LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 12 : 8 August 2012
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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M. S. Thirumalai
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Beginning Teaching

Runa Shajeev, M.A. (English), S.E.T.

Abstract

No teacher can ever forget the very first class he/she has ever engaged. It is a nerve-racking experience one would rather not discuss. Teaching in the degree college does not require you to go through any sort of training. Teachers have practically no experience whatsoever with engaging an audience and particularly youngsters.

Today, when looking back in retrospect after eleven years of teaching a whole lot of subjects and streams, I wonder how it would have been if I had some training in teaching from the beginning. No matter how sure one is about his or her knowledge of the subject taught, approaching a class for the first time and teaching a language to the second language learners is a very daunting task. It requires specialized training, which is still not provided. It is not just about providing good material, classroom activities, translating, using print and electronic media and the like. In order to understand and empathize with the students and particularly with the first generation learners of English, teachers require a deep understanding of the thoughts, beliefs and complexes of these students.

This paper discusses the need for the teachers to empathize with the students who have no background whatsoever in English. It also emphasizes the need to introduce training programs for language teachers in the degree colleges.

Teaching is Beyond Imitation

Teaching in the degree colleges does not require any training as per the eligibility criteria. Nevertheless, teachers who begin their teaching career would realize right from their first hour of classroom teaching that teaching English as a second language is a daunting task. They certainly had spent a lot of time watching other people (their teachers) teach. But just copying them, trying to learn through a trial and error approach, and picking up notes from the websites would not help. Understanding the technical aspects of teaching is equally important.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Mrs. Runa Shajeev, M.A. (English), S.E.T.
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Dnyanasadhana College
Thane, Mumbai 400608
Maharashtra
India
runashajeev@gmail.com
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