My views on “Teaching English as a Second Language in India”

Hello Friends,

In this blog, I am sharing my views on “Teaching English as a Second Language in India” – by  KAPIL KAPOOR, JNU New Delhi.

First of all let us look at the meaning of Second Language…

A person's second language or L2 is a language that is not the native language of the speaker, but that is used in the locale of that person.

Here the term second language is explained in two different ways-

(I)English is second language after one or more Indian languages, which are primary and more significantly.

(ii) In School Education, the second language is what is introduced after the primary stage and has a pedagogical as well as a functional definition.

In this article Kapil Kapoor is arguing and giving his view on the contemporary teaching style. We Indians by childhood have First Language or Mother tongue, and then Hindi becomes the Second Language, and then comes English. In fact English is our third language not second. So, the teaching style of English should be different.

He finds problem in the teaching style used in India.

For example: - “We are being taught English with the same methods that of the Second Language Learner. Both the position of English and the teaching technique differs.”

Thus, there is need to bring some changes in structure of syllabus, teaching style and curriculum.