Thursday, May 20, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Book Review onThe Story of English In India
I was browsing the book titles in the Dept. library. The catchy title "The Story of English in India caught my attention and roused my curiosity as it was written by N. Krishnaswamy, an Expert in linguistics.
The easy flow of the language, the development of various stages of development of English in India as story narration added flavour to the whole book.He has listed various historical events but those events have been considered as an additional information.I am here to point out only those factors which appealed to me.
It is really curious to note that 'English' as a subject was not taught in Oxford and Cambridge till1894 and 1911 respectively.In 1828, it was introduced in the University College,London.But, in 1857, the three universities in India started to teach English as a subject .Are we not the forerunners?Can we consider it still as second language?
The language which united the people of India has started to be a second language but to project India's identity and India's aspirations, points out the author.He further says that the Indians used the language to abominate and debunk the white man's culture. When I read this , I remembered a Tamil statement,"Valartha kada Maril painthathu" ( The person brought up by one killed him) .Isn't it an irony that the language they propagated to create people to become their slaves but after learning it they used the same against them? When the linguist Krishnaswamy has pointed out this we understand the significance of the language more.He says" Instead of India getting acculturated the English language was getting acculturated."
Very carefully he points out tracing the appointment of various commissions of India, He dovetails how English, in the present globalization does not reflect the British culture but American, Australian, Canadian , Indian etc.Thus it has become global language.
He has given three appendixes. The appendix that attracted my attention was the Report of the Study Group that discusses the dearth of the trained staff to teach English at various levels.He points out the necessity of using it as a 'source' language to promote other Indian languages and also the objective of having various syllabuses at various levels such as school level, transitional level and also to use it as Library language, as a medium of Instruction, and also for those who wish to be teachers of students of English literature,get trained in Certificate course and in other special courses like spoken, written and commercial etc
Without knowing this some of us have discussed the necessity of the various syllabi even 10 years before .I would rather recommend every English teacher to read this book to get a new approach in our teaching.
The easy flow of the language, the development of various stages of development of English in India as story narration added flavour to the whole book.He has listed various historical events but those events have been considered as an additional information.I am here to point out only those factors which appealed to me.
It is really curious to note that 'English' as a subject was not taught in Oxford and Cambridge till1894 and 1911 respectively.In 1828, it was introduced in the University College,London.But, in 1857, the three universities in India started to teach English as a subject .Are we not the forerunners?Can we consider it still as second language?
The language which united the people of India has started to be a second language but to project India's identity and India's aspirations, points out the author.He further says that the Indians used the language to abominate and debunk the white man's culture. When I read this , I remembered a Tamil statement,"Valartha kada Maril painthathu" ( The person brought up by one killed him) .Isn't it an irony that the language they propagated to create people to become their slaves but after learning it they used the same against them? When the linguist Krishnaswamy has pointed out this we understand the significance of the language more.He says" Instead of India getting acculturated the English language was getting acculturated."
Very carefully he points out tracing the appointment of various commissions of India, He dovetails how English, in the present globalization does not reflect the British culture but American, Australian, Canadian , Indian etc.Thus it has become global language.
He has given three appendixes. The appendix that attracted my attention was the Report of the Study Group that discusses the dearth of the trained staff to teach English at various levels.He points out the necessity of using it as a 'source' language to promote other Indian languages and also the objective of having various syllabuses at various levels such as school level, transitional level and also to use it as Library language, as a medium of Instruction, and also for those who wish to be teachers of students of English literature,get trained in Certificate course and in other special courses like spoken, written and commercial etc
Without knowing this some of us have discussed the necessity of the various syllabi even 10 years before .I would rather recommend every English teacher to read this book to get a new approach in our teaching.
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