Language and Language Teaching, Issue 2 - Azim Premji Foundation

More documents

Recommendations

Info

of right, wrong, good, bad, clean, hygienic, andsocial acceptance, etc., is also shaped by Englishtextbooks, because of the power, prestige andglamour attached with its learning. Ultimately,what the students start believing in is exactlywhat the politically dominant class wants themto believe. Such beliefs get fossilized; then theindividual gradually loses the power ofquestioning; and finally, he/she gets assimilatedinto the belief system of the dominant class.Government and private school EnglishtextbooksThe government-private divide is perhaps themost obvious factor when it comes to classpolitics in ELT in India; NCERT, CBSE, ICSEand the state educational boards, all produce theirown English textbooks. As I have discussedearlier, textbook designing at the central levelinvolves more expertise than in the states.However, there has been a long and inconclusivedebate about the validity of a national curriculum.It is virtually impossible to cater to the needs ofa large variety of students from differentlinguistic and socio-cultural backgrounds throughone textbook at one level. Moreover, theinclusion of a high percentage of foreign Englishtexts in the English textbooks, such as in theICSE (Classes IX and X) and NCERT(‘Marigold’ for Class V), is ridiculous andunreasonable.The state-level textbook designing in India hasimproved over the last decade. But issues basedon caste, class, gender, sexuality, politics, religion,etc., have remained forbidden territories fortextbook writers, and ‘critical thinking’ has beenconfined to garnishing policy materials. So thereis little scope for preparing students to challengethe unequal and undemocratic practicesprevalent in Indian societies.Like the elitist set-up of private English mediumschools, the English textbooks used in suchschools are often designed by well knownmaterials designers and produced by renownedpublishing houses. The absence of a ruleemphasizing the use of only governmentproducedtextbooks encourages these practices.It is not only the layout and price of the books,but also the texts and tasks presented in themthat ensure the exclusion of students fromunderprivileged backgrounds. Textbooks aremere tools in this practice of hegemony in whichEnglish as a cultural capital helps maintain thedominance of the middle and upper class overthe underprivileged class. In this set-up, all thegood intentions of the ‘education for all’ policyremain unattended.Decolonizing and democratizing EnglishtextbooksThe politics of English textbooks is a part ofwhat Ramanathan (2005) calls ‘assumptionsnexus’. She defines it in the following terms:“…everything in class-related conventions thatinform how and why particular class groups liveand make the choices they do in almost everyrealm of everyday existence, including thoserelated to schooling, child-rearing, literacypractices at home, clothing and publicappearances, food, how money gets spent, bodysizes, weight, health, nutrition and hairdos and,most importantly, in the present case, opting forfluency in English (sometimes through an EMeducation)” (p. 37).So changing the writing practice of textbooks isa huge challenge because all the stakeholdersin the decision-making position are part of thesocietal structure it is based on. However, thereis a possibility of changing the socially generatedand constructed consciousness through a criticalcurricular pattern based on democraticideologies. Introducing critical thinkingcomponents in training programmes for textbookwriters and teachers may make a good start.However, it will be better to have suchcomponents in pre-service programmes, toLanguage and Language Teaching Volume 1 Number 2 July 2012 14
ensure that they get a solid foundation in criticalthinking. The next step could be making thepresence of experts working in governmentuniversities mandatory during textbook designingprogrammes at the state level. There should berestrictions on people who work for privatepublishing houses while drawing fat salaries fromgovernment treasuries. Also, it could be of greathelp to have a national certification body tomonitor the writing of English textbooks in thecountry. There should be clear guidelines againstwhich all the content and tasks of textbooksshould be examined and passed before gettingpublished. Efforts should be made to pitch textsand tasks on a democratically representativeground so that they promote communal harmony,mutual respect, nationhood, and above all,critical thinking. This may lead to the realizationof an NCF (2005) dream- “...nurturing anoverriding identity informed by caring concernswithin the democratic polity of the country” (p.viii).National Council of Educational Research andTraining. (2005). National curriculumframework 2005. New Delhi: NCERT.Ramanathan, V. (2005). The English-vernaculardivide: Post-colonial language policies andpractice. Cleveland: Multilingual Matters.Scrase, T. J. (2004). The hegemony of English in India.In R. Cribb (Ed.). Asia examined: Proceedingsof the15th biennial conference of the ASAA,Canberra, Australia.Vygotsky, L. (1925). Consciousness as a problem inthe psychology of behavior (N. Veresov, Trans.).Retrieved from http://www.marxists.org/archive/vygotsky/works/1925/consciousness.htmSantosh Mahapatra is a Ph. D. (Language Testing)student at the University of Hyderabad. His researchinterests include Language Testing, CriticalPedagogy, ESP and Teacher Education.santosheflu@gmail.comReferencesApple, M. (1990). Ideology and curriculum. London:Routledge and Kegan Paul.Dat, B. (2008). ELT materials used in Southeast Asia.In B. Tomlinson (Ed.). English languagelearning materials: A critical review. (pp. 263–280). New York: Continuum InternationalPublishing Group.Illaiah, K. (1996). Why I am not a Hindu. Calcutta:Samya Publications.Littlejohn, A. (1992). Why are ELT materials the waythey are? (Unpublished PhD Thesis). LancasterUniversity, Bailrigg.Morarji, K. (2004). A lesson in State formation:Schooling, moral regulation and genderrelations in Uttaranchal, North India. Paperpresented at 18th European Conference onModern South Asian Studies, LundsUniversitet, Sweden.National Council of Educational Research andTraining (2006). Position paper of the nationalfocus group on curriculum, syllabus andtextbooks. New Delhi: NCERT.Language and Language Teaching Volume 1 Number 2 July 2012 15
Page 3 and 4: Language and Language TeachingVolum
Page 5 and 6: marking. The judgment is not a ‘l
Page 7 and 8: All classroom experiences are insta
Page 9 and 10: for us. In this article I focus on
Page 11 and 12: However, we were not successful in
Page 13: observations are very similar to th
Page 17 and 18: of Marathi. The remarkable thing wa
Page 19 and 20: Popularizing any language is a two-
Page 21 and 22: Cartoon Shows: A Tool to Facilitate
Page 23 and 24: Comprehension is a two-fold process
Page 25 and 26: 4) What did they do to solve the pr
Page 27 and 28: Then we sat down, and I told them t
Page 29 and 30: Democratizing the Classroom: August
Page 31 and 32: I) Ask for different ways of handli
Page 33 and 34: change. They are ready to flout eth
Page 35 and 36: observer. In the context of the pre
Page 37 and 38: poverty and lack of alternative sou
Page 39 and 40: ConclusionAgain, sometimes papers h
Page 41 and 42: (SLAP), which materialized a shift
Page 43 and 44: LandmarksTheory and Practice ofLang
Page 45 and 46: What are excluded are asadhu forms
Page 47 and 48: Notes:1We have the world’s first
Page 49 and 50: Mesthrie does not sound convinced w
Page 51 and 52: in using English for teaching diffe
Page 53 and 54: use of lesson plans, etc.), and pra
Page 55 and 56: Practice in a Second Language: Pers
Page 57 and 58: students that these words occur in
Page 59 and 60: themselves increase their interest,
Page 61 and 62: ReportWorkshop on Continuous and Co
Page 63 and 64: The workshop, in general, created a
Page 65 and 66:
20th KOTESOL InternationalConferenc
Page 67 and 68:
5) I liked the article written by S
Page 69:
Language and Language Teaching Volu
show all

Language and Language Teaching, Issue 2 - Azim Premji Foundation

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?