A Research Paper
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“THE LIBERATING ROLE
OF ‘MOTHER TONGUE’ TO DEVELOP THE ENGLISH COMMUNICATION SKILLS”
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Presented
By
Dr.
Prashant Kashinath Gawande
Lecturer,
DIET, Amravati
E-mail
:- pacificgawande@yahoo.co.in
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vInspiration & Guidance
Hon.
Director, MSCERT, Pune &
Hon. Principal, DIET, Amravati
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District Institute of Education &
Training, Near Maltekdi, Amravati
Year – 2013
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Abstract:
The
year 2000 is the revolutionary year for primary education in Maharashtra
because Maharashtra Government has started English as a compulsory subject for
the first standard. The students must be provided opportunities to speak the
language. Unfortunately most of the teachers themselves have no confidence to
speak in English. Hence, they are unable to provide an opportunity for their
students. Unnecessary fear of English language is there even among the English
teachers and the students as well. This liberty to speak, converse or talk
without thinking right or wrong raise confidence of the speaker which will be
helpful to remove the fear of language. Liberty should be provided to the
beginners of using the mother tongue while speaking in English which is the
other tongue for us. If we think of the word ‘Mother Tongue,’ ‘Other Tongue is
involved in it. M/OTHER TONGUE ‘Other’ is there in ‘M other’. The Mother tongue taboo has been with us for long
time but fortunately now things seem to be changing. I believe that many
teachers have continued to use the mother tongue because it is both necessary
and effective.” “The mother tongue is the
womb from which the second language is born.” All these efforts must be
taken in the teacher training institutions; the establishment of language
laboratory must be there in D.T.Ed colleges to build the confidence of
students-teachers. To build the confidence of your student teachers to
communicate in English and afterwards, they will build the confidence of their
students; and the enlightenment proceeds forever!
English
has been gaining greater importance in global communication. It is no longer
just a library language but a language of opportunities in every walk of life.
A fairly high degree of proficiency in English and excellent communication
skills enhance students employability. Keeping in view the increasing
importance of English for career purposes, state governments and universities
are beginning to offer courses in communication skills as part of their English
courses.
The
year 2000 is the revolutionary year for primary education in Maharashtra
because Maharashtra Government has started English as a compulsory subject for
the first standard. Now twelve years are passed; but our teachers and students
are not passed yet to build the confidence to use the English Language. The
main purpose of language is communication because we use language to express our
feelings or emotions. So while learning English, students should learn to
communicate in English. The students must be provided opportunities to speak
the language. But who is going to provide them opportunities? Obviously, ‘the
teacher’ But unfortunately most of the teachers themselves have no confidence
to speak in English. Hence, they are unable to provide an opportunity for their
students.
Communication
is the exchange of information or ideas. It is the art or act of expressing a
message in a way that allows other to understand.
1) Communication
takes place when the sender:-
·
Has a message to be communicated and
·
Has a purpose to communicate the
message.
2) Effective
communication involves:-
·
Using appropriate voice and body
language
·
Understanding the situation and the
people involved in it.
·
Understanding the message being
communicated and
·
Responding appropriately.
·
Fearless state of mind about committing
mistakes.
Unnecessary
fear of English language is there even among the English teachers and the
students as well. Actually ‘Fluency to
accuracy’ is the flow to acquire any language. Fluency includes just go on
to speak without hesitation, without thinking weather we are right or wrong.
This
liberty to speak, converse or talk without thinking right or wrong raise
confidence of the speaker which will be helpful to remove the fear of language.
It doesn’t mean that we should speak or talk in incorrect manner. But we have
to improve gradually in course of time. Fluently we have to begin and gradually
we will have to acquire accuracy. ‘Rigidity of accuracy’ at an initial stage
becomes the hurdle to improve our conversation skills.
Another
liberty should be provided to the beginners of using the mother tongue while
speaking in English which is the other tongue for us. If we think of the word
‘Mother Tongue,’ ‘Other Tongue is involved in it.
M/OTHER TONGUE
‘Other’ is there in ‘M other’
Sheelagh Deller and
Mario Rivolucri in the preface of the book ‘Using the Mother Tongue’ Sheelagh
Deller says that “This really struck a chord with me. I’ve been lucky to spend
my most of the teaching life in situations where I can be pretty autonomous
about how I teach. And, in spite of fact that more often than not I teach
multilingual classes, or students whose language I don’t speak I’ve often found
myself encouraging them to think and communicate bilingually.
The
Mother tongue taboo has been with us for long time but fortunately now things
seem to be changing. I believe that many teachers have continued to use the
mother tongue because it is both necessary and effective.”
