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The Journal of English Language Teaching (India)

Volume LIX Number 6 November–December, 2017

Founder Editor and Publisher:Padmasree S. Natarajan

2 Dear Reader

3 Teaching-Learning Theories, Classroom Practices Simon G. Bernabasand Learning Outcomes: The Case of EnglishTeaching in India

8 One-on-One: Interview with Robert Bellarmine Albert P’Rayan

17 The Acquisition of the Perfect Progressive Leena Jadhav &Construction in English by Management Students: Tripti KarekattiA Study in Error Analysis

26 Should We Encourage E-Reading? Stephen Krashen &Jeff McQuillan

30 Key Terms and Concepts in English Language P.N. RamaniTeaching and Learning

32 Does Anxiety Affect Written communication? Sunanda Mahesh ShindeA study of Engineering Students in Tripti KarekattiIndian Context

43 Letter to the Editor

46 Book Review V. Saraswathi

48 Reading Activity K. Elango

2 The Journal of English Language Teaching (India) LIX/6, 2017

Dear Reader

I am very happy to be in touch with you again.

This issue of the Journal of English Language Teaching (JELT) carries an interview with RobertBellarmine, former English Studies Officer, British Council (BC). Bellarmine answers a wide rangeof questions and shares his experience as BC’s Manager of English Studies programmes, hisassociation with Alan Maley and N.S.Prabhu, and his passion for teaching English to thedisadvantaged (TED), his thoughts on what ails English Language Teaching in India and his viewson the changing role of teachers in the twenty-first century.

Stephen Krashen, whose interview appeared in our journal about two years ago, has written manyarticles on the “power of reading”. Recently, when I contacted Krashen asking him to comment onwhether e-reading can help learners acquire the target language and whether visual media / socialmedia be used to help learners acquire the target language, he wrote a commentary on the issue ofe-book reading, co-authored with Jeff McQuillan, exclusively for JELT. In the commentary titled“Should we encourage e-reading?” the authors state that “Self-selected voluntary e-reading appearsto result in language acquisition, but promoting e-reading may not close the achievement gap unlesssteps are taken to make e-books and e-book readers more affordable”.

In this issue of the journal we have introduced a new feature “Key Terms and Concepts in EnglishLanguage Teaching and Learning” by P. N. Ramani. It will be a regular feature. The first piece is onApplied Linguistics.

Besides the above mentioned articles, we have regular features such as book review and readingactivity and research papers.

Simon G Bernabas in the article “Teaching-Learning Theories, Classroom Practices and LearningOutcomes: The Case of English Teaching in India” raises the issues such as whether the main causeof the decline of English teaching in India rest on poor teaching-learning methodology and whetherit is important to focus entirely on the teaching of skills or to consider English as a means forstudents’ empowerment.

In the paper “Acquisition of the Perfect Progressive Construction in English by Management Students:A Study in Error Analysis”, Leena Jadhav and Tripti Karekatti state that the findings of the researchindicate that the Marathi speakers of English selected for the study have not mastered the perfectprogressive construction in English and stress the need for drastic pedagogical changes and intensiveremedial language teaching.

In the paper titled “Does Anxiety Affect Written Communication?: A Study of Engineering Studentsin Indian Context” Sunanda Mahesh Shinde discusses how anxiety affects students’ writtencommunication.

V Saraswathi who has reviewed the book The World as a Stage: Shakespearean Transformations byK. Chellappan concludes the review with the statement “Here is a multi-faceted, insightful, scintillatingtreasure trove of Shakespearean criticism that should delight any lover of Shakespeare” in a waytempting us to read the book.

Your suggestions and feedback are welcome. If you have any comments on the articles published,do write to me at [email protected].

Wish you all a professionally rewarding new year!

Dr Albert P’Rayan

The Journal of English Language Teaching (India) LIX/6, 2017 3

Introduction

The subject of English teaching in India hasalways been mired in controversies. Broadlyspeaking, there have been two factionscontinuously engaging in debatesconcerning the teaching of English in India.

Thus the first group of scholars has favouredthe teaching of literature for its own sakeor for cultural empowerment. This group hasconsistently challenged the efforts of thesecond group of academics and researcherswho have advocated a more language-

Teaching-Learning Theories, Classroom Practices andLearning Outcomes: The Case of English Teaching inIndiaSimon G. BernabasAssociate Professor, PG Department of English, Ahmednagar College, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra

E-mail : [email protected]

ABSTRACTIndia was ‘fortunate’ enough to introduce English teaching almost at thesame time as the language began to be taught in England. Since then, ourcountry has never lagged behind in importing the teaching-learning theoriesdeveloped abroad. While the argument for and against the introduction andteaching of English is still raging, India has consistently produced, for nearlytwo centuries, a very large number of English-literate people with highly-varying degrees of proficiency in the language. The vast differences inproficiency is really alarming, according to serious educationists, researchers,academics and surveys. It appears that for most centers of education in ourcountry, the teaching of this language has become a ritual. This is not tounderestimate the commendable progress that some educational institutions,far away from metropolitan areas, are making in imparting the four basicskills of English, especially through a judicious use of multimedia technology,to the students. Some of the issues that the present paper raises are: Doesthe main cause of the decline of English teaching in India rest on poor teaching-learning methodology? Why do we find vast differences in the classroompractices of teaching English? Do we need to blame the teaching-learningtheories adopted in our country from time to time or do we have to blame theshifting language planning processes that clearly suggest politicalinclinations and partisanship? And, lastly, should we focus entirely on theteaching of skills or should we also consider English as a means for students’empowerment?


oriented theory, known as the languagethrough literature theory. This conflict ofideas does not seem to have affected a largenumber of students in India; for them, whatis being taught is of primary importance.

The current argument about learningEnglish has been that the privileged havealways used English effectively for their ownadvantage while a very large number ofstudents, even after studying the languagefor 10-15 years, gain neither linguisticproficiency nor cultural empowerment. Onequestion is likely to arise here: Haven’t theybecome more conscious of their rights andspaces on the campus? The answer is thatthat awareness is mostly an outcome of theinterventions of media and theircorrespondents and, to some extent, ofpolitical parties rather than the result ofteaching English texts. Let me also add thatother disciplines like Sociology, History andPolitical Science also aim at empowerment.

Beneficiaries of English

While a privileged minority uses English asa weapon for wielding power and grabbingemployment opportunities, a majority, inspite of a university degree, is notemployable. One of the impacts ofglobalization is the job opportunities itbrought for graduates in the IT-BPO sector.Because of the opportunities available in theservice sector many countries across theworld insist that their school leavers’proficiency in English should be gradableat B1 on the Common European Frame ofReference. Candidates with this grade canmake themselves understood in everyday

situations but will make mistakes whichsometimes cause misunderstanding. Atypical BPO company will accept such acandidate but Indian school leavers lack thisproficiency. David Graddol argues:“Achieving this in India will be a challenge,since compulsory schooling is completed byage 14 [or 15].”Ten years of study in schoolsand 5 years study in colleges do not provideenough knowledge of English to ruralstudents to take up jobs in the servicesector. Consequently, there is a talent poolcrisis in India.

There are at least two reasons for this crisis:one, a fast-growing economy like India needslarger number of skilled workforce withgreater skills. To meet this need theeducation system should help upgrade theskills levels of its students. The secondreason is based on the question whetherschools and colleges should train people forspecific jobs or for a broad spectrum of jobs.Either way, the means and methods ofteaching English should undergo seriousadaptations.

Adoption of foreign methods:

This raises yet another question: Have weever been reluctant to adopt new methodsof teaching in India? According to some, theteaching methodology, techniques andapproaches we have adopted in our countryfrom time to time have had colonial origins.For instance, Alok Mukherjee, in hismonumental work The Gift of English,argues that only “marginal changes haveoccurred in the curriculum and teaching ofundergraduate English in a few places….”


Let us also recall here MeenakshiMukherjee’s essay “Macaulay’s ImperishableEmpire” in which she argues that “thesystem of education conducted uponEnglish models obscured the models bywhich the students might relate themselvesto their actual environmental and culturalcontexts.” (35)

Legacy of the Structural Approach

In a book-length historical essay, entitled50 Years of English Studies at the EFLUniversity: An Essay in Understanding, therenowned ELT expert ML Tickoo states thatthere was colonial interference in adoptingone of the earliest and long-lastingapproaches adopted in Independent India,the Structural Approach, at the thenCentral Institute of English (CIE) way backin the 1960s: “This applied linguisticapproach had originated in the form of theaudio-lingual method in the USA … andwas brought into this country by a groupof enthusiastic U.K.-trained practitionersmost of whom, as committed ‘middle men’representatives of the British Council,forcefully and with considerable successpromoted it as the revealed truth.” (18) Thefirst Director of the CIE, Dr. VK Gokak, wasmore than happy to accept the StructuralApproach now that the traditionalapproaches in his view were a failure.Tickoo continues: “From his earliest daysat the CIE, Gokak … had welcomed theintroduction of the structural syllabus andpraised the work done on it, including the‘good work … done in this direction by theEnglish Language Teaching Institute atAllahabad.’ “ (Ibid 25)

The Communicative Approach

What we saw in the succeeding years, too,was a continuation of Gokak’s stance, i.e.,accepting the methods developed andimplemented in countries of native speakersof English. Thus the 1990s saw the slowbut widespread adoption of theCommunicative Language Teaching (CLT)method in India. The blind acceptance ofmethods, are often criticized by experts.Juup Stelma, for instance, argues: “. . . CLTis something clearly defined with a fixed setof techniques. This means that when thefixed techniques of CLT are ‘exported’ to non-Western contexts they simply will not ‘fit’.On this view it would indeed be inadvisableto use CLT in anything else than Westerncontexts.” (57) He endorses Sandra McKay’sview that because of its Westernpeculiarities, CLT “fails to respond to localteachers and students’ needs andbackgrounds” and adds that “an uncriticaladoption of CLT in non-Western contextsmay . . . be inappropriate.” (57).

A concrete instance to substantiate theseideas may be cited here. In the early 1990s,the then Central Institute of English andForeign Languages (CIEFL) undertook,jointly with the British Council, India, andthe CBSE, a curriculum implementationstudy in order to evaluate the CBSE Englishsyllabus in schools. Regarding the methodsand materials used for the compilation ofthe syllabus, ML Tickoo says: “I believe,however, that a lot more would have beengained if the materials had come not froman institute in the UK and the purelymonolingual approach they advocated, but


from the CIEFL itself which had by thengained enough expertise in the field ofmaterials development and also in what acommunicative course suited to Indianteaching-learning environments shouldattempt and produce.” (93) The implicationis clear: we need to indigenize foreignmethods and materials according to thesituations of each academic environment.This, unfortunately, is not being done. If atall attempts at indigenization are beingmade they are not popularized oracknowledged. Much of the ELT researchdone at Language Institutes andUniversities is hardly tried or tested.

Learner-centeredness, teacher talk andform-focused teaching

Considering the reality that a majority ofour students have very poor proficiency inEnglish even when they enter the tertiarylevel, we need to think whether we can reallyunderplay the vital importance of teachertalk at that stage. For learning any languageexposure to the target language is a must.If learner-centeredness is emphasized in aclass with extremely diverse languageproficiency, then the outcome of such anapproach can be frustrating. It is in thiscontext that we need to look back to thepositive aspects of the Structural Approach.Let me state it emphatically that I am notmaking a plea for the reintroduction of theApproach. My point is that the Approachhas given due emphasis on the selection,gradation and reinforcement of languageitems/forms and the teacher’s directinterventions while introducing them. Iwould also not like to deny the fact that

complementing teacher talk with ICT-basedteaching would reinforce students’understanding and practice of languageskills.

