LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:8 August 2015
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.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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A Study on Learning English by the 12th Standard
Assamese Medium Students of Barpeta District, Assam, India

Nazrul Islam Mallik

Abstract

There is no denying the fact that English occupies a place of prestige not only in our society, but also in every nook and corner of the globe. In our country, no indigenous language however has come up to replace English, either as a medium of communication or as official language. The knowledge of English gives us a high social status in general and enables us to establish intellectual, cultural, economic, commercial and political relation with the rest of the world. After all, its knowledge is regarded essential in almost all the branches of learning as well as for most of the people under the sky. In spite of such positive aspect and response, how many of the students have good command over English is a question of great importance. How many of the students’ community can use English in their practical life situation after completion of their education? The case of Assamese medium students is still worse. Though a limited number of students get satisfactory marks in the examination, they cannot use English in their practical life. Observing these it is assumed that the standard of teaching and learning English have some hurdles which may be because of the teachers’ role or the students’ irresponsibility. This article makes an attempt to trace the problems faced by the students in learning English at Higher Secondary Schools of Assam with special reference to Barpeta district. It aims at presenting the contemporary situation in Assam with regard to English teaching and learning and suggesting effective methods of teaching English to those students whose background and exposure to English is very limited in the classroom as well as in the school campus and outside the school.

Keywords: English language, medium of communication, teaching English, learning English, Assamese medium students, exposure to English

Introduction

English is treated as a lingua franca of the world because of its wider exposure in all fields like science and technology, modernity and development. English has been given a social status symbol. Most of the parents prefer their children to be an English educated person. But the performance of English in the Govt. educational institutions is remarkably poor. It has been observed that even most of the students of Higher Secondary level fumble in speaking English. Their English competency is not up to the mark, rather worse, because they are not trained in listening and speaking skills in the English classroom. Their chief emphasis is on reading and writing as they have to pass in the examination, just by giving answers to the questions. It is seen that most of the students can neither write nor speak correct English even after completion of their Higher Secondary education, after learning English for 10 to 12 years as a core subject; it is beyond most of them. All these indicate that there must be some problems in between the teaching- learning process of English in the educational institutions of Assam.

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

Nazrul Islam Mallik, Research Scholar
Department of Linguistics
Assam University
Silchar 788011
Assam
India
mnazmallik@rediffmail.com
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