English language Teaching

Module l – Introduction to ELT - Notes

1. History of English Language Learning and Teaching in India

2. Reasons for the triumph of English
3. The effect of English
4. English as Lingua Franca
5. English as an International Language
6. World Englishes
7. EFL, ESL, ESOL & ELF
8. Productive and Receptive Skills
9. Differences Between Acquisition and Learning

History of English Language Learning and Teaching in India

The history of English language learning and teaching in India is a rich tapestry woven from
historical, cultural, and educational threads. It reflects colonial influences, post-independence
attitudes, and modern global dynamics.

Colonial Influence: The British colonial period established English as a language of

administration and education, creating a lasting impact on the linguistic landscape of India.

The colonizers did not just a set of religious beliefs, nor only a pioneering spirit and a desire
for colonization, but also their language, and though many years later the Americans broke
away from their one-time colonial masters, the language of English remained and it is still the
main language of the world's predominant economic and political power.

The imposition of English as the one language of administration helped maintain the coloniser's
power and rapidly became a unifying/dominating means of control.

Educational Reforms:

1. Macaulay’s Minute (1835) advocated for English education in India to create a class of
educated Indians who could assist in governance.

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 2. The establishment of universities in Calcutta (1857), Bombay (1857), and Madras
(1857) promoted English as a medium of instruction.
3. Wood’s Despatch (1854)
4. Emergence of Indian Literature in English: The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw
a rise in Indian writers using English, including figures like Rabindranath Tagore and
Mulk Raj Anand, which contributed to a growing interest in English language and
literature.

Anglicists strongly believed in the superiority of Western culture and that the best education
for Indians should happen in English. They put into practice an educational system that would
create a class of anglicised Indians who would serve as cultural intermediaries between the
British and the Indians.

The English Education Act (1835)

Based on the Minute prepared by Thomas Babington Macaulay in consultation with,

and submitted to, Lord William Bentinck, the then Governor- General of India

Recommended withdrawal of support to Sanskrit and Arabic books, and reduced

support for traditional education

They believed that English is better worth knowing than Sanskrit or Arabic: Macaulay
pointed out that "a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native
literature of India and Arabia" and "Whoever knows that language (English) has ready
access to all the vast intellectual wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have
created and hoarded in the course of 90 generations"

❖ Main Arguments of Macaulay's Minute

• English should replace Persian as the official language
• English should be the medium of instruction in all institutions of learning
• Translation of Western knowledge into undeveloped vernacular languages need
not be encouraged

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 • Indians trained in English can undertake the training of the rest of their
countrymen
• This is called Downward Filtration Theory (education as filtering down from
the higher- class people to the lower classes or the masses)

Excerpts from The English Education Act

• "We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between
us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons Indian in blood and
colour, but English in taste, opinions, morals and in intellect. To that class we
may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those
dialects with terms of science borrowed from the western nomenclature, and to
render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass
of the population"

Wood's Despatch (1854)

• Called "Magna Carta of English Education in India"

• Presented by Charles Wood, MP, to Lord Dalhousie
• Based on the request by the Court of Directors to frame a General Scheme of
Education, applicable to the whole of British India
• The first authoritative declaration of educational policy in India which laid upon
the government of the country the responsibility of creating a comprehensive
and properly articulated system of education from primary to university level
• Against Macaulay's "filtration theory", laid stress on mass education, female
education and improvement of vernaculars, and favoured secularism in
education
❖ Recommendations
• To set up education departments in every province
• Setting up universities in all major cities of India modelled on the new London
University
• At least one government school in every district
• Grant-in-aid to be given to private schools
• Increased attention to vernacular schools for elementary education

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 • Primary schools – vernacular education; High Schools - Anglo- vernacular
education; Colleges English education
• Focus on teacher training
• Stressed on vocational education and women's education
• Supported mother tongue as the medium of instruction at school level
• Wanted to create a class of Indians as the workforce (like Macaulay)

