Keywords

Indian Education System , Learners , Communicative Development , Management Studies , Pedagogy , Globalization , Women empowerment , Personality Development , Communication Skills , Writing English , Teaching English

0 . Preface

For many years, the issue of teachers’ training and devising teaching strategies has been the most considerable subject in the field of education. It is important not to forget the purpose of teaching-learning English in India, because the purpose not only enables students to learn, but also orients the teachers’ behaviour. In the present scenario, the teachers and the students seem to be confused about the selection and usage of proper methods, approaches and techniques that are used and ought to be used to in the processes of teaching and learning of languages and especially of English. This book is an attempt to help them reach their goals. The original impetus for the present book has been provided by the basic issues discussed with the fellow teachers in different universities and the affiliated colleges, the need of a new programme for English language and literature teachers and students especially in India. This is an era of internationalization of pedagogical strategies and we have to be part of it.

The book in the form of a series of brief essays takes into account the trends and developments in the present teaching-learning scenario which is characterized by the processes of globalization. The most basic and contemporary issues such as- the purpose of teaching-learning English in India, the Challenges before Indian education system, the Assimilationist view of English and the demands of globalization, Pragmatic competence, Cognitive and communicative development, English in Management Studies, ICT as alternative pedagogy, Nativism and Trans-nationalism, Non-Verbal Aspects, Personality development, Women empowerment, Multi-dimensional Evaluation tools, Privatization of Higher education, Indian writing in English, Promotion of peace through language and literature etc. have been discussed. The reflections are made to correlate the major issues, their causes, effects and would be solutions in local as well as global context as these issues become clear in the discourse of the items to which they are related.

The selection of essay form is done to make the contents more lucid, simple and illustrative. The most convenient way to go through the book is to refer first to the title and the subtitles given at the beginning of each essay. Each of the essays is accompanied by subtitles and preliminaries to take a tour into the issues discussed within. In order to update oneself and to investigate the topic further, the bibliographical references are given at the end of each essay. The focus here lies on the practical aspects and user-friendliness as linguistic discourse is a social behaviour. Rather than contributing one more book into the existing material, the author intends to make the book more utilitarian digging out the roots in order to solve the problems, expand, clarify and sharpen the scope of the subject incorporating practical, down-to-earth and highly scientific solutions.

Once we come to know the requirements of the time, it becomes rather easier to point out the strengths and weaknesses of the present system and search for the effective measures to nullify the challenges we may face. The complexity of issues leads to a constant demand on the teacher to improve English learning by creating the productive learning situations and by considering the needs of the students. It is imperative for them to be proactive and develop an interdisciplinary approach to teaching. The need is to know the soil and prepare it adequately for what it requires to become capable of serving the goals effectively.

At the very outset, I am especially grateful to the Maratha Vidya Prasarak Samaj, Nashik, and then the English teachers who have been providing me opportunities for participating in the seminars, workshops or symposia to ventilate helpful strategies or solutions to the problems and difficulties in teaching and learning of English in India; and their active and unfailing assistance helped me reach the goal of the book.  Unfailingly, I express my gratitude towards my family-Pournima, Pawan and Parvani who have always been in the chain of efforts, troubles and gains of such academic activities and Dr. Sachin Rajole for his prompt assistance in editing the texts. I am thankful to Dr. Kalpana Nehere of Gatha Cognition for their interest and efforts in bringing in the book.

I hope the book will help the common readers in general and the teachers and students of English language and literature in particular to meet the future requirements and face the challenges before Indian education system reasonably.

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1 . The Purpose

It is important not to forget the purpose of teaching-learning English in India, because the purpose not only enables students to learn, but also orients the teachers’ behaviour. Although the teacher’s behaviour is important, we can judge its success by how well the students succeed in learning. For that the teacher has to improve English learning by creating the productive learning situations and by considering the needs of the students.

1.1.The Teacher’s Role

• The teacher has to ‘use English most of time’ to give the students practice in listening and responding to spoken English.
• The teacher should use English to say ‘real things,’ so that the students may realize that English is ‘a real language’ and can be a good means of communication in real life situations.
• The teacher has to consider the level of the students while using English. The ‘use of mother tongue’ is essential for socializing the teaching-learning of English.
• The teacher has to arouse interest among the students by ‘chatting’ with them before going to the prescribed texts. The stories of their interest and experience can be used to make them feel at home.

1.2.The Needs

• English in India is a national link language. It is a means of international communication for academic, trading, and transactional purposes.

•  English is a matter of a developed personality. No individual who wants to be a competent being is free from the communication skills in English.
• No student of higher education can afford for the new challenges of globalized culture without sufficient knowledge of English.
• Everyone has to overcome the problem of acquiring the BPO [Business Process Outsourcing] English i.e. American vernacular of English.

1.3.The Problems

• The factors like age, attitude, aptitude, motivation amount of exposure and anxiety are responsible for individual differences in second language learning.
• In social psychology, ‘anxiety’ is the major issue of individual differences that affects language learning, since language learning is truly a socio-psychological phenomenon. 
• ‘Situational’ anxiety is different from ‘general’ anxiety. A situational anxiety is emotional and is based on the environmental conditions.
• This anxiety varies according to fluctuations in the individual’s tension level and the perception of the level of threat in a situation.
• The most considerable components of the feeling of anxiety are the individual’s excessive self-consciousness and doubts regarding one’s ability. This anxiety is observed in communication apprehension, fear of delivering a speech or stage fright. 
• The result is that girls have a less language anxiety in English learning than boys.

1.4.Importance of Oral Communication

• English in oral communication has really acquired global importance due to emergence of Information Technology and its global outsourcing in business.
• The computer communication has transcended the national borders.
• India plays a dominant role in world-business through BPO services. The Indian youth have good opportunity if they are well versed in English oral communication.
• Today, growing communication in English has needed preciseness in interaction. Instead of verbosity and figurativeness, we demand oral communication to pass and grasp messages correctly. For that, oral skills are to be live and attractive.

1.5.Marathi Medium and Rural Area

In rural area and Marathi medium schools, the traditional methodology has been used and therefore students’ participation in learning process has been thwarted. Being passed with first class in X^th and XII^th, students fail to speak few sentences in English. Merely introducing oral tests will not be a sufficient solution to this problem; planning and organization of everyday teaching is crucially important. Acquiring speaking skill is rather difficult than writing skills. The students should speak with fellow students and friends. After all ‘practice makes man perfect.’  

1.6.The SSC and HSC Board Methodology

The Board pointed out that the development of oral skills is possible through listening, loud reading, speech making, and effective conversation. And it is mandatory to conduct the oral test to evaluate whether these four conversation aspects are covered. For example:

• Comprehend the content in the passage read for them.
• Reading aloud to help them in delivery or pronunciations, intonations, pauses, and stresses.
• Speech is an outcome of listening and reading aloud. The speeches should be based on the everyday incidents and experiences.
• Speaking English in the class and at home will build up confidence and fluency in oral communication.

1.7.Tips for Using English in the Classroom

• Always reply in English.
• Try to be casual in using English.
• Use artificial motivators.
• Use suitable English to their level of comprehension-the ‘graded’ English. 
• Help them to understand English by using simple commands, instructions or explanations. 
• Use the mother tongue to give the situation quickly and easily.

References

Clement, R. Gardener, R. C and Smythe, P. C., 1977. Motivational variables in second language acquisition: A study of Franco phones learning English. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 6.

Doff, A., 2002. Teach English: A Training Course for Teachers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Kohli, A. L., 2000. Techniques of Teaching English in the New Millennium. Dhanpat Rai Publishing Company, New Delhi.

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2 . The Assimilationist View of English in Globalization

Globalization is an internationalized integration. It is a process of viewing space and time compressively, and re-conceptualizing the world by interpreting the variety of cultures. It is based on the communication, information and innovation to organize our work, product, skills, services and human relations. Greater and faster flow of information between countries and cultural interaction has helped to overcome the cultural barriers. All this is knowledge intensive, and so it increases the demand for quality education. It is the global identity that the individuals have to achieve through the global knowledge with localized notions of identity. In this context, English has become a sought after medium of instruction for non-English learners.

For that, the higher education of multicultural approach could bring in an assimilationist view of language, history and culture to opt for globalization and to be the part of the world culture and globalism. And therefore, it is imperative for a teacher of English to be proactive and develop an interdisciplinary approach to teaching. The need is to know the soil and prepare it adequately for what it requires to become capable of serving the goals effectively.

2.1. Demands of Globalization

By pragmatic competence, we mean an ability of interpreting the utterances in the given contexts with the underlying presuppositions, deixis, turn-taking, Grice’s co-operative principle, and politeness principle etc. It also implies that one should know the difference between speech and writing; one should know the rules of turn-taking; one should know socio-cultural patterns of appropriateness and acceptability, or the formal and informal communication. Pragmatic competence relies upon the functional features of language rather than the use of language as in communicative competence. Examples:

1. It’s twelve. ( It’s time)
2. I’m twelve. (It’s age)
3. Twelve (It’s number)

It is a challenge of developing pragmatic competence to the teacher of English language, because it is not teachable. Learners have to learn it by themselves. However, teachers can teach some pragmatic features of language which may help developing the learners’ pragmatic competence. For that, the English teachers have to plan strategically to suffice the incumbent challenges.

2.2. Pragmatic Competence and Assimilationist View of Language

Since pragmatic competence is observed in adapting to or adjusting with the contextual elements, the assimilationist view of language also contributes to incorporate the language user’s environment. Such circumstantial assimilation is the pragmatic perfection that leads to the communication prominence. This assimilation is to be experienced in terms of phonological, semantic and literary level. This is the conformity that we need to create and maintain our linguistic identity in the process of globalization. It is an attempt to join the mainstream of globalization, or multiculturalism at the world level. In India, besides the linguistic identity at various parts, we have to realize our social roles to promote ‘unity in diversity.’ It can reinforce the pre-existing cultural interconnectedness to achieve a meaningful balance between synchronic traditions and diversified culture. 

2.3. Strategies to Accomplish the Demand of Globalization

To face the challenges of globalization, learners of English have to develop their pragmatic competence. The English teachers have to follow the approaches which are practised for developing linguistic, communicative and strategic competence to achieve pragmatic competence. For that Dr. Saraswathi propounded six Es to bring about the expected results. They are Expose, Elicit, Experience, Explain, Evaluate, and Entertain.

• Expose learners to authentic language date from real life
• Elicit pragmatic rules through sufficient inputs
• Experience via role play or simulation
• Explain errors with justifications
• Evaluate the learners’ performance as feedback
• Entertain the learners through literature as a source of examples

2.4. Adequate Exposure

Learners are to be exposed to authentic language date from real life. They need to have knowledge intense information through English. So while designing curricula there is a need of taking stock of resources and analyzing the needs to decide the requirements. Similarly, in the teaching plan, the inclusion of adequate inputs from different fields of knowledge can develop pragmatic competence. In this context, Sastri’s research at CIEFL contributed a lot by providing two solutions or ways to overcome the problems of ELT [English Language Teaching] in India:

1. One is the ‘bilingual teaching method’ based on contrastive analyses of Indian languages at the phonological and syntactic level, and
2. The other is by considering the intelligibility of Indian English to define Standard Indian English.

Due to this view, it is possible to retain national identity in terms of accent plus the skills required for transactional communication. For that we have to change the curriculum to make it responsive to the tasks in hand in the marketplace. For instance, Business English, English in Computer science, technical English for Engineering, Architecture, Medical, Agriculture and so on. To introduce learners to pragmatic aspects of communication, the following strategies could help:

• some live speeches- formal and informal conversations: 
• Exposure of business and technical English:- The possible and practicable fields of business and scientific advancements need to be included in the study materials since the learners could get
•  BPO English i.e. the American English which is distinct at phonological, lexical and syntactic level
• Advanced vocabulary in use: It may include the vocabulary expressing feelings, ideas, attitudes, relationships, faiths, honours, occupations, roles and responsibilities.

2.5. Elicitation of Pragmatic Rules through Sufficient Inputs

Proper and adequate exposure may be sufficient exercise to elicit pragmatic rules. Pragmatic rules are always based on the socio-cultural and environmental elements. But in the globalization process, delimiting to any social or national context would be of no use. Therefore, by reconceptualising and redefining our social and cultural life, the globalized contexts should be created in the classroom to arrive at the underlying pragmatic rules. For instance, Use of articles or especially ‘the’ has the anaphoric, cataphoric, and exophoric references that depend upon the shared knowledge by the speaker and the listener. Examples:

• I visited to an exhibition.
• The exhibition was arranged by IT groups (Anaphoric).
• The IT group is always ahead in holding such exhibitions (Cataphoric).
• The Infotech IT group is one of them (Exophoric).

In the practice stage, learners commit mistakes and such mistakes make teaching-learning process more effective. Teachers can identify and explain which and why they are mistakes and learners can be reinforced to develop pragmatic competence. Here, communications in the universal contexts are to be considered. For ex- ‘Static’ verbs do not have progressive aspects; but we resort to the pragmatic rules to explain how it is acceptable in its progressive use. Examples:

• I always try to be better. (Indefinite time is indicated)
• I am trying to be better. (Since the act of doing something better is going on in the given context.)
• I am understanding that he is against our view. (A process of understanding)

2.6. Experience via Interesting Activities

Learners should be asked to play roles for specific contexts by using some model conversations, narrations and descriptions, or comments and reactions. In the later stage of practice, they should create their own creative conversations to have a lot of meaningful practices. For instance, let the learners play the role of a manager, a sales representative, a leader, a dealer, etc. Even the conversational practices related to the everyday life situations can provide experience of using language.

An interesting teaching learning is possible only when learners are kept in familiar, favourable and funny situations. For that teachers of English can provide interesting contexts available in real life or in the native literature.For instance, ‘The Financial Expert’ by R. K. Narayan as an ironic vision of economic world, the anecdotes from the business world, or the science fictions are really entertaining sources of making learning a sportive activity.

2.7. Evaluate the Learners’ Performance as Feedback

A feedback to build confidence in learners teachers have to evaluate learning by adopting the counselling strategy and not give judgement. To remove the local or mother tongue influence and adapt to the globalized aspects of English could be the major thrust of counselling and evaluating the performance. For instance, one is to be made aware of English which is pragmatically suitable to the situation and the speech community. In such context, the pidginization and creolization are the most considerable processes of language variations observable in the learner’s performance. Basically, expecting the nativized English couldn’t do; but the assimilationist view of English in terms of pronunciation, structures and meanings is needed.

Thus, pragmatic competence is a handy solution to do away the problems of using and interpreting English used at the global level. It could be the better weapon to fight a battle for seeking jobs or getting benefits of globalization. This is an era of internationalization of pedagogical strategies and we have to be part of it.

References

Crystal, D., 1995. The English Language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Yule, G., 1985. The Study of Language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Levinson, 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Leech, G., 1975. Principles of Pragmatics. Longman, London.

McKinsey, 2005. An International Consultancy: A Report. ‘Business Week’, Dec. 2005.

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3 . Challenges before Indian Education System

India’s higher education system is the third largest in the world, after China and the United States. The University Grants Commission (India), which enforces its standards, advises the government, and helps coordinate between the centre and the state.  Accreditation for higher learning is overseen by 12 autonomous institutions established by the University Grants Commission such as NAAC. The National Informatics Centre, (NIC) Government of India observed on 1^st Sept. 2010.

India has 20 central universities, 215 state universities, 100 deemed universities, 5 institutions established and functioning under the State Act, and 13 institutes which are of national importance. Other institutions include 16000 colleges, including 1800 exclusive women’s colleges, functioning under these universities and institutions. The emphasis in the tertiary level of education lies on science and technology. Indian educational institutions by 2004 consisted of a large number of technology institutes. Distance learning is also a feature of the Indian higher education system. Some institutions of India, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Jawaharlal Nehru University have been globally acclaimed for their standard of education. The IITs enroll about 8000 students annually and the alumni have contributed to both the growth of the private sector and the public sectors of India. However, India has failed to produce world class universities like Harvard or Cambridge.

Once we come to know the requirements of the time, it becomes rather easier to point out the strengths and weaknesses of the present system and search for the effective measures to nullify the challenges we may face. At the core of our life system, education system occupies the prime importance to be discussed. In this regard, the World Conference of October 1998 played a very vital role in defining the 21^st century situation, the expected progress, and the challenges of higher education. Since no nation can progress economically, socially, culturally, or politically, there is a dire need of intellectual independence, educated and trained citizens, and priority based education policy. Spread and quality of education have been the demand of the present knowledge linked society. At this revolution stage, India has many opportunities to acquire as well as challenges to face up while planning and implementing education system. We can’t forget the impact of globalization and the ICT on the higher education in India.

3.1. The Impact of Globalization

Globalization or liberalization has curtailed the role of the government. According to GATS, education is one of the 12 sectors that classified to liberalize trade in services. For India, education has always remained as a social infrastructure to be built by the government as a public service. Education is an instrument to give better meaning to the democracy and good life to individuals through gainful employment. The higher education in India has become an economic infrastructure and Indian graduates as a force to bring fame to the country. The pro-active growth in Indian economy has made it affordable to millions of families to spend good money on higher education.

3.2. The Problems of Indian Education System

The problems of Indian education system are of access, equity, number, relevance, quality, and resource utilization as stated in the UGC vision and strategy for the X^th Plan. Consecutively in the XI^th Plan, an emphasis is laid on expansion, excellence and inclusion. Therefore, enlisting the challenges before Indian education system is nothing else but viewing the demands of the present day situations.

3.2.1  Improving Access

The recognition of Indian graduates at global level has given rise to enhancement of expectation of masses internally. The students from every corner of the country are craving for quality higher education in modern fields to be a part of new revolution and identity. Broadening access to higher education is ongoing process and is helpful to overcome the endemic problems. Widening access is also a problem as only 7 per cent of the aged between 18 and 23 enter the tertiary level education.

India has made a huge progress in terms of increasing primary education, attendance rate and expanding literacy to approximately two thirds of the population. India’s improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to the economic rise of India. Much of the progress in education has been credited to various private institutions. The private education market in India is estimated to be worth $40 billion in 2008 and will increase to $68 billion by 2012.

