Globalization and the Nineties Scenario

GLOBALIZATION AND THE NINETIES SCENARIO
Need for a New Approach to the Teaching of English in India

Dr. M. Rajeshwar

The importance of English in India does not need to be overstated. The language has been with us for more than one and a half centuries and has been eminently serving the purpose of communication across the country; as the medium of instruction in higher education institutions and as a means of integrating the culturally and linguistically divided people of India. Of late it has been imaginatively used as a vehicle for creative expression by Indian authors like Vikram Seth, Arundhati Roy, et al. Next to our ‘holy’ men and cricketers we are perhaps best known abroad today for our creative writers. India’s rapid adaptation of the freely available modem science and technology of western origin for its educational and development purposes has been possible only through English. Given our level of wardness and given our meagre contribution to the world of knowledge, this should be treated as a blessing reaching us through English. Viewed against this ground the abolition of English, sporadically advocated by some chauvinistic elements, will be counter-productive, even suicidal. The people dreaming of doing away with English should know that advanced nations like Japan and Germany have in recent times included English as a compulsory subject of study in school curriculum, not because they do not love their own language but because they find English useful.

The information technology revolution currently sweeping the world and the globalization of Indian economy, initiated in the early nineties, further underscore the importance of strengthening English in India. India cannot any more remain in linguistic or economic isolation. The world is fast emerging as a global village with English serving as the lingua franca. The new global economic and social order has many benefits to offer and we have to be fully prepared to reap them by improving, among other things, our linguistics and communication in English. Indian teachers of English have to play a very significant role in this process by gearing themselves up, to adapt to the new technology, framing new syllabus, evolving new methods and techniques of teaching and so on.

Globalization of Indian Economy and English

Globalization of Indian economy is now almost irreversible. Indian economy is getting fast integrated in the World economy. Terms like geographic isolation and economic protectionism are less frequently heard now. The compulsions of the New Political Economy include a high degree of communicative competence in English. We cannot afford to be linguistically isolated, parochial or chauvininstic any more. We are now required to interact with people in commerce and industry across the world on a daily basis to negotiate trade terms, exchange and share views and for other such purposes. This requires a fair degree of mastery of the English language and it can’t possibly be attained if the teachers stick to conventional syllabus, out-moded teaching materials and time-consuming teacher-centered instructional methods. For students of commerce, management, technology and other sciences, who will eventually be entering fields related to commerce and industry, the English syllabus should be so framed as to be directly relevant to their profession, i.e., cater to every communicative need they may feel in course of their professional life. In other words, the syllabus should be need-based, skill-oriented, learner-centered and IT friendly - especially IT friendly because the courses-in English will be primarily administered through computers. This kind of syllabus has been recently experimented on in Germany with great success. Consisting of eight courses of approximately one-month duration; the syllabus clearly sets out goals to be achieved, skills to be gained, materials to be used and methods of administering it - all within a time frame.¹ By incorporating certain changes in the German model to suit our specific requirements we can design our own syllabus and materials, and evolve methods of using it. Incidentally, the principle of need-based syllabus in English applies to the students of every other science, be it engineering, architecture, fashion designing or computer science. The syllabus should be specific to their needs, tailor-made so to say and emphasize the acquisition of the specific language skills needed in their professional environment. Parenthetically it may be observed here that some of our software professionals going to the USA are compelled to return home because of their poor communication skills. This could have been easily avoided if they attended courses of the kind I have mentioned above. A general syllabus, uncritically taught at our colleges is therefore unfit in the changed economic, cultural and communications environment. The teachers have-to brace themselves up to this challenge. They should welcome this change by improving their teaching materials and by reorienting their methods and techniques of teaching.

Challenges of the Teachers of English

In today’s world where “value for money” is the ruling principle, the English teachers need to perform and show concrete results the way professionals in fields like medicine and accountancy do. They cannot afford to be complacent. They have to boldly face the challenges posed by globalisation and information technology revolution. They should constantly update their knowledge and acquire new skills and methods of teaching. They should become computer literate and internet-­fluent without losing much time because computers are poised to be used extensively in the language class-room of future. Above everything else they should readjust their thinking and be receptive to new ideas such as looking upon themselves as professionals and their students as customers.

Conclusion

The apprehensions of the opponents of English on either side of the Vindhyas should be speedily put at rest by driving home the point that without English the young men and women of India will be put to unnecessary and easily avoidable hardship and lose out on the economic and technology fronts. However, to the extent possible English courses should be so designed as not to mimic the British or American cultural norms, English ceases to be perceived as a threat to our culture. True, it was once the language of our colonial masters. But then democracy and rule of law too were theirs. We cannot wish them away because they have been bequeathed to us by the colonialists. It has not been given much thought but in a multilingual setup like ours English can play a big role in culturally uniting the people. The electronic media which makes an extensive use of the English language has already contributed a great deal to the homogenization and standadization of Indian culture offering us for the first time an opportunity of culturally uniting ourselves. In the past, English contributed a great deal to our political unification and now that India stands on the threshold of emerging into an IT and economic power, English can be made to serve a new purpose - as a catalyst to facilitate this emergence. It finally devolves on the teachers of English to help and accelerate the pace of the country’s economic progress by giving it the language of opportunity, success and socio-economic empowerment, namely English.

¹ Paola Falter, “English for Industry and Commerce: A Certificate for Engineering Students,” English Teaching Forum 36. 1 (Jan. - March d998): 47.