LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:9 September 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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Uses of Radio for Teaching English to Sadri Students of
Upper Primary Schools in Assam

Juri Saikia, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. Scholar

Abstract

Sadri is used as a lingua franca by a large number of “tea tribes” such as Kharia (South Munda), Mundari, Bhumij (North Munda), Oraon and Kurukh (North Dravidian) for communication among themselves in the tea gardens of Upper Assam. A number of speakers of these tribal groups have adopted Sadri as their mother tongue and no longer speak their original native languages in the tea gardens of Assam. Sadri language is largely influenced by the dominant language of Assam, i.e., Assamese and that is why it is quite different from the Sadri spoken in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chattisgarh and West Bengal. This language is popularly known as Baganiya Bhasha or Adivashi Bhasha in Assam.

The Sadri children go to the regional medium (Assamese) government schools and learn English as part of their curriculum in these areas. In Assam, the medium of communication of these schools is Assamese. It is also found that the quality of instruction and the teaching of English in these schools are very poor.

This paper focuses on the difficulties faced by these children whose parents do not know any English and whose teachers of English also have very poor competence in English. The paper presents information on how we could use Radio to improve the teaching and learning of English in these schools.

Keywords: Sadri, English language teaching, mother tongue, teacher training, Radio, audio broadcasts.

Introduction

India is known for its cultural and geographical diversity. According to Census of India 2001, 30 languages are spoken by more than a million native speakers, 122 by more than 10,000. Hindi is known as the official language of India. It is due to the fact of globalization in all different fields, the learning of an international language has become a necessity. Undoubtedly, English has become a world language, rather than the language of only the English speaking countries such as UK and the USA, because the number of people who use English as a means of communication exceeds the number of people who speak it as their mother tongue. In the case of English in India, for more than two centuries, India has been directly and indirectly under the influence of the language English in all the fields, such as Education, Medical Science etc. So, learning English becomes inseparable, as well as unavoidable in Indian Education system.

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

Juri Saikia, Ph.D. Scholar
Department of Linguistics
Assam University
Silchar 788011
Assam
India
calkafil@yahoo.com
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