A question may be raised here: Haven’t wedone away with language-focusedinstruction and moved on to theCommunicative Approach? Yes, we have.But let us also not forget that there arearguments in favour of the former kind ofinstruction as well. Consider, for example,these words of Paul Nation, spoken inrelation to the teaching of vocabulary:

Language-focused instruction occurswhen learners direct their attention tolanguage items not for producing orcomprehending a particular message,but for gaining knowledge about the itemas a part of the language system. . . . itcan raise learners’ consciousness orawareness of particular items so thatthey are then more readily noticed whenthey occur in meaning-focused input.(270-71)

Gaining knowledge about language, thus,has significance for the learners and theteacher’s role in providing that cannot beoverlooked.

The dangers of policy shifts

One last point needs to be noted, althoughthat might give a sad note to the closing ofthis paper. The fact that stares at our faceis the unjust practices that have seepedthrough the heart of our education system.Government policies regarding learning getsperiodically changed according to the whims


of a party or coalition that comes to power.Maintaining standards of education does notalways seem to be its primary concern. Thisis evident from the no detention policypractised till class VIII or so. The policy, Ifeel, has at least two or three disturbingimplications: one, it tampers with learners’attainment of basic skills and knowledgeduring the formative years of their lives;secondly, assessing learning outcomes andstudents’ levels of language proficiencythrough strict evaluation proceduresbecomes less important; thirdly, theseriousness of teaching gets affected and,finally, promoting a student till class VIIIand then failing her after that stage becomesunjust. There are also undesirableinstitutional practices, like appointing ill-qualified teachers overruling merit, failingto provide proper infrastructure or learningenvironment, or discouraging the use ofeffective language teaching methodology andtechniques applicable to specific classroomsituations. If we are serious about producingemployable youths through Englishteaching, then we need to be honest aboutthe existence of such evils and work togetherwith determination to provide qualityeducation to a large number of

underprivileged learners in our country.

WORKS CITED

Graddol, David. English Next India: TheFuture of English in India. British Council,2010.

Mukherjee, Alok. The Gift of English. NewDelhi: Orient Blackswan, 2009.

Mukherjee, Meenakshi. “Macaulay’sImperishable Empire.” In CD Narasimhaiahand CN Srinath, ed., English: ItsComplementary Role in India.

Nation, Paul. “Best Practice in VocabularyTeaching and Learning.” Methodology inLanguage Teaching: An Anthology of CurrentPractice. Ed. Jack C Richards and Willy A.Renandya. New Delhi: CUP, 2010. Print.

Stelma, Jupp. “What is CommunicativeLanguage Teaching?” In Susan Hunston andDavid Oakey, ed., Introducing AppliedLinguistics Concepts and Skills, London andNew York: Routledge, 2010. Print.

Tickoo, Makhan L. 50 Years of EnglishStudies at the EFL University: AnEssay in Understanding. Hyderabad: TheEnglish and Foreign University, 2008.


Robert Bellarmine, an ELT expert, teachereducator, corporate trainer and author, isa well known and respected person in theELT circle in India. In this interview withAlbert P’Rayan, Mr Bellarmine shares hisexperience as British Council’s Manager ofEnglish Studies programmes, hisassociation with Alan Maley, formerRegional Director, British Council, and hispassion for teaching English to thedisadvantaged, his thoughts on what ailsEnglish Language Teaching in India and hisviews on the changing role of teachers inthe twenty-first century.

Mr Bellarmine, many thanks for acceptingmy request to be interviewed for theJournal of English Language Teaching.During the past four decades, you haveserved as a teacher, corporate trainer,teacher educator, editor of textbookseries, English Studies Officer, andCambridge examiner and have capturedthe hearts and minds of many ELTians.Now, when you look back at your career,do you have a sense of satisfaction thatyou have achieved what you wanted toachieve?

As a member of the staff of the CIEFL (nowEFLU), and as ESO at the British CouncilDivision, Chennai, between 1979 and 1997,I had spread the developments in theCommunicative Language movement fairly

widely in South India. I’m particularly proudof the fact that when Dr N S Prabhu wasdiffusing the information about hissupremely innovative idea of the ProceduralSyllabus, especially the verification of hisproposal in typical classrooms, I was ableto support that innovation strongly. InsideCIEFL, surprisingly, there was strongopposition to his CTP (CommunicationalTeaching Project) from the first generationELT specialists of India.

Another role I played at which I look backwith a deep sense of satisfaction is the roleI played as one of the managers of theCBSE’s English Curriculum Renewalproject. This satisfaction arises mainly outof the assistance I provided in identifyingand selecting teachers in CBSE schools whohad the specialists’ potential to becomesyllabus writers, materials producers,

One-on-One: Interview with Robert BellarmineAlbert P’RayanProfessor of English & Head, Higher Education,KCG College of Technology, Chennai

Email: [email protected]


designers of testing and evaluationinstruments, and teacher trainers.

Further, when a serious professionaldisagreement arose between the Britishspecialists of the project and the Indianspecialists in the CBSE Headquarters,regarding the need to include high literaturefor the learners in higher classes, I stronglysupported the Indian standpoint. Althoughthe ESOs were treated in this project onlyas project managers, and not as EnglishStudies specialists, I stuck my neck out inthis matter. Ultimately, the Indianstandpoint in support of Literature inLanguage Teaching won.

Another achievement I recall is this. AfterMr Alan Maley, the English Language Officerfor India at that time, got the financialsupport of Britain’s Overseas DevelopmentAdministration (now Department forInternational Development or DFID) for ELTprojects in South India, I had to ensure thatthe projects achieved their objectives andbecame sustainable. These projects involvedwriting new, communicative syllabuses,writing teaching and testing materials,training the teachers and finally thelaunching of the new curricula. The hostsof these projects were Anna University,Kerala University, Padmavathy Women’sUniversity, Tirupathy, Technical TeachersTraining Institute, Chennai, Indian Instituteof Science, and Osmania University.

I am pleased to record here that the projectat Anna University achieved its objectivesfully and was sustained for about twentyyears. Besides, more than twenty local ELTspecialists from the project institutions were

trained in the UK on short as well as longterm courses in Applied Linguistics. Equallyimportant, a reputable Indian publisher,Orient Longman (now Orient Blackswan)with Usha Aroor as its ELT Editor, did theexcellent job of helping the teacher-turned-textbook writers to write ELT textbooks forAnna University and Padmavathy Women’sUniversity.

As an individual ELT specialist, I haveauthored a five book series titled MillenniumGrammar and Composition for BPIEducational, Mumbai/Delhi, edited atwenty-two book series called Hello Englishtargeted at English medium schools forOrient Blackswan, and co-edited TeachingLiterature in Indian Universities for theBritish Council.

You are one among those who promotedPlain English in India. What was the needfor a Plain English Movement in India?How successful were you in promoting it?

As for my achievements while at the BC, Irecall with a great sense of pride what I didfor Plain English. In that period of time, eventhe British Applied Linguists did notembrace it as something with seriousimplications for Applied Linguistics,Communication Studies and GoodGovernance. As a result, the English Studiespolicy of the British Council did notrecognize Plain English experts in the UKas experts to be invited to host countrieslike India.

However, my own analysis of the Englishlanguage used in India showed clearly thatthere was an urgent need for a Plain English


Movement in the country. So with greattemerity, I proposed to the Specialist ToursDepartment of the British CouncilHeadquarters, London, for their support forworkshops in Plain English in South India.As one of India’s widely acknowledgedjournalists and the founder of the ClearEnglish India Movement, Jyoti Sanyal, laterconfirmed in his book Indlish, my hunchabout this need was correct. And theprogramme I planned with Martin Cutts asthe leader of workshops in Plain English waswarmly embraced by famous institutionssuch as the LIC and the National LawSchool, Bangalore.

A couple of months ago, I interviewedAlan Maley (Director of the BritishCouncil in South India, 1984-1988) forthe Journal of English LanguageTeaching. When I asked him what he hadgained personally from his stay in India,he said, “...I was lucky to be able to recruitRobert Bellarmine from CIEFL (as was),...(He was) inestimable value to me inmaking decisions about the BritishCouncil’s possible contributions to theEnglish teaching community...” Howimportant was your association with AlanMaley?

My association with Alan Maley is somethingwhich I really treasure. It brought aboutimportant changes in my career, andintroduced into my personal life an extra-ordinarily warm-hearted person. I’mparticularly proud of my association withAlan, as he is the most prolific and globallyacknowledged author and editor of ELTbooks for the learner.

Within a year after I joined the BC, he helped

me learn the peculiarities the businesscommunication required by the Council. Forinstance, one of the secrets of achievingbrevity, as he taught me, is to keep certainthings for the letters and the others thatinvolve strengthening relationship for officialdinners and face-to-face meetings.

By the way, many of the British Council (BC)contacts I know from not only EnglishStudies but also other disciplines such asCultural Affairs and Science and Technologystill remember Alan as the most hospitableof the BC Directors for South India. Anothersterling quality of Alan is his love andappreciation for, both English Literatureand the English Language.

Could you please share with us about yourcontributions, as English Studies Officer,to the English teaching community inIndia?

To turn to my own contributions as ESO atChennai, my job was to organize lecturesand workshops by specialist literatureteachers, creative writers, and critics fromthe UK, on the one hand, and ELT specialistson the other.

The most warmly appreciated of my serviceswas the organization of the visit of the NobelLaureate, Sir William Golding, to the region.Thanks to the great teachers of EnglishLiterature such as Prof. C. D. Narasimhaiah,Golding had been widely read by theteachers, their students and adult readersoutside the academia. One of the thingswhich I vividly recall in this connectionhappened when I accompanied Golding toDharwad, Karnataka, for his readingsessions at Dharwad University. To see him


face to face and to attend his programme, agroup of young men had travelled in abullock cart from a village more than twenty-five kilometres from Dharwad. What gaveme most satisfaction on this programme wasGolding’s own appreciation of the deep andwide knowledge of his works among theSouth Indian audiences, the sharp andperceptive critical observation of theteachers of his novels, and the personaladmiration they all showed in seeing himat close quarters.

As for the ELT programmes, the leaders andpromoters of the Communicative LanguageTeaching from Britain such as HenryWiddowson and Christopher Brumfit, andthe Father of Modern English LanguageTesting, Prof Alan Davies, were brought toSouth India, as the local ELT experts andclassroom practitioners were keen tointeract with them.

One of the noteworthy outcomes of the localELT experts’ interaction with the Britishexperts visiting the region, and their trainingin the UK universities was the formation ofTeacher Development Groups (TDGs) inSouth India. The most active of them, highlyappreciated by the British specialists, wasthe TDG called ELT Community based inBangalore led by Dr Esther Ramani and ablysupported by Dr Barbara Naidu, Dr JayaGowri, and Dr C L N Prakash.

Outside ODA projects referred to above, Iwas able to send about seventy-five localELT teachers and teacher trainers from thisregion for one year long courses in ELT andApplied Linguistics to world famousuniversities such as University of

Edinburgh, University of Lancaster,University of Reading and University ofLondon.

