9.Task-based Language Teaching – A Relook

According to Prof. Prabhu,  a task "is an activity that requires learners to arrive at an outcome from given information through some process of thought, and which allows teachers to control and regulate that process" Prof. Prabhu deserves credit for originating the task-based teaching and learning, based on the concept that effective learning occurs when students are fully engaged in a language task, rather than just learning about language.

Though Task-based Language is becoming increasingly popular the following questions  keep cropping up every now and then:

·         How should we sequence the tasks?

·         What kind of tasks can a teacher give in a mixed ability class?

·         How can an ordinary teacher be trained to prepare suitable tasks?

I had recently attended a workshop  for preparation of  tasks at the Regional Institute of Education,(NCERT), Mysore, India.  I was feeling quite comfortable all these days with the satisfaction of having done a fairly good job. But last week  everything changed… I  had attended a  session engaged by Prof. Prabhu during the Plenary session of the  International Conference on The English Classroom- Experiments and Experiences, at Chennai, India.

Please view

 22. Prof. Prabhu on task-based teaching

 https://eltnotes2.blogspot.com/2020/07/22-prof-prabhu-on-task-based-teaching.html

For more details about Task-based language teaching  please read :

Prabhu, N. S. (1987). Second Language Pedagogy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (1987).

8. Didn’t we leap before looking ?

In the 1970’s Communicative Approach to language teaching began to have vociferous proponents in the West.  Aged professors in Hindoostan  were swept off their feet when they made faint protests in academic meetings  about the shallow content being  imposed upon students in text books by novae -scholars  who opined that what they are doing is something purely  revolutionary!

Decades have passed since the fervour with which the new generation of teachers have embraced Communicative Language Teaching. What the proponents had predicted has indeed come true!!! We have  churned out millions of students who have the consummate ability to direct tourists  to the  local bus stand or  instruct someone on how to buy a ticket! Our students can even astound everyone with the  precision  with which they direct   a person keen on attending a call of  nature to the appropriate location!

So all is well and good ….Now why is it that most multi-national companies when they come to recruit, tell us  that our students are incapable of speaking and writing immaculate English, have a phenomenally poor vocabulary and  have an atrocious pronunciation! Were such things ignored by the Communicative Language teaching experts through a conscious dilution of content?

Don’t you think dear reader that we have made the mistake of leaping before looking?

7. Are we capable of thinking critically?

A session on Critical Thinking by an eminent teacher during  the In-service course for teachers of English held in my college, began with the statement that if critical thinking is ever taught in educational institutions the teachers definitely  incapable of critical thinking is none others are teachers of English!

The Resource Person continued: What does it mean to think critically?… Is it possible to hold on to ones faith and belief in institutions of religion and culture, the moment one starts to think critically? Will it be possible to turn our eyes to the fact that there are people in India who believe that they have  a right to freedom .. a right to form a nation which believes in their  own values and ideals?.. .Perhaps thinking  critically may prevent you from holding on to a mental state of enslavement. But it would be rather absurd to believe that introduction of Critical thinking in the curriculum would naturally turn out to be an agent of liberation. It is equally presumptuous to believe that it would become a tool that empowers people who were trampled upon through  the decades.

The lecture concluded with the statement that Critical Thinking is  just another fashionable ideal being propagated in  seminars by ‘intellectuals’ who fail to grasp the implication of the term! What do you think dear reader?

6. Cultural Snobbery or Cultural Shock?

Recently a teacher of English inaugurating a social get-together in the department of English in a college which in yester years had a great reputation in the capital city of God’s Own Country, Kerala began his speech to a gathering of students of English Literature thus : “ Out of  deep admiration for  my audience   I would like to deliver my speech in Malayalam”. This was immediately accompanied by a resounding applause from the audience!

A decade ago I was attending a world conference on languages in CIEFL, Hyderabad, now known as EFL University. During an ongoing discussion on the use of English a  middle-aged scholar opined: “The time has come for us Indians to use our kind of English!” (Obviously the gentleman was referring to the Indian variety of English with its own pronunciation and spelling which in every respect would appear to a true scholar and lover of the English language a ‘bastard variety’) This statement  too was followed  by a reverberating affirmation by a vast majority of the delegates of the conference comprising Indian scholars of English.

Now, both the institutions which I referred to above were once considered  temples of impeccable English from whose class rooms emanated the musical mixture of rhythm and intonation characteristic of Standard English.

One wonders whether the local teacher was trying to hide his incompetence in using good English with his hypocritical reference to the audience’s passion for Malayalam! I cannot really tell you whether the majority of the audience  on both the above occasions are living in a deceptive world of cultural snobbery or have become victims of a cultural shock which affirms the superiority of the English language as an indispensable world language.

Well, dear readers what do you think?

5. An Oppressed Pedagogy

Curriculum experts in God’s Own Country have in recent times been seduced by a mistress  in the form of a text called Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I wouldn’t  dare to insult the intelligence of my readers by telling them that the utopian ideas which  this book propagates  through  terms such as ‘equality’, ‘revolution’, ‘change’ and ‘social justice’ are really thought provoking!

As a teacher of English, my only worry is that I cannot make head or tail of the rationale for making a reference to the ‘mistress’ in question in the Source Book for teachers of English! My limited intelligence does not  evoke in me any inspiration to make use of the ideas propagated in the ‘book in question’ to the teaching of Grammar which I believe needs to be properly addressed in curriculum revisions in English.

