ENGLISH:
LEARNING AND TEACHING
DR.M.SELVAM,
Prof. of International Business & Commerce &
Dean of Management Studies
Alagappa University.
E-mail
ID: seldrvam2004@yahoo.co.in; marudhamselvam@gmail.com.
Mobile:
0091 9486671606.
I
recollect one of my professors at Annamalai University told in a Conference
that it was sufficient to teach the present generation, just 3 subjects – Vernacular,
English, and Mathematics, until 5th
Standard. Yes, until early 1960s the
teaching even in rural schools in India was on those lines only. Teachers
taught; Pupils learned. Comfortable with language they could grasp most things
they read and conversant with numbers they could solve puzzling maths easily. I
remember my maternal uncle would test our maths skill. Without knowledge of algebra, we solved (we
were only 8-10 years old, then) problems like: (i) for Re. 3/8, you get 41/8
plantain; For Re 1 how much would you get? The answer is 11. But we got that
this way: Re. 3/8+3/8+(2/3 of 3/8) =Re 1. Number of plantains = 41/8
+41/8 + (2/3 of 41/8). We
tri-divided 41/8 as: 13/8 + 13/8
+ 13/8. So the number of plantains= 41/8
+41/8 + (13/8 + 13/8)
= 81/4+23/4 = 11. We got the answer
this way only and pretty quick too. (ii) Another problem: To a flock of birds,
another bird asked: You, 100 member team – where are you going? One from the
flock quipped: we are not a 100 member team. But, We + Our Spouses + Half of
Spouses + Half of Half of Our Spouses + You = 100. So, how many were in the
flock? After mental work we would tell the answer ‘36’. There are many such
mental mathematical problems. Why I tell these; there was widespread quality of
education those times, now only islands of quality.
Now,
only a fraction of the pupils is comfortable in English. It is no better, pathetically,
in the mother tongue as well. Mathematics is an enigma for many, though every
language has a subtle Mathematical basis. The regional Language in this part of
India, TAMIL, is having a strong mathematical basis. The letters are classified
based on the ‘duration of utterance’ (accordingly there are 3 types, the Long
durational ones given 2 scores or Maththirai,
the Short durational letters given 1 score and those with 0.5 duration score as
well) and the depth from which sound waves emanate (from the abdomen, the
throat or the nose base), and so on. That is why the ancient Saintly Tamil Lady
poet Avvaiyar wrote, ‘Numbers and Letters are akin to Eyes’. That kind of importance
is needed to learn a language impeccably and teach the language flawlessly.
I
am saddened most students at higher studies do not have the requisite language
skills. They cannot be worthy to themselves. Pathetically too, in their mother
tongue! Their teachers didn’t/don’t bother, perhaps. Otherwise they could have learned.
The very students didn’t/don’t bother too. Then who else would? But the nation
is really bothering about. The business houses, the pitiable employers and some
concerned teachers/elders are much worried. These pupils are incapable of
distinguishing between a teacher who has ability and their diametrically
opposite counterparts. Poorly these learners are groping in a dark room on a
new-moon night (or light!!) for a black cat that is not there.
A
man or woman is illiterate in a group if he/she can’t understand the language
of that group. I am illiterate in ‘x-2’ languages, assuming ‘x’ number of
languages existing in the world. Yes, I know only Tamil and English. I am
illiterate in all other languages, including most of the computer languages too!
I am very, very sad about this. I
realize the more the number of languages one knows, the better he is. I am even
more saddened looking at those whose ignorance exceeds mine. Hence I write this
paper. The first part of the paper is on ‘Language Learning’ and the second
part on ‘Language Teaching’.
I.
ENGLISH
LANGUAGE LEARNING
‘Work
is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. Learning is a pleasure
if you love it; it is a pressure if you hate it. Let us love learning. Respect learning (எண் எழுத்து இகழேல்) is the advice by Tamil Poet Grand Lady Avvaiyar. I
share my experiences in learning English.
Learning English
Language is a necessity: It’s no luxury if one knows a
second language, other than mother tongue. It is a must; it is very much so in
a multi-lingual country like India to have a common link language. English as a
Second Language is a better choice as it happens to be the world’s business
language.
Learn the Second Language
as you did the First Language: How do/did we learn our
mother tongue? Just like that - Hearing, Understanding, Observing, Listening,
Speaking, Reading and Writing in that language (without the aid of another
language). All without recourse to another language, because that was our first
language! In the same way learn the Second Language; without recourse to the
Mother tongue. That is, get to situations which facilitate Hearing,
Understanding, Observing, Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing in the Second
Language. That experiential learning stands tall.
Yearn to enhance
vocabulary: A research work by, West, M. (1926). Learning to read a foreign language.
London: Longman, Green & Co., says that ‘one unknown word in every fifty
words’ is to be the minimum threshold necessary for an adequate comprehension
of a text. That is, if a passage of 50 words is given a threshold learning
level requires knowing the meaning and usage of as much as 49 words. It is not
minimum! It is uphill maximum, perhaps!! Common my dear students! Take a
paragraph in a Standard English daily, say ‘The Hindu’. Check your vocabulary.