In the same interview, Alan Maley saidthat he was “singularly fortunate to havehad NS Prabhu as a colleague and to seehis Bangalore Project at first hand. Hisdeparture from a linguistically-structuredsyllabus to a procedural syllabus basedon a series of carefully staged tasks wasa critical moment in the development ofour current conceptions of ELT.” Youhave known NS Prabhu for many yearsand you have also discussed his work inmany forums. Though Prabhu is wellknown outside India for his task-basedapproach, his contributions are not muchrecognized in India. Have we failed tohonour our own hero?

True, we in India have miserably failed tohonour our greatest thinker and practitionerin ELT. But this failure cannot be simplybrushed aside with the biblical “this-Jesus-son-of-Joseph-the-carpenter” aside.

It is extremely important for the nation andindividual professionals to perceive whatthis failure exposes. They are thefundamental fault lines in our profession’spractice, especially at the research andteacher training levels, in institutions suchas the EFLU (English & Foreign LanguagesUniversity), Regional Institutes of English,English Language Institutes, and ELTdepartments in our Universities, overall, inour ELT academic culture.

For example, for lack of the academic cultureof “Publish or Perish”, important primary


sources on Dr Prabhu’s concepts and theconduct of the five year long classroomimplementation of his CommunicationalTeaching Practice (CTP) in the realclassrooms in Bangalore, Madras andCudalore, such as his book SecondLanguage Pedagogy (1984) and secondarysources of great quality by ELT thinkers inthe UK, Canada, and USA, have not beenstudied, discussed and critiqued, as muchas they are outside India. How manyseminars on his contributions do you thinkhave been conducted at EFLU, since hisBangalore Project began in 1979? How manyteacher trainers and research guides inIndia have spread messages, in fact,superlative praise, like the following?

“It starts from a ‘strong’ interpretation ofthe communicative approach which means…that children follow a communicationsyllabus, not a language one. Bangalore hasset the context for one of the mostinteresting arguments of the eighties.” (Myemphasis) (Antony Howatt 1984)

“One of the earliest curricular applicationsof TBLT (Task-Based Language Teaching) toappear in the literature was the Bangaloreproject.” (Emphasis mine) (David Nunan2004)

Secondly, most of the senior, first generationELT experts in India based at CIEFL, RIEs,and ELTIs did not even understand the factthat Prabhu actually adopted the purposeof their Structural Approach (SA), namelyconstructing in the learners’ mind thegrammatical structures of the targetlanguage. He rejected only the gradedstructural syllabus and the non-

communicative method SA deployed for thispurpose.

Thirdly, in India, the State governments thatclaimed to incorporate the ProceduralSyllabus in their ELT practice merely usedthe term “task” or “activities” in theirsyllabuses and textbooks.

Finally, the seminars and conferences basedin Indian universities and tertiaryinstitutions have not drawn participants’attention to the Bangalore Project by settingup (a) any in-depth quiz on Prabhu’s bookand the newsletters of RIE, Bangalore, thatcontain rich materials on the whole project,(b) competitions to bring out local ELTscholars’ knowledge of the project and itsstellar outcomes, and (c) activities like mockdebates among experts to explicate the ideasin Prabhu’s and his critics’ publications.

The recently concluded ELTAIinternational conference at Kochi had thetheme “English Language Acquisition:Western Theories and Eastern Practices”.The need for Indianising English languageteaching was stressed by some speakers.Does it make sense to you? What is yourtake on “Indianising ELT”?

I do not understand what the users of thephrase “Indianising ELT” meant when theyused it at the Cochin conference or whenmy contemporaries used it on earlieroccasions.

Suppose they meant “localising” or“contextualising” the thought content oftheir lessons or “situationalising” thestructures and vocabulary items in theirlanguage classrooms. Then, this is what


good language teachers do all over the world.So what is “Indian” about it?

Suppose they imply a kind of (a) long termpatronage or practice as in “Indianmysticism”, (b) original discovery orinvention as in “Indian medicine”, (c)preponderant use of distinct characteristics,as in “Indian English”, “Indian dance”,“Indian music”, “Indian architecture” or“Indian culture”. Then Indian ELT aspractised in our schools and colleges, in myconsidered opinion, does not really qualifyfor this sort of “parochial” or “sectarian” GI(Geographical Identification).

You were trained by Professor AlanDavies, known as the Father of LanguageTesting, and you, in turn, have trainedover a hundred English languageexaminers for British Council. What doyou think are the characteristics of aneffective English language examiner?

There are three sets of characteristicsessential to an effective English languageexaminer. In fact, any examiner! The firstis the professional set. “Validity” and“reliability” being the most fundamental ofthem, an examiner’s marking has to bealways “valid” and “reliable”.

The second set of characteristics ismanagerial. For example, as for theiravailability for exam work, an effectiveexaminer must be dependable. Their timemanagement in conducting, say aninterview for a spoken English test, as inIELTS or BEC, should be efficient andstrictly according to test specifications.

The third set is ethical and moral. Ethical

is “objective” in that (a) these are imposedby the testing body and test administrators,and (b) examiners are supposed to followthese requirements as a group. Moral, onthe contrary, is “subjective” in that it isfollowed in the personal sphere.

Do you think that there is a changing roleof teachers in the twenty-first century?

Education in general has been influencedremarkably by the versat i l i ty oftechnology since the sixt ies of thetwentieth century. As one of thepresenters of a TED (Technology,Entertainment and Design) talk recentlypointed out, pupils prefer a video lessonin their homes to the same teacher andthe same lesson in the classroom.Therefore, in thousands of classrooms,the lessons on the computer, untilrecently taught in the classroom withoutthe computer, are now assigned forviewing and re-viewing at home. Incontrast, the traditional homework tasksare worked out in the classroom, with thehelp of the teachers and fellow learners.

Also, old Educational concepts such as“mastery learning” are reassertingthemselves now, radically changing even theformation of learner groups according to thecriterion of age.

Hopefully, the Global EducationCommission of UNESCO headed by theformer PM of Britain, Dr. Gordon Brown,as it has already revolutionised educationin countries like Vietnam and Tunisia, willthrow more light on the role of teachers ofthe twenty first century by 2030, thedeadline for the Commission.


I was fortunate to attend a few of yourpresentations. Once you used the termsHappiness Habits, Self Development andSuccess Skills and said that these skillsshould be incorporated into the curricula.Can you elaborate on these terms and theneed for incorporating them into thecurricula?

As you know, one of the peculiarities ofLanguage Teaching (LT) is that its thoughtcontent has often been chosen randomly.In the remote past, when GrammarTranslation was in vogue, religious andliterary writings were the thought content.Recently, Prabhu chose arithmeti1c andrational thought content. Many teachersteaching French and English as secondlanguages in Canada have been usingacademic subjects e.g. geography, history,and science, as thought content. Mostrecently, the teachers who have contributedchapters of activities and ideas to that greatbook “Integrating global issues in thecreative English language classroom: Withreference to the United Nations SustainableDevelopment Goals” edited by Alan Maleyand Nik Peachey, and published by theBritish Council, have been using ideas ofpoverty alleviation, gender justice, worldpeace, and the like.

In the same way, thanks to the impact ofself-development books on me, I occasionallyused extracts from these books, andactivities such as the ones involving time-lines. Happiness being the universal humanaspiration, books dealing with concepts ofhappiness and activities promotinghappiness have also attracted my attention.In my corporate training, after I left the

British Council in 1997, I was using thesethought contents in reading and writingactivities, and in activities such as the onesincluded as tasks in books for TBLT (TaskBased Language Teaching).

But this use of the techniques or textsdealing with Success Skills and HappinessHabits was infrequent, and limited to theperiphery of my practice.

“Teaching English to the disadvantaged”has been your passion for many years.You and Fr Peter Francis were involvedin projects relating to this. Howsuccessful were these projects?

My interest in TED (Teaching English to theDisadvantaged) arose very late in myprofessional life: a little more than threeyears before I left the BC. Earlier, I hadrealized that Prabhu’s innovation, whichhad been developed in schools where thelargest majority of the socially,geographically and educationallydisadvantaged children were concentrated,was essentially a kind of TED. But myaspiration was to make it fit thedisadvantaged better, by re-orienting itsthought content and “tasks” to SuccessSkills, i.e. to the needs of the disadvantaged.

With this aspiration, I conducted threeseminars on TED, hoping that I couldidentify ELT workers (a) who had alreadytried out some ideas and techniques thatcould be amalgamated with Prabhu’sapproach, and (b) who could form a team tocarry out a TED project in a school.Stalwarts such as Dr Prabhu, Dr. K.C.Chellappan, Dr Webber from UK, Prof. JacobTharu, Dr Peter Francis S.J., and Dr.


Manmatha Kundu, participated in them.But the ideas and reports on their workpresented in those seminars were not goodenough, in my estimate, to enter into thedesign of TED as Fr. Peter Francis or Ienvisaged it.

As for Fr. Peter’s and my attempts in OlcottMemorial School in Beasant Nagar,Chennai, for two years, guiding the teachersof the lower elementary classes there, I mustfrankly say the following. For severalreasons, our effort at making the projectplan as a project plan, syllabus writing,lesson planning, and their introduction tothe teachers was not adequate and thereforeunsuccessful. We faced certain serioushurdles of academic freedom. For example,the school did not allow us to record theclassroom interactions. In the second year,the new principal required the teachers touse the Structural Approach. At thepersonal level, for health and financialreasons, I was compelled to devote a lot ofmy time to teacher training and IELTS work.

In conclusion, the need, the scope and moralsupport for TED do exist in our country, insome parts of South America and inAustralia, where Education for theDisadvantaged has been tried out in a fewschools for the aborigines and ethnicminorities.

What ails English language teaching inIndia? In your opinion, what measuresshould be taken to improve the teachingof English?

In the ocean of Indian Education, I see theeffective learning of English in about 20%of the private, English medium schools as a

beautiful coral island. In contrast, thelearning of English in state-administeredand state-aided mother tongue mediumschools is a huge iceberg.

In my analysis, what ails ELT in India isthe following set of factors. It is importantto realize that while some factors areeducational, some others are ethical,political, managerial and economic. Firstly,as pointed out by a Focus Group of theNCERT, requiring primary school teachers,whose proficiency in English is almost zero,to teach the language to children as earlyas in lower primary classes, is a seriousproblem.

Secondly, ELT trainers and researchers ininstitutions such as the EFLU and RIEshave failed in the last forty years bybecoming passive spectators, by ceasing tobe policy advisers, syllabus constructors,textbook writers and teacher trainers,though required by the laws of their societiesframed at the time of their creation.

Thirdly, the government textbook societies,their materials writers, syllabus designersand producers of testing and evaluationtools, do not give sufficient time, guidanceand specifications to fellow professionals aswell as to themselves. This is mainly amanagerial problem.

Fourthly, the production and sale oftextbooks for government schools hasbecome such an unethical business thatgood private publishers are totally deniedthe opportunity to write books forgovernment schools. Even NCERT’s ownbooks, like their recently published historyand social sciences books which are


excellent have been denied the opportunityto compete with the State Governments’textbooks.

Fifthly, India’s budget for education,consequently the budget for ELT, is woefullysmall –often less than 2% of our GDP, asobserved most recently by Bill Gates. Thisis most unfortunate. For, as pointed out bythe former Education Minister of Tunisia,countries like Vietnam and Tunisia, whosebudget allocations for Education increasedto 20%, have improved the quality of theireducation, presumably including ELT,surpassing the quality of Education in theUS and the UK.

Sixthly, perhaps most importantly, the testsand examinations deployed in StateGovernment schools, colleges and technicalinstitutions such as the Engineeringcolleges, are unforgivably mal-administrated. For example, in one State Iknow personally, in the exams for Class X,copying the question papers for English isbeing awarded 30% of the total marksallocated. The examiners I spoke to revealedthat this is a long standing practice thatarose from the oral instruction of anEducation Minister.

