The following is an assignment that was submitted as part of the English language teaching paper. I remember it was about tracing the acquisition of English by each of the students. It is astonishing that after nearly a quarter century, I have very little to add or delete either the facts or the style.
ELT Assignment
English being never spoken at home, I consider it as a second language for me. As I feel that my case is a bit too different, this analysis of my learning of English would contain many things subjective; that is this analysis cannot be confined to the class room alone, though I have already stated that circumstances having had to go to six different schools until I reached 5th std, I think this shift of environment might have influenced me very much; though I cannot pin down in what manner or how.
As for my KG I cannot recall much. But as for the first std I remember a book in which appeared such characters as Mr. Bell and Mrs. Bell and their children john and Mary; and such sentences as john is Mary’s brother, Mary is John’s sister. John is taller than Mary etc. If I remember right these four characters appeared in the whole book. (I restrain myself from categorising this method adopted by the book , because I am not sure of the terms used; like grammatical, situational etc) KG and first std were done outside my state and where Hindi and English were predominantly used among the students and between the teacher and the student.
My parents returning to our own state, I found myself in a process of unlearning English and substituting with Malayalam (which rather was a painful experience) because our local school used Malayalam as a medium. Though in the subsequent years up to 5th std I did not learn English actively I tried to read the signposts (which gained me a slight superiority as English was the height of affluence among the desi companions) I was encouraged by my father and I was interested as well.
The dormant English helped me very much in getting an admission into an English Medium school when I reached 5th std. (My father being particular, I did not try to insist myself on Malayalam medium which was another option. The fifth std book was very elementary compared to my first standard and I found it very easy. There were names nouns against pictures later sentences against pictures depicting actions such as he is kicking a ball and later small photographs and little poems. The teacher used to read aloud and we used to repeat aloud . but I must not fail to mention that all explanation were in Malayalam.
Having covered this book much in advance our headmaster brought in 2 or three lessons from radiant readers in std V.
This improved the vocabulary and new methods of testing like fill in the blanks with the right words, with the opposite of the word and small question answers followed. There were also composition books in which we had to write paragraph on a festival or about our school and letters from 6th to 10th we had almost a consistent pattern in which list of vocabulary , grammar items and new usages preceded the actual reading passage followed by exercises. The teachers went on elaborately explaining meanings of words in isolation as well as in the context.
Grammar items and exercises also were done as per instructions . In the 8th standard a supplementary reader was introduced an abridged version of Huckleberry Finn and later in 10th Oliver Twist. This formed a separate paper as far as tests were concerned.
Methods f test included fill in the blanks with the right word, with the right preposition with the definite article, indefinite article , paragraph question based on the reading passage an din the second paper essay writing précis writing etc.
The main drawback of these years was that English was never spoken either among the students or between the teachers and the students. Such penalization as 25 paise for speaking in Malayalam in the campus miserably failed due to impracticality in enforcement.. I feel that teachers themselves are able to be in English without faltering.
.
I must add that I was interested in English during these years partially because I had a faint superiority over the other s for a reason I mentioned earlier and partly because of my parent’s encouragement so much so that I became interested in some extra reading mostly abridged versions from Mc Millan’s stories to remember series, Readers’ Digest was another recourse.
But in my reading or writing I never paid conscious attention to grammar and punctuation. Nevertheless I could detect an error. In spite of this I could write fairly well without errors although I had little chance of speaking. If at all we spoke English it was by way of answers to questions which teachers asked ; a far removed exercise from everyday conversation and communication, which later proved to be a drawback for me as in discussion both formal and informal.
I must add that my English being mostly bookish I am at also for colloquial terms which impede smooth understanding of comparatively better speakers of English especially those who are born and brought up in cities and for whom English is more of a first language. And I sometimes have to endure such remark as you speak like a book.
Another impediment is the mockery at my accent (which was considerably improved in the opinion of my friends.) From other students. They , very few of them mock at the long o s which for them presumably is vulgar and awkward. This sometimes makes me self conscious and nervous in front of them.
But being newly exposed to the Tamil aaall India radio I feel it is no better or no worse than the long ool India radio similarly with pocket. Some Tamilan friends pronounce it as packit.
Leaving the digression let me come to my +2 days . in our system it is called pre degree and is the first two years in college (unlike in TN) is usually a period of sudden freedom and therefore much time id devoted to all activities other than studies. Nevertheless I stood first in English. The syllabus included books, essays, plays poetry and an abridged version of David Copperfield. Plus a little grammar We were to write essay and annotations for tests. Neither had we any oral tests.
Very few questions were asked in class. Lectures predominated teaching. Grammar was tested by giving a sentence and asking us to insert the preposition definite article of indefinite article in the right place etc.
I being particularly interested in English chose English Literature. But whether I still retain the liking for English lit as much as I do for English is doubtful. Although I have tried my hand at versification I have not yet had the courage to get hem published.