I bet may be, only 1 in 50 would know that 49 out of 50 words. That is the
reality. Let us accept. Let us attempt remedy.
There
must be a craving for adding to one’s vocabulary. Your parents were happy when
you first uttered ‘amma’ or Mom, happier when you said, appa’ or Dad. Further
happier when you said, ‘thatha or grandpa’ and so on. Make us, the teachers
happy by enhancing your vocabulary. 10 words a day. 3650 words in 365 days. That
is enough for ‘survival’. In 40 months,
you have 12,000 words at your command. That much is enough for superior
presentation in any forum. Studies by Carroll, Davies and Richman (1971- The
American heritage word frequency book. New York: American Heritage. College
English Textbooks: A Corpus-based Analysis of Lexical Coverage) reported that
the top 2,000 most frequent English words translate into a roughly 80% coverage
for a longer text and the 5,000 most frequent words as high as 90%.
Accordingly, to gain a lexical coverage of 95%, one needs to know some 12,000
words. That is the benchmark. Where do we stand? Everyone is one’s best judge.
Note down the deficit. Make good the deficit.
Mastery over Grammar
and Sentence construction: Words are like bricks. Grammar is the mortar. Sentences are like walls. Paragraphs
are rooms. A good article (like this?) or a chapter in a book is a small house.
Tamil grammar is supposed to be the most difficult. English grammar is far simpler.
Why not learn it. By 8th standard one must be fairly good in
grammar. By 10th Standard one must be pretty good. By 12th
standard one must be smart. At college level one must excel. At Ph.D level one
must be astonishingly superior. Excuses like, ‘English is not my mother tongue;
It is a foreign language’; ‘I may be short in few things’, etc are lame.
Excuses will only make you excluded; never make you exclusive, or inclusive.
Threshold learning to Superior
learning: From threshold learning level, one must climb up to
superior learning. A superior learning level at a particular time becomes a
threshold level at a later point of time forcing the person to further expand
the horizon of learning. There is no end. No finish line. That is Today’s ‘top
brass’ knowledge, becomes tomorrow’s ‘brass tacks’ forcing one to take efforts
to sport certain level of fresh ‘top brass’ knowledge. There is life-long
learning.
Learn the Language the
hard way – Poetry to Prose, not the other-way round: I
used to wonder at the Works of prescribed for 3rd Form in the 1910s
for Tamil. These were mostly the Works of all great Tamil Poets ranging from
Avvaiyar, Kambar, Ottakkoothar, Pugalenthi and so on. I happened to read that
book decades ago. You wonder. It is fact. I only refer to the text book
prescribed for my father. He and his classmates leant the hard way. Poetry to
Prose. That is why we start with ‘Rhymes’ in KGs.
I
don’t consider the modern day poetry as depth as the older ones. Pardon me.
There is paucity of vocabulary. Take the works of Arunagrinathar in Tamil
Literature. The choice of words, the rhythmic nuances, the musical notes, the
symphony, etc are simply unparallel. That is why it is said, ‘Vakkukku
Arunagiri’, that is ‘Unparallel are Arunagiri’s words’. Yes he is a special
lexicon. After reading the verses of Arunagiri I realized my ignorance in
Tamil, my mother tongue, is bottomless. Unfathomable is Arunagiri’s command
over words and their nuances.
English
poetry is joy forever. I often quote, ‘Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, And that has made
all the difference.’- by Robert Frost, whenever I teach ‘Creativity’ which
needs ‘Choosing unchartered waters’. ‘Poetry is the music of the soul, and,
above all, of great and feeling souls’. I will be a derelict if I don’t refer
to William Shakespeare who is an epitome in English literature. I quote him on
the virtue of giving or gifting: ‘The quality of mercy is not strained; It
droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven; Upon the place beneath; It is twice
blessed-- It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes”.
Nuances of Preposition:
The prepositions are like link-pins. Their essence is immense. See the two
sentences. A father said, ’I want to marry my daughter’; ‘I want to marry off
my daughter’. The ‘off’ makes the right
sense here. That is the job of prepositions. There are about 50 common
prepositions. One must know the nuance or the subtleties of prepositions.
Extensive Reading gives
the courage to write: Extensive reading of great works,
magazines and dailies gives us the courage to write. Because as you read the
published works of others, at times you might realize, ‘this is what my lines
of thinking as well’. That author has been little ahead of you in timing. ‘OK; Now
I will try; I will write’. And you write. A writer is now found in yourself.
Let him keep writing life-long.
Enhanced Writing:
‘Write – Rewrite - Enhance – Excel’
is the process of good writing. First ‘Write’ along the lines of your first
thoughts. ‘Rewrite’ as you gain more insight after reading what you have
written. ‘Enhance’ your writing by going for apt words, contexts, contours and
configuration. Excel yourself by further elevating your own presentation with
authoritative quotes, ‘verbatim’, ‘thus spoke’, ‘point blank’, etc by a
thorough reading.