Reasons for the triumph of English

• Economics: military powers may account for the initial establishment of a language, as
we have seen, but it is economic power that ensures its survival and growth. A major
factor in the growth of English has been the spread of global commerce, and English is
one of the main mediating languages of international businesses.
• Information exchange: a great deal of academic discourse around the world takes
place in English. It is often a lingua franca of conferences, for example, and many
journal articles in fields as diverse as astrophysics and zoology have English as a default
language. The first years of the Internet as a major channel for information exchange
also saw a marked predominance of English. This probably has something to do with
the Internet's roots in the USA and the predominance of its use there in the early days
of the World Wide Web.
• Travel: much travel and tourism are carried on, around the world, in English. Of course,
this is not always the case, as the multilingualism of many tourism workers in different
countries demonstrates, but a visit to most airports around the globe will reveal signs
not only in the language of that country, but also in English, just as many airline
announcements are glossed in English, too, whatever the language of the country the
airport is situated in. So far, English is also the preferred language of air traffic control
in many countries and is used widely in sea travel communication.
• Popular culture: in the 'western world', at least, English is a dominating language in
popular culture. Pop music in English saturates the planet's airwaves. Thus many people
who are not English speakers can sing words from their favourite English-medium
songs. Many people who are regular cinemagoers (or TV viewers) frequently hear
English on subtitled films coming out of the USA. There is a worldwide audience for
the annual Oscars ceremony.

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The effect of English

Not everyone sees the growth of English as a harmless or even desirable phenomenon. Many
people worry about what it means for the cultures and languages it comes into contact with,
seeing its teaching as a form of cultural or linguistic 'imperialism' (e.g., Phillipson 1992,
Pennycook 1994,1998). They argue that, as we have seen, English has been regarded by some
as a way of promoting military, cultural, or economic hegemony. Nor is it necessarily welcome
to those who have been obliged to study it, some of whom see learning English as an unpleasant
but sadly necessary occupation (Pennycook 1998: 206-212). The view that learners and non-
native speakers of English are victims of linguistic and cultural imperialism is not shared by
everyone.

An issue that concerns everyone who follows the rise of English is the impact it has on the
other languages it comes into contact with. Language death is a frightening and ongoing
problem in much the same way that species loss is a threat to the biodiversity on our planet;
for once lost, a language cannot be resurrected and its loss takes with it culture, customs and
ways of seeing the world through its use of metaphor, idiom, and grammatical structuring. In
this context, a powerful argument is that as more and more people speak English, languages
will gradually be lost. As David Crystal warns (in a widely-quoted phrase), if, in 500 years,
English is the only language left to be learned, 'it will have been the greatest intellectual disaster
that the planet has ever known'

English as Lingua Franca

Lingua franca is a language used widely for communication between people who do not share
the same first (or even second) language.

English is now commonly used in exchanges between, say, Japanese and Argentinian business
people, or between Singaporeans and their Vietnamese counterparts. English is also, of course,
a mother tongue for many people in the world, though, as we shall see, such 'native speakers'
are increasingly out-numbered by people who have English as a second or third language and
use it for international communication.

Sometimes, non-native speakers seem to be better at ELF communication than native speakers
are. It is observed that non-native speakers are not conforming to a native English standard.
Indeed, they seem to get along perfectly well despite the fact that they miss things out and put

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things in which they 'should not do'. Not only this, but they are actually better at
'accommodating' - that is negotiating shared meaning through helping each other in a more
cooperative way- than, it is suggested, native speakers are when talking to second language
speakers. This suggests the need to abandon the native speaker as the yardstick of linguistic
proficiency.

English as an International Language

English is increasingly viewed not just as a native language but as a global lingua franca, used
for communication across different cultures.

The historical context that caused the spread of English includes colonization, globalization,
and the influence of media and technology. English has become the dominant language in
business, science, technology, and international diplomacy.

Implications for ELT: Teachers must address the diverse linguistic backgrounds of learners
and promote intercultural competence, as English is used in various contexts worldwide.

World Englishes

The concept of World Englishes recognizes the existence of multiple Englishes, shaped by
local cultures, languages, and contexts. It Includes varieties such as Indian English, Singapore
English, and others, each with distinct phonological, lexical, and syntactic features.

Teaching Implications: There must be an inclusive approach to teaching English,

incorporating diverse varieties to validate students' linguistic identities and enhance their
communicative competence in a global context.

Nobody owns English anymore, in other words - or perhaps we could say that we all, 'native'
and 'non-native' speakers alike, own it together in a kind of international shareholders'
democracy since whatever English we speak - Indian English, British English or Malaysian
English -we have, or should have, equal rights as English users. This does not mean, of course,
that there are no 'haves' and 'have-nots' in World Englishes.

