English the loser,not children,say experts on new syllabus

Those who back the “communicative English” approach say though it may not help children appreciate ironies,humour,poetry or literary pieces of Charles Dickens or Leo Tolstoy,it would certainly help them survive in English-speaking dominant cosmopolitan culture.

“It is better to have an English-speaking employed youth than a Shakespeare-reading unemployed youth. This will create armies of children who are good at ‘mall culture’ and successful in grabbing a job. The shift from semantic,grammar and structure to mere communication has been followed not only in states like Kerala and Himachal Pradesh but even in countries like England,” said Ganesh Devy,former professor of English at MS University,Vadodara.

Devy is the only person from Gujarat to have won the Sahitya Academy award in English. At present,he is carrying a linguistic survey of all Indian languages. He is also an adviser to UNESCO on language conservation.

Devy says one of the consequences of this new approach will be a loss to the English language,but not to the children. “At the same time,it will be a challenge for run-of-the-mill or mediocre teachers to have desired results in this new system,” he says.

Dr Mahendra Chotalia,a professor at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University at Vidyanagar,echoes Devy. “With the kind of demand from employers,we do not want pandits of English but its users. If there are people who want to excel in this language,they can pursue it at higher levels. This constructivism approach where we construct our knowledge by experimenting and using is followed in most of the countries where English is the second language,” he says.

However,Prof Manju Jaidka,a senior faculty at Department of English and Cultural Studies at Panjab University in Chandigarh,strikes a note of caution. “We need to teach students formal aspects of language that follows certain rules rather than informal language that is predominantly used in communicative English these days.”

“Certainly interested students can pursue English at college or university level but until his basics are clear,it will serve no purpose. It is the responsibility of schools to build a strong foundation for the students,” says Prof Jaidka,who has been teaching English for the last 38 years is the chairperson of Chandigarh Sahitya Academy. Prof Jaidka has authored several critical books regarded as standard texts in the subject.

Supporting the change with a stress on its proper implementation through textbooks and teacher training,Prof Dr Rajendrrasinh Jadeja,director of H M Patel Institute of English at Vidyanagar,said,“The theory of constructivism has not only been accepted by CBSE and NCERT but is also highly respectable at the international level.”