Karnataka - Mysore   

Expert calls for a policy to protect Indian languages

Special Correspondent

`English has grown into a killer language decimating many regional languages' `The cutthroat competition in the corporate sector is demanding native fluency in English, and it is here that the majority of rural students find the going tough'

AN AUSPICIOUS BEGINNING: Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mysore J. Shashidhar Prasad inaugurating the seminar on `English language teaching' in Mysore on Wednesday. K. Sumitrabai (left), principal of the Yuvaraja's College, M. Madiah, former Vic e-Chancellor, and Raghunath, head of the Department of English, RIE, are seen. — PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

MYSORE: Educationists, English language teaching specialists and linguists have a serious challenge in addressing the negative bearing on culture owing to the mass hysteria for English from first standard. This was the opinion of English language experts at a seminar on "English language teaching" organised at the Yuvaraja's College here on Wednesday.

N.S. Raghunath, Head of the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Regional Institute of Education, who delivered the keynote address, said English has grown into a killer language decimating many regional languages and called for a definite policy to protect and preserve Indian languages.

He admitted that students must learn this language and master it to face the challenges. In this context, educationists and teachers of English have to sensitively balance the role of English and regional languages, he said.

Noting the growing demand for English, Dr. Raghunath said English Language Teaching (ELT) is an inevitable discipline that could be ignored at ones own disadvantage.

However, the fact that 60 per cent of students with nearly 10 years of exposure to English are unable to either read or speak English with minimum confidence is perhaps a reflective of the quality of English language teaching.

He said access to English could not remain an elitist social process, and distribution of English has now been linked with distribution of poverty.

Dr. Raghunath said the cutthroat competition in the corporate sector is demanding native fluency in English, and it is here that the majority of rural students find the going tough and lose out in the job market. In this context, Dr. Raghunath said teachers have a role to play in moulding the students.

The traditional and outdated approach by some of the university professors that only literature should be taught and not language is antediluvian in nature.

Their hostile attitude betrays a lack of touch with reality and is detrimental to students, according to Dr. Raghunath.

Commenting on English teaching at the undergraduate level, it was pointed out that in some universities there is a component of ELT, but no trained teacher to handle the unit though language teaching is now a specialised area which teachers should first master before they go on to teach literature.

J. Shashidhar Prasad, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mysore, inaugurated the seminar.

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