However, India continues to face stern challenges. Despite growing investment in education, 35% of its population is still illiterate; only 15% of Indian students reach high school, and just 7% graduate. As of 2008, India’s post-secondary high schools offer only enough seats for 7% of India’s college-age population, 25% of teaching positions nationwide are vacant, and 57% of college professors lack either a master’s or Ph. D degree.

As of 2007, there are 1522 degree-granting Engineering colleges in India with an annual student intake of 582,000, plus 1,244 Polytechnics with an annual intake of 265,000. However, these institutions face shortage of faculty and concerns have been raised over the quality of education.

3.2.2  Improving Quality

We say everything in America; even education is commercialized in the United States. So has it become in India. There is a high amount of tuition fees that goes into these institutions. But there is a lack of quality education in India. We see an increasing number of Indian’s migrating to the Europe, US and Australia for higher education primarily because of the quality of education available and the range of courses these universities offer. These foreign universities have restructured their courses according to the needs of the industry and they stay abreast with the latest in technology and business.

We Indians require many more research led universities. There should be adequate funds placed at the right hands. People in India should be encouraged more into research. We have poor quality of graduates and so lack of skills for employability. Only 10% of graduates are directly employable. Only 25% of engineering graduates are directly employable (Infosys, an IT giant, last year sorted through 1.3 million applicants only to find that around two per cent were qualified for jobs.)  Quality of education delivered in most institutions is very poor. While India has some institutions of global repute delivering quality education, such as (Indian Institute of Management) IIMs and (Indian Institute of Technology) IITs, we do not have enough of them.

There is a very narrow range of course options that are offered while admitting the students. Education is a seller’s market in which there is a lack of competition and incentive to provide quality education. We find that there is a lack of attractiveness in teaching as a profession and a lack of educated educators. Research has been produced very low. In fact, at many institutions fresh graduates are employed to teach, leading to poor quality of classroom instruction. No sufficient training is available in the industry and no industry is in position to invest a lot of resources in training new hires and to set up requisite training infrastructure. Most of the education institutions especially in Maharashtra and states in South India are owned by politicians. Education system which is highly regulated by the government has been set up to benefit politicians.

3.2.3 Increasing Infrastructural and Academic Facilities

The University Grants holds a large measure of responsibility for negotiating this excellence and equity dilemma. It provides grants to universities and colleges as well as maintains and tries to raise academic standards in higher education. Unfortunately, the proportion of government budget allocated to higher education has gradually reduced. This poses a problem.  This shrinking budgetary allocation for higher education policy has been a major challenge to the Indian universities while competing with the foreign universities. The privatization of higher education has also created a new problem of managing the institutions of higher education to raise the teaching learning standards under the supervision of the illiterate managements that finance them.

The authority and autonomy of the University Grants Commission was damaged with regard to teachers’ salaries, promotion and working conditions. Due to commercialization of higher education the UGC has reduced the state funding. Recent strategy of the expansion of tertiary level education has increased the problem of infrastructural facilities. The number of colleges and universities across the country has risen.

3.2.4 In Quest of Relevance

In 1986 Rajiv Gandhi announced a new education policy to prepare India for the 21^st century. He emphasized the need for change to meet the needs of the situation. The prioritization of science and mathematics had been effective. It is necessary to double capacity – not just in terms of seat count but “quality” seats count. We have to deregulate education in India. Industry and Academia connect necessary to ensure curriculum and skills in line with requirements. Skill building is really very crucial to ensure employability. Academia to understand and make sure: knowledge + skills + global professional skills = good jobs. Industry and students are expecting specialized courses to be offered so that they get the latest and best in education. They are also industry ready and employable. Some industry-academic connection programs are not working out as expected. Most of them give dummy projects and so are avoided while on board. Vocational and Diploma courses need to be made more attractive to facilitate specialized programs being offered to students.

In the whole process the student gets lost. He loses his individuality. The student comes to college with a goal of doing something and by the time he leaves his college, his only intention is to get a job. The job is nowhere in an area what he wants to do. There is no room for choice to the student. He has to take what he gets. All this is due to failure of the institution to hone skills of the student in his area of interest. There are not enough options available to students to do what they can do best. Even if available in the university, these jobs are not available in the industry.

3.2.5  Inclusion

India has birth rate of 25 million per year and 1/3^rd of students are going to college in developed countries. If India were to meet the same standard, it will need 8-9 million graduate seats in college and it has only 4.5 million today.  The regulatory framework is antiquated; it is “not for profit” but as requirement to set up educational institutions. All this is the major obstacle in attracting serious players and investments. There is huge obsession with capacity creation, but an emphasis should be much more on quality. It is the question that how we can create quality capacity. Parents only treat engineering, medicine as only choices for graduation. They are unable to appreciate attractiveness of new specialized industry oriented programs that are launched in the country. India has a very large number of talented students, but many of these feel dejected for not making it to IITs and IIMs due to lack of capacity – they end up going abroad for education.

3.2.6  Privatization of Higher Education

Privatization of higher education, however, is not without social costs. In a polity such as India’s, where structured inequalities have been deep-rooted, privatization is sure to reinforce existing inequalities and to foster in egalitarian tendencies. This requires the social supervision of the private sector and effective measures for offsetting imbalances resulting from unequal economic capacities of the population. Thus, we again confront a dilemma: theoretically, it is a question that how we can advance equality without sacrificing quality. Practically, we cannot control the private sector without curbing its creativity and initiative. That is the challenge in higher education at the beginning of the new millennium.

3.3. Recommendations

1. The bureaucracy in India needs to show more attention to higher education in India to prosper as knowledge based economy.

2.  Indians are considered to be the best minds in the world and this is attributed mainly to the rigorous school education. I think Indians, if directed in the right path by the higher education centres in India can bring in more quality innovations which we currently lack.

3. India can control the private sector without curbing its creativity and initiative by the government policy of equality and supervision. Remove the “Not for profit” requirement to facilitate the investment from private sector.

4. To appreciate and increase attractiveness of new specialized industry oriented programs may solve the problem of inclusion of more graduates in a variety of ventures. Industry needs to get involved to support institutions.

5. Industry and students are expecting specialized courses to be offered so that they get the latest and best in education. Sufficient training is to be made available in the industry.

6. India requires many more research led universities. There should be adequate funds placed at the right hands.

References

India, 2009: A Reference Annual (53^rd edition). New Delhi: Additional Director General (ADG), Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.

Blackwell, F., 2004. India: A Global Studies Handbook. United States of America: ABC-CLIO, Inc.

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4 . Developing Pragmatic Competence

Communication includes a variety of ways of communication. Language is one of the ways, or a medium of communication. Linguistic discourse is a social behaviour. Everyone has an ability of using at least one language which is a mother-tongue. This ability of acquiring language develops and expands continuously to learn more new language(s) not only in terms of the linguistic rules, but the reference to the social context too. Here a learner learns to use a language in social situations in an appropriate manner. A verbal activity requires ‘linguistic competence’ that is, in Chomsky’s sense, a language user’s abstract cognitive ability. A semantic interpretation of sentence is in order relating to truth conditions. Dell Hymes’ sociolinguistic view on learning language makes it clear that only knowledge of the system of the structure of the language is not learning a language, but the system of its use too. He points out, “rules of speech act enter as a controlling factor for linguistic form as a whole and ‘there are rules of use without which the rules of grammar are useless.” In short, in language acquisition, not only the formal rules, but the contextual rules are also learnt by a learner to have the ‘communicative competence.’ It means in language learning social context is an important factor. It is said that speech is an art; and an art is a creative process of performing like others or identical as well as something different or individualized. All these aspects of communication could be engrossed in ‘pragmatic competence.’ A second language acquisition (SLA) is to develop the pragmatic competence of a learner.

4.1. Communicative Competence: Definition

Communicative competence is knowledge needed by a speaker or hearer, but something more than Chomsky’s notion of ‘linguistic competence’. That is the knowledge of using linguistic forms appropriately in the given social context. When a learner is able to utter speech acts, participate in speech events and is recognized in a society, one is to be believed as a competent user of a language. Such all absorbing form of communicative competence is called ‘Sociolinguistic Pragmatic Ability.’ So we can define ‘pragmatics as the study of the relations between language and context that are grammaticalized, or encoded in the structure of language.

It is also defined as the study of the relations between language and context that are basic to an account of language understanding; and it is the study of the ability of language users to pair sentences with the contexts in which they would be appropriate. Thus, all the aspects like ‘the structure of language,’ ‘an understanding of language in context ’and ‘appropriateness of sentences in context’ are the aspects of ‘pragmatic competence.’  It is the joint venture of linguists and sociolinguists. The focus of the present chapter is to attract an attention to the ways and measures for developing this pragmatic competence of the learners of English as a second language in India.

‘Grammatical Competence’ and ‘Pragmatic Competence’ are included in the ‘Communicative Competence.’ ‘The Context of Situation’ as F.R. Firth (-) defines, evolves with the elements like the interactants, the code, spatio-temporality, and circumstances; and the use of language in the context of situation is related to achieve certain ends or purposes. Dell Hymes stated that ‘communicative competence’ is related to the four features as:

1. Linguistically and non-linguistically possible

Verbal elements (sentences, clauses and phrases), Non-verbal elements (paralinguistic, kinesics, proxemics), and elements of discourse and their organization

2. Psycholinguistically/Implementationally feasible

Perception or acquisition of knowledge, understanding and achievement of desired goals or results

3. Sociolinguistically appropriate

Social organizations and variations of language, social structure and values and attitudes, etc.

4. Communicative strategies

Knowledge and ability of actual using language: Norms of interaction and interpretation, the mechanism of discourse.

The concept of communicative competence is psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic- pragmatic competence. It is the area that could be studied by applying the ‘Applied Linguistic’ approach. Pragmatics has brought in the various principles or theories like ‘Speech Acts,’ Grice’s (-) ‘Co-operative Principle,’ and Lakoff’s (-) ‘Politeness Principle,’ to analyse the process of meaning with the aegis of psycholinguists. The Computational approach helps to study the relationships between ‘competence’ and ‘performance.’ The behaviourists’ theory of learning- (through) imitation, conditioning and reinforcing’ was refuted by Chomsky’s (-) cognitive formulations, and Developmental Psycholinguists like Piaget have debated that child’s knowledge is not inborn; however, an active mind is constructed through interaction the internal inborn modes of processing and the external physical objects and events. This is a process of representing the various actions upon the environment. Thus, there is shift from the rule-governed activity to constant generating process of creativity.

4.2. Applied Linguistic Approach

The applied linguistics is the study of language and linguistics in relation to the practical aspects of SLA. It has to bring in ‘sociolinguistics’ and ‘psycholinguistics’ to consider the social conditions of language use and principles of language acquisition and production processes. This is the process of the fusion of language and thought, the matching of linguistic competence and communicative competence. The literary and stylistic studies of language are expected in the educational linguistics. Thus, all these applied linguistics are involved in this joint venture of teaching of language; that is called the ‘pragmatic’ approach.

Psycholinguistics is a study of the relationship between language and human mind by offering new insights into the nature of human mind; and sociolinguistics is a study of language in relation to society. Since Darwin to Chomsky, the psychologists have accepted more or less that any child can learn to speak any language through the innate impulse if supported by the environment. This means language learning ability can be developed by constant reinforcement from the social circumstances. Thus, both the branches of applied linguistics correlate each other and interrelated to each other all times.

4.3. Psycholinguistics and Development of Communicative Competence

Psycholinguistics comprises in a study of ‘language acquisition,’ ‘language comprehension,’ and ‘language production.’ A child learns a language by internalizing a system of native language in 6 years, increases memory, and then develops an intuitive knowledge of rules to generate the never used or heard sentences. This is a learning process that progressively develops by being in society and experimenting on forms and styles. A Noam Chomskyan formulation in Transformational Generative (TG) grammar has been experimental psycholinguistics as a contribution to cognitive psychology that focuses the on discourse analysis and interpretation of meaning, or process of meaning.

Psycholinguistics also gets interested in the process of language production. The relations between the ‘cognitive structures and language form’ are also studied by observing the semantic structures related to the language structures. A speaker’s intentions and the language devices are the elements used to mark the characteristics of communicative discourse or texts. The psycho-socio-cultural aspects and the selection of ‘lexical,’ ‘phrasal’ and ‘phonological’ elements are the necessary factors in planning and production of discourse or use of language. Examples:

1. Lexical Selection

On the basis of the conceptual, syntactic and phonological factors, a speaker makes choice of words, since a problem occurs to retrieve or ‘recall known words’ (the tip-of-the-tongue) and of using ‘word-substitution’.

2. Phrasal Selection

Vocabulary is being processed by using phrasal structures in speech.

3. Phonological Selection

An analysis of words at the phonemes, syllables, and accentual patterns has the phonological manifestations to lexical and phrasal elements for meaningful forms.

4.4. Psycholinguistics and Second Language Learning

A learner of SL has to face the problem of viewing language acquisition differently. As a habit formation, Learning of Second Language (SL) involves creative construction of a grammar that is to find out something parallel in a SL like a mother tongue. The age of acquisition, the nature of exposure to the second language, and the knowledge of other languages are very considerations. In it, the motivation of the learner SL is very important; and the errors in a second Language learning are to be studied by psychological principles in varying situations. The following factors play very important role in learning of SL:

1. The influences of the first language on the SLA [Second Language Acquisition]: a set of linguistic habits of FL [First Language] interfere with a secondary set of habits. Here the Contrastive Analysis hypothesis is helpful to trace the errors and remove them through the remedial teaching.
2. The continuity of creative process of language acquisition becomes learning: A conscious process in which learning results in knowing about language. The reason is that SLA differs in success at acquiring various levels of language structures such as: phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, etc.
3. The Universal Grammar (UG) or principles provides for a language faculty that is determined biologically to explain how acquisition takes place. Chomsky’s TG grammar indicates that all languages have a kind of organization; or as Flynn pointed out that the second language learners have access to principles of UG having a module that governs the first language acquisition.       

The empirical studies help us to understand the true similarities and dissimilarities between FLA [First Language Acquisition] and SLA [Second Language Acquisition]. Therefore, we come to know why learning English in India is difficult. Psychology can certainly help in knowing more about the cognitive process of FL and SL acquisition.

Psychologists are involved in solving problems in an activity of language production. The probable problems are about finding the linguistic devices to communicate the intended meaning or message in communicative process in a given social contexts. For that a speaker has to think of the listener’s knowledge (background or presuppositions), the social context (relationships, age, status, education or milieu), the maxims of cooperative principle as Grice expected in a conversation (informative, true, relevant, and brief), available linguistic expressions or richness of language and some management techniques in any communication mechanism (turn-taking, adjacency pairs, etc.).

4.5. Sociolinguistics and Components of Communication

Communicative competence is the important notion in sociolinguistics. Sociologists have been engaged in studying the varieties of language according to the use and the user such as ‘dialect’, ‘sociolect,’ ‘register,’ ‘pidgin’ and ‘Creole’, ‘code-switching’, etc. All these aspects of use of language are related to the socio-cultural background. In this study, the Phonological, Syntactic, Semantic and Pragmatic characteristics are pointed out to make the learners acquire them for communicative competence.

1. Language Variation

If we consider the position of Indian English, several problems surface in sociolinguistics. As a non-native variety of English, we come across the issues like-‘limited contact with native users of English,’ ‘use of English in specific domains for specific purposes,’ ‘less attention to spoken English’ and ‘more influence of written form in the learning,’ and ‘more formal style,’ ‘more literariness’ rather than ‘natural,’ etc.

2. Pidginization and Creolization

Indian English is also available in the processes of pidginization and creolization, since English is used in limited situations for as a link language. Example: The Butler English. There are some situations in which English has the religious, public speaking, educational functions; and such varieties are called ‘diglossia’.

3.‘Bilingualism’ or ‘Biculturalism’ and ‘Enculturation’

These are the processes in which two languages are in contact, and their contact is at the linguistic and culture level too; so they are called ‘acculturation’or ‘biculturation’ processes. Language is ‘culture-preserving’ as well as ‘culture-transmitting.’ In other words, a change in culture is a change in language. We find the notion of ‘ethnocentricity’- the superiority of the native culture in the use of language.

4. Language Maintenance

The impact of English on the mother tongue is the convergence of the secondary language on the primary language. This way of convergence is observed in terms of-

5. Code-Switching/Mixing

The alternate use of two languages- i.e. the mother tongue and English

6. Interference

Impact or pull of the mother tongue in English learning

7. Integration

The diffusion of two languages, i.e. English and any other native language

4.6. Sociolinguistics and Pragmatic Competence

Besides the knowledge of the forms of language, one should know the socio-cultural aspects of the contexts where a language is used.

1. A speaker should know the ‘culture’ of the people such as in our speech community. By ‘culture’ we mean the ‘attitudes’, ‘values’, ‘conventions’, ‘prejudices’ and ‘preferences’ of the people who are going to use it. English as a SL can be used appropriately only when we know the functions of it in a given cultural context.
2. One has to consider the ‘social relationships’ determined by the factors like age, education, occupation, sex, socio-politico-economic position, etc.
3. One should know the all formalities or informalities of behaviour for contextualizing English.
4. One has to be conscious of the nature and function of speech event / occasion that is whether it is ‘face-to-face conversation’ or ‘written’ and drafted messages, ‘casual’ or ‘formal’ communication, etc.

Use of a language in a social context is a skilled work, because the users of a language should learn from others how they use and accept a language; how others cooperate in social interaction; and which strategies they use to establish and maintain relationships. There are several skills or tactics such as ‘Maxims of Co-operation,’ ‘Tactics of Politeness’, one has to learn for using language appropriately. For that sociolinguistics may provide very much information that is related to communicative competence.

4.7. The Communicative Approach

Communicative approach is very meaningful since it enhances the communicative abilities of the learners in a playful way. It is an approach that is based on the theory of language acquisition. Here psychologists inform us how a short memory could be made permanent through proper motivation for learning. Communicative activities for teaching English in the classroom situations are really useful to stimulate the learners transferring the learning from a short memory to the long memory storage. This approach encourages the learners to participate in the creative, task-based. The activities are like-

1. Role-play

To bring situations from real life and students have to imagine and assume roles; they pretend to be someone in real life and language is used to play the roles appropriately, e.g.a shopkeeper-customer, a bank officer-clients, or roles of friends, sister, brother, parents, police officer-accused or thief, etc.

2. Dramatization

Students participate in the activities given to them; dialogues are provided to create the situation by playing the roles appropriately.

