsibilities, proper
climate and facilities to allow individuals to
realize to encourage them to use these
capabilities for enrichment and for personal lives
for social welfare