Teachers must be creative about teaching English

 

From Moaz Nair

Studies have shown that a significant number of pupils, especially in rural schools, do not put in the necessary effort to master the English language.

They conveniently attribute this to the difficulty in learning the language, not being inspired by the teaching approach and that they have many other more important subjects and non-core subjects to study.

With the lack of initiative comes the lackadaisical approach to acquire the language.

English is the language of the sciences. But the toughest task for teachers in some rural schools is to make pupils learn English. No matter how competent and dedicated teachers are, their mood and ability to teach will be affected when pupils show little interest in learning.

Studies have shown that the lack of motivation, self-initiative and practice are among the foremost reasons that explain why pupils cannot grasp even the basics after long years of studying the language.

Classroom teaching using the traditional methods do not seem to be enough to motivate our present generation of pupils, who belong to the electronic age.

Television programmes in English, the internet and computer games are captivating them more these days and this has, indisputably, helped them pick up English.

Pupils who habitually watch English programmes, which include cartoons and animated movies, are likely to pick up the language with ease. They pick up the nuances with cadence and good diction by listening to authentic language discourse.

Some of these pupils have become averse to formal tutorials in language learning. They would prefer for language learning to be informal.

For this reason, the use of a variety of multi-media techniques and audio-visual programmes in the classroom would motivate them to learn the language. This casual approach to language acquisition has proven to be effective among the weak and less motivated pupils.

In the days when English was used across the curriculum, motivation to acquire the language was relatively high. The use of English to teach all subjects in school naturally helped them to be proficient in the language. Even the generally weak pupils were able to speak English.

With English now treated merely as a language subject to be learnt in isolation, pupils’ motivation has been severely diminished. Perhaps having a few subjects taught in English would help pupils to regain the fervour to learn the language.

There are pupils who are culturally inhibited from communicating with others in English, as when pupils mix only among their own ethnic group. Some schools with an enrollment from a single ethnic group are facing this impasse. Having schools with multiracial pupils could help sway them to communicate in English with their peers.

Most pupils these days neglect reading as they are attracted to other more exciting hobbies. Extensive reading helps pupils to be proficient in writing. The reading habit has to be instilled from young as it helps the writing process.

Teachers can create an inventory of sorts to adapt to the many ways pupils would prefer to learn English. Being the resource persons in school they need to be creative in teaching the language. - FMT

Moaz Nair is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.