A good friend of mine who is the head of the Department of English of a reputed college in the city  with tongue in cheek even inquired whether the intention of  the reference to the ‘mistress’ is to make teachers of English  explore how the ‘Verb’ can assert itself and rise against the oppression by the ‘Noun’ !

Well…, any comments about the oppressed pedagogy?

4. Realistic Imitation : A Mental Process With A Difference

Recently a top official of  school education in God’s Own Country, Kerala inaugurated an In-service course for teachers of English organized by my college. The ‘official’, was all praise for the teachers who volunteered to  attend the ten-day programme ignoring  the stress and strain caused by paucity of time for proper curriculum transaction. She even reminded  them of their responsibility of moulding and mentoring the wards under their care. During the felicitation lofty thoughts were strewn around  and everyone  hoped  that the participants  would complete their  training  with the affirmation that  “We came with minds rusted and left with minds refreshed!”

Everything looked  tip- top  till the ‘official’ in question asked  them to ponder over the fact that during her recent inspection in the Centralized Valuation  Camps of the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) Examination, a number of students for their examination in English  had simply copied down the question from the Question Paper and filled up their answer scripts. She inquired what exactly were the teachers of those students doing during the whole  academic year and how exactly did the pass percentage in English break all previous records!

Well… dear reader, can this be attempts by the students to show  a  mental process that is  unique in every respect, viz; ‘imitation with a difference’?

3. ELT issues worth pondering on

The following are notes prepared during the  Fifth International and Forty-first Annual ELT@I  Conference, organized by the Department of English, Anna Adarsh College for Women, Anna Nagar, Chennai from 5^th to 7^th August 2010.

* It is worth recalling what Chinua Achebe said : Why should the African child learn about the Daffodils?... Why not study local culture?

* A wide range of  enrichment programmes are available  for the learner of English particularly in the Engineering colleges. They include Music, Dance, Drama and training in  Life Skills. All these may involve both language and non-language skills. But we seldom exploit it.

* Cultural globalization poses distinct challenges and opportunities  for language learning /teaching because language is the place where we construct our sense of  self amid the  centrifugal and centripetal pulls of globalization.

 * With the slow rise of India as a global economic power, there  was a felt need to minimize  the importance of literature and shift the attention to capacity building  in the stakeholders of the developing  knowledge economy and in this English was important.

* The much popular Communicative English programme is now facing what Swan called the ‘New Toy Effect”: “ …a limited but vulnerable insight has been over generalized, and is presented as if it applied to the whole of language and all of language teaching…The ‘new toy’ effect is leading us to look at everything in functional terms”(1985)

Well, would you like to offer your comments on any of the above? Please do…

2.Oh! To Learn Words Words Words

A twenty-year research conducted by  Johnson  O’Connor  on the impact of vocabulary on people’s lives led to the conclusion that  a person’s vocabulary level is the best single predictor of occupational success.

As I write this, I am fully aware that  the possibility of  my article getting read and being recommended by the reader to another person  solely depends on my  ability to choose the right words  to  clearly communicate my ideas and thoughts. So I too had at a certain stage in  my life paid a lot of attention to learn new words!

Teachers of language know that a good repertoire of vocabulary and a knack to use them often helps one  to communicate accurately. So they constantly provide exercises in the class room aimed at improving the students’ knowledge of words. It may also be noted that the ‘No Child Left Behind legislation’ sees vocabulary as one  of the five pillars of reading comprehension. In short, the more words students know, the better they are able to comprehend.

In a country like India,  where the three- language formula is implemented, in most states, students in schools are taught specially prepared text books in three languages. In Kerala State,  for instance, it is English, Hindi and Malayalam.

Imagine an ordinary working day in a school… The teacher of English begins a new lesson and naturally a few  new words  are taught in the class which the students have to learn.  Now what does learning  a new word involve? Well, learning to spell, pronounce and use the new word appropriately in new and varied contexts! The same could happen in the Hindi and Malayalam classes.  But  in  a normal working day,  a student is also taught new concepts in Science, have to master the skill of working out problems in Mathematics and  familiarize oneself with facts and figures related to History. But things do not end there! In Kerala for instance they sensitize learner to ‘issues’ and all the text books at the secondary level  now focusses on  the following::

* Lack of scientific land-water management

* Issues related to agriculture

* Lack of cohesive universal vision

* Lack of human resource development

* Lack of cultural consciousness

* The issues of the marginalized

* Lack of eco-friendly industrialization and urbanization

* Issues related to health and public health

Now what happens when the child returns home, he would love to play, but some parents send him for extra tuition and coaching. At any rate the child is expected to master the new words lest he will be taxed  the following working day by  teachers who are task masters.

Ask yourself dear reader, is this approach scientific? Does this suit the temperament of a learner in a school ? I would like to hear from you… Do post your valuable comments.

For more articles by the author please view:

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1.When Communicative English was made compulsory

When Communicative English was made a compulsory paper for the BEd course in Calicut University in 2005 it created a few problems for teacher education institutions.

A few peers whom I met  during the Practical Examination had this to say:

* Large classes and additional work for  the already burdened  English Methods teacher  makes the transaction of  the Communicative English syllabus an unenthusiastic  venture.

* In institutions which did not offer  English as an optional for BEd, they  had to employ a  faculty on Part- time basis.  It invariably happened that many employed so, were inexperienced and  ill- trained to teach Communicative English.

* The non availability of  a  Language Laboratory  and  essential software to teach proper English pronunciation and  Listening skills  made the teaching of Communicative English a   less productive affair.

Well, dear reader  did you experience similar problems?