I teach English in a school where a majority of the students are first generation or at best second generation learners of English. English is not the mother tongue or any of them but they all are to take English as their first language.What I have experienced as a teacher that Instead of treating English as a language we have treated it as a subject. Let us not discuss why we have done it, let us concentrate on what best we can do to treat it as a language instead of a subject.The basic skills of any language are LSRW and it is necessary to follow the same order. Let us take a flashback and understand haw have we learnt out mother tongue. We will appreciate that we have learnt to Listen first, then speak, then Read and then write. But for English we have sort of moved in the Reverse Gear, the very first day a child is introduced to English, he is given a pencil and paper and taught the alphabet. The child gets enough of writing practice but the other skills are ignored. We must appreciate that our role as English teachers is to create conditions to ensure that the child learns all the skills.Language begins with the ear. From the moment we are born, there is a strong connection between hearing language and producing language. We can readily observe the connection between hearing and speaking in a child's language development.A new-born baby is wonderfully attuned to his or her mother's voice. In experimental studies, day-old babies were presented with three different voices: the mother's normal speaking voice; the mother's voice on a monotone; and the voice of a stranger. Each baby responded only to its mother's normal speaking voice.Babies who are only a few days old will turn their heads towards sounds, and at two weeks they prefer human voices to non-human sounds.A child who has normal hearing develops the sounds of speech from interaction with people close to him or her and, by doing this, lays the foundations for other oral skills, such as turn-taking in conversation.Each one of us can contribute to create an atmosphere whereby our students would learn to listen, speak, read and write correct English..As far as writing skills are concerned, what I have felt is that the basic problem is with the verbs and tenses, if this problem is solved, I am sure 99% of all problems related to English will be automatically solved.Another important thing that we all have to see is that the students make extensive use of the dictionary. Whenever possible and in whichever way possible they should be asked to make extensive use of dictionary.to be continued...
wonderful and very interesting article, it highlights the positive aspects of teaching english as it should , thus making it effective and motivating for the teacher and the student alike.
Thankyou for sharing .
Nadira
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Thankyou for sharing .
Nadira