LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:12 December 2013
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)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2012
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

Teaching Speaking Skill at the UG Level –
Problems and Prospects

Anjali Verma, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.

Need to Know the Problems of Teaching Speaking Skill at UG Level in Colleges

While learning a language, being able to express what we want to say can be one of the most rewarding achievements of all language skills. Speaking has become the essential skill of real life in the present day global market. Students have their own purposes and hopes for learning English in India. This skill raises the self esteem of a student and helps in getting proper employment. Therefore, the focus has shifted to acquiring speaking skill for qualification at UG level. However, there is a significant lack of material available to help teachers to develop their learners’ skills in this important area. Many classrooms all over the world continue to be teacher centred and Mumbai colleges are no exception.

English language has maintained its primary position even after so many decades since thy British left India. The way English is taught in our colleges today, is to a great extent, the main reason for the deterioration of the standard of English in India. We must accept that the standard of its teaching has deteriorated vastly and that is why it is essential to know the problems of teaching speaking skill at UG level in the colleges. The present writer aims to help tertiary students improve their English oral skills. There is frequently too little class time available for students to try to put into practice, the skill deemed necessary for an effective presentation. There is much relevance of oral skills in English academic and professional contexts. Students want to monitor their progress. The development of speaking skill is a relatively neglected area of ESL teaching, which relates to a big problem facing most students.

The Problems of Teaching English Language at UG level

1. The syllabus does not mention a specific plan of what to teach and when to teach. It is for the teacher to decide how and when to teach a particular teaching item.
2. There is a dearth of competent teachers. This problem arises due to the lack of teachers who are specialized in the Method of Teaching of English.
3. In the absence of Assessment, speaking skill is not given importance in many classrooms. As a result a large number of students pass out of schools and colleges with inadequate competence in expressive communication skills.
4. The method and techniques used by the teachers are out of date. Chalk and board and lecture method are the main methods of teaching used by the majority of teachers. They ignore all the other methods of teaching.
5. Due to resource constraints, very few audio-visual aids are available. Some are so expensive, the colleges can only afford to buy a few jf at all they could buy any.
6. We have four lectures per week for the teaching of English in colleges, but in most of the colleges, classes are not held, due to the lack of adequate number of teaching staff. Sometimes teachers rush through the syllabus for the sake of syllabus completion.
7. The size of the classes everywhere is considerably large and so, student’s participation in class work is quite impossible. This is one of the reasons why it is impossible to give individual attention to the students.
8. Teachers’ and students’ regional dialects interfere with proper pronunciation. Many teachers have difficulty in pronunciation and are not cautious about the stress and intonation of their spoken English. So, mother tongue interference is very obvious in so many cases.
9. Teachers spend their lives in the company of students. Their lapses and failings go unnoticed by their peers. This professional isolation is a barrier to professional development and imparting knowledge and skills to students.
10. Many teachers concentrate mainly on teaching grammar and vocabulary, since these are the areas tested in the examinations.

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

Anjali Verma, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Smt. MMK College of Commerce & Economics
Mumbai 400050
Maharashtra
India
drarver@yahoo.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.