3. Simulation

It is a combination of group discussion, dramatization and role play. It means students are made to participate in the activities to create the situations and play the roles by taking decisions to solve problems or pave way through.

4. Group discussion

Students’ communicative competence could be reality through the learning activities like group discussions, e.g. dividing a class into groups to interact on the things appears in the scenes, imagine the situations, read pictures, the given topic and come out with certain observations and results.

They are realistic, familiar, and contemporary in nature; so that the learners of English have the contemporary learning situations that bring in the native culture into the communicative activities. The teacher has to play the role of a ‘facilitator’, a ‘referee’, or a ‘monitor’, etc.

As a reaction against the traditional grammar-translation, or the audio-visual methods, the educationists, and the linguists have introduced this approach and focused the practical purposes. The students are expected to be engaged in real communication with each other; the teachers of English have to attempt to avoid the translations or the use of mother tongue. Use of real-life situations is communicative teaching. The real life simulation change from time to time and the learners become desirous to communicate meaningfully. In short, communicative teaching is an interactive teaching; it focuses on the functional aspects of language rather than mere repetition or drill in the audio-visual methods.

1. Applied Pragmatics makes us aware of the ‘practical language ability’ as the aim of teaching and also of the advanced techniques in it.
2. Applied Pragmatics helps us in ‘vocabulary selection’ and ‘preparing the teaching materials’. The use of computer techniques for the preparation of specialized vocabulary in a variety of registers of language. Socio-linguistics plays its role in it. The process of limitation is to be undertaken while selecting the teachable and appropriate vocabulary or language. At this stage, culture plays very important role as a teacher should know the sense of humour, values and practices, or behavioural norms including the use of language.
3. After the selection of teaching words or items has been made, it remains to decide which items are to be taught before which others i.e. the ‘gradation or sequencing’. Gradation or sequencing is a stage which is related to the purpose of teaching or learning. All four skills of language are not to be taught in the courses where one of the forms is to learn such as the spoken form requires speech and listen, and the written form reading and writing. The formal or grammatical items are to be selected and taught in the same sequence, by applying the criterion of frequency.
4. Applied Pragmatics can provide the teaching methodology and classroom techniques; it is so because linguistics describes how a language works and the teacher, who knows linguistics, can understand the linguistic categories-phonology, graphology, lexis, grammar (syntax), context, etc. Even the syllabus maker can be aware of all the levels of language to be covered. The teacher should maintain style of teaching which is very crucial for teaching of English in India. Lesson should be properly framed with the stages like- ‘warm up,’ ‘presentation,’ ‘exercises,’ ‘application,’ and ‘feedback’.
5. Applied Pragmatics equips a teacher of language with the testing devices which help him/her to gauge how much learning has taken place. Not only to have feedback mechanism for monitoring the effectiveness of learning, but also to measure the educational progress, this organization of testing works. All formal and informal testing, subjective and objective testing, and tests as examinations need special attention and techniques. Different categories of tests are used to measure learning; they are ‒ tests of ability, of attainment, and of progress. These categories from linguistics are related to the teaching procedures. To tune up testing with teaching, applied linguists have to evolve integrated tests that test the learner’s ‘Communicative Competence.’ For instance, the questions on conversion of one form of writing into another, e.g. dialogue into narrative text, or a story into a conversation, poetry into a summary, etc.

4.8. Conclusion

            It is clear that communicative approach or interactive methodology is an effective tool for enhancing communicative competence. In this approach, the teacher becomes rather creative or resourceful since the students have their own involvement in the learning activities. Not only the teacher, but the learner is also responsible to participate in the communicative or creative activities to develop the linguistic competence, sociolinguistic-pragmatic competence and communicative strategies. With self-confidence, the learners are interested in using the second language in the given familiar situation as if it is a day-to-day communication.

References

Brumfit, C. J. and Johnson, K., 1979. The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching. Oxford University Press.

Hudson, R. A., 2003. Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics: Sociolinguistics. 2^nd ed. Cambridge University Press.

Kudchedkar, S. (ed)., 2002. Readings in English Language Teaching in India. Orient Longman Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore.

Lakoff, R., 1977. What you can do with words: Politeness, pragmatics and performatives. Proceedings of the Texas Conference on Performatives, Presuppositions, and Implicatures, ed. by Rogers, A., Wall, B., and Murphy, J., 79-105. Arlington.

Littlewood, W. T., 1983. Communicative Approach to Language Teaching Methodology. Dublin University, Trinity College, Centre for Language and Communication Studies (EDRS No. ED 235690, 23 pages).

Livingston, S., 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press.

Lyons, J., 1977. Semantics. 2 volumes. Cambridge University Press.

Krishnaswamy, N. and Verma, S. K., 1992. Modern Applied Linguistics. Macmillan India Limited.

Saraswati, V., 2004. English Language Teaching: Principles and Practices. Orient Longman, Chennai.

Strevens, P., 1977. New Orientations in the Teaching of English. Oxford University Press.

Widdowson, H. G., 1979. Directions in the Teaching of Discourse. in Brumfit and Johnson.

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5 . Enhancing Cognitive and Communicative Development in Learners

For many years, the issue of teachers’ training and devising teaching strategies has been the most considerable subject in the field of education. Due to changing situations and a variety of learners, the present instruction or the methodology appears to be mediocre or less satisfying. The problems at the different levels of the education system loom to be very dangerous and harmful to the upcoming learners since they expect something useful in developing their linguistic competence for the communication purpose. For the time being, as an immediate solution, the untrained or beginning language teachers need to observe demonstration classes conducted by the master teachers and imitate techniques to standardize procedures for the practical advantage. English teachers should be aware of that language study leads to cultural understanding and personal view of peoples.

For global understanding and communication, every one requires experience in verbal communication that is ‘Communicative Competence’. Merely linguistic competence and factual information would not do in understanding other peoples. There is a need for the experience of learning to ask, to respond or react in the language to participate in different socio-cultural situations. In short, one should have a working knowledge of a language of people with whom one has to do with their thought processes and cultural medium. A language teacher has to think and consider that certain cultural insights can be obtained from the actually used language i.e. the cognitive and communicative development in learners. For that a language teachers has to define cultural objectives or the purpose of the instruction. Effective language teaching is observed in terms of the consideration of language in the behavioural patterns of people and as a means for the expression of experiences, attitudes and points of view. The skill of using language is the real understanding of people. Thus, the cognitive and communicative developments in learners are really the ways or strategies for entering the particular culture by going beyond the code function of language.

5.1. The Bases for Devising Teaching Strategies

For instance, English in India has been the dominant language of communication and so teaching of English has been devised on the bases of i) the objectives ii) the materials and methods of teaching and learning (i.e. the content and the experiences) iii) the learning activities-through audio-visual aids, role play, simulations, etc.

English is learned everywhere since it is found that knowledge of English is a passport for better career, advanced knowledge and communication with the entire world. English literature provides variety and rich experience. English has been the tool for education, administration, and for mass media purposes.

Keeping this in view, we cannot think only of knowing how to produce grammatically correct sentence, but of expecting a communicative competence by producing an appropriate, natural and socially acceptable utterances in all contexts of communication. In short, communicative competence includes linguistic competence, knowledge of the appropriateness of language use, socio-cultural and non-verbal ways of communication in certain situations. Considering these facts and future, teaching strategies can be devised to enhance the cognitive abilities and communication skills in learners of a language.

5.2. Teaching Strategies at the Level of Objectives

Language teachers have to rethink the objectives to reach at. There are some basic objectives of teaching such as listening, speaking, reading, writing and socio-cultural contexts. This comes under the curriculum planning. While thinking or rethinking the objectives, it is very challenging to think and decide how opportunities are utilized or created. Language learning is an exceedingly complicated process.

For the reasonable effect or learning, both teachers and students have to clear understanding of the objectives. These objectives are based or should be laid down by considering the common principles of learning experiences. For instance, the spoken language is understood by listening; speaking is possible by speaking; communication is by the practice in communicating in the social contexts; and understanding the nature of language and culture is possible through the direct natural experience with the language and its culture. For that, the teachers have to point out the distinction of language and culture for the learners to know and appreciate the target language. To develop the cognitive and communicative competence, the teachers have to include these objectives consciously into the teaching process.

Some quotable objectives are:

1. To help students take realistic view of language learning.
2. To help students see the importance of language learning in the world’s contexts.
3. To help students understand the value of better understanding the contribution of international organizations where English is the language of communication.
4. To help students cultivate their attitudes through factual knowledge of people, their cultures and the required communication skills to develop and prepare for better life.

In short, the factual knowledge of people and the life experience can be acquired through the first or native language; however, English provides abilities of understanding and communicating with the world people. And this second language is to be taught or learnt for increasing readiness for becoming/knowing other cultures, for having happiness and a new experience.

5.3. Teaching Strategies for Using Materials and Methods

To assure reasonable success and satisfaction of the objectives stated earlier, both teachers and students must have a clear understanding of the association between the objectives and the effective use of materials and methods of teaching and learning. To make students familiar with some unfamiliar experiences or thoughts, teachers have to involve students into the actual activates to experience the different culture. It is so because language acquisition and cultural understanding go hand-in-hand. A language is taught in a cultural context. For that the exercises are not to be given in abstract reasoning; but in life experiences. The primary of communication approach is to make the students adjust to life in the given situations.

Once the aims and objectives are clear to the learners, they can see the usefulness of learning. We know the communication skills are acquired by everyone in the culture. Every child learns the complex system of one’s native language its structure, gesture and intonation patterns; and this provides a basis for learning a second language. For that teachers have to plan and implement strategically by considering:

a)  Time-span for teaching-learning,

b)  Assessing and evaluating the students’ progress frequently,

c)  Receiving feed-back eventually and

d)  Reinforcing and rejuvenate the aptitude for continuous language learning as a continuum.

Merely covering the course of study and expecting to master a language during the scheduled time is not possible; there is a need to see the students’ progress by giving them all kinds of tests and evaluation exercises. The language skills- LSRW cannot merely be learnt by imitation, but by creating, generalizing and internalizing the language systems. For that language study should aim to provide insight into a distinctly human activity. A student must be able and interested to know usage patterns, regional and cultural dialects, functional varieties and appropriate choice of linguistic items. A teacher can serve a guide to keep the students in the right direction, and exploration of language that is to discover the mysteries of language as symbol and code can be continued by the students through reading, composition and literature.

5.4. Materials for (and methods of) Reading

Reading skills comprise the abilities of decoding printed letters into their associated sounds, their meanings, interpretation and realization of them. There are different methods available for teaching and learning each skill. In all of them, the teacher’s personality is more effective than the materials used. For the reading purposes, the books or materials that chosen and prescribed, should reflect the experiences of the students from their socio-cultural backgrounds; they should find their characters for better understanding. For instance, the stories, as lessons for our students should be on and about our native socio-cultural events such as festivals, celebrations, issues or problems from our contexts, etc. to know and understand themselves through the language used in those situations. Various content areas are to be selected to develop different skills; the students are to be exposed to many experiences to organize materials from various sources, to use reference materials, to interpret and find their application or relevance. There is no need for teaching words as new vocabulary or the semantic values as the power of language. The students can practice it independently; and the teachers can merely encourage wide reading in their areas of instruction by defining the difficulty level according to the interest and maturity of the students. The teachers have to know the texts, their contents and style for presentation, and some textual devices used to represent facts, evidences or concepts. This strategy helps the students achieve the goals they have set.

5.5. Composition: As a Teaching Strategy

Both oral and written compositions require the capacity to use words to deal with inner and outer experiences. For the students’ cognitive and communication development is needed. Through oral composition, they get practice of expressing ideas; they learn about their weaknesses if any, through reactions from their friends or peers. Through listening and reading they store ideas and prepare for their written composition.

Some researchers emphasize the role-play, dialogue and drama, improvisation as the most effective strategies of exploration of language i.e. the oral composition. Rhetoric plays a very important role in language use in oral as well written composition.

The teacher has to expose the students to the contexts where they should start thinking creatively to seek solutions to their questions. For the teachers have to convince, persuade, stimulate, entertain and help them discover and interpret their ideas about human experience. By questioning and stimulating, the teacher can make them aware of the choice of words and suitability of their ideas or thoughts. In short, the teacher as well as fellow students can help creating atmosphere just for learning the mysteries of language e.g. the composition on:

‘If I were the Chief Minister’ or

‘The importance of IT in our life’, or

‘Life without faith and hope’,

etc.

5.6. The Role of Literature in Language Teaching

Literature is the most authentic, most exciting, most involving and most engaging experience to the students for better understanding of themselves and the world around them. Literature has its roots in oral tradition, its growth in print culture and still prevailing in this age of technology. This literary experience is available through multi-channels-such as through the ears and the eyes, through movement and action, through books and magazines. This imaginative experience helps building real life experience or escaping from it as Dwight Burton (1970) stated.

Literature is used as the most relevant text for the reading purpose. The elements of the literary forms are the ways to reach at the themes of those texts. All these are the experiences that the students get to generate ideas, thoughts and insights into the human life conditions and become creative to respond life. In short, they become more communicative. Great writers’ works provide the literary experiences that develop the analytical thinking and the most engaging experience to restructure their inner-self.

In summary, devising teaching strategies to enhance cognitive and communicative development in learners is nothing else but approaching language teaching and learning as an awareness of ways of using language for better culture understanding. And the possible strategies are observed in terms of practices are views on reading, composition and literature including grammar as the tools for exploration of language. Thus, keeping the students engaged in their entertaining exploration through their experiences are the bases for devising these teaching strategies.

References

George, S., 2009. Teaching English as a Second Language. Commonwealth Publishers Pvt. Ltd.

Singh, S., 2008. Teacher’s Handbook of Practical English. Commonwealth Publishers Pvt. Ltd.

Sharma, K. and Tuteja T., 2005. Teaching of Modern Languages. Commonwealth Publishers Pvt. Ltd.

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6 . Exploitation of English in Globalization

The chapter aims at exploring how the processes of globalization and transnationalism impact the theorization of cultural identity in terms of the linguistic competence in both the native language and English language. Specifically, it is an examination of the ways in which globalization as a highly-uneven process that involves among other things such as the spread of global language, the transnational flow of national varieties of English, knowledge, images, and approaches with thereafter challenges. It is also an attempt of understanding identity via linguistic competence i.e. exploitation of English. I consider the diasporic theorization of cultural identity by applying the new dialectal approach in the postcolonial perspective.

6.1. A Process of Globalization

Globalization is to be described as one of the reasons of ‘Diaspora.’ It is an internationalized integration as well as a process of viewing space and time compressively. It is a view of re-conceptualizing the world by interpreting the variety of cultures. Globalization is in a universal postmodern space. Basically, globalization is the commoditization and marketing of all the ideas, products and skills in the world for the sake of worldwide utilization. For that it requires the base of communication, information and innovation to organize our work, product, skills, services and human relations. Greater and faster flow of information between countries and cultural interactions has helped to overcome the cultural barriers. Every nation through the exchange of various means has realized the numerous benefits of globalization in terms of extension of cordial relationships, investment in industrial-commercial sectors, tourism, culture, etc.

6.2. Globalization as a Cultural Adjustment

Our society consists of three layers; the upper layer and the lower layer are easily mutable or convertible; but the middle layer comparatively large portion of society is the bearer of our social, economic, religious and political ethics. Globalization relates to the upper layer or rich capitalists who are the minority and less associated to the cultural organizations now-a-days. Indian Diaspora, mostly the middle class, is dependent on the decisions or policies determined on the capitalists’ interests; so indirectly, become the target for the socio-cultural alterations and changes. Naturally, they suffer and get diverted to make an adjustment at their own cost. This adjustment or loss has been the experience or the base for mentality that appears to be the themes and subject-matters of the writers’ literary works. Therefore, the diasporic literature becomes a projection of life situations in which a search for meaning of life or self-identity is the central idea. Thus, globalization affects the Diaspora’s lives and literary works remain the products of its consequences.

6.3. Diaspora: A Cultural Incision

Diaspora is a word of Greek origin that means scattering or sowing of seeds. It is used to refer to people who leave their native lands to live in other parts of the world for employment, business or any other purpose. We know the importance of Indian Diaspora as it has brought economic, financial, and global benefits to India. The Indian Diaspora has been an important, and in some respects unique force in world culture.

There is a struggle for seeking a more holistic understanding of cultural identities across the categorical differences of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality in luminal spaces. It is therefore necessary to situate communication studies, specifically international and intercultural communication, within the present contexts. We can understand as a whole complexity of cross-cultural communicative expressions of identity. However, the World English can be a boon to stop almost all worries of the contemporary cultural dilemmas.

6.4. Diaspora and the Challenge of Identity Boundary

Diaspora refers to practices of border crossings; and after being dispersed, they remain transitionally linked with a real or symbolical homeland. Diasporas, as a product of transnationalism, are grounded in systems of inequality. The system of inequality brings to mind the specific suffering of forced displacement, usually resulting from specific and violent histories of economic, political, and cultural conflict. Diaspora studies are generally concerned with cultural dislocation, examining the effect of displacement in relation to a new constitution of cultural meanings. The processes of globalization include massive migrations and relocations. In this process, it is challenging to the traditional concept of nation-state. It is an opening up borders and boundaries. This transnational movement of goods, information, and bodies make us reconsider the effects of relocation, displacement, and the transition between cultures. We see these things affect the construction of identity. The issues of diaspora, dispersion, and displacement complicate the study of the concepts of culture and identity. It is necessary to reconstruct diasporic conjunctures in relation to identity and ethnicity.

It is important to consider the ‘bidialectalism’ in which the Indian English (that represents Indian culture as a nonstandard dialect) and Standard English can be treated as the two distinct entities. The national variety of English may be used at home and the English as a language of education i.e. for reading and writing. The national cultural identity can be maintained by switching from one language variety to another when the situation demands. This approach recognizes the appropriateness of nonstandard variety for the Diaspora in other alien lands. 

6.5. Indian Diaspora and the Native Culture

Along with the indigenous intellectuals, the Indian Diaspora, in the process of researching their culture, highly valued the traditions, customs, and looks of their own people in the globalization era. Culture in this sense is made to be the native intellectuals’ passive resistance to multiculturalism and ‘cultural imperialism’. However, culture is often in opposition to the natives if it is considered as trans-lucidity of custom. For example, native artists deny the influence of foreign culture on renaming our cultural traditions; but they  are unconscious about emerging national thoughts within the colonial culture that have radically changed the native people. The process of (re)searching culture and national consciousness is questionable and insufficient because the revival of history and tradition in the process of globalization doesn’t take into account the present national reality.

