LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:6 June 2014
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.

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An Insight into the Challenges in the Teaching and Learning of Spoken English in Indian Context

Darakhshan Zafar, UGC NET, Ph.D. Candidate

Introduction

The most common problem with the ESL students in producing a spontaneous speech is that they are not adequately exposed to the English language. Speaking needs some kind of real exposure to an audience. These students are conscious of making mistakes and have a fear of attracting criticism from their audience. Naturally, they prefer to remain silent. As mentioned by Ur (1991), L2 learners feel that they are unable to think of what to say when they are asked to speak English. He further says that the ESL students feel “unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language” (p. 121). Besides the affective variables, the structure of classroom discourse and certain phonetic features pose difficulty in developing the skills of oral communication of the learners.

Understanding the Classroom Discourse of Indian Universities

According to Ho (2007), many challenges prop out because the language learnt in an institution is totally different from what is used and spoken in the real world. She puts it succinctly in the following lines:

The second language is found to be based on literate and academic knowledge and preoccupied with the written word (Barnes, 1975; Widowson, 1978; Brynes, 1998) in the sense that emphasis is placed on the standard written code found in formal texts, even in oral communication. (p. 39)

It is also mentioned by the author that learning a language gets priority over using a language. Kramsch (1998, cited in Ho, 2007) claims that oral fluency has not been given much importance in “academic discourse” (Ho, 2007, p.40) and the skill learnt at academics requires one to achieve competence within the school setting. As a result, they are not competent enough to use the language divergently in the outside world. This incompetence in language causes the feeling of being tongue-tied and creates anxiety and frustration among the learners (Leaver, Ehrman & Shekhtman, 2005).

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

Darakhshan Zafar, UGC NET, Ph.D. Candidate
Department of English
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh-202002
Uttar Pradesh
India
itsdarakhshan@gmail.com
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