Lastly, the media occasionally bring outarticles critical of the failure of ELT innon-English medium schools. However,invest igat ive journal ism in Indiahas not exposed the width and breadthof the unethical practices in Indian ELTor the damage this has done to the

country ’s economic and soc ia ldevelopment.

You are proud of saying that you had ahumble background and you studied in aTamil-medium school. Though your firstdegree was in Chemistry, you are aneffective communicator in English andyou were able to become a very successfulEnglish language teacher, trainer andconsultant. You also rose to the highestposition an Indian in the British Councilcan aspire for. What is the secret of yoursuccess?

First and foremost, God, rationalists maysay Nature, blessed me with a good aptitudefor language and learning. Second, I owemy success in learning English, to excellentteachers such as Mr. Bruno Villava Rayerof my high school. Third, with their sweatand sacrifice, my parents and my wifeJessie, enabled me to get my first degreeand my PG qualifications in ELT from CIEFLand Edinburgh University, respectively.Fourth, poverty motivated me intensely (a)to migrate from my village, and (b) to developmyself linguistically, educationally, andintellectually. Fifth, for the success in mycareer, Dr. Nadkarni and Dr. Tickoo of theCIEFL, and Mr. Alan Maley and Dr N SPrabhu of the British Council, were chieflyresponsible. Finally, to use a cliché, “lastbut not least”, Lady Luck has been a factorI can’t ignore.

Thank you. That’s very interesting andinspiring too.


Introduction

Error analysis is one of the most prominentapproaches to the acquisition of a secondlanguage. It functions as a tool in analysingthe errors made by the second languagelearnersand provides an insight into thepossible causes of the errors. Furthermore,it also provides an empirical evidence to thestudy undertaken.

The present paper aims to study theacquisition of the English perfect progressiveconstruction by the first year management

students located in Pune. The tool of erroranalysis has been used to analyze thelinguistic behaviour of the participants inthe paper. An attempt is made to analyzethe interlingual errors made by studentswhile using the perfect progressiveconstruction in English.

Literature Review

Corder (1967) in his seminal paper entitled“The Significance of Learners’ Errors”,proposed the linguists to focus on L2learners’ errors as sources of insight into

The Acquisition of the Perfect Progressive Constructionin English by Management Students: A Study in ErrorAnalysisLeena Jadhav, Research Scholar, Department of English, Shivaji University, KolhapurE-mail : [email protected]

Tripti Karekatti, Associate Professor, Department of English, Shivaji University, KolhapurE-mail : [email protected]

ABSTRACTError analysis has been one of the most significant concepts in ESL studiesand has stimulated curiosity of researchers hitherto as it provides anempirical evidence to the study undertaken. The present study aims to studythe acquisition of the English perfect progressive construction by the firstyear management students whose first language is Marathi. The data forthe present research is based on a grammaticality judgment test. The resultof data received from the test is calculated using the SPSS software. Thetool of error analysis has been used to analyze the linguistic behaviour of theparticipants in the present paper. An effort is made to trace the interlingualerrors made by the second language learners in the light of the comparativestudy of the first language (i.e. Marathi) and the second language (i.e. English).

Keywords: Error analysis, interlingual errors, intralingual errors, languageacquisition,


the learning process and not as ‘bad habits’to be eradicated. Saville-Troike(2006:38),refers to errors as windows to the languagelearners’ mind. According to Larsen-Freeman and Long (1991:61),

“From an EA perspective, the learner isno longer seen to be a passive recipientof TL input, but rather plays an activerole, processing input, generatinghypotheses, testing them and refiningthem.”

Corder (1967) views errors as valuableinformation for three beneficiaries, namely,teachers, researchers and students. It givesteachers clues on the progress of thestudents. The researchers get an insight intohow the language is acquired or learned.Furthermore, it gives learners resources inorder to learn.Error analysis, as anapproach to second language acquisition,has stimulated curiosity of many linguistsand ESL experts hitherto. Gass and Selinker(2008: 103) state that there are two mainsources of errors within the error analysisframework, namely, interlingual errors andintralingual errors.

• Interlingual Errors –The interlingual orinterference errors are the errors due tolearners’ first language. They involvecross-linguistic comparisons. Theseerrors refer to negative interlingualtransfer.

• Intralingual Errors - The intralingualerrors result from the language beinglearnt. They are due to partial or faultylearning of the target language.

Richards (1984) distinguishes theintralingual errors made by the learners intothe following categories

a. Over-generalization

b. Ignorance of rule restrictions

c. Incomplete application of rules

d. False concepts hypothesized

Ellis (1994) gives the following procedure tobe followed in Error analysis.

• Collection of Samples of learner language

• Identification of Errors

• Description/Classification of Errors

• Explanation of Errors

• Error Evaluation

Research Methodology

Objectives

• To compare and contrast the formal andfunctional properties of the perfectprogressive construction in English andMarathi

• To deduce the points of convergence anddivergence in the perfect progressiveconstruction in English and Marathi

• To analyze the interlingual errors madeby the participants while using theEnglish perfect progressive constructionin the grammaticality judgment testbased on the relationship between thetwo languages


A Grammar of Contemporary English (1972)by Quirk et al has been used as the modelfor English Grammar in this research. Thebook entitled Marathi (1997) by R.Pandharipande has been used as thestandard Marathi Grammar. Both thesetheoretical grammars used in the study aredescriptive corpus-based referencegrammars in the respective languages. Theareas of interference deduced from thecomparative study of the syntactic andsemantic properties of the perfectprogressive construction in English andMarathi have been used to analyse theinterlingual errors made by the participants.

Data Collection Procedure

The data for the present paper was basedon a grammaticality judgment test.Hundred MBA students belonging to tendifferent management institutes in Punewere selected for the elicitation of data. Thestudents are pursuing a professional degreein management and are expected to havehigher level of proficiency in Englishlanguage. The increasing number of MNCsin the fast globalizing Indian corporatesector assumes effective Englishcommunication skills an indispensablequality in any successful manager’s life.Thehundred participantswere selected based onthe following parameters.

a. Class: First Year MBA students from themanagement institutes located in Pune

b. First Language: Marathi

c. Medium of instruction in school: Marathi

d. Marks in Graduation: 50% - 70%

e. Gender: 50% Male and 50% Female, i.e.,50 male students and 50 female students

The data for the present research is basedon a grammaticality judgment test. The testconsisted of eight meticulously designedquestions aiming to judge the use of the verbphrasein English by the first year MBAstudents. A higher degree of uniformity inthe preparation of the grammaticalityjudgment test could be achieved as the itemswere targeted at subjects who shared thesame mother tongue, i.e., Marathi.

The questionnaire and the grammaticalityjudgement test were administered to 100MBA students belonging to differentmanagement institutes in Pune. Theresearcher made the students understandthat it was not an examination and that theresponses given by them would be used toimprove their teaching modules andmaterials. The test consisted of both theclosed ended and open ended questions. Thetest consisted of eight questions based onthe use of the verb phrase in English. Theeight questions in the test were arrangedas per the relative order of difficulty. Theyare as follow.

Question 1

Select the correct answer from the givenalternatives and fill in the blanks.

This was a multiple choice question wherethe students were asked to select one of thefour options of the verb form in the givensentence. This question aimed to examinethe learners’ ability to select the proper formof the verb as per the requirement of the


given sentence. The advantage of themultiple choice test is that it requires theparticipants to discriminate amongalternatives which need a level of masterythat a free response item might not be ableto detect.

Question 2

Use the appropriate forms of the verbs inthe brackets and fill in the blanks.

In this question, the students were expectedto use the correct form of the verb given inthe bracket based on the meaning of thesentence.

This question aimed to examine thestudents’ ability to use tense and aspectualforms at the intra-sentential level. It didnot require any other context to determinethe selection of the appropriate verb form.

Question 3

Underline the correct option in thefollowing sentences.

This was a multiple choice question wherethe students were asked to select one of thethree options, namely, since, from and for.It aimed to examine the students’ ability touse the right preposition of time.

Question 4

State whether the following sentences aregrammatically correct or incorrect. If thesentences are incorrect, correct them andrewrite them.

This was a correction exercise where thestudents’ knowledge of the verb forms and

their functions was judged. They wereexpected to understand the mistake in theverb form used in the given sentence andcorrect it. This question attempted toexamine the linguistic competence of thesubjects in the given area.

Question 5

How do you express the followingmeanings in English?

This was a translation exercise where thestudents were given Marathi sentences andwere asked to give English counterparts ofthe meanings conveyed in the Marathisentences. This question aimed to examinewhether students operate throughcompound bilingualism or co-ordinatebilingualism.

Question 6

Fill in the blanks with the appropriateforms of the verbs given in the bracketand complete the following dialogues.

This was a dialogue completion exercise.This question was designed to judge thestudents’ ability to use the correct verbforms at inter-sentential level. Here thecontext determined the selection of theappropriate form of the verb as any form oftense was based on the other sentences.

Question 7

Fill in the blanks with the appropriateforms of the verbs given in the bracketand complete the following passage.

This was a cloze exercise where the studentswere given a paragraph and they were asked


to fill in the blanks using the appropriateforms of the verbs given in the bracket. Thisquestion also examinedthe students’ abilityto use the correct verb forms at inter-sentential level. Here, the contextualknowledge was necessary for the selectionof the appropriate forms of the verbs.

Question 8

Write an essay on the following topicusing the points given below.

My Favourite Sport

This was a guided composition exercisewhere the students were asked to write anessay on their favourite sport using thepoints provided in the question. This wasan open ended exercise. It aimed to examinethe students’ ability to form their ownsentences and move from one point to theother.

Data Analysis

The data received from the results of thetest was evaluated. It consisted of bothcorrect answers and wrong answers. Theerrors made by the students were analysedin the light of the comparative study of thestructural and semantic features of the verbphrase in English and Marathi. A simpledescriptive statistical method was usedwhere the data was first converted into apercentage of errors which were furthercompared and systematically analyzed toidentify the extent to which the firstlanguage interferes with the secondlanguage while acquiring the verb phrasein English. The result of the data receivedfrom the test was calculated using the SPSS

software. The tool of error analysis by Corder(1967) was used to differentiate theresponses given by the participants into thefollowing four categories

1. Correct Responses

The first objective of the paper is tounderstand the proficiency of thesubjects as far as the use of the verbphrase in English is concerned. Hence,the number of correct responses is veryimportant to get the complete picture ofthe linguistic competence of the learners.

2. Interlingual Errors

The researcher attempts to understandthe errors the subjects make due to theinfluence of their first language, i.e.Marathi.

3. Intralingual Errors

The intralingual errors are also recordedas they also form a crucial part inunderstanding the overall proficiency ofthe subjects.

4. Unattempted Questions

The number of questions which are notanswered by the participants is alsorecorded.

Thus, the primary objective of the currentpaper is to understand and analyse theinterlingual errors made by the MBAstudents while using the perfect progressiveconstruction in English. Thus, theresponses given the questions related to theuse of the perfect progressive constructionin the test are used in this paper. The tool


of error analysis was used for the same.These results were further analyzed in orderto understand the role of Marathi in theacquisition of the perfect progressiveconstruction in English.Of course, the firstlanguage interference is not the only reasonof the errors made by students, others beingtransfer of training, overgeneralization etc.However, reference is made to these errorswherever it is found necessary. The detailedanalysis and discussion on the intralingualerrors made by the students lies outside thescope of this paper.