ELT Assignment
English being never spoken at home, I consider it as a second language for me. As I feel that my case is a bit too different, this analysis of my learning of English would contain many things subjective; that is this analysis cannot be confined to the class room alone, though I have already stated that circumstances having had to go to six different schools until I reached 5th std, I think this shift of environment might have influenced me very much; though I cannot pin down in what manner or how.
As for my KG I cannot recall much. But as for the first std I remember a book in which appeared such characters as Mr. Bell and Mrs. Bell and their children john and Mary; and such sentences as john is Mary’s brother, Mary is John’s sister. John is taller than Mary etc. If I remember right these four characters appeared in the whole book. (I restrain myself from categorising this method adopted by the book , because I am not sure of the terms used; like grammatical, situational etc) KG and first std were done outside my state and where Hindi and English were predominantly used among the students and between the teacher and the student.
My parents returning to our own state, I found myself in a process of unlearning English and substituting with Malayalam (which rather was a painful experience) because our local school used Malayalam as a medium. Though in the subsequent years up to 5th std I did not learn English actively I tried to read the signposts (which gained me a slight superiority as English was the height of affluence among the desi companions) I was encouraged by my father and I was interested as well.
The dormant English helped me very much in getting an admission into an English Medium school when I reached 5th std. (My father being particular, I did not try to insist myself on Malayalam medium which was another option. The fifth std book was very elementary compared to my first standard and I found it very easy. There were names nouns against pictures later sentences against pictures depicting actions such as he is kicking a ball and later small photographs and little poems. The teacher used to read aloud and we used to repeat aloud . but I must not fail to mention that all explanation were in Malayalam.
Having covered this book much in advance our headmaster brought in 2 or three lessons from radiant readers in std V.
This improved the vocabulary and new methods of testing like fill in the blanks with the right words, with the opposite of the word and small question answers followed. There were also composition books in which we had to write paragraph on a festival or about our school and letters from 6th to 10th we had almost a consistent pattern in which list of vocabulary , grammar items and new usages preceded the actual reading passage followed by exercises. The teachers went on elaborately explaining meanings of words in isolation as well as in the context.
Grammar items and exercises also were done as per instructions . In the 8th standard a supplementary reader was introduced an abridged version of Huckleberry Finn and later in 10th Oliver Twist. This formed a separate paper as far as tests were concerned.
Methods f test included fill in the blanks with the right word, with the right preposition with the definite article, indefinite article , paragraph question based on the reading passage an din the second paper essay writing précis writing etc.
The main drawback of these years was that English was never spoken either among the students or between the teachers and the students. Such penalization as 25 paise for speaking in Malayalam in the campus miserably failed due to impracticality in enforcement.. I feel that teachers themselves are able to be in English without faltering.
.
I must add that I was interested in English during these years partially because I had a faint superiority over the other s for a reason I mentioned earlier and partly because of my parent’s encouragement so much so that I became interested in some extra reading mostly abridged versions from Mc Millan’s stories to remember series, Readers’ Digest was another recourse.
But in my reading or writing I never paid conscious attention to grammar and punctuation. Nevertheless I could detect an error. In spite of this I could write fairly well without errors although I had little chance of speaking. If at all we spoke English it was by way of answers to questions which teachers asked ; a far removed exercise from everyday conversation and communication, which later proved to be a drawback for me as in discussion both formal and informal.
I must add that my English being mostly bookish I am at also for colloquial terms which impede smooth understanding of comparatively better speakers of English especially those who are born and brought up in cities and for whom English is more of a first language. And I sometimes have to endure such remark as you speak like a book.
Another impediment is the mockery at my accent (which was considerably improved in the opinion of my friends.) From other students. They , very few of them mock at the long o s which for them presumably is vulgar and awkward. This sometimes makes me self conscious and nervous in front of them.
But being newly exposed to the Tamil aaall India radio I feel it is no better or no worse than the long ool India radio similarly with pocket. Some Tamilan friends pronounce it as packit.
Leaving the digression let me come to my +2 days . in our system it is called pre degree and is the first two years in college (unlike in TN) is usually a period of sudden freedom and therefore much time id devoted to all activities other than studies. Nevertheless I stood first in English. The syllabus included books, essays, plays poetry and an abridged version of David Copperfield. Plus a little grammar We were to write essay and annotations for tests. Neither had we any oral tests.
Very few questions were asked in class. Lectures predominated teaching. Grammar was tested by giving a sentence and asking us to insert the preposition definite article of indefinite article in the right place etc.
I being particularly interested in English chose English Literature. But whether I still retain the liking for English lit as much as I do for English is doubtful. Although I have tried my hand at versification I have not yet had the courage to get hem published.
No comments:
Post a Comment