Mario
Rinvolucri says in the preface of the same book, “It was meeting the work of
Charles Curran ad using his community language Learning technique with
beginners that made me realize that ‘The
mother tongue is the womb from which the second language is born.’
Curran was a theologian and counselor and he had no direct method hang-ups. For
him it was obvious that express themselves in their mother tongue and that this
would then need to be translated for them into target language before they
could themselves say it in the target language.”
“The
purpose of this is to free us of this guilt and to think about ways of using
the mother tongue, not just for convenience but real a living and vital
resource for our learners and especially the beginners.” Humanized methodology to the beginners.
Luke
Prodomou in his prologue on ‘The liberating role Role of the Mother Tongue’
says that, “The mother tongue in the ELT classroom has been a ‘Skeleton in the
cupboard’. The metaphor is apt in so far as we have for along time treated the
mother tongue as a ‘Taboo’ subject, a source of embarrassment and, on the part
of non-native speaker teachers in particular, a symptom of their failure to
‘teach properly’.
We
need to break the stranglehold of negative perceptions of the mother tongue in
the classroom. We need new, more positive metaphors for the role of mother
tongue.
The
following metaphors may help put some flesh on the skeleton:
·
A drug (through it has therapeutic
potential, it can damage your help and may become addictive)
·
A reservoir (a resource from which we
draw)
·
A wall (for writing on or an obstacle to
progress?)
·
A crutch (it can help us get in a
lesson, but it is recognition of weakness)
·
A lubricant (it keeps the wheels of a
lesson moving smoothly; it thus saves time)
·
A window (which opens out into the world
outside the classroom; if we look through it we see the students previous
learning experience, their interests, their knowledge of the world, their
culture)
These metaphors suggests
the potential for ‘using’ the mother tongue, but also alert us to the danger of
‘abusing’ the mother tongue. Our strategic objective will continue to be
maximum interaction in the target language and the role of the mother tongue
will be to enrich the quality and the quantity if that interaction in the
classroom, not to restrict or impoverish it.
In
the same prologue he continues that, “In educational terms, it is gross
contradiction to teach a language, any language (that most humans of cognitive and
affective faculties), without reference to and creative deployment of the
students mother tongue and by extension, their mother culture. In the first
language education, it would be unthinkable to propose the exclusion of the
students. Linguistic culture from the classroom.
However,
a skeleton in the cupboard is something most people probably have, in one from
other. The irony in ELT since ‘direct methods’ became the official orthodoxy is
that most non-native speaker teachers of English have quietly been using the
mother tongue, to a lesser or greater extent. The skeleton has been there all
the time; we just haven’t wanted to talk about it. The mother tongue has been
used surreptitiously and haphazardly and as a result it may not have been used
to good effect.
For beginners the
following examples may provide clue about using mother tongue.
Example: - I don’t use ‘KANDA’ in my
meal,
There
is no ‘WANDHA’.
(‘KANDA’
in Marathi & ‘PYAZ’ in Hindi)
No problem to use
English statements being the beginners.
Later the same beginners will use ‘Onion’ for ‘Kanda’ and ‘Problem’ for
‘Wanda.’ By using above mentioned statement and the liberty to use mother
tongue will encourage the beginners. “Encouragement leads towards enhancement
and enrichment to the user of English language.”
Hence,
English becomes the ‘Life Language’ today. Without using English words we can’t
communicative even in our Mother –Tongue. So why don’t we take the positive
advantage of it’s this derivative vocabulary of English language. Being the
beginners, we must use this vocabulary from varied themes as hospitals and its
related words, post office, sports, electronics and electrical equipments,
railway station and bus station, scientific terms etc.
All
these efforts must be taken in the teacher training institutions; the
establishment of language laboratory must be there in D.T.Ed colleges to build the
confidence of students-teachers. Friends! This English Laboratory saves our
labour, time and fatigue and obviously the positive learning outcome comes out.
Then why don’t you try to establish such a ‘Magnetic Zone, in your
institutions? Because this lifeless Lingua-Lab launches life in teaching
learning process and makes your student teachers to linger in the ‘Lovely Lake’
i.e. laboratory.
Bravo!
To build the confidence of your student teachers to communicate in English and
afterwards, they will build the confidence of their students; and the
enlightenment proceeds forever!
Hence,
lit your own candle and curse the darkness of English Language from our
students’ lives.
References :
1)
Using of
Mother-Tongue :
Sheelagh Deller & Mario
Rinvolucri.
2) Basic Communication Skills :
P. Kiranmai Dutt & Geeta
Rajeevan.
3) Techniques and Principles in Language
Teaching:
Diane Larsent Freeman.
4)
Establishment of English Language
Laboratory to test utility of it to teach English to Std. I to
IV: A critical study :
Dr.Prashant
k. Gawande
