ALIGNMENT OF LANGUAGE AND CONTENT IN PEDAGOGICAL SCENARIO OF LANGUAGE: A HUMBUG IN INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM
Author(s):
AMNA ZAIDI
Keywords:
Alignment, Content, language, Revision, Theory of Fossilization
Abstract
Pedagogical scenario of English in India is at crossroads when it comes to content and language. While we are trying to contextualize the material according to learners, we tend to forget that certain social customs and norms do not align with the language acquisition which one is trying to achieve. Selinker’s (1972) theory of fossilization is true to the extent that it does hinder the progress and affects BICS and CALP among learners. Language is complex and dynamic, its learning and teaching however, depends on the person and the content. One realizes that language cannot be taught in vacuum and hence, culture, content, background knowledge all comes into play. A person is labeled as soon as he/she is born with caste, religion and creed. The content which our textbooks provide the learners with, does create a barrier of culture, religion and identity. The culture shock or the language shock is pretty common in situations like these. A place like India which drew its constitution from the colonizers, needs to address that today certain aspects require revision. Today we have children coming from remote areas who, do not see the Englishmen as ‘bade sahab’ but as a history of their nation and have every right to critically analyze the history itself. The course now has V. S. Naipaul, R. K. Narayan and Ruskin Bond who give a true picture of the society but so do we have the foreign short story writers or novelist where a child is stumbled upon the fact that Easters day is a festival celebrated as the rebirth of Jesus , since the child is totally unaccustomed to the Christian norms and festivities or even the fact that the celebration of Pongal and Onam in the south of India is also an alien concept for a northerner. Looking at all these aspects we will be analyzing situations like these in this paper and one should, first pay attention to the content being opted for teaching since one can have a mellifluous learning only when the content is in alignment with the language and believing that one has to make a second language their own by drawing personal instances for better understanding and comprehension.
Article Details
Unique Paper ID: 150754

Publication Volume & Issue: Volume 7, Issue 9

Page(s): 321 - 327
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