Liberalization in ELT

by Liberale

Liberalization in ELT

 The Steering Committee of the Foreign Language Program prepared   the qualifications for secondary school teachers of modern languages. This was endorsed by the executive boards or councils  of 18 foreign language associations. The areas in which proficiency was required among others included: Speaking, Reading, Writing, Language Analysis and  Culture.

 The expected Superior  Level  and Minimum Level regarding culture is given below:

Superior:

An enlightened understanding of the foreign people and their culture, achieved through personal contact, preferably by travel and residence abroad, through study of systematic descriptions of the foreign culture, and through study of literature and the arts.

Minimum:

An awareness of language as an essential element among the learned and shared experiences that combine to form a particular culture, and a rudimentary knowledge of the Geography, history, art, social customs and the contemporary civilization of the foreign people.

 [Source PMLA Vol 70.No. 4 , Part 2, P 46-49 , Sep 1955]

 Liberalization and Globalization are today the watch words of International trade and commerce. Ever since  English Language Teaching (ELT)  began to flourish as an industry and spread its roots into the campuses of educational institutions in India, several revolutionary methods and strategies  came into vogue. The impact can now be felt in teacher recruitment too.

 Recently a news item relating to  the teaching of English in God’d Own Country appeared in a  local  Malayalam daily (Mathrubhoomi 23 April 2010). It relates to  the  decision taken by the Curriculum Committee to permit those who had studied subjects other that English Literature at the graduate level, but later taken a PG degree in English Literature, be eligible to  apply for the English teacher’s job in Higher Secondary Schools in Kerala.

Common sense tells us that those who had opted to study English Literature at the Bachelor’s level unlike ones who opted to study some other subject,  has a greater love for the English language. Further, we live in an age when highly liberalized  and flexible Correspondence Courses of many universities permit any Tom, Dick and Harry to acquire a Post Graduate degree even in English Literature with flying colours!  But then when Liberalization is the ‘watch word’, why should we stupidly insist on ‘Quality’? Why should the people in God’s Own Country deny any one who studied any subject  save English Literature at the Graduate level be denied a  lucrative teaching job at the Higher Secondary Level?

 Does liberalization in ELT mean focusing on the minimal level of ‘cultural competence’  mentioned in the beginning?