Enlightening Speech:
You should become a good speaker as well, know. The process is simple. Listen- Speak – Express- Accent –
Modulation - Wit- Reply by Payback. Listen to great orators. Learn. Try
speeches. Your maiden speech may not be a great hit. But prepare well. You must
‘Express’ your views short and sweet.
Right ‘Accent’ accelerates your altitudinal ascendance. There is no
short cut. Learn by listening and reading phonetics. Voice modulation comes
now. This expresses your command and confidence. You, like singer just play.
Add ‘wits’ to add liveliness to the environment. Lighter veins always
‘refresh’. Even the laptops need ‘refresh’. Human brains definitely need. Occasions arise when you have to comment,
contradict and so on. Try to ‘Reply by Payback’- that is by the same coins; that is, the words used by the other person
opposing you.
Epoch making
presentations: You want your works stand distinct. You
can do it. Proliferate your work with appropriate ‘Axioms, Maxims, Clichés,
Idioms, Metaphors, Phrases, Quotes, Similes, etc’, as may be needed,
keeping in mind the audience or target readers.
Spice
with
Greek and Latin Phrases: You know,
in my 10th Standard Algebra & Geometry classes in SRH School
Thiruvaiyaru, my great teacher Late ( by effect eternal) Sri N.Krishnamurthy would write ‘QED’ at the end
of Proof and tell, ‘Quod Erat
Demonstrandum’. I captured the acronym well, but only faintly its meaning
then. I mined the real purport of the Latin Phrase while doing my Ph.D. I got
that this is the phrase traditionally placed in its abbreviated form at the end
of a proof or argument. But for my great teacher I would not have encountered
the phrase and learnt the same. I cherish him. Salute him. This is where a
great teacher stands out among good teachers. Similarly when I first noticed,
‘RSVP’ on invitations, from dictionary I got it as, ‘Respondez S'il Vous Plait’, meaning Reply, if You Please. Ab Initio (from the beginning), Raison d'être (Reason for Existence), Quid Pro Quo (something in return), Ceteris paribus (other things being
equal), consensus ad idem ( mutual
understanding), Magna Carta (Great
Charter), Sine Qua Non (indispensable/essential action), etc are Greek and
Latin phrases that add spice to the presentation.
Language Learning,
On-going: Language Learning
is an ongoing process. On-going learning is the sine-qua-non of gaining grip
over anything. There is no short-cut to learn language. Spoken English is not a
substitute for Written English. Both must be right English. The committed goes
on learning. I wish everyone is committed to on-going learning. It makes one
a-cut-above-the rest.
II.
LANGUAGE TEACHING
If one has learned the
knowledge and skills one can transfer the same to others. Otherwise do learn it
first. Then attempt the second. Good teaching happens when competent teachers
with non-discouraging personality use non-defensive approaches to language
teaching and learning. They must cherish their job and their customers- the learners.
Of course, learners must have learning on top of their daily agenda.
Competence
is the first thing. It is better everyone builds relevant ‘core-competences’. In
addition to learning, ‘delivery skills’ are needed. That will come, anyway. Not
difficult. Because, you can’t hide what you have. Also you can’t exhibit what
you don’t have. Teachers must yearn to be competent. Competing to deliver the
best to the students is the quality to be inculcated among the teachers. Their
job is more responsible. They have to make their wards smarter than themselves.
So competence is first. The competence must come to the fore in the form of rich
vocabulary, eloquent grammar, presentation lucidity, etc to enthral the
learners.
Non-discouraging
personality: Language teachers are loaded with
fundamental responsibility. It is through their teaching and training students
understand any subject. In fact every teacher must do some language teaching as
they teach their subjects. A teacher must be a non-discouraging person. As
motivation makes wonders, a good teacher needs to be a great motivator as well.
At least not a de-motivator! It does not mean one should not point out
mistakes. Personality aspect here is all about ‘how’, not about ‘what’.
Non-defensive
approach: Language teaching requires some forceful and articulated delivery. Language would
tell the level of confidence. Defensive approach is patently weak. Perhaps one is not that much fine or confident. There is some wavering, perhaps. That
must go off. Self-determined individuals are non-defensive in
their behaviour, researchers say. Be self-determined. The synonym of
‘non-defensive’ is not ‘Offensive’, please note.
Cherish
the students: Cherish the students; cherish their innovative
errors, which can’t be made by the teachers even with great efforts! There is
learning for the teachers in these ‘innovative errors’ too. Gently correct
their mistakes and the mistakes. That is cherishing the students. The language
skills the students are equipped with now will go with them forever. So the
sowing must be effective. Tell them that every hard-work and every sweat-drop
ultimately convert an ordinary into extra-ordinarily competent person on the
earth. Tell them, ‘no one has ever drowned in sweat’. From the sweat cometh the
‘sharp and smart’!
