One more state (UP) has jumped to the bandwagon of the states introducing English from class one in the govt schools. Excellent idea! So it has dawned on our politicians that English is an important language for career purpose or a passport to upward mobility, a language of opportunities (sounds like clichés?). It is not that they (the 'polytreacherous' sorry, politicians) have woken up to this reality overnight. It is an open secret that many harsh critics of English ensured that their children got immersed in this language and retained an edge over others.(hypocrisy thy name is politics). Anyway, discussion on the two faced ness of politicians is not my cup of tea. What perturbs me is the pathetic plight of English teaching in the govt schools through out our country especially schools located in the rural areas.

You may label me as hard-nosed but the harsh truth is that there is dearth of teachers in our country who are abreast with the latest trends in English language teaching. What still happens in the name of teaching English is memorization of grammar rules, cramming of answers of important questions of English Readers and mug up on important essays and letters for passing the exams. Students are made to guzzle the contents which they vomit out on the papers in exam. Though the efforts are afoot by NCERT and other educational bodies to make the English teaching learning skill based and syllabuses have also been reframed to materialise a paradigm shift from content learning to developing skill but in the absence of competent teachers the desired change has remained elusive.

Visit any rural school and see what happens in an English class! You have to pay rapt attention to discern that you are in a class where English is being taught. Teachers most of the time converse in native tongue. Stories and poems are translated in mother tongue. There is no attempt by the teachers to create any opportunity for the students to speak English. In the Spoken English classes it is the teacher who does the speaking most of the time giving the students rules and rules to memorize which dissuades them from learning English. The simple fact that language learning is a skill and it can be mastered only with practice is not understood by us and we, the teachers, never attempt to create the environment that stimulates students to speak or use English.

Can you teach swimming by just giving lectures in the classroom? No way. You have to demonstrate. You have to take the students to the swimming pool and make them swim. They will make mistakes in the beginning but gradually their movements will get streamlined and they become skilled at swimming. Same is the case with language learning. You have to make the students use the language. Let them make mistakes. Ignore the mistakes that do not impede the communication or do not lead to unintelligibility. Gradually their language will get refined. There errors can be analyzed and remedied using methods that do not put a damper on language learning.

Of the four language learning skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing) the listening and speaking are the most neglected skills. In some schools there is material like cassette and CD players and even quality CBT packages for learning English but no body bothers to use those.

There are teachers who have good knowledge of English language but even these master bakers put the cart before the horse by focusing more on accuracy than fluency. We must understand that accuracy comes gradually and follows fluency. Communicative competence is more important that Linguistic competence. We have to design such type of teaching material and adopt techniques that students feel the need to speak the target language (English in our case). Need is the key word here. So far as teaching grammar per se is concerned, I firmly believe that you can not teach the grammar of a language before teaching the language first.

Despite epoch making advancements in the arena of English Language teaching and learning, we have not been able to discard centuries old Grammar-cum-Translation Method of teaching English. Communicative approach or task based approach to language teaching has remained confined to the schools where children from elite families study.

Only specially trained teachers can handle the English teaching in schools located in rural areas where students have little exposure to this language. Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad (CIEFL) now rechristened as Teaching of English And Foreign Languages University.(TEAFLU) can play an important role in training the teachers. CIEFL has already its branches in Shillong and Lucknow. It is already doing yeomen's service in training English teachers. It conducts Post Graduate Diplomas in Teaching of English (PGDTE) and a B.Ed course which is exclusively for English Teachers but much needs to be done. TEAFLU has to spread its tentacles into the rural and remote areas of the country and conduct short courses, workshops and seminars for the English teachers. State govts should take into service the expertise of TEAFLU and Regional Institutes of English to train teachers. Certificate in Teaching English (CTE) conducted by the IGNOU should be upgraded and linked to the promotion of teachers. Such measures can go a long way in improving the standard of English Teaching.

Introducing English from class one it entails availability of a large number of trained teachers. Teaching English (as a second language) to small children requires special training and specific personality and approach on the part of teachers. It is the impressionable age during which the fossilization of phonology of language takes place. A bad start to language learning may result in residual negative effects. Therefore, before implementing the NCERT's directive to introduce English from class one the states must ensure that they have the required trained manpower and infrastructure for this.

I'd like to call upon the NGOs to come forward in this field and they would do a noble job by facilitating English learning for the students from financially challenged families and putting them on the equal footing with privileged ones. The way NGOs have made their presence felt in the wild life protection and other important arenas they can surely be of immense help in the English Language Teaching colosseum especially in the rural and remote areas.