Research Paper

A Research Paper

“THE LIBERATING ROLE OF ‘MOTHER TONGUE’ TO DEVELOP THE ENGLISH COMMUNICATION SKILLS”
v Presented By Dr. Prashant Kashinath Gawande Lecturer, DIET, Amravati E-mail :- pacificgawande@yahoo.co.in
vInspiration & Guidance Hon. Director, MSCERT, Pune & Hon. Principal, DIET, Amravati
District Institute of Education & Training, Near Maltekdi, Amravati Year – 2013

“THE LIBERATING ROLE OF ‘MOTHER TONGUE’ TO DEVELOP THE ENGLISH COMMUNICATION SKILLS”

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.

                                               Dr. Prashant Kashinath Gawande

                                                    Lecturer, DIET, Amravati

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