Globalization is the continuation of colonialism i.e. the westernization or modernization. While racial identity means self-representation, autonomous signification, and socio-cultural practice. In Globalization, people and societies are no longer restricted to geographical / physical location. The borders of countries and distinctions of cultures become blurred, open-ended, unstable, contested, and reconfigured. As a result, it is increasingly difficult to maintain the native language or cultural values in tact; though localities try to prevent a decline of local identity from national stand. All this compel the Indian Diaspora to start upheaval.

However, Globalization should be viewed as a process through which new communicative practices are enacted. The cultural imagination and hybrid identity are produced by the worldwide flow of resources. It is essential to understand the interplay of localism and globalism and the influences each has on the idea of national identity. Therefore, we have to consider the global in a local context. Partly resistance and partly acceptance of global ideology can lead to a more unified world culture. Globalization is a fully international system of cultural exchange through which the imperial power is strategically maintained and expanded.

6.6. Language as a Cultural Identity

Identity has become a crucial element in conflicts over ethnic, cultural, religious, and national differences. The world power and the distinctive model of national belonging are formed and accentuated. The growth of nationalism and other absolutist religious and ethnic identities, the accentuation of regional and local divisions, and the changing relationship between supranational and sub-national networks of economy, politics, and information have all endowed contemporary appeals to identity with extra significance. An essentialized identity is a way of objectifying collective meanings, inventing culture and traditions, because it always involves the claims of authenticity for many selective cultural symbols. Through the process of manipulating, creating, including, or excluding these elements, a particular version of cultural identity and culture is invented and maintained. The world English can be the representation of the multicultural and international cultural values since it is a product of the development of a world market and globalization at all levels.

6.7. The World English: A Global Language

English has been used as a language of trade since the invasion of the British rulers in India. If we dream of a global community, we should share the universal experience; this experience is possible if we know others’ cultures; these cultures are made available through their native literature; it is easier and plausible to get the information of all world cultures if we know English than trying for the hundreds of languages. Therefore, it has become a responsibility for all creative writers to write in native languages as well as to translate or let them convert into the major means of communication-English and visual devices like films or picturized documents. No person who wants to be a part of global culture should be left away from these facilities of using English or participating in the global activities of presenting our identity to make a place for our own issues, necessities and roles. In this way, we must try to understand ourselves by interpreting us with the universal parameters. For instance, Pandit Nehru’s idea of creating new India was by connecting the past with the present and discovering our values and conclusions.

6.8. English as a Means of Diffusion of our Culture

The importance of English has not been reduced in our efforts of sustaining the native languages and socio-cultural morals. The use of English and preservation of native cultural values are the possible controversies. For that, the Indianized English or globalization of languages and literature is the most effective solution to survive in this globalization. Whatever of our heritage and culture inculcated in our society and literature is known and keen to us; it appeals and inspires to us; but to publicize it globally, it must be altered in its external attire and make-up e.g. the Indian Writing in English.

And then, aliens can learn about cultural heritage and mental set-up if it is translated or written in English. Such writing is native though it is channelized with the medium of English, of its suitability at the international level. This act of translation of our native literature into English, or using English as a medium of creative writing against our native cultural background is not a misuse of our right to express or write; it is not a blasphemy or treason against our country, region, conventions or languages. For instance, in the Indian Diaspora, the plurality of India is condemned to disappear, even as the most mysterious traditions are given a fresh burst of life, and a unitary vision of ‘Indianness’ of Indian civilization and of Hinduism, appears suspended to dominate e. g. the cuisines of Gujarat, Andhra, and Kerala, or even of the popular snack food, Idalis and Dosas, of South India have now become the cuisine of India.

Actually, it is the better use of our potentials for adding to and enlarging our vision of life. What we think and do is to be galvanized with the lustre of global achievements. That is possible only when we exploit English for encapsuling our native issues, life values and cultural manifestations. This is an awareness of our cultural values to be secured by diffusing them in the world. E.g. the Indian socio-cultural aspects and their values communicated through Indian literary writings.

Nehru’s ‘Global Peace Initiatives’ in the 1950’s was independent India’s soft power. Infosys has been an evidence of potential of India’s vast physical and human resources to become a world power. Our films have also been carved its records at the global level. New India dominates not only the national discourse, but also the universal appeal as in former President Dr. A. P. J. Kalam’s four books dealing with the theme of how to develop India: ‘2020-A Vision for the New Millennium’, ‘Envisioning an Empowered Nation’, ‘Ignited Mind’ and ‘Wings of Fire’. These are the signs of cultural strengths.

6.9. Nativism in Judgement

An adaptation of modern scientific technological tools makes us accept the new ways of living life by giving up the age-old conventional drudgeries. Still, an impact of other culture on our Indian culture has not to be suppressing one. An exchange of literary ideas or views has not been considered as internationalism through ages. The education system in India has been the product of the British colonialism; and so in every field of life and each of the branches of knowledge, we follow the principles laid down by the Western philosophers or critics. Here, we mistake the aesthetic as well as life values inducted through the texts. As a result, we believe whatever is given in English books, or stated by the foreign writers as classic and standard. To correct ourselves, we should cherish our own views and native ideas while criticizing or judging the writings in Indian languages, or in English. And then, globalization would not be disastrous to our culture, literature and other studies.

6.10. About Community: Life Values

Actually, there is no view or attitude universal towards life, since the most fundamental human concepts are community-oriented. In all of them, some racial, environmental, anthropological or ethnographical aspects play a very vital role and characterize them. We visualize our religious or spiritual faith with the aspects of nature i.e. the physical facets of the environment in which we live; our views are also formed with the native circumstances and the ancient life-values, and so we have to determine and accept them. In this context, our use of language in every-day life and in literature has always been an indicator of our spirit. Examples:

‘My nose has been cut; I can no longer show my face to anyone.’

‘What has he done? Why don’t you tell me where he is?’

‘He is in jail. Where else can he be?’

‘The Great Guru! The Great Guru! Who has been born to put my child in jail!’                       

(Khushwant Singh, I Shall Not Hear The Nightingale: 331)

This spirit reflects the native society, its ramifications on the basis of castes, class, and an urge for removing these social evils to establish the humanistic society. For the sake of the national integration and solidarity, the linguistic and cultural elements have been subsided and the maxim of ‘unity in diversity’ has been inculcated in the minds of multitudes. Therefore, we can’t do without multilingualism, multi-culturalism and nativism for our survival in this globalization mania.

6.11. Pragmatics of Non-native Communication

No doubt, the native speakers provide legitimate data and the grammatical analyses of language which are the only universally accepted criteria for authenticity. However, this conceptual consideration of the ‘field linguistics’ is not applicable rather than the ‘theoretical linguistics.’ However, Indian English as a nativized variety can be studied not by applying the conceptual consideration, but by using some generalizations. Examples:

‘I invite your kind attention’

‘Please, buy me two breads’

‘You have recently married, isn’t it’      

The nativized English in India has been consensually used to convey the native religio-socio-cultural features of the Indian life for the foreigners.

The Firthian concept of ‘Let-it Pass Principle’ which is based on the ‘consensus’ is helpful to study English used by the Indians within India or outside India to represent our native culture. The pragmatics is an open-ended area that goes beyond the phonological features of language. Therefore, English used for describing Indian culture is distinct in its content rather than its linguistic variables which do not diminish the mutual intelligibility.

6.12. Code-Switching: A Comforting Tool to Diasporic Upheaval

A shifting from one language variety to another is ‘code-switching’ that reflects the influence of globalization. A linguistic group that may be in majority or in minority has to be bilingual or multilingual and at the same time has to face the linguistic discrimination because of a dialect or non-native language variety used in certain situations instead of the standard or native authentic language. This approach is appropriate to maintain the cultural identity and communicative competence that Globalization requires.

6.13. Conclusion

In short, globalization as a cause of Diaspora makes the issues of nativization, acculturation, and localization more persistent due to political Diaspora and Indian cultural maintenance. Besides several devices, languages both native and non-native play a very vital role. Moreover, English is a competent means of universal communication that contributes to the socio-cultural development of any nation. Globalization makes us accept the new ways of living life where code-switching becomes a requirement. However, if we prefer our own views and native ideas while criticizing or judging the writings in Indian languages or in Indian English, then globalization would not be disastrous to our culture, literature, and other studies. Our heritage and culture, known and keen to us that appeal to us; and English can publicize it globally. And all this way, the diasporic upheaval may subside.

References

Bhabha, H. K., 1994. The Location of Culture, New York: Routledge.

Block, D., 2004. Globalization and Language Teaching.  ELT Journal.

Brumfit, C.J. (Ed.), 1982. English for International Communication. Oxford Pergamon.

Ghosh, M. K., 2009. English as a Global Language. Authors press, New Delhi.

Robert, A. and Donn B., 1998. 4^th Ed. Social Psychology. Prentice- Hall of India Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi.

Trudgill, P., 1995. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society. Penguin Books.

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7 . Globalization and Teaching of English in Management Studies

Globalization has opened new avenues all over the world which ultimately has led the world towards the path of progress. Every nation through the exchange of various means has realized the numerous benefits of globalization in terms of extension of cordial relationships, investment in industrial-commercial sectors, tourism, culture, etc.

How all this is made possible for us and what it is that people with different cultures come together and share everything which was impossible some decades ago. It is the common language, the common platform that has made it possible. In fact, the concept of ‘globalization’ is solely realized by this common language which is English. English has now been accepted unopposed by every nation as the international language, or the universal language. Its relatively easy structure has made its opponents love the language.

The world has been changing rapidly in the wake of globalization, rapidly. It has made deepening effects upon the various facets like education, business, environment, politics, culture, etc.

7.1. Why to Communicate?

Effective business communication is important for the individual and the modern organizations.

Figure 7.1. Helping You

Figure 7.2. Helping Organizations

7.2. The Significance of Teaching-Learning of English in Management

Management as a profession teaches to manage but that is efficiently done only through proper communication. Management encompasses sectors like IT, HR, Production, Finance, Marketing, etc. These sectors are the backbones of the entire commercial world. Language is the only means of communication which helps run the organization smoothly since the right information is passed to the right person at the right time. English as an international language is the means of communication in almost all the organizations. Every organization needs skilled manpower, especially people working at the upper level where decision making, implementation is done. Hence, from the foregoing it’s clear that management as a profession has a universal application; hence, it needs a common platform to be developed at its highest potential which is facilitated through promotion and implementation of the process of teaching of English in the global arena.

At the micro level, English teaching in management courses is expected to elevate internationalization of institutions of higher learning because they are considered as intellectual scientific and technological capital and they will eventually lead to macro level of the internationalization of the country. Management wants student’s mastery to be translated into better placements.

The role of English in the present scenario is that it is used as a contact language between people who are from different social background and may not necessarily share English as a first language. Hence management studies should incorporate methodologies and syllabus which prepare students to use English as a medium to communicate in their professional interpersonal communication which may often be cross cultural.

7.3. Linguistic and Pedagogical Implications in Management Studies

The students want to master the language including fluency, vocabulary, and precise expression as well as grammar hence the implications of language teaching and pedagogy have to be realized by the ELT [English Language Teaching] professional in relation to management studies.

Since language competence is linked with career options and so forth, the presence of psychological interpersonal barriers among the students also have to be acknowledged. ELT professionals have to consider the social, political and economic factors that come into play when methods and the materials cross borders. We as teachers have to develop culturally appropriate teaching material. Teachers have to ponder over the issue that the type of approaches to adopt for teaching English. Since a teacher has to deal the heterogeneity of the class room which often makes compromise teaching a viable option. We have to try out approaches to a type of teaching which is ideologically, culturally and linguistically aware of the global as well local roles of the English language around the world. We have to develop interdisciplinary pedagogies and facilitating intercultural competence in this global village. Certain changes in the teaching methodology have to be done at this stage. An ideal teaching environment should expose learners to a variety of ways in which English can be used. The demands made by this sector are to be met and challenges accepted it is imperative for a teacher of English to be proactive to develop an interdisciplinary approach to teaching.

7.4. Strategies for Teaching English

In management context, the role of an English teacher is to train students for general linguistic awareness, basic grammar, and communication strategies. 

1. A teacher has to help learners better manage self-directed learning.
2. A teacher has to learn to instil confidence among the learners through activities that encourages them to be more involved with their own learning.
3. A teacher has to motivate students for active learning since proactive learners learn better than passive learners. Simulation of different circumstances can be easily projected with the help of multimedia techniques imaginatively using the language laboratory and introducing group activities.
4. Group activities should not be limited to holding group discussions or debates. The teacher should organize role plays and games.
5.  Suitable case studies should also be taken up which could promote better learner participation.
6. Special workshop sessions should also be held for weaker students, where in they can be counselled on overcoming psychological barriers.

References

Block, D., 2004. Globalization and Language Teaching. ELT Journal.

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8 . Focusing Non-verbal in Teaching of English Novel in India

The purpose of teaching of English as a second language and Indian English literature is to draw the learner’s attention towards the social or interpersonal functions of English. In order to observe these functions, we have to care of the verbal and non-verbal phenomena of English. Both the linguistic and non-linguistic behaviours as the communication systems, we know, operate independently in human communication. This chapter indicates how the non-verbal communication system has been of very much significance in teaching or understanding the novel in English in India.

8.1. The ‘Non-verbal’ Behaviours

Broadly speaking, everything that communicates besides words is called ‘non-verbal’; but specifically, non-linguistic behaviours which have the communicative purpose in a given interaction are called ‘Non-verbal Behaviours’. Language is always supported with the paralanguage like voice quality, body movements, distance between the communicators, and spatio-temporal aspects. The words spoken and the ways of using them along with the gestures, postures, and manners in the socio-cultural context against the environmental background have been the constituents of human communication. Similarly, the fictional discourse contains the communication systems to design the world of the novel.  To trace the nature and functions of non-verbal strategies in the fictional communication is the focal point in this chapter.

8.2. Language Learning as Cultural Activity

Learning language means learning concept formation, identifying ideas or objects, and categorizing their functional features. A learner learns to organize his perception and knowledge. It also requires the observation and the experience of the environment to give verbal labels as their meanings directly related to the situations. The learner generalizes and conservatively correlates the conceptual traits such as ‘what is good or bad?’ This is the ‘social setting’ or a ‘cultural context.’ The concepts have some ‘affective’ and ‘expressive’ meanings beyond their denotative senses. They are personalized by personal feelings. R. Brown (1965) has described a kind of meaning called ‘expressive’ meaning. This is the context or situation of language use controlled by social, political, and economic factors. The speaker has to be very sensitive to expressive communication. Our clothes, jewellery, tools, manners, and several other behavioural features can give us away when we say one thing and mean another. This understanding of connotative and expressive meanings is also a generalization process in language; so the teacher and parents with their affective tones may be positive or negative reinforcers to the child. The classroom situation and the surroundings provide the ‘experience’ required for the concept-learning.

8.3. English in India

The mother-tongue is a symbol of one’s identity and loyalty to one’s culture; and learning of English in India as a second language may cause the sense of emotional and intellectual in fiction; so that the teacher of English has to motivate the learner by giving practical reasons and making circumstances pleasant. But nowadays, English has got its place in Indian education. In most of our universities, the literary masterpieces original or in English translation have been prescribed. The commonwealth literature has been also given the status. A necessary step to be taken by the Indian critics or the teachers is to evolve new norms, values and standards of literary criticism to produce the cultural spectrum. Our criticism should express our national identity and assert our intellectual self-respect. For the critics and the teachers should go back into the past Indian cultural heritage which lies in the Sanskrit literature as we find reflected in the great epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The theories like Rasa or Dhvani and their interpretations with proper comparisons with the western critical theories are to be revisited. This is the solution suggested by C.D. Narasimha to remove the cultural cringe and the despair of alienation from the mind of the English teachers and the critics. He insisted on the ‘national genius,’ ‘identity,’ and ‘sensibility’ in our response to any literary work while teaching or interpreting it. However, the non-verbal system approach could be rather adequate view of communication studies in literature to reach at the purpose of teaching English in India.

8.4. Non-Verbal Communication: A Versatile Component

The study of NVC [Non-Verbal Communication] system may be a versatile approach. Semiotically, the non-linguistic signals are more universal, but they are the only authentic devices to make the communication more native or culture-specific. This helps bringing some solutions into reality by viewing the non-linguistic elements as significant component in the literary communication juncture for two functions:

1. To project the Indian sensibility in literary criticism - the NV [Non-Verbal] aspects are the authentic devices to show Indianness in attitude and approach as in the assumption of good or bad, civilized or uncivilized, rich or poor; and the associated behavioural patterns of the people. Voice quality, gestures, postures or manners and the distance observed by the interactants are the social behaviours measured in terms of the cultural values in the community.
2. The NV aspects could be the reliable features of the personalities or the social traits to define the national identity and sensibility. The environmental signaling systems are reflected through the linguistic behaviours because they are properly transmitted in the English books. Therefore, the analysis of NV behavioural patterns in the given literary work could be an adequate survey and a realistic investigation.

8.5. Categories of NV Behaviours

To concretize behaviours, Ekman and Friesen (1969) inspired by Efron (1941) and Poyatos after David Crystal (1974) have commonly identified the four basic forms of NVC system. They are: Paralanguage, Kinesics, Proxemics, and Artifacts or Environmental Sign System.

In any facial communication almost all the channels have to start functioning; and the communication process becomes so smooth that the communicators can’t think how they send or receive the meaningful messages which the verbal behaviour cannot convey properly.

8.6. Paralanguage in Fiction

Poyatos after David Crystal dealt with paralanguage by applying phonetic and phonological criteria in four ways - ‘primary quality,’ ‘qualifiers,’ ‘differentiators,’ and ‘alternants.’ They are also accompanied by ‘silence’ to communicate the intended meanings beyond the literal properties.

Voice qualities differentiate one person from the others. Everyone has his own physically determined voice-set. The primary qualities are resonance, volume, pitch level or range and rhythm, etc. For instance, sex and age condition timbre and nasal resonance of Arabs, Latins, or rural Indians due to catarrh, the socially determined status and occupation often control these primary qualities.