Findings

The perfect progressive is used for apersistent situation in English, whereas inMarathi, this use is less frequent. In fact,the progressive aspect is usually used alongwith an appropriate postpositional phraseto express the meaning of a persistentsituation in Marathi. If we apply theprinciple of Markedness DifferentialHypothesis (MDH) by Eckman (1977), theprogressive aspect is less marked ascompared to the perfect progressive

construction and hence this first languagehabit is transferred to English. That is thereason why most of the Marathi speakersof English tend to use the presentprogressive and an appropriate prepositionalphrase to denote an activity started in thepast and continuing up to the later point oftime. This point of language transferdeduced from the comparative study of theverb phrase in English and Marathi wasverified in the test given to the students.

The students’ ability to use the perfectprogressive construction appropriately wasexamined throughout all eight questionsgiven to the students. The perfectprogressive is used for a persistent situationin English. It was appropriately used in19.9% responses. On the other hand, 48.6%gave interference induced responses, thatis, the progressive construction was usedinstead of the perfect progressive. Theintralingual errors comprised of the 28.2%of the total responses whereas 3.3%questions were not attempted by therespondents.


This result proves that the participants havenot learnt the use of the perfect progressiveconstruction. The progressive constructionis typologically less marked as comparedto the perfect progressive construction andhence this first language habit istransferred to English. That is the reasonwhy most of the Marathi speakers of Englishtend to use the present progressive and anappropriate prepositional phrase to denotean activity started in the past andcontinuing up to some later point of time.This point of language transfer deducedfrom the comparative study of the verb

phrase in English and Marathi was verifiedin the test given to the students.For example,

Q.2.1 You ____________ (sit) in the room sincemorning. You need a break so go out andget some fresh air.

Here, only 14% students gave correctanswer, i.e. ‘have been sitting’ whereas 45%students used the present progressive, i.e.‘are sitting.’

The question-wise performance of thestudents in the perfect progressiveconstruction is given below

No Correct Interlingual Intralingual Unattempted Total(Perfect Errors Errors Questions

Progressive) (Progressive)

Q.1 29.60% 56.40% 14% - 100%

Q.2 10% 33.70% 54.30% 2% 100%

Q.4 14.50% 66% 10% 10% 100%Q.5 14.50% 54% 25% 6.50% 100%

Q.6 20% 54% 25% 1% 100%

Q.7 13% 11% 69% 7% 100%Q.8 42.20% 31.10% 26.70% - 100%


This seems to be a pan-Indian feature. InBritish English, there is an element ofredundancy as both the perfect progressiveand the prepositional phrase express themeaning of a persistent situation. Gokhale(2003:49) opines that ‘in IE simplificationis achieved by eliminating this redundancy.In IE the verb phrase in the progressive formconveys durativity and the prepositionalphrase expresses the meaning of apersistent situation.’

The difference between the prepositions‘since’, ‘from’ and ‘for’ is also quite confusingfor Marathi speakers of English. Forexample,

Q.3.1 They have lived in that house (since/from/for) five years.

The correct answer, i.e. ‘for’ was opted by51% students whereas the preposition‘since’ was used by 33% participants and15% students selected the alternative ‘from.’

Q.3.2 She has been in Paris (since/from/for) Monday.

The responses to this question comprisedof 34% correct answer, i.e. ‘since’ whereas57% students gave interference inducedresponse ‘from.’

Thus, difference in the use of prepositions‘since’, ‘from’ and ‘for’ creates a problem forMarathi learners. The results of the testindicate that 56.10% students gaveinterference induced responses. The reasonfor this kind of linguistic behaviour couldbe found in the differences in the structuresof English and Marathi. The perfect for a

persistent situation in English involves theuse of the preposition ‘since’ before anadverbial indicating the starting point oftime and the preposition ‘for’ before anadverbial of duration. But in Marathi, thepostposition ‘pâsûn’ (Meaning: since / from)is used for both. That is the reason whymany Marathi speakers of English cannotmaintain the distinction between ‘since’ and‘for’ and use the preposition ‘since/from’ forboth as it is a translation of the postposition‘pâsûn’ in Marathi. Furthermore, thepreposition ‘since’ occurs in perfect aspectwhereas the preposition ‘from’ occurs inother tenses. The performance of theparticipants in the test indicates thatMarathi speakers of English find it difficultto understand this difference and use ‘from’instead of ‘since’ in the perfect aspect.

Conclusion

The findings of the research indicate thatthe Marathi speakers of English selected forthe study, i.e., the first year MBA studentsfrom Pune district have not mastered theperfect progressive construction in English.They tend to operate through compoundbilingualism. They first think in Marathi andthen translate it in English. The progressiveconstruction is used in Marathi for apersistent situation whereas Englishrequires the perfect progressive constructionto communicate the same meaning. Theprogressive construction is typologically lessmarked as compared to the perfectprogressive construction and hence getstransferred to the target language. Theresults of the data analysis prove that


Marathi speakers show a tendency to usethe progressive aspect for a persistentsituation in English.

Thus, the study identifies the importanceof the learner’s knowledge of the syntacticstructures of the first language, which causedifficulty in acquiring a second language.The results obtained from the error analysisprovide substantial empirical evidence to theresearch undertaken. It proves that themanagement students have not masteredthe use of the perfect progressiveconstruction in English.The poorperformance of the students in using theverb phrase after almost ten years oflanguage learning calls for drasticpedagogical changes and intensive remediallanguage teaching.

REFERENCES

Corder, S.P. (1967). The significance oflearners’ errors. International Review ofApplied

Eckman, F. (1977). Markedness and thecontrastive analysis hypothesis. Language

Learning, 27, 315-30.

Ellis, R. (1994). Second language acquisition.Oxford: Oxford University Press. Linguistics,5,161-70.

Gass, S.M. &Selinker, L. (1983). SecondLanguage Acquisition. New York: RoutledgeGokhale, M.S. (2003), ‘The Perfective inIndian English’, Unpublished M.PhilDissertation. Pune: University of Pune.

Larsen-Freeman, D. and M. Long (1991). Anintroduction to second language acquisitionresearch. London: Longman.

Pandharipande, R. (1997). Marathi,Rouledge, London.

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G.,&Svartvik, J. (1972). A grammar ofcontemporary English. London: Longman.

Richards, J. (1984). Error analysis:Perspectives on second languageacquisition.London:LongmanGroupLtd.

Saville-Troike(2006). Introduction to secondlanguage acquisition. New Delhi: CambridgeUniversity Press.

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Should We Encourage E-Reading?Stephen Krashen, Professor Emeritus, University of Southern CaliforniaVisiting Professor, Texas A&M International University

Jeff McQuillan, Senior Research Associate,Center for Educational Development

It is firmly established that self-selectedpleasure reading is tremendous help tolanguage development, perhaps the bestway to help acquirers progress frombeginning stages to the most advancedstages. The research, until recently, hasbeen confined to reading paper print. Thereis, however, reason to suspect that self-selected e-reading can have a similarimpact.

Pratheeba and Krashen (2013) reported asubstantial correlation (r = .78) for advancedspeakers of English as a second language(25 students of engineering at a universityin India) between self-reported reading anda vocabulary test consisting of words takenfrom Graduate Record Examinationpreparation books, designed for nativespeakers of English.

Their 20-item questionnaire included fouritems dealing with reading from the

computer, but only one of these dealtspecifically with pleasure reading: thecorrelation between vocabulary scores andpleasure reading on the internet wasmodest, but it was positive and significant(r = .35, p = .044). Other forms of readingusing the computer (reading about currentaffairs, reading for academic purposes,reading online journals) were notsignificantly correlated with vocabularyscores, confirming the power of self-selectedreading (Lee, 2007).

Wang and Lee (2015) asked universitystudents of EFLin Taiwan to engage in web-surfing in English for 20 minutes at a timeat least once a week for one academic year.Surfers made better gains ontests ofknowledge of infrequently occurring words(those appearing once every 10,000 wordsin texts) and academic words and also didbetter than comparisons on a cloze test.Their reading was clearly self-selected and

ABSTRACTSo far, research confirms that “e-reading” can be helpful forthe acquisition of language and literacy. Because of the highcost of e-readers and e-books, however, those living in povertyare unable to take advantage of e-reading. A push towardincreasing e-book offerings in libraries will have the effect ofmaking the gap between the rich and poor wider than it isnow, unless the cost of e-readers is dramatically reduced orthe availability of e-readers is dramatically increased.


N = 1520 adults, March, 2016From: Pew Research Center, 2016

Table 1: Percentage who have read a print or e-book in the last 12 months.

income print book e-book

below 30,000 69 19

30,000 - 49,999 68 26

50,000 - 74,999 69 33

above 75,000 73 40

The official 2017 household income povertyline in the US was $20,600 for a family offour: If one of two wage earners in the familyearns anywhere close to $30,000, thismeans that the “below $30,000” category

Table 2 shows that those earning under $30,000 per year in 2015 were less likely to own e-book reading devices and computers.

Table 2: Percentage of adults with E-Book-Readers, tablets, computers, smartphones:

Computers Smartphone E-Readers Tablets

Below 30 50 52 14 28

30-49,999 80 69 16 44

50-74,999 90 76 22 51

75 & more 91 87 27 67

Pew Research Center, 2015.n = 959 adults, interview during March/April 2015.

includes families that are well above thepoverty line. E-book use and ownership ofe-reading devices among those living inpoverty is probably much lower than thefigures given in tables 1 and 2.

related to their own interests. One subjecttold Wang and Lee: “I think I can really pickwhat I like and disregard my dislikes. Then,I’ll choose what I really want for sure. Idefinitely won’t choose something I’m notinterested in.”

The BarrierE-book reading in the US is far morefrequent among those with higher incomes(table 1), most likely due to the cost of e-book reading devices and e-booksthemselves.


The Price of E-Book Readers

Most new e-book readers cost at least $80US. But the good news is that e-books cannow be read on other devices such ascomputers, smartphones and tablets.Because of this, sales of dedicated e-bookreaders, such as Kindles and Nooks, havedeclined (Haines, 2016). But computers,smartphones and tablets are notinexpensive, and as presented in table 2fewer low-income adults own these devices.

E-Book Prices

Four of the five best-selling adult fictionbooks in the United States, as listed in theNew York Times in January, 2017, sold for$14.99 and one sold for $10.99 on Amazon,sometimes less than the paperback versionsand sometimes more.

These prices do not take into considerationthe fact that e-books generally cannot beshared. Amazon allows some, but not allsharing of kindle books with friends for 14days, but this can only be done once perbook, and customers can’t read the bookwhile their friend has it.

Also, there is no used book possibility for e-books. Donations of used print books byindividuals through organizations such asbook swap groups can make significantlymore books available in public and schoollibraries (Krashen, 2014).

Are Libraries the Solution?

While many public libraries in the UnitedStates include e-books, they make up onthe average only 12% of the entire collection,

and account for only 3% of public librarycirculation (Romano, 2015a). Most (69%)of the e-books in public libraries are aimedat adults. Similarly, only 2% of school librarycollections are e-books and account for only3% of total circulation (Romano, 2015b).

Public libraries in the United States providea modest amount of help for those withoute-book readers or computers at home: 38%of public libraries have e-book readers thatpatrons can take home (Romano, 2015a).Rideout and Katz (2016) reported that 36%of adults living below the poverty line saidthey used computers at libraries, comparedto 23% of those living above the poverty line.Twenty-four percent of school librariesprovide e-book reading devices for students(Romano, 2015b).