The speaker of World English is, perhaps, capable of dealing with a wider range of English
varieties than someone stuck with native-speaker attitudes and competence; indeed, as

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Rajagopalan suggests, anyone who can't deal with a Punjabi or Greek accent is
‘communicatively deficient'.

EFL, ESL, ESOL & ELF

• ESP - English for Specific Purposes - English for specialties such as nursing or coding,
or banking! to differentiate it from general English that is taught in most schools and
language institutes. We use
• EAP (English for Academic Purposes) to describe courses and materials designed
specifically to help people who want to use their English in academic contexts.
• For many years, scholars and teachers have made a distinction between EFL (English
as a Foreign Language) and ESL (English as a Second Language). EFL described
situations where students were learning English in order to use it with any other English
speakers in the world - when the students might be tourists or business people. Students
often studied EFL in their own country, or sometimes on short courses in Britain, the
ISA, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, etc.
• ESL students, on the other hand, were described as usually living in a target - language
community (e.g., Britain, the USA, etc.) and needed the target language (English i in
order to survive and prosper in that community, doing such things as renting
apartments, accessing the local health service, etc. It follows from this separation that
the language studied in EFL lessons will be different from the language which ESL
students concentrate on.

With the picture shifting like this, it makes sense to blur the distinction and say, instead, that
whatever situation we are in, we are teaching ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages).
This does not mean we should ignore the context in which language learning takes place, but
it does reflect a more multilingual global reality.

Productive and Receptive Skills

Teachers tend to talk about the way we use language in terms of four skills - reading, writing,
speaking, and listening. These are often divided into two types. ‘Receptive skills’ is a term used
for reading and listening, skills where meaning is extracted from an already produced

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discourse. ‘Productive skills’ is the term for speaking and writing, skills where one has to
produce language themselves.

However, these skills cannot always be strictly separated. We might also want to question a
once commonly-held view that receptive skills are somehow passive, whereas production skills
are in some way more active. In any case, whether we are reading or speaking we often mix
what we are doing with other skills. Receptive skills and productive skills feed off each other
in several ways. What we say or write is heavily influenced by what we hear and see. Our most
important information about language comes from this input. Thus, the more we see and listen
to comprehensible input, the more English we acquire, notice, or learn. This input takes many
forms: teachers provide massive language input, as does audio material in the classroom and
the variety of reading texts that students are exposed to. Students may read extensively or listen
to podcasts. They may interact with other English speakers both inside and outside the
classroom.

• Productive Skills: These are skills where language users produce language. They
include speaking and writing. Productive skills allow learners to express their ideas,
feelings, and opinions. They often require greater cognitive load as they involve
generating language.
• Teaching Strategies: Activities include role-plays, presentations, writing essays or
stories, and peer feedback.

• Receptive Skills: These skills involve understanding language, encompassing listening

and reading.
• Receptive skills are crucial for comprehension and interpreting information. They lay
the foundation for developing productive skills.
• Teaching Strategies: Techniques include listening exercises, reading comprehension
tasks, and discussions on texts.

Differences Between Acquisition and Learning

Unless there is something wrong with them mentally or physically, all children acquire a
language as they develop. Indeed, many children around the world acquire more than one

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language and by the age of six or seven are speaking as confident bi- or trilingual. This
miraculous language 'instinct' happens almost effortlessly.

As far as we can see, children are not taught language, nor do they set out to learn it consciously.
Rather they acquire it subconsciously as a result of the massive exposure to it which they get
from the adults and other children around them. Their instinct - the mental capability we are
all born with - acts upon the language they hear and transforms it into a knowledge of the
language and an ability to speak it.

This is an instance of language acquisition. If we can cultivate this kind of environment in

language teaching and learning settings, we can boost the process and pace of leaning.

• Acquisition: A subconscious process similar to how children learn their first language.
It occurs naturally through exposure and interaction in a meaningful context.
Acquisition tends to lead to more fluent and natural language use.
• Learning: A conscious process involving formal instruction and understanding of
grammatical rules. It often involves studying the language in a structured setting. It
involves organised, conscious learning and application that require study capabilities.
We study or are taught grammar and vocabulary as part of this.
• The language we acquire subconsciously (especially when it is anxiety-free) is the
language that is available to us for easy and immediate use in spontaneous conversation.