Every character can be recognized on the basis of idiosyncratic vocal background described in the novel. For example, Moses, Jamila and other islanders in Anita Desai’s ‘Where Shall We Go This Summer?’ have growling, grunting, neighing, cackling, or their individual voice qualities to represent individual characters socially backward and culturally distinct. Prof. Abhijit Gokhale in Jai Nimbkar’s ‘Temporary Answers’ has his tone that represents his educated and civilized characters. These primary voice qualities help to identify the personalities with their distinctive features.

Modifiers such as ‘Qualifiers’ and ‘Differentiators’ that modify voice qualities used to express one’s emotional states and attitudes are articulated by glottalic or velaric control. Qualifiers are the modified voice qualities given to express pitiable compassionate, emotionally affected or moved temperament or approach. The verbal message can be uttered with certain phonological differences by physiological control as in -

He heard himself say, “Why should I become a Muslim?”

He was harsh in his voice, as if it was Nur who had created the new states. (Chaman Nahal’s Azadi p.35)

All such characters have different temperaments; and so they have the phonological qualifiers to represent their psychological conditions. The qualifiers represent Arun’s irrational careless towards Nur’s helplessness.

Differentiators are the forms and degree of loud voice, of whispering, of crying, of laughing, etc. They are used with words. For instance, ‘coughing, sighing, sneezing, laughing, crying, etc. are the differentiators. Socio-culturally characterized psychological or physiological states also communicate affiliation, tension, relief, love, deception, avoidance or involvement, etc. In Anita Desai’s ‘Where Shall We Go This Summer?’ Sita in her reminiscent mood recalls her childhood with magic of her father who had influenced the villagers of Manori; her father ‘Babaji’ had always his authoritative voice that differentiated his character, attitude and affiliation with the Islanders.

“No,” come the soft bubbling reply made effervescent with something like laughter….   (p.82)   

Alternates are the physiological reflexes like sighs, clearing, moaning, hissing, or even silence which are meaningful. The novelist makes use of these devices to convey the meanings tactfully. For instance, the novelist makes use of certain signs to represent certain sounds which are to be understood by the reader to get vocal and the associated meanings. Example: Sita in ‘Where Shall…….’ externalized her emotional state through her the alternants - ‘Hu, and repeated sound- ‘Wh’ as in - 

“Hu”- a breath fell from her heavily like a stone dropped.

“wh-what?” she stammered, “Wh….abortion?”

‘Silence’ is the external of paralanguage continuum i.e. absence of sound. They are ‘pauses’ or ‘breaks in speech’ which have the functions of communication with Kinesic or Proxemic behaviours. Silence intensifies the co-occurring communicative acts. As in face-to-face interview, silence plays a very vital role in the conversational interaction in the fictional discourse. Examples:

“Who did this, Madan?” I asked.

His mother said, “Ramuseth, the shopkeeper did it. Madan stole money that a customer had put down on the counter.” (Nimbkar, Temporary Answers p.57)

That Madan kept silence and avoided answer to the question that Vineeta asked communicates a lot of information-his guilt, his age, and his physical incapacity. 

8.7. Kinesic Aspects in Fiction

Birdwhistell’s (1961) contribution of ‘Kinesics’ to the study of body movements has provided the fundamental aspects to the social psychologists with which they could confirm the status of body movements with the interactional features. The kinesics behaviours have been grouped as ‘gesture’, ‘postural’, and ‘manner’ communication. They are understood with their attitudinal norms.

Gesture is of real linguistic importance. It is not only a background to speech, but also an active background that contributes to communication. Visibility and sensibility of face make it possible expressing emotional meanings high speedily and efficiently. The ‘head’ and the ‘eyes’ are to be treated together since the head position determines the direction and duration of eye contact.

Postures are the prolonged static points or gestures. They have usually cultural traits because they are highly stylized or postural code. For example, Pari and Khyali ‘Inside the Haveli’ goes to request Lakshmi to come back to the haveli, but she does not. However, she is very much determined to face the imminent danger:

It was Lakshmi. She stood before them, her hands on her hips, and her face uncovered. ‘What do you want?’ asked Lakshmi defiantly. Her eyes were red and swollen (p.80).

Her bound posture ‘standing before them by keeping her hands on her hips’ has been the posture only elderly women can have to indicate their position and their superiority over the other interactants.

The characters like Pari and Gangaram in ‘Inside the Haveli’ have the postural behaviours to convey their feelings. They have to watch only as the helpless beings there before Geeta and the master of the haveli.

While the male characters have the posture - ‘lowering head’ or ‘leaning forward’ to convey their agreement or non-protesting approach towards the matters happening around.

8.8. Proxemics to Define Personalities

The need to understand how man communicates through his use of space produced a search for knowledge is known as ‘Proxemics’. Edward T. Hall (1966) described the space maintained by interactants as ‘proxemics’ and laid down four classes of distance having socio-cultural implications such as ‘intimate, personal, social, public, etc. In addition to this, Ervin Goffman (1971) identified eight types of the self and the five types of violation of them that may have the distinctive effects on interpersonal relationships.

Proxemics is the study of the use of interpersonal distance for conveying meaning. In it, maintenance of distance between the communicators is a significant component. The reduced or increased distance reflects each other’s attitudes. The space that determines the participants’ relations with one another is called ‘social space’. In short, appropriate management and manipulation of distance can convey the relational equilibrium, confidence and comfortable communication.

In the narrative text, the novelist describes or let the characters narrate the past or present activities of the people of the fictional world. The environment and the space proximity go together to communicate how the characters as the living beings make use of the distance in the space provided of the specific territory. The social status, prestige and decorum demanded by the conventional societal cultural values.

In ‘Where Shall We Go This Summer?’ Anita Desai has exploited ‘the space’ as the background of the dramatic discourse in the novel. Sita, Raman, their children and the islanders are the characters as the individualities. In this novel, the village setting is vague and arbitrarily depicted and the temporal aspect is made more dominant i.e. time is power. It snatches Sita backward or pushes forward to pacing with swiftly. For Sita, space is a socio-psychological background. She feels alienated only because of the extended distance between her and her husband or children. She doesn’t feel the intimacy or affiliation at all in the milieu. When she comes to the island, she pulls Karan close to her; this is not only the physical nearness, but the need of her mind she feels as in:

Holding the child now with less intensity and easier emotion, she cried to him, ‘We’re off to the island, Karan, off to the island!’ Shaking him a little, she bent her face, searching for response. ‘Here we are in a boat, Karan,’ she insisted, ‘sailing across the sea’. Where are the sails?’ he asked, looking up at the sky, his pallid face reflecting the dullness of the late afternoon sky (p.17).

Her verbal message does not match to the actual physical space, and so Karan questioned her to check her remark about the sails. His realistic view does not accept her illusionary fantastic view on life. The word ‘sail’ that she refers to is not expectedly realistic to her son, as he cannot see any ‘sail’ there. He never agrees with her even on the island, because he dislikes his mother for her madness of bringing them down to the island. Her effort of holding her children close to her is to reduce the distance to feel the feeling of satisfaction of coming down to the island as her success.

Space is the physical setting and there is the environmental dimensions that make the reader feel the action in the novel more realistic and natural for the aesthetic satisfaction.

The increased social distance indicates the social segregation. Then Bakha is asked to come to get a hockey stick; he can go close to the Havildar against the social custom or protocol. Similarly, the outcaste-women at the well are waiting for someone to draw water for them. The Sepoy or Pundit and the women have the distance that marks the superiority and the inferiority of the interactants:

‘Oh, Maharaj! Maharaj! Won’t you draw us some water, please? We beg you. We have been waiting here a long time, we will be grateful,’ shouted the chorus of voices as they pressed towards him, some standing up, bending and joining their palms in beggary, others twisting their lips in various attitudes of servile appeal and  abject humility as they remained seated, separate. (p.28)

The Pundit slowly moved on to the brick platform of the well. (p.29)

8.9. Artifacts as Objectual Support

The artifactual communication that Poyatos identified with body-adaptors and object-adaptors, and the environmental sign systems are used to make appearance of the characters effective to maintain their images and to elicit the physio-psychological features. Appearance communicates meaning; the physical appearance has its very impact on our self-image. In ‘Untouchable’, Mulk Raj Anand depicts the body types, which represent the social specific behavioural patterns. That associated behaviours to the body-images are emitted through the appearances of the characters. For instance, Bakha, Lakha, Rakha, Sohini, and Gulabo are the mesomorphic body types; but their associated behavioural patterns are not practised. For example, Bakha’s physical personality is described as follows:

Each muscle of his body, hard as a rock when he had seemed to shine forth like glass. He must have had immense pent-up resources lying deep in his body, for he rushed along with considerable skill and alacrity from one doorless latrine to another, cleaning, brushing, pouring phenoil. (p.16)

If the physical appearance changes, the meaning communicated by it, conflicting one and is against one’s social identity. The artifactual communication covers both body adaptors and object-adaptors; but for convenience, we treat them separately. The reader couldn’t easily analyze these aspects, though described separately in the novel; the novelist gives the expected interpretation for the desired effects by co-structuring them with the above mentioned NV behaviours.

To bring out the periodic reality by creating the historical sensation, the clothing, ornaments and certain occupation related objects or of contact help us understand and feel the feelings of the time described in the story. Therefore, the attempt at recreation of the spatio-temporality in the novel is made easier by exploiting the artifactual communication.

8.10. Conclusion

This kind of reading of novel concentrates on the skilled social behaviour of the characters and the socio-cultural contexts elicited non-verbally in the fictional discourse. Applying the semiotic cultural communicative approach, the analyses of interesting and potentially rewarding stretches of the texts can be carried out. The NV communication in the cultural context of India requires the synchronic and diachronic interpretations of the sign systems employed to depict the realistic vision of life ever been lived in India. Time, space, form, and action are the NV components of communication that are exploited for the specific communicative purposes.

The non-verbal behaviours of the characters are the emitters of information about characters, the indicators of their interpersonal relationships as the men and women in the Indian society. The different display rules of the non-verbal behaviours are the governing forces as a mechanism resulted from the social, cultural, and religious aspects.

References

Birdwhistell, R .L., 1970.  Kinesics and Context. Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press. P.88.

Goffman, E., 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. A Pelican Books. P.13-30.

Hall, E. T., 1973. The Silent Language.  New Delhi, Affiliated East-West Press Pvt. Ltd.

Kachru, B. B., 1983. The Indianization of English, The English in India. Oxford Uni. Press, New Delhi.

Laver, J and Hutcheson, S., 1972. Communication in Face-to-Face Interaction. Penguin Books.

Poyatos, Ferdinand, ed., 1983. New Perspectives in Non-verbal Communication, Studies in Cultural Anthropology, Social Psychology, Linguistics, Literature and Semiotics. Pergamon Press, Oxford, New York.

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9 . ICT as an Alternative Pedagogy

English language teaching and learning is taking turns worldwide in general and in India in particular. An extreme advancement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), language teaching and learning activities have been encouraged. Motivation as a prime function of ICT has also enhanced the effective use of ICT potential for teaching and learning of language. The reason is that now children are fascinated by computers and information technologies. Therefore, it becomes teachers’ responsibility to provide more effective, more useful and more fun-filled and enjoyable ICT tools. It is very important to see how and why teachers carry out the ICT into their language teaching and to see what problems or difficulties they encounter while incorporating the modern technologies into their teaching practice. The ICT user should be educated with sound ICT backgrounds and conversant in computer implementation. Even students are to be prepared to interact, use, and learn in this online environment. All this requires many efforts to integrate and use technologies in English or any language teaching in present scenario. 

9.1. Aims and Objectives of ICT in Education

Due to globalization, moral and cultural values have been admitted at the worldwide level and mutual collaboration among countries have made it possible to learn any language in any socio-cultural milieu. So the ICT tools have to play a very important role in teaching and learning of English and other languages in the world. It can improve result of language learning and can avoid monotony and complexity in teaching of languages. To integrate language with culture is easier by using the ICT tools.

9.2. Perspectives in Use of ICT in Education

The use of pictures, audio-visual aids, models and other automatically generated gadgets have a long history. Comenius, a Czech teacher created his picture and word lessons in the seventieth century and British Council started international programme for UK schools, colleges and local authorities. In the 18^th century, the projector and slide show techniques were used. The 20^th and 21^st centuries are the age of modern technology and computerization. Film-strips, movies, animation-related programmes, picturization of drama, digital and computerized transmission of information, photographic and video-recording have been the boons to the teachers of language to visualize and make teaching more meaningful. We know cinema and media have entered into the life of a common man, and this is a beneficial source in imparting language training in India. Radio, TV, video-audio tapes, computer, internet, and music played or recorded theatrical performances are important to reach out to the learners who want to acquire English. In short, all these devices are the ways to facilitate language learning. They are the tools and not substitutes to teachers for effective teaching. All these are the supplementary tools to the regular curriculum in teaching English language. However, new generation of English teachers cannot be excused for their illiteracy or unawareness of this technological development. A teacher has a role of an instructor and a facilitator in this new setup of the aims and objectives of learning in relations between higher education and modern technology.   

9.3. Professional Enhancement with Technological Integration

New trend towards using computer technology in language instruction has made language teachers aware of undertaking fresh job responsibilities such as creating programmes related to curriculum contents, computer-based language teaching-learning activities, power point presentations, project participation, use of internet-based information, incorporating multimedia language laboratories, etc. The use of ICT is to endow teaching with diversity for students. Due to user-friendliness, speed, accuracy, reliability, high storage capacity, integrity, consistency, durability, versatility, etc., ICT has been a boon to teachers of this century. A numerous bona-fide materials are offered on the World Wide Web; the audio visual aids facilitate teaching culture and make learning convenient. ICT provides good resources for teachers teaching listening and speaking skills. The soft copy multimedia materials can be uploaded to our websites and can be used easily at low cost. All this requires the institutional support and encouragement for faculty to create and develop their online learning materials. The most important is that learning technological skills is not enough, but pedagogical knowledge for ICT integration in teaching is needed. Teachers should empower their pedagogical strategies in application of modern technologies. In short, the use of ICT in the classroom teaching is more effective than in distance education and so it is emphasized by the government. This technology has allocated new roles and responsibilities on the modern teacher. In place of the conventional methods, advanced effective teaching methods are to be implemented. The teacher has to be facilitator, mentor, instructor and counsellor as the roles in their profession. A teacher should be very resourceful in introducing the language to the students by means of communication.

9.4. Media for Motivation

Besides the four basic skills of language - LSRW, the skills of using ICT has become the most demanded fifth skills nowadays for effective acquisition and use of language for the communication purposes. Understanding motivational aspects of using ICT can help us explore the potential of using the same material in different ways. A teacher can use the materials other than teaching the target language to introduce students to different aspects of everyday language.

Figure 9.1. Language Acquisition and Language Learning

ICT allows learners explore a variety of activities related to their subjects; they select the problem-solving strategies and develop their own skills for appreciating and grasping the information and knowledge they need to have for their purposes.

9.5. Technology Enabled Campus

ICT as an acronym for information, communication and technology, covers all digital technologies for designing, storing, processing, implementing, and managing the computer-based information systems. In other words, internet, video-conferencing, telephone, television, newspapers, cell phones and several other electronic equipments are the ways of making communication at ease.  All this is attempt of sharing information at the world level at faster rate for the expected results. It induces social and economic development in terms of health, employment, education, agriculture, and trade. Therefore, it is very necessary to create conditions under which we can bring out this change in our educational campus and total setup. ICT ensures all the possibilities of teaching-learning activities such as project works of students’ choice, a learner-cantered approach, their learning style and learning environments, and so on.    

9.6. Language Lab in Teaching of English Language

Teachers can use multimedia technology to motivate learners to develop the technical skills to employ the technology as a learning aid. Internet based lessons and use of websites for locating and downloading information relevant to their tasks. The language lab is basically introduced to provide in-class and independent access to analogue audio in the form of audio cassettes. The server-based set-up is used for the instructional materials by teachers and students from different locations with network access. ‘Smart classroom’ is set up to display videos, disc and computer outputs; it is a room full of students where a teacher can integrate networked lab resources into the regular instruction. Advancements in technology have enabled storage and retrieval of oral and written records in an effective mode.

Figure 9.2. Language Laboratory in Teaching of English Language

The English language and Communication skills lab monitors and guides students towards enhancing their skills through the software. The students can listen to the recorded lessons and can record their own voices. Even teachers can listen to individual students in turn and speak with them. They can be guided whenever necessary by the teacher sitting at the teacher comfort. Teachers guide the students towards understanding and participating in various activities like Oral Speeches, Mock interview, JAMs, Mock Group Discussions and the eye-opener feedback sessions, cinema and some melodious songs.   

9.7. Pedagogical Implications and Implementation

Learning language in general and English language learning in particular is basically related to learner’s ability of perception and acquisition. The individual’s cognitive, intellectual and linguistic problems are to be understood psychologically. We know the schools of thoughts like Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Developmental Psychology, and Affective Psychology which have provided some principles of learning and their implications can be applied in teaching learning processes by teachers.

For instance, according to the Behaviourism, the behaviour of teacher and taught are stimulus and response in the classroom situations. Attention and motivation are based on the law of readiness. So the English teacher has to catch the learners’ attention by producing effective teaching materials to set the learner at the proper stage. The Cognitivism refers to creative and thinking processes instead of mere listening, imitating and memorizing. The rule of insight, hypothesis, and learning through thinking are the basic assumptions to the cognitivists. So instead of display or exposure, there should be activities for developing creative abilities and problem-solving situations produced through the ICT tools. Besides this, learner has to acquire communicative competence along with linguistic competence. One has to master fluency in language by actual use of language. Nowadays, multiculturalism has made it necessary to have communicative competence in the most dominant languages in the world. Teachers have to update themselves with the latest innovations in methods and materials for learning English.

Peer assessment is an important activity to develop students’ self-learning ability; their involvement increases their responsibility for their learning; their ideas about the assessment of oral presentations can improve the reliability of the peer assessment. Learners become more cognizant of what they have to learn through such technical presentations.

Implementation of information technologies by faculty is not so easy in India since village backgrounds and financial worries. Though offering a countless of pedagogical benefits, one should be aware of some pitfalls in conducting Internet-based lessons; teacher should plan the learning experiences meaningfully and stimulating for students; students should know genuine and appropriate locations of relevant information.  