Lack of access to books and other readingmaterial is the major reason those living inpoverty have lower levels of literacy(McQuillan, 1998; Krashen, 2004): Youngpeople living in poverty have fewer books inthe home, in local libraries, and in theirschools.Pushing e-reading by increasinglibrary e-book offerings will not solve thisproblem

Because of the high price of e-books and e-book readers, those living in poverty havelittle or no chance to engage in e-reading.In fact, promoting e-reading could make thesituation worse: an increase is e-bookofferings in libraries, without a substantialdecrease in the cost of e-book readers or aplan to make e-readers universally available,will increase the gap between the rich andthe poor. E-books will be available to the


more privileged but not to those withoutaccess to e-readers of some kind.

This has already happened: Those surveyedin Romano (2015b) were asked an open-ended question about interest, or lack ofinterest, students showed for e-books. Hereis one answer: “A lot of our students comefrom low income homes and don’t have away to read these titles.” (p. 31).

Summary

Self-selected voluntary e-reading appears toresult in language acquisition, butpromoting e-reading may not close theachievement gap unless steps are taken tomake e-books and e-book readers moreaffordable.

References

Haines, D. (2016). The e-book reader deviceis dying a rapid death. https://www.justpublishingadvice.com/the-e-reader-device-is-dying-a-rapid-death/

Krashen, S. (2004). The Power of Reading.Libraries Unlimited.

Krashen, S. (2014). Re-gifted reading.Language Magazine,13(5), 17.

Lee, S.Y. (2007). Revelations from threeconsecutive studies on extensive reading.RELC Journal, 38(2), 150-170.

McQuillan, J. (1998). The Literacy Crisis:False Claims, Real Solutions. Heinemann.

Pew Research Center (2015). TechnologyDevice Ownership.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/technology-device-ownership-2015/pi_2015-10-29_device-ownership_1-06/

Pew Research Center (2016). Book Reading,2016. http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/09/01/book-reading-2016/

Pratheeba, N. & Krashen, S. (2013). Self-reported reading as a predictor of vocabularyknowledge. Perceptual and Motor Skills,117(2), 442-448.

Rideout, V. & Katz, V. (2016). OpportunityFor all? Technology and Learning in LowerIncome Families. A Report on the Familiesand Media Project. New York: The Joan GanzCooney Center at Sesa.

Romano, R. (2015a). Survey of E-Book Usagein U.S. Public Libraries.

www.slj.libraryjournal.com/downloads/2015publicebooksurvey/

Romano, S. (2015b). Survey of E-Book Usagein U.S. School (K-12) Libraries.w w w . s l j . c o m / d o w n l o a d s /2015schoolebooksurvey

Wang, F. Y., & Lee, S. Y. (2015). Freevoluntary surfing: An extensive readingcurriculum supported by technology. In L.H. Das, S. Brand-Gruwel, J. Walhout & K.Kok (Eds.), (2015). The School Library Rocks:Proceedings of the 44th InternationalAssociation of School Librarianship (IASL)Conference 2015, Volume II: ResearchPapers (2

ndEd.) (pp. 488-503). Heerlen,

Open Universiteit.


Applied Linguistics

Linguistics is the study of human languagein general. This includes the structure oflanguage (i.e., grammar; phonetics andphonology; semantics; and so on). It alsoincludes the purposes for which languageis used in the real world. Combined withother disciplines, it has given rise tospecialized fields, such as

- historical linguistics (i.e., the study oflanguage change over time and region),

- psycholinguistics (i.e., the study of therelationship between language and thehuman mind),

- sociolinguistics (i.e., the study of therelationship between language andsociety),

- applied linguistics (i.e., the study of theapplications of language study),

- critical linguistics (i.e., the study of therelationship between language andideology),

- corpus linguistics (i.e., the use ofdatabases of authentic language forlanguage descriptions), and so on.

Applied linguistics is a branch oflinguistics that deals with applying linguistictheory to solving language-related issues inthe real world and, as such,covers many

Key Terms and Concepts in English LanguageTeaching and LearningP.N. Ramani

fields. For instance, the field of languageplanning is concerned with issues –problems and challenges – relating to theplanning and implementation of regionaland national language policies. The field oflanguage planning would address issuessuch as the following:

- the dominant language in a region or acountry(e.g., the lingua franca or theofficial language);

- English as an International Language,Global English, Indian English, and soon;

- the language(s) to be taught and learntin school, college and for jobs (e.g., two-or three-language formula; knowledge ofand proficiency in the regional languagefor jobs in a particular state in thecountry like India; bilingualism;the roleof the mother tongue-L1 in secondlanguage teaching and learning);

- the status and maintenance of otherlanguages, including the minoritylanguages; and so on.

Some of the other fields encompassed byapplied linguistics would be lexicography(writing dictionaries), forensic linguistics(i.e., use of linguistic evidence in solvingcrimes),speech therapy, translation studies


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and language teaching and learning.Application of linguistic theory in secondand foreign language studies is perhapsthe most common and significant fieldwithin applied l inguistics. Formalprogrammes of study in applied linguisticsleading to certif ication in languageteaching and learning are likely to focus

on language acquisition (including secondlanguage acquisition) and learning,curriculum and syllabus design, theoriesof language and language learning,approaches and methods (including theuse of technology), testing andassessment, phonology and grammar,literacy studies, and so on.


Introduction

Writing has been described as having threemain activities: plan-ning, formulating orcomposing and revising, which in thetraditional understanding of writing wasunderstood as a linear procedure, a strict“plan-outline-write” that had little to do withthe complex activities that teachersobserved in their writers’ composing

processes, as these were much more thanbuilding grammatically correct sentences(Peñuelas, 2012). However, observations ofwriters during the process of composingresulted in a large range of recursiveactivities, such as gathering ideas, writingthem down, composing, editing, reading,rescanning and proofreading. Suchactivities became fundamental in the fields

Does Anxiety Affect Written Communication? A studyof Engineering Students in Indian ContextSunanda Mahesh Shinde and Tripti KarekattiSchool of Liberal Arts, Sanjay Ghodawat University, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, Dept. of English,Shivaji University, Kolhapur, Maharashtra

E-mail : [email protected]

ABSTRACTThis research paper aims to identify types of written communication strategies(CSs) used and frequency of using them by engineering students with highand low level of anxiety. The data on students’ anxiety level was collected byusing Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) designed by Horwitz& Cope et. al. (1986). Three written tasks (letter writing, email writing, reportwriting) were given to select subjects of the study. Their responses werecollected on plain papers. By using an advanced cell phone with strong audiorecorder, students’ retrospective interviews were audio recorded. To analyzethe data taxonomy on communication strategies was adapted from thetaxonomies of Arndt (1987), Wenden (1991), Victori (1995), Riazi (1997), andSaski (2000).

Results showed that high anxious students used planning, re-reading, revising,literal translation, word coinage, circumlocution, paraphrase, generalizationand getting help; rehearsing and resourcing were used more by low anxiousstudents. Repetition and using similar words were used equally by both highand low anxious students.

Keywords: Written Communication Strategies, Anxiety, Engineering students


of learning and educational psychology inan attempt to understand how peopleundertake learning tasks and how to providestrategy instruction so that studentsbecome successful lear-ners (Jones et al.,1987; Weinstein et al., 1988). It was thebelief among cognitive psychologists thatstrategies are deliberate actions thatlearners select, implement and manage inorder to carry out writing tasks. As Joneset al. (1987, p. 15) explained it: “an effectivelearner or good strategy user knows whento use a given strategy as well as when toabandon it and select another one”.

Very less amount of research has been doneon communication strategies used by lowand high anxious engineering students indifferent written communicative situationsin India. Most of the teachers are unknownabout the importance of teachingcommunication strategies to their students.Hence, the present research, conducted inorder to find out insights regardingcommunication strategies used by secondyear engineering students helps to maketeachers aware of the crucial rolecommunication strategies play in secondlanguage learning and to contribute to theresearch outcome in the field ofcommunication strategies used byengineering students. The research alsofocuses on the type of communicationstrategies used by low and high anxiousstudents.

Theories

Anxiety

Language Anxiety can bring about several

problems in the process of language learningas it can hinder the students from masteringthe language. Anxiety refers to concern andfear, especially about what might happen(Oxford dictionary, 1995, p. 16) andlanguage anxiety refers to a type of anxietyunique to second language learning (Horwitzet al., 1991, p. 25).

What are the causes that hinder or stoplearners to succeed in learning a second/foreign language? Most of the time, students’feeling of stress, anxiety or nervousness mayimpede their language learning andperformance abilities. Theorists and SecondLanguage Acquisition (SLA) researchershave reiterated that these feelings of anxietyare specifically associated with learning andspeaking a second/foreign language, whichdistinguishes SL/FL learning from learningother skills or subjects. Both languageteachers and students are aware andgenerally feel strongly that anxiety is a majorhurdle to be overcome when learning tospeak another language.

According to Horwitz et al. (1991) languageanxiety means the feeling of nervousness,worry, or uneasiness experienced by foreignlanguage students. Many students,especially in a classroom situation, find thatlearning a foreign language is stressfulespecially if they have to perform somethingusing foreign language due to the fear ofmaking mistakes, high feelings of self-consciousness, and the desire to be perfectwhen speaking (Foss et al., 1991).

There are three divisions of languageanxiety: test anxiety, fear of negative


evaluation, and communicationapprehension. “Communicationapprehension is the fear or anxiety anindividual feels about orallycommunicating.” (Daly, 1991, p. 3).Formerly McCroskey (1970) viewed CA as amulti-based anxiety linked to oralcommunication. It usually occurs in aclassroom situation. Students may avoidtalking or writing in foreign languagebecause they are unprepared, uninterested,lacking confidence, and because they areafraid of communicating. Thecharacteristics of a person with highcommunication apprehension level are- theyhave difficulties in concentrating, becomeforgetful, and sweat much (p.3). AlbertP’Rayan (2008) denotes CA as “anindividual’s level of fear or anxietyassociated with either real or anticipatedcommunication with another person orpersons.

Communication strategies

“When language learners are unaware ofhow to say a word in English due to fear oranxiety, they can communicate effectivelyby using their hands, imitating sounds,inventing new words, or describing whatthey mean. These ways of communicatingare communication strategies (CSs)”.“Communication strategies are attempts tobridge the gap between the linguisticknowledge of the second-language learnerand the linguistic knowledge of his or herinterlocutor in real communicationsituations” (Dornyei, 1995).

As per Selinker’s (1972) views, “Strategies

of Second Language Communication” arethe ways in which foreign/second languagelearners deal with the difficulties theyencounter during the course of theirspeaking performances in target languagewhen their linguistic resources areinadequate.

Many of the researchers proposed severaldefinitions of communication strategiessince the notion of ‘communication strategy’was first introduced by Selinker (1972). Buthe did not deal with communicationstrategies in detail. Tarone, Cohen andDumas (1976-1977), and Tarone,Frauenfelder and Selinker (1976) defined‘communication strategy’ as “systematicattempt by the learner to express or decodemeaning in the target language (TL), insituations where the appropriate systematictarget language rules have not been formed”.One of the definitions most often referredto is the one provided by Tarone (1980) thatcommunication strategies are considered as“a mutual attempt of two interlocutors toagree on a meaning in situations whererequisite meaning structures are notshared”.

The focus of the present research is to checkthe level of anxiety of the engineeringstudents and find types and frequency ofcommunication strategies used by them.

