THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: English teaching has always left education experts and teachers flummoxed in independent India. Though a recognised language of the country, the cue to acquire mastery over English as a language for communication has been lost somewhere down the lane.
Offering a small, but significant respite to the situation is the English Department of Kattakkada Christian College, which is bringing out a book on English Language Teaching (ELT). Titled, ‘Towards a Student-Centred Pedagogy in English Language Teaching’, the book contains around a dozen articles, besides lesson plans and language activities on practical aspects of teaching English as a second language.
The Department faculty hopes that this will be a significant step to deal with the current scenario in which the State has a dearth of material on the subject.
Selection Grade lecturer Dr. Lal C A said: ‘’We sourced the lesson plans and activities from seven other countries where significant researches go on in the field of ELT. We have materials from professionals from the UK, Madagascar, Romania, Hungary, Iraq, Bahrain and Libya - all of them researching in teaching English as a second language.
‘’As of now, in Kerala, there is a lack of emphasis on teaching English as a language for actual communication. But the trend worldwide is to see the learning of literature as separate from learning the language. So we believe that the book will be useful in the efforts to equip our teachers in modern ELT practices.”
The College is holding a three-day national workshop on ELT, which will end on July 31. Participants presented papers on how classroom teaching of English can be enhanced through the integration of multimedia, cartoons and music. The workshop sessions have been designed to train the participant teachers to teach English language skills.
Around 50 delegates from various States are attending the workshop, which was inaugurated by college chairman Bishop J W Gladstone. The publication is partly a compilation of the papers presented at the seminar and will be released at the valedictory function on July 31 at 11.30 a.m. by South Kerala Diocese vice-chairman Rev. Sobhnam.