9.8. Recommendations

For the effective use of ICT there are some recommendations to the organizers and users. One is the planning and implementation strategies for integrated classroom activities decided from time to time; the second is the availability of technical infrastructure and resources that may help understanding the potentials of the ICT tools; the third is proper training and orientation of the teachers who have to use ICT instead of chalk-and-walk methods; the fourth is implementation which comprises expenses, management support, coordination and cooperation among the faculty, etc. the fifth is the up-gradation and continuous efforts to maintain the scheme in the college; and final is its diffusion and popularity among every corner and unto the last person of society. 

9.9. Conclusion

The ICT tools remove the barriers of time and space in teaching and learning of language. It has made it possible to generate, store, transmit, retrieve, and process information and knowledge at increased speed. Integration of teaching of all skills of language in a single activity is possible only because of ICT. Students’ choice and interest is also retained in learning. Their participation, discussions, assessment, research methods for relevant information, etc. make the ICT involvement in teaching language very effective. The most urgent and important thing is the teachers’ ‘will power’ and ‘courage’; it lies in the maxim- ‘Accept and Welcome new changes!’ Then the dreams of ‘New India’ by visionaries like Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Former President A.P.J. Kalam will definitely come true in near future.

References

Saini, A. K., 2011. English Language Teaching @ World Wide Web. Authors press, New Delhi.

Tickoo, M. L., 2003. Teaching and Learning English. Orient Longman, NewDelhi.

Verma, S. K., 1998. Socio-linguistics, Language and Society. Sage Publications, New Delhi.

Widdowson, H. G., 1978. Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford University Press.

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10 . Globalization and Indian Writing in English

India is a multilingual nation. However, the government has recommended the three-language-formula: Hindi as the national language, the regional language and English as the associate link language. In a changed scenario of globalization, educationists have recognized the importance of English for global communication. This changed role of English has ascribed greater importance to it and it has no longer a library language, but a language of opportunities. A fair high degree of proficiency in English and excellent communication skills enhance students’ employability. To develop students’ ability to use English accurately, appropriately, and fluently, courses in communication skills are to be offered.

Globalization is a process of socio-cultural changes with a global system of economy. Unfortunately, this process has become a process of Westernization, or an invasion of American capitalism into the commonwealth world. It is a huge tide in which many cultures have been flown down. Therefore, it is very different to decide how far the changes due to this approach of globalization are admirable or deniable. However, because of it, some beneficial or useful may take place; and the unwanted, useless, or conventional could be removed. This improvement or awareness has been at the core of every culture, and in due course, vices have been defeated and wiped out. But we credit unnecessarily to the British rulers for the reformations, which have taken place in India in the last century and a half. In this adaptation, we have retained our native culture and accepted the changes from the humanistic point of view. Our multilingual, multicultural and regional diversified national identity has been maintained for the ages.

10.1. Some Beliefs

Indian culture is observed in terms of diversified lingual, regional, historical and religious features. Though we have much regional literature in the regional languages, the main literary theme has been the spirit of national pan-cultural syndrome. The regional languages, the national language and the lingua-franca-‘English’ are the linguistic media for the communication of our culture. As Bhalchandra Nemade rightly pointed out that ‘nativism’ is the only weapon for protecting our language and culture. This pseudo-liberalization or privatization has its monstrous impact upon all the dominated areas of the world culture. Our languages, literature and culture have been endangered by this voluptuous process of capitalism and its invasion in the world-powers. Even English has been misbelieved as a means of globalization; and other languages have been marginalized. In result, the Western or European culture has kept its dominance over the eastern cultures since we have been signalled wrongly to use English and the westernized behaviours to be in the torrent of globalization. Nehru’s view is to be noted here relevantly.

10.2. Globalization as a Cultural Adjustment

Our society consists of three layers; the upper layer and the lower layer are easily mutable or convertible; but the middle layer comparatively large portion of society is the bearer of our social, economic, religious and political ethics. Globalization relates to the upper layer or rich capitalists who are the minority and less associated to the cultural organizations now-a-days. The middle class is dependent on the decisions or policies determined on the capitalists’ interests; so indirectly, the target for the socio-cultural alterations and changes. Naturally, they suffer and get diverted to make an adjustment at their own cost. This adjustment or loss has been the experience or the base for mentality that appears to be the themes and subject-matters of the writers’ literary works. Literature becomes a projection of life situations in which a search for meaning of life or self-identity is the central idea. Thus, globalization affects the writer’s life and literary works remain the products of its consequences.

10.3. About a Common man

Self-reliance and self-esteem should be the traits of our personalities; otherwise the politics of patents, monopolies in the markets, and calamities in the traditional occupations could be released free that might damage the existing systems in life. Privatization and liberalization are the licenses to the affluent or those who have the infrastructures. The common man has no scope in it; but become the victims of the systems generated by the globalized few; they lose their farm-based occupations or earning sources. This has been the newly found ways of exploitation. In our country, millions of people are simply neglected from the benefits of globalization. To create our own place, we should have our own views on life-standards, language and cultural manifestations.

Besides these, we have to conserve our native culture, view discriminatingly, the practices and to seek opportunities for drawing more and more advantages of the globalization. Language, literature and culture are the native tools to reap the benefits of the world-wide business fortifications. For instance, the US Management guru, Thomas Peters points out that fifteen years ago not one in 1000 Americans could spot Bangalore on the map; today, six out of seven think Bangalore is the only city in India; they basically believe one billion people live in Bangalore; it is because of the youngsters who dared to dream.

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11 . Multi-Dimensional Evaluation Tools to Evaluate Learners

11.1. The New Concept Learning

The new concept learning is the learner’s self-evaluation; it produces the remarkable results because it helps learners know their own strengths, weaknesses, styles of learning in terms of opportunities, and by reviewing the learning resources, the expectations and desired outcomes. In this context, evaluation is a planned activity that makes an educational programme more effective and useful. In this context, Bloom’s taxonomy for describing the six levels of learning behaviours can help us to define the status of evaluation in the education system. He propounded that evaluation is the sixth level which requires complex valuing and weighing of information. Each level of learning relates to a higher level of cognitive ability such as Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation. These levels help the teacher in designing activities and tests for teaching and evaluating students.

11.2. The Term ‘Evaluation’

Evaluation has been at the prime position in the teaching-learning process since a learner as well as a teacher is assessed and evaluated for measuring and accrediting them. Both the teacher and student have to get involved into the activities included to satisfy the purposes of the evaluation.

Generally, we accept all kinds of tests, tutorials, exercises, assignments, assessments or examinations as the tools for evaluation. However, it is necessary to define their different aspects to point out the purposes and the expected results of them after employing them in the teaching learning processes. For instance, tests - both ‘psychological’ and ‘educational,’ are the tools used for observing the behaviours displayed by the learners; they are given to elicit behaviours and to make inferences; but all times they are not meant for making inferences. They are the activities in the form of exercises, assignments, or examinations. Measurements are the methods or systems used for quantifying the performance in the form of grades, marks or ranks in the merit lists. Assessment is appraisal on the basis of measurement of performance on a task.  Thus, there are various tools employed for evaluation purposes. However, the span of time, the purpose of testing, the items in the course materials, and the course ending results are the factors that mark their dimensions and the effects of the evaluation process.

11.3. The Place of ‘Evaluation’

The curriculum designing comprises of the national educational policy, the aims and objectives set by the politicians and the educationists, the aims and objectives of the course, the course contents, teaching methodology, the classroom situations and teaching-learning practices (implementation) and the evaluation at the end of the course or the year. It also includes the internal or intermittent testing or examinations. The span of time, the purpose of testing, the items in the course materials, and the course ending results expected are the evaluation governing factors which determine the tools, the methods, and the practices for the evaluation. Therefore, the evaluation tools are framed or chosen by considering the duration of the teaching-learning of the course/programme, the course contents, the teaching strategies, the learning situations and its outputs at the end of the course.

The purpose of the multi-dimensional evaluation is to develop thinking skills, and mentalities. There are the activities like warming up, purposeful activities for developing and testing vocabulary, grammar, communication and comprehension by giving the constructionist treatment.  This is the new concept learning that is the learner’s self-evaluation which produces the remarkable results.

11.4. The Principles of Evaluation

There are the three basic principles of evaluation. The first is to determine whether the objectives have been achieved; the second is to select the suitable techniques to achieve the targets set; and the third is to form the multidimensional strategies for the holistic evaluation of the learning activities. There are the two forms of evaluation - one is ‘formative’ and the other is ‘summative.’ The processing of studying and learning the course material for the purpose of ‘feedback’ is the formative assessment and evaluation; while at the end of course for the purpose of decision-making or selection is summative. One provides the information that helps changing, adapting, reviewing, or improving teaching-learning programme and the other provides information about the learner’s performance or the final results.

11.5. The Evaluation as Feedback

Evaluation is feedback that integrates the activities arranged to achieve the set objectives of the course through the course contents, the teaching methods, and the assignments or assessment of the learner’s behaviours. It helps to correct and improve the teaching-learning practices; and validity and reliability of the course contents. In short, evaluation as feedback plays a very important role in determining the objectives of teaching and learning of the course, planning the academic programme, and measuring the learner’s performance in the light of the desired results or effects of the course at the end of it.

11.6. The Steps for the Evaluation Process

Evaluation is a deliberate and systematic process. Whichever may be the form of evaluation activity such as formative or summative. The teacher has to employ any kind of testing and verifying tool to gather information to measure the learner’s behaviour to estimate his/her strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in making of his/her personality as a capable and trained person. For that test, exercises, interviews, or examinations are to be deliberate and systematic activities to the teacher and the taught. The steps of evaluation are to determine and estimate a learner’s strengths and weaknesses to use evaluation as tool to get feedback.

11.7. The Levels of Multidimensional Evaluation

The multidimensional evaluation tools are observed in the curricular and the co-curricular activities in schools and colleges. Of course, the multidimensional tools have become the significant devices in the hands of the syllabus-designers, the teachers, and the employers who always want to capture the information for recruiting the trained staff or the personnel for their ventures.

Figure 11.1. Levels of Multidimensional Evaluation

The purpose of the multidimensional evaluation is to develop thinking skills and mentalities. For that the warming up activities like language games, puzzles, substitution tables, arguments, analyses and classifications, jotting down observations, discussions, and expressing opinions, etc. are helpful to create interest for new knowledge.

The warming up activity is meant for the personal questions or opinions that help us understand the learners’ skills and mental growth e. g. word cards, the hot seat, guess the picture, pass the chalk, telephone conversation, complete the quotations, etc.

The purposeful activities should be followed before the text reading or comprehension activities. For example, testing of the reading skill, or writing skill is necessarily tested through the reading of the passage or answering the questions asked from the text. For instance, making language learning activities are more natural and meaningful by creating natural opportunities of more practice and repetition of the target language learning for the cognitive development.

The comprehension activities are based on the understanding of the text; the personal views and opinions on the text materials. It also tests one’s imaginative or analytical faculty. Thinking and creating something can be identified through the activities meant for diagnosis:

1. Comprehension monitoring instruction,
2. Metacognitive strategies to think about and have control over their reading,
3. Graphic organizers to focus on concepts and how they are related to other concepts,
4. The Question-Answer Relationship strategy,
5. By generating questions, students become aware of whether they can answer the questions and if they understand what they are reading,
6. Instruction in story structure improves students’ comprehension, and to identify or generate main ideas and connect the main or central ideas.

Thus, the activities like reading activity, vocabulary activity, grammar activity, and questioning activity are implemented by giving the constructionist treatment i.e. the new way of teaching these items.

11.8. Conclusion

In short, the multidimensional evaluation tools are to be based on the purposes, the teaching learning items included in the course materials and the desired results or effects of the programme. While explaining these multidimensional evaluation the strategies, one has to consider validity and reliability of the testing tools to reach at the expectations, or results of the course and the learner’s performance.

References

Caroll, J. B., 1968. The Psychology of Language Testing. Oxford University Press, London.

Davies, A., (Ed.1975). Problems of Language and Learning. Britton James London.

Scriven, M., 1967. The Methodology of Evaluation. R. W. Tyler (Ed.) Perspectives of Curriculum Evaluation. Rand McNally, Illinois.

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12 . Teaching of English through Literature in India

English is no longer a foreign, but a second language. It is true, as the Radhakrishna Commission Report (1950) says that English language has been one of the potent or persuasive factors in the development of unity in the country. In fact, the concept of nationality and the sentiment of nationalism are largely the gifts of the English language and literature in India.

12.1. Problems in Teaching of English in India

Teaching of English in India is rather difficult task due to-

1. The mismatching aims and objectives of teaching of English and the theoretical bases:

In India, English as an instrument of communication is to express our ideas by using language skills - LSRW and after a reasonable command over English, learners can move to acquire literary skills for interpreting literature. But in schools and colleges focus is on memorizing contents-subject matters, vocabulary, rules of grammar, etc. and attention is not paid to develop the abilities to think in it and practising it, and accordingly testing and evaluation should take place.

2. The inability of bringing theory and practices into meaningful relationship:

Due to untrained teachers, mismanagement of time, frequency in teaching, and duration of teaching English are the reasons of failure in bringing theory and practices into meaningful relationships.

3. The variety of English and English for Specific Purposes (ESP):

English is the language of change and of modern thoughts in India. It is the language of business, industry, higher education, science and technology, and lingua franca at national and international level. Even it is the language of elitists’ bias, considering one educated and sophisticated. All this variety of English requires a variety of skills of English; but unfortunately, the teaching practices cannot match the demands of the days.

4. The use of aids and equipments in the learning-teaching process:

Teachers of English try to find teaching aids which are helpful and easily available.If the teachers are aware of the technical and methodological advantages and limitations, the use of the teaching materials would be of much help. Production of the materials for the language lab is a specified task, and it requires more time and energy; however, the use of language lab is supporting teaching and maintaining it becomes a problem in teaching of English in India since the country has not yet determined its nature and scope before introducing it in the curricula at the different levels of education.

12.2. Which English we need?

1. We need the different regional, global, and grammatically correct varieties of English.
2. We require English that can cater the needs of business, commerce, education, science, technology, law and administration; and so it is our educational interest that English should retain as a properly studied second language.
3. We should learn English of our thoughts, or manageable to us; for that the teaching of English is to be related to the study of Indian literatures in English that could be an effective means of stimulating critical thinking.
4. We require English as a means of conversation in the extent of the use of English, or everyday language. 
5. Our society welcomes English for communicating culture and cultural values through spoken as well as written English. So it is English in India that has occupied both the forms of culture - ‘oral’ and ‘literary’ culture.
6. We need the ‘minimum essential’ of English as H. Wyatt (1927) says, The minimum essentials of English are the core features - slow tempo of speech, pauses, and stress; Instead of excessive attention only to grammatical features and writing, attention is to be given to the phonological and pragmatic features.

12.3. Language of Literature

1. Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the almost possible degree - Ezra Pound.
2. The medium of literature is the message of literature; and so one should know that literature is not to be studied for the sake of information. It does not provide any information which can be true or false, and verifiable. Literature is fiction.
3. The language of literature is obscure, ambiguous and oracular. i.e. ‘poetic’ and ‘emotive.’
4. Language, culture and thought are the most respected and correlated aspects of human societies; so language learning could be easier and effective if the contents and contexts are familiar and of our own experiences.
5. However, stories for and about children are enjoyed all over the world irrespective of the culture, or country.
6. To understand literature one should have the knowledge of literary qualities -

1. One should have the information of relations between the author and the text, and the text and the reader.
2. One should have the vision of viewing the relationships between ‘text’ and ‘reality’ i.e. the various realities like ‘social, cultural, political, mental, philosophical, etc.
3. One should have the knowledge of the status to be given to the language of literature; so that one can recognize the connection between ‘poeticity’ and ‘reality’ i.e. ‘literariness’ of language of literature.

12.4. The Sociolinguistic Approach

1. The teaching of English in India demands the sociolinguistic approach since it is a social phenomenon. The use of English in India defines its status and scope in the total set up of societal affairs. Being a multilingual country, India needs English to support the learners with the knowledge of Indian aesthetics, socio-cultural values and philosophical views on living life.
2. No doubt, Indian Writing in English has achieved a place of status among the literatures in English in the World. After much struggle, it has acquired a considerable academic recognition and popularity. However, one should know the importance of Indian Literature in English along with Indian English literature; because only Indian English Literature can’t fight a battle for establishing its own bench. It is to be supported by the regional literature translated in English to provide a comprehensive picture of Indian literature.
3. For that both of them are to be developed on large scale with the addition of relevant books, journals, and new study centres. Even though, Indian Writing in English has been a mandatory course at PG level, the prescription of variety of textbooks is required to expose a lot of writers. An anthology of verse, prose writings, or plays, literary journals and periodicals are to be published. The Sahitya Academy and National Book Trust like institutional efforts are needed in this context.
4. By keeping all disputes, prejudices, and politics, all academicians, literary critics and writers have to come together to participate, discuss, and come out with points to be pondered. In short, ELT in India is problematic since India is in the ‘outer circle’; and the religious beliefs, cultural patterns and the political systems are different from the English speaking countries.
5. In this context, the socio-linguistic approach could be an effective way to study the social situations in which English language teaching takes place. The basis of our own experiences through Indian literatures translated or written in English could be beneficial to our learners.

12.5. Indian Writing in English or Indian Literature in English: the Best Tool for ELT in India

1. Literature before Independence

The trio - M. R. Anand, R. K. Narayan, and Raja Rao and the Dutt family.

2. Literature after Independence

Anita Desai, Rama Mehta, Chaman Nahal, Nayantara Sehgal, and the poets like Nissim Ezekiel, Shiv kumar, Manohar Malgonkar, Arun Kolatkar, etc.

3. Literature at present

Salman Rashdie, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, Khushwant Singh, Vikram Seth, Shobha De.