METHOD

Participants

Twenty four participants of this study weresecond year engineering students fromvarious branches (like- Chemical,


Mechanical, Computer, IT, EXTC, Civil, etc.)from four engineering colleges of Ratnagiridistrict in Maharashtra, India. Thesestudents were selected by using stratifiedrandom sampling.

Context of the study

The present study was carried out in fourengineering colleges from Ratnagiri districtin Maharashtra, India. These colleges arein Konkan region and affiliated to MumbaiUniversity. The students admitted to variousengineering departments in these collegesare from Mumbai and other parts ofMaharashtra. All selected students do nothave the same level of proficiency in English.Generally, students from Mumbai havebetter communication Skills than those whoare from rural areas. Students from Englishmedium and convent background cancomplete written tasks properly on the otherhand, vernacular medium students facemany difficulties in writing letters, emailsand report thus, they hesitate to write.Students are motivated and have desire toimprove their abilities to write better.

Data Sources

Selected case studies were given all the tasks(letter writing, email writing, report writing).They were provided blank pages to writeletter, email and report. After completion ofthese tasks pages were collected by theresearchers. To collect data oncommunication strategies retrospectiveinterviews were taken and students weretold to share their experiences and theproblems faced by them while solving giventasks. These interviews were also audio-

recorded. The purpose was to identify andquantify the communication strategies usedby low and high anxious students in selectedwritten tasks. The retrospective interviewswere held to obtain information from theparticipants about their internal thoughtprocessing while solving the tasks, and theirknowledge of communication strategies.Observation notes were taken to studystudents’ behaviors while completingwritten tasks.

Method of analysis

Students’ written tasks were studied by theresearchers rigorously to identify their useof various communication strategies.Students’ retrospective interviews were alsotranscribed to know what planning they didto solve the given tasks.

Taxonomy of written communicationstrategies

Taxonomy for the written communicationstrategies has been adapted from thetaxonomies of Arndt (1987), Wenden (1991),Victori (1995), Riazi (1997), and Sasaki(2000) as they are considered pioneer inwritten strategies research. The selecteditems in the taxonomy used in the presentresearch are as follows.

1. Planning: This strategy involves decidingthe task purpose which is very much usefulfor all language skills. The strategy ofconsidering the purpose is an importantone, because knowing the purpose for doingsomething enables learners to channel theirenergy in the right direction.

2. Rehearsing: It includes practicing ideas


and the language structures in which toexpress them. This strategy helps learnersto produce contents needed to completewritten tasks. It also gives studentsconfidence to perform better.

3. Repetition: It means repetition of keywords and phrases. This strategy is usedby the learners when they cannot rememberrequired lexical items.

4. Re reading: It includes re reading thecontent that has written down. This strategyprovides benefit of editing and correctingmistakes.

5. Resourcing: Learners sometimes asktheir teachers, researcher, or refer todictionary for getting words/meaning/structure, etc. This strategy is very muchuseful as it helps learners not to leave taskincomplete.

6. Revising: It involves making changes inplan, written text, making changes to thewritten text in order to clarify meaning. Byusing this strategy students can revise theinappropriate content and try to writecorrect and suitable utterances.

7. Reduction: This strategy is used to alterthe message by omitting some items ofinformation, make the ideas simpler or lessprecise, or something slightly different thathas similar meaning.

8. Translation: Translating can be a helpfulstrategy for beginners in language learning.They need to use it carefully. It allowslearners to use their own language tounderstand what they hear and read in newlanguage.

9. Use of similar words: It means usingsynonyms or the words which seem to havethe same meaning. Uses of synonyms or similarwords help learners to continue the task.

10. Word coinage: This strategy meansmaking up new words to communicate aconcept for which the learner does not havethe right vocabulary. For instance, Sanjanasays airball to mean balloon. Rajiv does notknow the expression bedside table thereforecoins the expression night table.

11.Circumlocution: In this strategy thelearner uses a circumlocution (a roundaboutexpression involving several words todescribe or explain a single concept) orsynonym (a word having exactly the samemeaning as another word in the samelanguage) to convey the intended meaning.

12. Paraphrase: It includes using otherwords for the same message/meaning. Thisstrategy helps learners to write the messagein simple words if they have grammar andvocabulary difficulties.

13. Generalization: In this strategylearners overgeneralize some rules ofgrammar and syntax. Learners use thisstrategy when they lack knowledge ofgrammar and vocabulary.

14. Getting Help: This strategy allowslearners to ask for help from teachers,friends and others.

Findings and discussion

The figure 1.1 below shows the percentageof overall use of CSs in writtencommunicative situations.


After analyzing the selected students’ useof CSs in written communicative situationsit is found that these selected engineeringstudents used more strategies in letterwriting task compared to email and report.In comparison with other strategies thesestudents used revising (23.72%),generalization (18.16%), and planning(13.89%) frequently. As they got enoughtime to think low anxious students tried tomake their task attractive by using differentwords; while high anxious and those whoare poor in sentence construction andgrammar tried to be grammaticallycorrect by revising and restructuringutterances.

It was also observed that students havecoined inappropriate words when they didnot get suitable words. Very few studentsre-read the task after completion. Thoughthey had time they did not take effort to re-

read the task and correct their errors.

Most of the time high anxious students werethinking ‘what would happen if they wouldmake mistake’; ‘is researcher going to askthem to read their task loudly’; ‘if there aremistakes, other students would laugh atthem’, etc. So rather than completing taskwith full concentration these students wereengaged in thinking such unnecessarythings.

Almost all the students did planning to solvethe tasks. Many times their planning stepswere appropriate but while writing they mademistakes. According to some students they hadthoughts in their mind but they were not ableto express them in writing due to vocabularyand construction problems. Some studentsreally knew the importance of practice of suchtask but other students practiced these tasksfrom exam point of view only.

Figure 1.1 Overall percentage of use of CSs in written communicative situations


Reduction (7.69%) was used moderately inall the tasks. It can be concluded that thestudents tended to reduce the content asthey could not write grammatically correctsentences. Instead of using circumlocutionand paraphrase the students choose toreduce the content. The percentage ofparaphrase (4.06%) and circumlocution(1.92%) is less than the percentage ofreduction (7.69%) in all the tasks.

Translation (4.70%) was used only in letterand email. The students were in habit ofthinking in their mother tongue. So, theytranslated the content. But in report theydid not use it. Getting help (6.84%) was alsomoderately used in all the tasks. The lowanxious students initiated to clarify theirdoubts but high anxious students usedreduction strategies rather than taking help.Resourcing (6.20%) was also moderatelyused strategy. Many of the selectedengineering students were found not takingextra efforts to add correctness, and noveltyto their tasks.

Comparing high anxious and low anxiousstudents’ use of CSs in writtencommunicative situations

In written communicative situations highanxious students have used more strategiesthan low anxious students.

Low anxious students used planning for46.15% and high anxious students used itfor 53.85%. Low anxious students werefound confident in written tasks also. Whilesolving written tasks some of the lowanxious students directly started writingtheir tasks. They did not plan their task

beforehand. But, as high anxious studentshad a kind of fear in their mind they firstplanned the task, thought over it and startedwriting.

Low anxious students used rehearsing for72.73% and high anxious students 27.27%.Low anxious students were aware of theimportance of rehearsing in writing tasks.But high anxious students were not foundsincere about rehearsing.

Both types of students used repetitionequally that is 50% each. It means repetitionis useful for both high and low anxiousstudents. Re-reading was used for 33.33 %by low anxious students and 66.67 % byhigh anxious students.

Low anxious students used 58.62%resourcing and high anxious students41.38%. It can be concluded from this datathat low anxious students took extra effortsto improve their knowledge of Englishlanguage. In retrospective interviews theyrevealed that they use dictionaries andgrammar books to solve their doubts inlanguage problem.

Revising strategy was used for 20.72% bylow anxious students and 79.28% by highanxious students. It was observed that highanxious students had revised some wordsand sentences frequently. It can beconcluded from it that high anxious studentsmight be confused and as they had sufficienttime to write, they revised their utterancesto make their task meaningful andgrammatically correct. On the other hand,low anxious students were so confident thatthey used revising strategy less.


Low anxious students used reduction for47.22% and high anxious students 52.78%.Whenever high anxious students founddifficulties in explaining, they reduced themessage instead of taking risk of writing.Low anxious students also tended to reducethe message but the reason for theirreduction was different. They reducedcontent of their tasks because they wereconfident about clarity of the messageconveyed.

Low anxious students used literaltranslation for 22.73% and high anxiousstudents 77.27%. Low anxious studentsknew the structure and elements of allwritten tasks; those who did not know theygot clarified their difficulties and completedtheir tasks. As their vocabulary andsentence construction was good they did notuse literal translation frequently. But highanxious students’ anxiety level was less inwritten tasks compared to oral tasks so theyused literal translation frequently in writtentasks.

Use of similar words was used equally byboth types of students. Word coinage wasused for 32.26% by low anxious studentsand 67.74% by high anxious students. Highanxious students had problem ofvocabulary. They did not get suitable words;so to complete tasks they coined new words.Most of the time those words wereinappropriate.

Circumlocution was used for 33.33% by lowanxious students and 66.67% by highanxious students. As high anxious students’

anxiety level was comparatively less inwritten tasks they dared to describe thingsand paraphrased some content also. Soparaphrase, generalization, getting helpthese strategies they also used more thanlow anxious students.

Paraphrase was used 42.11% times by lowanxious students and 57.89% by highanxious students. High anxious studentsused it more as they were not confidentabout clarity of their message as well as theywere not able to extend their messages inmore details. Comparatively, low anxiousstudents paraphrased less as they wereaware about the exact terminology to beused for transferring the message.

Generalization was used for 27.06% by lowanxious students and 72.94% by highanxious students. Here also it is very clearthat because of their low competence highanxious students tried to overgeneralize therules of vocabulary and syntax.

Getting help was used for 31.25% by lowanxious students and 68.75% by highanxious students. HA students most of thetime depended on a kind of help from othersfor completing their tasks. Sometimes, theywere right in selecting words and syntax.Still, because of high anxiousness and lowconfidence they sought for help from theirpeers.

Following graph represents strategywizeoverall usage of CSs in writtencommunicative situations by HA and LAstudents.


The above figure shows that planning, re-reading, revising, literal translation, wordcoinage, circumlocution, paraphrase,generalization and getting help are usedmore by high anxious students. Rehearsingand resourcing are used more by lowanxious students whereas; repetition andusing similar words are used equally by bothhigh and low anxious students.

Conclusion

Amongst the written communicativesituations, students experiencedcomparatively less fear in letter writing thanin email writing and report writing. In

comparison with other strategies thesestudents used revising (23.72%),generalization (18.16%), and planning(13.89%) frequently.

The present research has remarkablepedagogical implications. The basicreason of students’ poor performance invarious written tasks is ‘anxiety ’ .Therefore, if engineering students aremade aware of reasons for anxiety incommunication and certain remedies onthem by implementing CSs that lowanxious students use, it will help themincrease their confidence level andperformance in communication.

Figure 1.2 Comparison of overall usage of CSs (written situations) by LA & HA students


It will be better if a chapter on reducinganxiety and using communication strategiesis included in the syllabus of engineeringcourses. This view corroborates Dörnyei(1995) who suggests that communicationstrategies need to be taught. He alsosuggests procedures for strategy trainingwhich will surely help engineering studentsreduce their communication anxiety andhelp improve their communicationcompetence and performance.

