This document discusses the role and status of English in India's education system. It argues that English is studied as a third language rather than a second language, despite being labeled and taught as such. Treating English as a second language has led to confusion over its functions and goals. In reality, an Indian language should fill the role of second language, with English considered a foreign language. The document traces how English became dominant post-independence due to notions of modernization. A conceptual structure was developed to position English as the language of unity and knowledge versus regional languages being linked to conflict. This misunderstanding of English's appropriate role has undermined efforts to improve its teaching and learning in India.

1. Unit 1 – The Role of English
in India
Prepared by
Vaidehi Hariyani
Department of English,
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

2. History…
• Pre-Colonial Period
Importance of regional languages
• Colonial Period
Introduction to English language, used for trade and commerce, change
in education system.
• Post- Colonial Period
“Associate Official Language’’ in India.

4. Teaching English as
‘Second Language’ in
India – Kapil Kapoor(JNU)
Essay 1 #Semester3 #MA

5. Abstract:-
• The concept of English is not a
purely pedagogic construct and
has to be understood in the
larger historical, social and
educational context.
• It is a Socio-Political Setup.
• Power=Knowledge
• Elite Class = Lower Class
• English is studied as a ‘Second
Language’ , but as such it is a
third language. So we find a
contrast in the language we
study and the method through
which we study.
• The situation can only be
remedied by recognizing and
redefining the role and goals of
English.

6. ‘’Second Language’’
After one or more
Indian Languages
which are primary
and more
significantly.
In School Education,
It is introduced after
the primary stage,
particularly in the
context of the
‘three-language
formula’.

7. English in India is
symbol Other Languages
Linguistic Regionalism
Linguistic
Centralism

8. • Following the withdrawal of the British
from India, the language question
naturally came to the picture.
• The central issue was the role and
status of English vis-à-vis Indian
languages.
• Ruling class demanded English so that
majority of people remain aloof.
• To achieve this, a whole conceptual
structure has been developed and
manipulated.

9. Conceptual Structure1
Modernization
2
Mythology
3
Language
policy

10. Modernization
• Concept of
Modernization and
Internationalism were
invoked.
• Indian languages were
associated with
‘tradition’ and were
assumed as anti-modern
and backward looking.

11. Mythology
• This gave rise to ‘Language
Planning’ which was in fact
the linguistic analogue of a
particular politics.
• It created a whole set of
rules and created a new
mythology.
English
Hindi
Regional
Languages

12. Language Policy
• So
English became one ‘Pan-
Indian’ language that would
promote National Integration like
no other Languages did.
Regional Languages promote
disagreements and different
groups.
English =
Unity
Regional
Languages =
Conflict

13. English as the metaphor of “Window”
• English is the….
• Language of knowledge
• Language of liberal, modern thinking
• Our window on the world
• Library Language
• Language of reason
• Link language
• Lingua-franca

14. Other
languages
English
Other
Langu
ages
English

15. Education Commission 1964-66
• The language-question is the most complicated problem that the
country has faced since independence and one that has resisted
solution.
• Kapil Kapoor argues here, there is no place to ask why this question
became a problem since Independence or Why and What are the
political reasons involved and should have been involved.
• Of course it was a complicated problem because the national course
was not adopted. It could reconstruct English as a Foreign Language,
but instead English was used to promoted more than any other Indian
Languages.

16. • The three language formula is a product of this thinking and policy.
To make English an
integral part of School
Education in India.
It ironically restricted
the learning and use of
Hindi in non Hindi areas
by allowing the student
to learn English as a
Second language.

17. English Classical
Languages
Sanskrit

18. • If your aim is to produce whole generations of young people who
are not just ignorant of their identity and their heritage, but have, in
fact a positive contempt for it, then they must not be taught Sanskrit,,
the language of the powerful heritage.
• they must be taught English and through that the western ‘values’, so
that the Indian youth naturally respects the ‘modern’.
• In spite of this, the standard of English have always fallen short of the
ideal or even the minimum.

19. • Various Education Committees made different recommendations
regarding syllabi, curriculum, weightage, teacher-training,
methodology etc. but nothing seems to work out.
• The meetings of ELT experts have become seasonal phenomenon,
but….
• The failure of this is not any theory, but the reason is accepting
English as L2 pedagogically and linguistically.

20. • All the reports allow English
as L2 and L3 both, but when
it comes to defining its
functions and goals and
instructional objectives……
English is really
only L3 – a
foreign
language

21. • The confusion disrupts the effort to promote English– in fact is the
rupture through which the mistaken intention of nativizing an
essentially foreign language – stands revealed.
• For a foreign language like English cannot be linguistic second
language –this role rightfully belongs to an Indian language, rightfully
belongs to an Indian language.
What is L3 ?
What is L2??????

22. L2
• The Second Language, i.e.. L2 is that language which is introduced
compulsorily either at the end of primary stage or in the beginning
the end of primary stage or in the beginning of the lower secondary
stage after the attainment of sufficient proficiency in the first
language by the learner.
• The main objective of the second language is to enable the speaker
for wider participation in society. Hence the second language usually
either the state official language or national language.

23. L3
• The Third Language L3 is introduced simultaneously or after the
initiation of second language – generally in grade-VIII.
• The main objective of introducing the third language is to prepare
the learner for all-Indian leading to tertiary socialization and give the
learner a working knowledge of the language. So that the learner may
read, comprehend express correctly in that language.

24. NCERT 1986
• 1 Primary Stage = Class 1 to 5 – Mother tongue/State Language
• 2 Post Primary/ Secondary = Class 6 to 8 – State Language+ Modern
Indian Language + English
• 3 Secondary = Class 9 to 10 – same as Post Primary
• 4 Higher Secondary = Class 11 to 12 – State Language + ESP (English
for Specific Purpose.

25. • English is fit only for ancillary functions which are not the functions of
Second Language.
• Then what are the functions of l2??????
• One report of NCERT on ‘Teaching Hindi as a Second language” says
1. To help individual in maintaining his personal relations with people
beyond his linguistic group.
2. To help to carry his business purposes.
3. To carry on his cultural and social activities.
4. To help individual to feel his identification with a larger group or
nation.

26. Sum Up:-
• Thus English cannot functions as L2 but politically it has been
imposed as Second Language all over the country.
• So million students studies as if it is an Indian language and that is the
reason they cannot achieve competence.
• The whole question of teaching English as Second Language needs to
be examined afresh, all over again, in all its assumptions, goals,
objectives and practices, and for its implications in the larger national
context.

27. Works Cited
• Kapil , Kapoor. Teaching English as 'Second Language' in India. PhD
Thesis. New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University, 1991.

28. Few ELT Terms
• Bilingualism:- fluency in or use of two languages.
• Trilingualism:- the ability to speak three languages.
• Multilingualism:- the ability to communicate effectively in three or
more languages.