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13 . Social Sciences and Literature Studies

Any research requires a systematic, rigorous investigation of a problem or question to provide solutions or answers. There is a variety of things as the various disciplines or areas of studies are concerned; and they are investigated and observed with certain parameters determined on the basis of the approaches and types of research. Any research has to fix a problem statement and then one or more hypotheses. Hypotheses are certain probable and possible statements which help understand the problems or questions, very closing answers though not exact solutions, in the fields of human life. There are a variety of things that are investigated and observed with certain parameters determined on the basis of the approaches and types of research. The analyses of data collected or selected for the study from the past or current events where history or sociology help to provide the logicality and evidences to read the occasions with its validated information. The causes and effects of the events and the correlated features make the amount of the research materials and procedures. Provisions are there to arrive at the conclusions in support with the hypotheses mentioned initially in the research work. All this indicates that the research has been a very much related to branches of human life conditions. These aspects of research are nothing else but contributions made by different disciplines in defining, describing or interpreting the date to reach at the hypotheses. These disciplines are arts, humanities, and social sciences have been part and parcel of literary reading. The chapter focuses on the relations of social sciences to literary studies.

13.1. Nature and Functions of Social Sciences

There are the four main approaches in the form of types of research to study any field of information or knowledge. They are Quantitative, Qualitative, Pragmatic and Participatory approach. In these approaches, all social sciences such as ‘Sociology, History, Geography, Psychology, Ethnography, Philosophy, Politics, Socio-linguistics, etc. have been involved to bring out the product values of any literary work. The definition of literature is possible only when the procedure and product of literature are considered in the context that these sciences have procured or moulded. Naturally, social sciences have their distinct tools to measure the life situations by focusing on the human behaviours, attitudes and aptitudes, events and experiences. Literature comprises of all these as information to be studied incorporated in the formal and content features; and so social sciences have been part and parcel of literary criticism in general and literary research in particular.

No world of literature could be acceptable and comprehensible without referring to social realities. All life-likeness and permanent values come in literature through the ways that all social sciences have been exploiting. For instance, sociology of real society and sociology of literature correlate to each other. Whether literature is a social product or society reflects the impact of literature. We believe and treat the characters as people and the focused activities as the social circumstances. And the sociological parameters are the socio-cultural, psycho-intellectual, politico-national, or linguistic views on reading of literature.

Sociology studies society and comes out with the patterned views along with evidences to identify the human behaviour. Descriptions, analysis and explorations could be possible in depth with the reasons; effects and values are the meanings, attributes or symbols that we talk about. The social stratification, socialization, concepts of status, social norms, images, and identities have been the parameters to interpret the literary texts.

The relation between Psychology and literary studies has been inevitable; because any literary work nowadays, in modern literature has been an amalgamation of psycho-phenomenological experience. In research on literature, there could be deductive or inductive type of research where psychological reading of the literary text, both qualitative and quantitative research includes the description or exploration by referring to ethnography, philosophy or politics.

Geography and Politics and Literature also stand together since region, religion and political strategies have always been intertwined; so literature of the nation or region has been created. The name of the religion or nation is used as the name of literature such as British literature, American literature or Indian literature, etc. There are the roles played distinctly by Geography and Politics in dealing with the geographical and political issues projected in literature. For the geographers and political thinkers with their respective ways for correlating historical and grounded theories help determining the validity and reliability of linguistic data, social phenomenon and the accurate results expected in literary studies. The government, the political parties, the legal and administrative system have been the undercurrents which affect or help understanding the actions depicted in the texts. Anyone who carries out the research has to have the knowledge of these political systems and the provisional unique features to validate one’s research. The participatory approach is for the social reformation and the researchers have a political agenda of expected changes there. They struggle for the issues as if they fight for something to be changed or earned. It is the role of politics in the research activity. These could be rather biased research strategies devoid of the aesthetic values as such.

Literary work has been properly supported by Ethnography and Anthropology. They have to focus on the racial, social, regional, and anthropological features in tracing the meanings and values of human life conditions. Despite the national and provincial boundaries, these ethnographical and anthropological researches make literary research possible. The racial, ethnographical or species specific studies could have very importance in the research related to values and moralities expected in the qualitative results. The applied research produces the validation of information or knowledge as the basic requirement. Historicism, New Historicism, History and Historical Criticism in literary studies have been the key factors in experimental and exploratory research. Any literary work by nature can rely upon the past events or experiences and for its study purpose they are recalled, patterned and understood. The historical background of the writer, of the events, and of the characters as the people is historically revisited to read the implications or suggestions. As the great philosophers like Aristotle father of the Political Science considered Political Science as the master of all sciences. John Seeley describes the relative values of history and politics in the contexts of their nature and functions in real life context. He explained the relationship between political science and history beautifully: “History without political science has no fruit and political science without history has no root”. To quote the same author again, Politics is vulgar when not liberalized by history and history fades into mere literature when it loses sight of its relation to politics.

And similarly, in literary research, their existence in correlation and approach towards current events has been applied as historical tools; direct visits or historical and biographical references are the reliable evidences in literary research. For example, Rama Mehta in ‘Inside the Haveli’ depicts the socio-cultural background by describing the locality, the haveli life, the customs and tradition of marriage, birthday, funeral, elopement, and patterns of life inside and outside the haveli. Traditional haveli customs are changing or becoming mild; women’s education and child marriage like systems and so called norms need to be changed; and gossips and rumours ants; all these problems are becoming milder.

Nowadays, Pragmatics has been the very valuable in literary studies. Socio-linguistics, a newly introduced approach to study language in relation to society, has included all these studies of language experiments in literature. It deals with the linguistic performance of the speech community in accordance with the behavioural and environmental patterns. In short, socio-cultural types influence language use; so that a researcher must go through sociological, historical, political, psychological, or ethnographical information to get proper validation of generated knowledge. In linguistic research after 1960, there came pragmatics as the most philosophical, sociological, psychological and ethnographical branch of linguistic studies. This revolutionary approach has got freedom to use any of the methods, techniques, and procedures associated with quantitative and qualitative research; there has been the use of multiple perspectives to interpret the results.

13.2. The Social Approaches and Literary Research

Any piece of literary work has its framework fixed on the basis of real life structure. Time, space and action are the components that have some universal aspects and so drama, novel, poetry, etc. could be analysed and evaluated to observe its validity by applying the sociological parameters, such as families, social classes, groups, occupations, economic conditions, education or regional characteristics. Therefore, literary studies could not be separated from the social aspects. For instance, poetry or any prose writing has the actual or imagined spatio-temporal background against which the action / subject matter is set. As a social replica, any work of art has its implications ascribed to the literary devices to reach at the social meaning in the form of its moral or message to be given. e. g. Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet,’ ‘Othello,’ or Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion’ could be the masterpieces not only because of their literary aesthetic values, but also their sociologically meaningful situations and people in them.

13.3. The Concepts of ‘Reality’ and ‘Objectivity’

In literary research, these concepts have been at the core of the corpus for investigation. Since the Platonic or Aristotelian period, every critic or scholarly reader’s research has spoken of reality both in real life and the other in literature. The social realism and literary reality are conceptual and so there has been a common acceptance to ‘objectivity.’ Whatever projected, though subjectively by the writer, has the capacities for providing equivalence with the real life objectivity verified or experienced. All these properties are observable by finding the relevance of literary informative elements like plot, characters, dialogues, setting or background, diction, or thematic design with the events or happenings in our real life. For instance, the artistically or artificially stringed events in a plot, despite of the chronological order, has its realistic sense as if everyday activities happen and are believed to be real.

There are several literary theories laid down by some great philosophers or thinkers which make us think so, e.g. the concepts of ‘objective correlation, the theory of ‘impersonality or the process of depersonalization’ by T. S. Eliot  and ‘the ‘psycho-analytical perspectives in characters’ personification’ first laid out by Sigmund Freud in the late 19^th century. The naturalistic reading of literary texts makes the behaviours exhibited more credible because they are occurring in a real, typical scenario or realistic readings showing awareness and acceptance of reality as propounded by modern critics. All this indicates the intermingling of all these branches of information and knowledge differently encoded for the sake of different purposes. However, due to specialization, the categorical analyses have been expected in most of the fields nowadays.

13.4. Literary Research and Culture Studies

Culture studies comprise of the localities, the people, their behavioural and occupational distinction, the linguistic and religious uniformities, clothing and ornamental specificity, their folk arts, literature, music, dance, other ways of recreation, and views on living life i.e. life philosophy. Literature is simply a reflection of all these in literary art forms. Therefore, culture studies are the interpretation of these artistic presentations where lies literary research. Recent trends in research and research methodology are the combination of qualitative and quantitative and pragmatic approaches; and so culture studies become the outcome of all these parameters applied in literary studies. No aspect has been left discarded while reading, for instance, the regional, realistic novels. A researcher makes the cultural scenario clear through interpretation of literary textual stretches by using devices from the social sciences respectively. History, Ethnography, or Geography are helpful to deal with arts, music, and recreational manifestations; while Politics, Psychology and contemporary studies to human life conditions as variables in relation to spatiotemporal features.

Objectivity is very important in quantitative research. As a result, researchers have to take great care to avoid their self-involvement such as behaviour or attitude affecting the results by changing the situation under studies or causing participants’ different behaviour.

Qualitative researchers do not base their research on pre-determined hypotheses. Nevertheless, they clearly identify a problem or topic that they want to explore and may be guided by a theoretical lens - a kind of overarching theory which provides a framework for their investigation.

13.5. Conclusion

In literary research, social sciences contribute by providing the predetermined theories, experienced or observed values of life information validated as knowledge and the fundamental issues and the then solutions to them; and any literary research become authentic, objective and somewhat universal only because of the socio-cultural, humanistic and physic-geographical aspects being considered as the parameters to define and evaluate the significance of literary devices use in the texts. In short, literary research due to the recent trends of multidisciplinary and complex approaches appears to be collage (random collection) consisting of such different social scientific functions as in making of human life.

References

Howard, G., 1985. Basic Research Methods in the Social Sciences. Scott, Forssmann and Co.

Morse, J. M., 1994. Critical Issues in Qualitative Research Methods. London Sage Publication UK.

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14 . The Role of English Communication Skills in Personality Development

Communication skills are the aspects of the developed personality. The use of English in the Indian contexts has become mandatory to every educated individual since communicative competence in English is the counterpart of any successful person. The psycho-socio-cultural aspects and the selection of ‘lexical,’ ‘phrasal’ and ‘phonological’ elements are the necessary factors in the use of language. The new communal experiences require new symbolic units for representation of new thinking, new ideas, or changing needs. In fact the concept of globalization is solely realized by this common language-English. It exists with other Indian languages in the local contexts and is capable to carry out social functions. We use English to communicate with the fellow Indians and not with the native English speakers. So we have to adjust English usages with the Indian local norms.

14.1. Communication Skills and Personality

Communication includes variety of ways of interactions and language is one of the ways of communication. Linguistic discourse is a social behaviour. Everyone has an ability of using at least one language that is a mother-tongue. This ability of acquiring language develops and expands continuously to learn more new language(s) in terms of not only the linguistic rules, but the reference to the social context too. Here a learner learns to use a language in social situations in an appropriate manner. In Chomsky’s sense, a language user has to develop the abstract cognitive ability and a learner of English as a non-native language user has to learn English in the non-English contexts by appropriating its usages to add to one’s personality. In short, in language acquisition, not only the formal rules, but the contextual rules are also learnt by a learner to have the ‘communicative competence’ i.e. personality development. It means in English learning, social context is an important factor which requires skills for using a non-native Indian English in relationship with the socio-cultural setting in which the language functions.

14.2. Communicative Competence in English and Personality

When a learner is able to utter speech acts, participate in speech events and is recognized in a society, one is to be believed as a competent user of a language. Such all this absorbing form of communicative competence is called ‘Sociolinguistic Pragmatic Ability.’ Dell Hymes (1984) stated that ‘communicative competence’ is related to the four features such as ‘Linguistically and Non-linguistically possible,’ ‘Psycho-linguistically and implementationally feasible,’ ‘Socio-linguistically appropriate,’ and ‘communicative strategies’ like knowledge and ability of actually using language. In short, the concept of communicative competence is psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic-pragmatic competence. The indenisation of English could be the solution to develop the communicative competence in English to improve the personalities.

14.3. Pragmatics and Personality Development

Pragmatics has brought in the various principles or theories like Searle’s ‘Speech Acts,’ H.P. Grice’s (1975) ‘Co-operative Principle,’ and Lakoff’s (1975) ‘Politeness Principle’ to analyze the process of meaning with the aegis of psycholinguists. All these principles are part and parcel of personality development. Psycholinguistics is a study of the relationship between language and human mind by offering new insights into the nature of human mind; and sociolinguistics is a study of language in relation to society. Since Darwin to Chomsky, the psychologists have accepted more or less that any child can learn to speak any language through the innate impulse if supported by the environment. This means language learning ability can be developed by the constant reinforcement from the social circumstances. This constant reinforcement from social circumstances is a way to enrich personality. A speaker’s intentions and the language devices are the elements used to mark the characteristics of communicative discourse. The psycho-socio-cultural aspects and the selection of ‘lexical,’ ‘phrasal’ and ‘phonological’ elements are the necessary factors in planning and production of discourse or use of language. And all these are the components of developed personality.

14.4. Role of Language in Our Life

Language is believed to be a heritage of society to the individual. Language has a tremendous impact on man and the problems of philosophy are the problems of language. So the language of the community is an embodiment of the cultural system. Individuals actualize society and turns society into fact; and language is an agency or a link that represents the total culture to the generations. The development of symbolic system for the purpose of interaction and communication is possible for ages. Primarily, no language is backward if a language develops according to the needs of the community. The new communal experiences require new symbolic units for representation of new thinking, new ideas, or changing needs. So there is the constant increase in the lexicon of language. It is the dynamism of language to all its components to meet the requirements of the community. Therefore, English has been accepted as a new symbolic system.

14.5. English: A Means of Globalization

Globalization has opened new avenues all over the world which ultimately has led the world towards the path of progress. Every nation through the exchange of various means has realized the numerous benefits of globalization in terms of extension of cordial relationships, investment in industrial-commercial sectors, tourism, culture, etc. How all this is made possible for us. What is it that people with different cultures come together and share everything which was impossible some decades ago. It is the common language, common platform that has made it possible. In fact the concept of globalization is solely realized by this common language which is English. English is now accepted by every nation unopposed as the international language or universal language. Its relatively easy structure has made its opponents love the language.

14.6. Nature and Standard of English Usages

A non-native variety of English has been used by educated Indians in the socio-cultural context to perform certain functions in a multilingual pluri-cultural setting. English exists with other Indian languages in the local contexts and is capable to carry out social functions. In short, Indian English is related to the functions it has to serve in the Indian setting. That is why Indian English has its characteristic features at the phonological, grammatical, lexical and stylistic level. Indian English has acquired a distinct colour of its own. It cannot be separated from the socio-cultural setting. We use English to communicate with the fellow Indians and not with the native English speakers. So we have to adjust English usages with the Indian local norms. All this comes under the English communication skills.

14.7. Indianness in English Communication Skills

English is now used for various intra-national and international purposes by a variety of educated Indians such as academicians, doctors, engineers, lawyers, businessmen, tourist guides, administrators and ICT technicians.

English for specific purposes has developed its registers, determined lexical choice, and stylistic features. English should share and it shares a common ethos and a common awareness of social anxieties, racial and cultural memories. The underlying uniformity in diversity is easily recognizable (Srinivasan, 1985). In our communication, we have to touch upon the ethos and environment, appreciation and aspirations, and festivals with our local meanings. Examples:

a. Greetings in routine conversations to maintain social relationships.       

Rupa:     Good morning, sir.

Rajesh:   Good morning, you’re in a festival mood, aren’t you?

Rupa:     In fact, sir, I wanted to take leave today. There is Gouri Pujan at home.

Rajesh:   It’s all right. We shall manage without you though a Local Inquiry

Committee is about to visit today.

Rupa:     Thank you very much.

b. Greetings and Partings: If the speaker is not sure whether the other should use Good morning / Afternoon because of sometime restriction. We can use Namaste at any time of the day to greet a person or to say Goodbye.

Asha: Namaste,

Vishwas: Namasteji,

Asha: I haven’t seen you for a long time.

Vishwas: I was away in Mumbai.There was an official work.

c. Use of honorific terms to refer to non-kins: There is a tendency to use honorific terms to refer not only to relatives, but also to non-kins. e. g. Joshi Uncle and auntie, police dada.

14.8. Impact of Englishized Personality

The English users in India are considered to be educated, professional, and sophisticated personalities. They seem to be confident; they are believed to be successful; they could be promoted in their jobs in their multinational companies; and they are considered to be good leaders. They are the persons who are developed personalities possessing the following qualities.

Figure 14.1. Englishized Personality

14.9. Recommendations

The role of English within the complex multilingual society of India is very complex. English is used across India as the first, second, or third language. Every region has its influence on the use of English. Indians who know English will always try to show off that they know English. Rightly or wrongly, English has become a symbol of better education and higher intellect for many Indians. The code-mixing is a status marker for Indians who know English often mingle English words with Indian languages in their conversations.  English also serves as the bridge language in India of different languages.

References

Brumfit, C. J. and Johnson, K., 1979. The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching. Oxford University Press.

Hudson, R. A., 2003. Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics: Sociolinguistics. 2^nd edition. Cambridge University Press.

Kudchedkar, S. (ed), 2002. Readings in English Language Teaching in India. Orient Longman Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore.

Lakoff, R., 1975. Politeness, Pragmatics and Performatives. in Roger, Wall and Murphy, p.79-106.

Livingston, S., 1983. Pragmatics.  Cambridge University Press.

Lyons, J., 1977. Semantics. 2 volumes. Cambridge University Press.

Tirumalesh, K. V. (ed), 1999. Language Matters: Essays on Language, Literature and Translation. CIEFL Akshara Series.

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15 . The Role of Literature in Promoting Peace

If education is the only defence against human upheaval, literature which is to be learnt is for creating the safeguard for human survival on the planet earth. Peace is instilled in human mind through education in general and literature studies in particular. To establish the permanent conditions for peace, literature could be the means for building a mutual trust between all citizens of the nation and all human beings over the world. No country can imagine one’s economic or cultural development without having peace, harmony and social development. Peace in the world is nothing else but understanding the natural world of difference from personal to global, studying the causes of war, conflict and rights and the human violence and exploring a range of awareness of rights and responsibilities of individuals and groups in the world. Literature is a very effective tool at the hands of teachers to cultivate the peace behaviour among students; and teachers would be the great agents to bring about change in a human society by using the literary works which can provide the theoretical learning about actual life, the skills of working together, and full though imaginative exposure to socio-cultural issues in the society. Promoting peace requires a complex network of environmental factors such as homes, contemporaries, communities, ethnic groups, the means of communication, and the governments. A variety of experiences and skills for diffusing the messages of peace could be conveyed through literatures of nations if teachers are trained to give education of emotions and the skills of co-existence and integration. They help in developing insight to deal with problems related to discrimination, oppression, exploitation, terrorism, or violence at the levels of caste, religion and nation in the world. 