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Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

Let me first congratulate you on bringing out our journal that is rich in content forthe benefit of teachers and researchers. The September-October issue carries twoinformative articles - one by N.S. Prabu on ‘Re-thinking Language Pedagogy’ andthe other on ‘The ‘Scientific Language Teaching’ by Richard Smith.

As one who has been a teacher at different levels and also a teacher trainer for anumber of years, I would like to share my thoughts and experiences with ourreaders on the issues raised by the two learned authors.

It is true, as Prabhu says, comprehension and speaking cannot go hand in hand inL2. But at the same time we cannot forget our children even at the kindergartenlevel do easily learn to use certain expressions such as Good morning, Thank you,Please etc; and parents too want their children learn to speak English right fromthe kindergarten stage. Thanks to the use of technology, children may now quiteeasily be exposed to a quite a lot of listening experiences in English through well-graded exercises in podcasts. They would help them to speak English albeitsometimes incorrectly. But the point is even young children do learn to speakusing at least limited vocabulary after their listening.

Our language pedagogy may be based on the theories of the Behaviourist school ofPsychology or the Cognitive school. For a number of yeras it was the former thatinfluenced the teaching of second languages like English in our country. Based on itthe structural syllabus was introduced for the teaching of English in our schools. Itlisted the English structures to be taught - listed as ‘teaching itms’ - in each class orgrade. W.S. Allen’s ‘Living English Structues’ and A.S. Hornby’s ‘A Guide to Pattern andUsage in English’ were of great help in framing the structural syllabus. Of course, itled to most teachers providing only mechanical drill to their students in the use ofstructures. What was known as the Substitution method came to be used resulting inthe pupils learning the structures without understanding the meanings. In Chennaiwe had F.L.Billows, English studies Officer - British Council, who, through his MadrasLanguage Teaching Campaign (MELT), trained quite a large number of teachers inusing the structural syllabus. Later Alan Maley, too, of the British Council, broughtout a number of lesson plans for the teaching of important structures in English


As opposed to the Behaviourist school, the Cognitive school psychologists such asPiaget’, Bruner and Noam Choamsky—just to mention a few—are of opinion it isthe mind that plays an important role in learning. It processes the informationfrom any activity taking place in some situation or context and, as a result, thoroughunderstanding follows. This is the basis of what are known as the communicativemethodologies such as ‘Task-based teaching’ (TBT). According to them, no‘meaningful learning’ can take place through any amount of drill or repeated practice

It is true that any activity-based teaching of English would interest our learnersmore than any other method and motivate them to learn the language better. Atthe same time we should not forget that our teachers are best told what exactly –in other words, which ‘teaching items— should be taught to their students. It ishere a structural syllabus would be of great help to them. Such a syllabus, apartfrom listing the different teaching items (structures) may suggest a number ofcommunicative activities, too. So I would advocate a combination of the ‘structuralapproach’ and the ‘Task-based approach for adoption in teaching English in ourschools. Our teachers should be told ‘what’ language items they have to teach andalso ‘how’ to teach them i.e through given ‘tasks’ or activities. In effect, it is nothingbut the ‘contextual or situational’ teaching of given structures through activities.

As regards the teaching of grammar, Prabhu rightly says it should not be in thenature of ‘medication’ but nutrition’. This is possible if we teach ‘functionalgrammar’, not ‘formal grammar’ i.e. definitions of grammatical terms and rules. Atthe same time, the teaching of remedial grammar too is necessary and it is to beresorted to after a piece of free composition or independent writing has been doneby our students. We have to deal with the common mistakes made by them and doremedial teaching. So, in such cases ‘medication’ becomes necessary. Don’t youagree?

S. Rajagopalan<[email protected]>


Venue: Chadalawada Ramanamma Engineering College, TirupatiLast Date: Last date to send full papers & Registration: 31-01-2018

Conference Email ID: [email protected] Brochure with Full Information: www.eltai.in / www.crectirupati.comFor Conference Updates Check the Blog: www.eltaitpt.blogspot.comFor further information call: Mobile: 09441335722/09110373200

Address for Correspondence:Dr.G. ReddiSekhar Reddy, Secretary, ELTAI Tirupati Chapter

7-120/4, FLAT NO: 202, 2nd FLOOR, SHANTHINAGAR, M.R.PALLI,TIRUPATI – 517502.

All the qualitative and accepted full papers will be published in the ConferenceProceedings with ISBN: 978-93-5291-505-7

Copies will be given to the participants at the conference

ELT@I TIRUPATI CHAPTER6thAnnual International Conference 2018

16 & 17 February 2018

THEMERecent Trends and Innovative Practices in Teaching English Language and Literature

• History of ELT in India

• Language Laboratories in ELT

• Multimedia Resources for ELT

• Recent Pedagogical Changes in ELT

• Challenges in Teaching English Language

• Innovative Methods and Practices in ELT

• English Language in Professional Colleges

• English Language to Enhance Empowerment

• Integration of Language Skills in TeachingEnglish

• Online Resources/Tools to Teach & LearnEnglish

• Online Teaching and Learning: The PresentTrend

• ICT in Teaching English Language and

Literature

• Importance of English Language

• English Language for Employability

• Language through Literature

• Recent Trends in Teaching English Literature

• Innovative Practices in Teaching EnglishLiterature

• Challenges in Teaching English Literature

• Societal Reflections in English Literature

• Professionalism in Teaching English

• Role of Language Teachers’ Associations

• Significance of Language Teachers’Associations

• Social Networks in Teaching and LearningEnglish

SUB- THEMES


The World as a Stage: ShakespeareanTransformations by Dr. K. Chellappan

Emerald Publishers, 2016.

One wonders whether Shakespeare is moreloved in India than in his homeland, GreatBritain.

Dr. Chellappan’s book is a tribute to theBard of Avon, commemorating the fourhundredth anniversary of his death. Theauthor discusses an amazing variety oftopics, which reveal his wide scholarship,critical acumen and originality.

The book consists of two parts. Part I tracesShakespeare’s exploration of therelationship between drama and reality. Thestudy applies the insights of Feminism,Marxism and New Historicism and relatesthem to Buddhist concepts. Part II studiestransformations and translations ofShakespeare in Tamil, and also shows theaffinity between Shakespeare’s art andIndian thought, by comparing his plays withIndian epics and classical Sanskrit drama.

For Chellappan, Shakespeare is ourcontemporary. He says, “Shakespeare’splays give useful clues for developingcommunication skills, which are essentialfor success in the contemporary world order.Iago in Othello is a very successfulcommunicator. By simply repeatingOthello’s words, he not only violatesdiscourse conventions, but destroys Othello.

Iago: Indeed.

Othello: Indeed, indeed? Discern’st thouaught in that? Is he not honest?

Iago: Honest, my lord.

Othello: What dost thou think?

Iago: Think, my lord.

The interface between dream, drama andreality is discussed in the context of AMidsummer Night’s Dream. “All art isdream, but also more real than reality.Similarly our life seems to be an illusion,but it also suggests a deeper reality. Dramaprovides the most effective metaphor andsymbol to Shakespeare to show thisillusion/reality syndrome in life and art.” AMidsummer Night’s Dream is a largerdream, and the stories are dreams withindreams.

The disguise convention is viewed in a newlight here. “The urge of woman to be the“other” in the male dominated world takesdifferent shapes and disguise is the mostdominant expression of this craving forpower or self-completion of woman in theearly comedies; it becomes a cry forunsexing in the tragic universe of the laterplays.”

The discussion in The World as Theatrein King Lear and Tempest “examinesShakespeare’s view of theatre as a metaphorand means of discovering the world, withall its unreal reality but which is also theonly real reality which we can hope to have.Shakespeare has been asking the question,

Book Review


“Was it a vision or a dream?””. All criticismhas not answered it and the mystery of theworld and Shakespeare are mysteries still.

In Part II, while comparing Shakespeare andKamban, he says, “Shakespeare’s heroes arefully human, though imperfect, butKamban’s Rama is perfectly human, perfect,but still human.” The Tamil mind finds anaffinity in the Shakespearean breeze thatrevitalized and humanized Tamil thought.Regarding Sanskrit drama, “Shakespeareand Sanskrit drama have successfully

captured the boundlessness of space andtime within the bounds of space and timeof the theatre.”

Here is a multi-faceted, insightful,scintillating treasure trove ofShakespearean criticism that should delightany lover of Shakespeare.

Dr V SaraswathiProfessor of English (Retd)

Madras University, [email protected]

SUBZIDIZED MEMBERSHIP OF IATEFLA limited number of subsidized memberships of IATEFL, UK are available for ELTAImembers only. Those who are interested may send a DD—no cheque, please— drawnin favour of ELTAI for Rs.600 to our office or through NEFT ( SBI, Santhi Colony,Annanagar, Chennai-40 A/C No. 30870397943) along with a scanned copy of the bankchalan mailed by Speedpost or courier only and also giving the following detailsFirst name and Surname:

Age :

Town :

Country :

Telephone :

Email id :

S. Rajagopalan, www.eltai.in


READING ACTIVITYREADING A FAVOURITE AUTHOR* (To become an expert reader*)

Dr. K. Elango, National Secretary, ELTAI & (Formerly) Professor of English, Anna [email protected]

Objective : Enabling a reader to read all the works of his/her favourite author to emerge asan expert on the author and his/her writings

Participation : IndividualMaterial : All the works (at least the major works) of one’s favourite writer (J.K. Rowling)Preparation : Reading the works of a writer and the available critical materials on them.Procedure :After identifying an author of your liking start reading the works, if possible, the order in which theywere written. If the writer has written in different genres the reader has to read all of them to have afirm grounding on him/her. J.K. Rowling, for instance, although was initially known for the HarryPotter series, has works in the genres of fantasy, crime fiction (Cormoran Strike), drama (The CasualVacancy), tragicomedy, screenplay (Potter films) and so on. Familiarity with all the writings alonecan offer deeper understanding and greater insights into a writer.Read the critical materials on the works from all possible sources such the exclusive books, chaptersin books, journal and magazine articles, websites (blogs, YouTube, PPTs), and interviews of thewriter and this will facilitate a reader to shape his/her own authoritative perspectives. Being familiarwith the existing critical materials would force a reader to generate views which would be uniquelyhis/her own. Along with it, the honours and awards won by the writer could add spice to anydiscussion.Read also the biographical details including the author’s childhood to the creative process and tovaried interests, not confining to merely writings, to have a comprehensive knowledge. J.K. Rowling,to illustrate, is deeply interested in politics, charity and several other social issues and this willenable a reader to have a rich repertoire of information about her. Some of the tidbits such as herreal name, Joanne “Jo” Rowling, and pen names J.K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith and the reasonsfor adopting different names can be matter of interests to all. An expert reader possesses a thoroughknowledge of the writer and his/her words are final in any controversy.Discussing a writer even with those who are not familiar would get them interested and, which maylead them to reading their writings. Experts always pass on to others the passion they have for awriter/subject.Learning outcomes:1) Learners realize that reading one or two works of a writer at random does not help them much to

formulate thoughtful perspectives about them.2) Learners recognize that possessing an authoritative knowledge about an author and the woks

would make them valuable and interesting conversationalists.Further activity:Reading all/major works of a writer(s) and the materials available on the writer and his/her writings.____________________________________*Favourite author: It varies from reader to reader and even with the same reader it varies from timeto time depending on his/her interest. J.K. Rowling is one of the best selling living writers and hasfans all over the world across the age groups.*An Expert is someone who is very knowledgeable about an area and in this case, about Rowlingand her works.

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