15.1. Concept of ‘Peace’

As stated in the Preamble of UNESCO, ‘peace’ is a state of mind; since wars begin in the minds of men, then the defense of peace must be constructed in the minds of men. Peace is a capacity to live together in harmony i.e. the absence of violence. Peace is a period of harmony between different social groups that is characterized by lack of violence or conflict behaviours, and the freedom from fear of violence.

There are a number of aspects of peace as per the religious beliefs, the historical heritage, and the spiritual concept of inner peace of mind. Religious beliefs often seek to identify and address the basic problems of human life, including the conflicts between, among, and within persons and societies. To Christians, Christ is the son of God on the Earth to create God’s kingdom of Peace; Muslims believe that Allah is the source of Peace and so they have to obey Almighty Allah to go up floor of Heaven. Buddhists believe that peace is an end of all suffering. They believe that all suffering comes from desire or greed, hatred, or illusion. To eliminate such suffering and achieve personal peace, the followers of the Buddha hold fast to a set of teachings called the Four Noble Truths. The spiritualists think that inner peace or peace of mind refers to a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of discord or stress.

It is quite obvious that the future generations need to study and think the past and the present causes of conflicts, wars or unrest, their consequences, and the ways of averting these social ills to create an impact. Nowadays, people of the world should know all norms, values and attitudes that can bring about an encouraging environment for human peaceful living. More recently, advocates for radical reform in justice systems have called for a public policy adoption of non-punitive, non-violent Restorative justice methods, and so nowadays justice means peace. The United Nations Organization while working on Restorative Justice has also attempted to re-define justice in terms of peace.

15.2. What is Literature (?) and for What?

Language is a constituent element of civilization; it is a roadmap of a culture that tells us where the persons from and where they may go. Literature is a well-used and preserved stock of Language. Literature is a mirror of life which reflects all aspects of life; it often investigates deep into the human mind, to look for the unknown or unfamiliar. Some literature attempts to describe perceptions of the world from the mind of a great philosopher or a serial killer. If it is well written and researched thoroughly, this literature would be charming and probably upsetting too, because it teaches us about the human behaviour of someone who is very different from ourselves. It shows to the reader an aspect of human behaviour that is not common among all people. From this experience, we learn about an aspect which we do not have an understanding of. It increases our knowledge of human behaviour. Other literature reveals something about great many people who get engaged with this literature because they have some understanding of it; so some book increases their knowledge of their own human behaviour. It also shows the commonality of human behaviour to many people.

As M. H. Abrams (1953) stated the two different views of the artists by using two metaphors - ‘the mirror’ and ‘the lamp.’ One is for the classical view of a faithful representation of life and the other is for the romantic view of the poet as a visionary. Literature provides an enormous information base of all fields - breaking discoveries, inventions, or even the age old stories of human evolution and narratives of human life of all times. This reliable source of information helps us knowing the whole world.

15.3. The Classical Views

The classical literature is the representation of life through finest form of expression and art as an ideal aim of life. This literature leads us to the most complicated philosophical truths in the lucid language. Plato’s ‘Republic’ impresses the reader negatively while looking at art from the view that it is an imitation of ideal reality which is not an exact reality; so the poets he banished. Through the ‘theory of imitation’ in his ‘Poetics’, Aristotle explained the basic function of poetry. While watching a tragic play the readers have the ‘catharsis,’ an emotional relief from a tragic stress.

Shakespeare and Milton are the representatives of the ages as their times impressed them. Shakespeare’s plays are the poetry of human instincts and impulses. Human virtues and vices like love, hate, fear, jealousy, ambition, suspicion, etc. Milton was a poet of will and purpose. His world famous great epics - ‘Paradise Lost,’ and ‘Paradise Regained’ are the examples of the Puritanical moral earnestness. They are the great poetry of human race and the spirituality. This philosophy of life has always been contributing to the world peace by making people aware of the basics of human conflicts and uselessness of these vicious views stated through literature of the age.

15.4. The Romantic Views

Poetry enables man to know the deeper and essential truths, about humans, about nature, about life. For instance, William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, P. B. Shelley, John Keats and other romantic poets while looking beyond the reality with the help of imagination. They make readers realize the meaning of content and happiness in the natural set up of the world. The mechanization and industrialization have converted human mind into machines and so humanity dies at the cost of material progress they pointed out through their poetry. The concept of peace that they expected is the spiritual or a state of mind, free from any stress or tension due to lust for life of sophistication and artificialities. The supreme power of imagination can change the attitude of living life by understanding the nature of reality.

15.5. The Realistic View

This view of literature deals with social, cultural issues or truths of social evils. For that nowadays novel is the most popular and accomplished form of literature since the 19^th century in England and 20^th century in India. In this view, the writers have to observe and analyze the social life situations and come out with the aspects need to be changed or changed. The19^th century realism was in its turn a reaction to Romanticism, and for this reason it is also commonly derogatorily referred as traditional.

15.6. Social Realism and Peace

Social realism, an international art movement, refers to the work of painters, printmakers, photographers and filmmakers who draw attention to the everyday conditions of the working class and the poor; social realists are critical of the social structures which maintain these conditions. The novels were about the common man, which also happened to be the struggles of the lower class. These struggles usually included a lower class citizen trying to gain upward mobility. Thus, a subgenre called ‘Social Realism’ was born. One of the most popular novels of this time is in the Social Realism genre. In Charles Dickens Great Expectations, the novel goes through a boy named Pip’s life, as he unexpectedly comes into money and is asked to become a gentleman. Literature in Realism defines reality as something that exists prior to, and completely separate from, human thought or speech. Therefore, it is literature’s responsibility to accurately interpret and represent reality. As literature attempts to do this, it simultaneously depicts the anxieties, desires, and achievements of the Victorian time period. Realism, which emphasizes the importance of the ordinary person and the ordinary situation, generally rejects the heroic and the aristocratic and embraces the ordinary working class citizen.

15.7. World Peace and Modernism

We must know its limitations. Although materialistic knowledge in the form of science and technology has contributed enormously to human welfare, it is not capable of creating lasting happiness. For renewal of human values and attainment of lasting happiness, we need to look to the common humanitarian heritage of all nations the world over. Under present condition, there is definitely growing need for human understanding and a sense of universal responsibility. In order to achieve such ideas, we must generate a good and kind heart, for without this, we can achieve neither universal happiness nor lasting world peace.

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16 . Women Empowerment in Indian English Novels

Strengthening the social, economic and educational powers of women is women empowerment. Nowadays, it does not mean the gender inequality only. It is the time for the creation of an environment for women where they can make decisions of their own for their personal benefits as well as for the society. It expects to have an environment free from gender bias and have equal rights in community, society and workplaces. It is very supporting to overall development in every field of life since active participation of men and women in total development is imperative there. Literature is a reflection of society; and not only social issues, but messages for social reformation and progression have been the functions of any literary form. The people or society depicted in the literary pieces has the local references and the contexts for validation and usefulness of ideas or principles for living or improving society through literary works.

16.1. Definition of Women Empowerment

Women Empowerment is nothing else but to increase and improve the social, economic, political and legal strength of the women; it is also to ensure equal-right to women and to make them confident enough; and it is to make aware of claiming for their rights. They must be able to live their life freely with a sense of self-worth, respect and dignity. They should have complete control of their life; they should make their own choices and decisions within and outside of their home and workplace. They should have equal rights to participate in social, religious and public activities. All women should have equal social status in the society. Every woman should have equal rights for social and economic justice. They must get equal opportunity for education, employment and environment. There is an expectation of keeping safe, comfortable and free from gender bias.

16.2. Importance of Women Empowerment

Active participation of women is expected in economic activities and decisions. All this would contribute to overall economic development. If men and women are the two faculty of humanity; then both the faculties need to be employed and engaged in earning. A large number of women around the world are unemployed. They should have equal opportunity at workplaces. We know women, nowadays, are even ahead of men in many socio-economic activities. They are equally competent and brilliant. Such talented faculty of mankind was traditionally not allowed to show their talents; even education and free life conditions were not allotted to them. The main advantage of women empowerment is an overall development of the society. The money that women’s income will help the family and it will also help develop the society. Women will be economically and socially independent beings. This combination would naturally make living life balanced and contented. The conflicts would be removed due to education and earnings of women. It will reduce poverty since men’s income does not meet the demands of family. Eventually, in every field, we will find women participation and so their outstanding performance. The national per capita income would be doubled in such conditions where women empowerment has been a reality.

16.3. Role of Literature in Women Empowerment

The empowerment of women is for overall development of society.  Literature is a product of human culture. It has the two functions. The function of literature as power is to move the heart and mind of the readers. The function of literature of knowledge is the function to teach. It means that literature gives particular values, messages, and themes to the readers. Therefore, literature plays very important roles in women empowerment and enrichment of culture in the course of time. Literary texts provide the vehicle for culture. The settings, characterizations, situations, and points of views in literary texts offer the students with manifold opportunities for raising awareness of difference and for developing tolerance and understanding; and women empowerment of gender equality could be the important issues that modern literature usually talks about. Literature provides and affects emotions which are the psychological human phenomena. When the students interact with a literary text, it involves a deeper level of mental processing, a greater personal involvement and response. Both men and women have been made aware of the strengths and weaknesses of them as social beings.

16.4. Indian English Novel and Women Empowerment

Indian English novel is a story of changing tradition, changing attitude, changing India which has always been a land of stories, folklores and myths. It is primarily a phenomenon that arises out of the British presence in India for a long time. It is possible to consider the entire scope and significance of Indian Literature in English as a working out of Indian issues, problems and urgencies that result from the colonial encounter. The true story of Indian English novel and its journey began with the writings of ‘The Trio of Indian English Fiction’ - Raja Rao, R. K. Narayan and Mulk Raj Anand in the 1930s. They used ‘novel form’ as an instrument to portray India and Indian life through their perspective using English as a tool for expression. They intended to unveil the grotesque mythical realities, daily Indian lives and social ills and evils in the form of caste system, class disparity, inequality, untouchability, poverty and other social issues prevalent in the Indian society. They have realistically projected the rural Indian life and rural Indian sensibility as well as issues and problems of Indians from the rural India in their novels.

16.5. Women in Mulk Raj Anand’s Novels

Anand places the Indian woman in a traditional socio-cultural milieu in his novels where she is forced to face a life of degradation and dehumanization, a life of mental torture, harassment, subjugation and exploitation and of conditioned responses. He depicts the predicament of an Indian woman who is a victim of the social and economic oppressive forces and of the rigid and orthodox social set up. She is treated as an inferior being, a pleasure-giving creature and a child-bearing machine. The woman, in Anand’s opinion, should be treated on an equal footing with man. There need not be any disparity between the male and the female. In his early novels, he projects the traditional image of the Pativrata who suffers in silence. Her courage lies in facing poverty, calamity, oppression and exploitation. While stressing the need for the emancipation of the woman, he wants her to break the ties of conventions and traditions. His novel is the journey of a meek, mild, obedient woman from the traditional platform to the platform of modernity. In ‘Coolie’, for example, he deals with the issue of social discrepancy and gross inequality in contemporary India.

16.6. Women in Raja Rao’s Novels

His novels contain a vivid, real and life-like picture of the rural India with its folks, customs, conventions, traditions, beliefs, superstitions and myths. His characters represent the common men and women from Indian villages. Women, in Rao’s fiction, are the victims of domestic injustice and tyrannical tradition which denies them the possibility of being a person capable of achieving individualization, and self-realization. In ‘Kanthapura’ Rao is concerned with Gandhian philosophy, which he feels, can give a proper direction to human life. He considers novel to be a form of spiritual growth. He uses this form to explore themes related to human life, themes such as nature of human life, nature of death, immortality, the clash between illusion and reality, good and evil.

16.7. Women in R. K. Narayan’s Novels

From his first novel ‘Swami and Friends’ and his last ‘A Tiger for Malgudi’ (1983), he has created the whole cycle of the human seasons from boyhood to old age. His novels move towards a progressive statement of the human condition from boyhood to old age wisdom. In Narayan’s fictitious and visionary village, Malgudi, the ordinary men and women of India live a miserable and heart-rending life with all its contrariness and arbitrariness. His novels are simple stories of ordinary people trying to live their simple and ordinary lives in the fast-changing world. In all the novels that he wrote, he has realistically depicted the issues and problems of ordinary everyday life deeply rooted in an Indian soil.

He minutely observes his society, men and women around him, and presents realistic pictures charged with gentle irony and humour in his novels. He accepts reality ungrudgingly and never tries to criticize or correct things. His characters deal with everything that exists and happens around them in each and every walk of life.

16.8. Themes of Crises in Women Writings

Like men writers, Indian women writers in English like Kamla Markandaya, Anita Desai, Nayantara Sahgal, Shashi Deshpande and others have explored the aura of women’s cause from the feminist’s perspective and revolted against the established norms, conventions and traditions. They speak for themselves and they don’t need men to defend them. Talking about women identity and men dominance have been the usual issues in literature. After Independence, some eminent writers like Arundhati Roy, Jumpa Lahiri, Shobha De, V. S. Naipaul, Shashi Tharoor and others, dealing with current issues and social problems in contemporary India, have given a new height to Indian English novel.

Kamala Markandaya’s first novel entitled ‘Nectar in a Sieve’ realistically deals with a picture of Indian villagers with their customs and conventions, rites and rituals, cultures and traditions. The novel moves around the character, Rukmani, her life and plight, an inseparable part of the feminine life. Her second novel ‘Some Inner Fury’ projects the past life, emotions, feelings, passions and ecstasies of Mira, the woman protagonist. Her third novel entitled ‘A Silence of Desire’ unfolds the layers of spiritual reality and mystic vision of India. It is the story of Dandekar, a government servant, who is tortured by his wife, Sarojini, suffering from tumour and trying to seek a spiritual solace from the Swamy.

Jhabvala has a very close observation of and deep insight into Indian urban life. Most of her novels project the problems of Indian cities and their natives with minute details. The bitter and sordid realities of dirt in Indian cities, the frustrations and agonies of the urban Indians have been realistically depicted in her novels. ‘To Whom She Will’ depicts a picture of an Indian society with all its rites and rituals, customs and conventions, taste and temperament, love and marriage. Her novel ‘The Nature of Passion’ is a story of a modern young girl who shows courage and confidence to rebel against age-old rites and customs, myths and traditions and fights for liberation. Her novels ‘Edmond in India’ and ‘A Backward Place’ deal with the conflict between the East and the West. ‘The House Holder’ is yet another novel written by her which moves around the eternal conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law prevalent in Indian society.

Nayantara Sahgal proves herself to be a charming story teller in her novels. As the leading practitioner of the political novel, she, in her novel entitled, ‘Rich Like Us’ (1985) deals with the theme related to the image of the New Woman and her struggle for an identity of her own. Her major concerns are traditional socio-cultural values and people’s attitude towards politics and personal relationships.

Anita Desai is interested in the inner psyche, inner life of her women protagonists. She deals with the mind and the soul of her characters. She depicts the image of a suffering woman preoccupied with her inner world, her frustration and the storm within, her plight and predicament in a male-dominated Indian society. ‘Cry, the Peacock’ is a tragic story of Maya who is haunted by the prediction of the death either of husband or of wife. ‘The Voices in the City’ projects the marital life of Monisha and Jiban. ‘Where Shall We Go This Summer’ is a novel which shows Sita’s inner tragic reality with special focus on cruelty and callousness an Indian urban woman has to face in her life.

Shobha De has been concerned with the contemporary urban Indian woman’s challenges, predicament, values, and lifestyle with the woman question. Her female protagonists challenge and attempt to shatter the traditional patriarchal set up. They are far more assertive, domineering and bold in comparison to their male counterparts.

Mrinal Pande’s ‘Daughter’s Daughter’ (1993) focuses on the issue of gender-discrimination and gender bias prevalent in contemporary Indian society. It is a story of a girl growing up in North India at her maternal grandfather’s home where her cousin Kukki, being the boy, is given preference in all things over Tinu, a daughter’s daughter. The novel is a graphic picture of discrimination against the girl child.

16.9. Barriers in Women Empowerment

In male dominating society, there are several barriers in women empowerment. The males have superiority complex and they do not allow their female counter-parts to surpass rise as high as them. Women have to carry out several of domestic responsibilities; so equally participating in all social, economic and religious activities become difficult. Traditionally, only males have been treated as capable and eligible beings to get education, for development and privileges.

16.10.  Solutions from Literature for Empowerment of Women

For removing the above stated barriers, there are some solutions. One is to make education available to all; the second is to establish gender equality; the third is to provide equal status to women, and the last is to save girl child to change attitude towards females. Indian women novelists in English have given a new dimension to Indian English literature. They have also dealt with the spirit of Indian culture and traditional values in their novels. They intend to free the Indian women from the control of male domination, a burning issue prevalent in an Indian patriarchal society. Thus, Indian English novels deal with the themes of Indian feminine sensibility. They love to explore the inner world of the female and condemn exploitation, subjugation and suppression and try to make sense of the rapidly changing pace of ‘New’ India.

16.11. Conclusion

All novelists have changed the scenario of Indian English literature. In a sense, their novels are deeply rooted in the Indian soil, Indian context and Indian life. Characters, images, themes, forms, beliefs, norms, assumptions, attitudes and everything are determined by the socio-cultural forces that shape the world in which the writer lives. Indian literature in English, too, is rooted in Indian life in its totality. Indian writers in English have proved their worth and significance by enriching Indian English fiction with their contribution.

References

Anand, M. R., 1970. Untouchable. An Orient Paperback, New Delhi.

Desai, A., 1982. Where Shall We Go This Summer? Orient Paperbacks New Delhi.

Naik, M. K., 1995. A History of Indian English Literature. Sahitya Akademi, reprinted.

Prasad, N. K., 2006. Indian Writing in English: Tradition and Modernity. Sarup Book Publishers Pvt. Ltd.

Thorat, A., 2000. Five Great Indian Novels: Discourse Analysis. MacMillan India, Ltd.

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