C O N T E N T Seltai.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/ELTAI-SEP-OCT2018-WEB-ISSUE.pdf · ESP which matches the teaching content to learner needs has gained considerable prominence in

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Journal of English Language Teaching

Volume LX Number 5 September–October, 2018

2 Dear Reader

3 Achieving Academic Proficiency Standards in Higher Vijayakumar C

Education through Corpus-Based Language Teaching

11 English for Specific Purposes: Perspectives and Jalson Jacob

Pedagogic Implications Lal C.A

17 Against the Experts V. Robert Bellarmine

25 Action Research through Mentorship Model: A Ipshita H Sasmal

Sustainable Framework for Professional Development Monishita H Pande

34 Efficacious Presentation Schemata Shravan Kumar

Harleen Kaur

41 Enhancing Communication Skills in English through P. Sathya

Interactive materials Catherin Edward

47 Book Review

48 Reading Activity K Elango

Padmasree S. NatarajanFounder Editor and Publisher

2 Journal of English Language Teaching LX/5, 2018

Dear Reader

It is said that experience is the best teacher. Teachers and learners of English as a Second/ Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) look forward to reading stories of how people who did nothave adequate exposure to the English-speaking world during their school days managedto learn the language and mastered it. I read one such wonderful story of an ELT professionala month ago when Shreesh Chaudhary, former professor of English, IIT Madras, sent methe transcript of a talk given by Robert Bellarmine in 2013 at the Indian Institute ofTechnology Madras and asked me whether it could be published in the Journal of EnglishLanguage Teaching (JELT). Like Chaudhary I found the story very motivating and decidedto publish it in the current issue of the journal.

Bellarmine, a progressive thinker in ELT in India, is known almost to all the members ofthe ELTAI and to the subscribers of this journal. His interviews and book reviews haveappeared in JELT in the recent past. Bellarmine retired as English Studies Officer of theBritish Council in India in 1997. Before taking up the position of ESO at the BritishCouncil, he taught at the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (CIEFL),Hyderabad. Besides teaching “slum children” under his “Teaching English to theDisadvantaged” (TED) Project, he has conducted numerous communication seminars forexecutives in industries. The article titled ‘Against Experts’, I am sure, will make us reflectand raise many questions. Enjoy reading the story, reflect it and do try to find answers toyour critical questions.

In the article titled ‘Achieving Academic Proficiency Standards in Higher Education throughCorpus-Based Language Teaching’ Vijayakumar, who teaches at Imam Abdulrahman BinFaisal University, Dammam, KSA, discusses the importance of corpus-based approach tolanguage teaching. He discusses how corpora can assist ELT practitioners achieve highquality standards in higher education.

Jalson Jacob and Lal C.A. in their paper on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) state thatthough ESP has gained considerable prominence in the global scenario it is still in itsinfancy in India and stress the need for academics to broaden the knowledge of itsperspectives and pedagogic implications.

In the article titled ‘Action Research through Mentorship Model: A Sustainable Frameworkfor Professional Development of English Teachers’ Monishita H Pande and Ipshita H Sasmalquestion the effectiveness of CPD activities based on the cascade model and highlight theneed for carrying out action research through the mentorship or network-based model.

Shravan Kumar and Harleen Kaur in their article ‘Efficacious Presentation Schemata’ discussthe importance of body language communication in presentations and state that “whenpresenting, a large part of the “visual you” is conveyed by the means of the body language”.

In their paper ‘Enhancing Communication Skills in English through Interactive Materials’P Sathya and Catherin Edward present a research report on the effectiveness of interactivecourse materials to enhance the learners’ English language and referencing skills.

I hope you enjoy reading the articles. Do send in your feedback and comments. You canreach me at [email protected]

Dr Albert P’Rayan

Journal of English Language Teaching LX/5, 2018 3

The importance of CALL technology in ELThas been strongly felt in the last twenty fiveyears (Fotos & Browne, 2004). Highereducation programs/courses offered byreputed universities in the developedcountries through MOOCs and other onlineplatforms have extensively utilized variouscomputer-driven applications andmodalities to organize their courses. Whilesome CALL applications such as webcasts,emails, and mobile-based applications haveprovided course developers with appropriate

channels to organize and present thecontent, computer-based corpus tools haveconveniently clubbed both the modality andlanguage aspects of CALL (Sinclair, 2004).In fact, independent large-scale nativespeaker corpora such as Corpus ofContemporary American English (COCA)(Davies, 2009) and British National Corpus(BNC) and specific-purpose home-grownacademic corpora such as CambridgeEnglish Corpus (CEC) and MICASE havemade a significant impact on the language

Achieving Academic Proficiency Standards in HigherEducation through Corpus-Based Language TeachingVijayakumar CAssistant Professor, Dept. of English, Deanship of PYP, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University,Dammam, KSA

Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACTSchools and colleges in India are now facing the challenge of preparing students forhigher studies in countries like the USA and the UK, where English is the primarymode of study. It is argued that a large number of ESL and EFL learners fail to meetthe expected academic proficiency standards of B2 of the CEFR due to their poor priorexposure to English. Mushrooming of institutions offering short-term training in Englishfor TOEFL and IELTS sets the tone of the problem. However, corpus based approach,when embedded into our curriculum practices, can address a range of teaching issues,and help our students cope with the needs of higher education, in India as well asabroad. While corpus-based language teaching (CBLT) is not new to India, there arereasons why it has not received as much support as other approaches did. In thispaper, I discuss the popular notions that withheld CBLT from its growth and presenthow corpora—general or specific—can assist ELT practitioners achieve high qualitystandards in higher education.

Keywords: higher education, corpus based language teaching, curriculumdesignIntroduction


teaching practices in the developedcountries such as the UK and the USA(Davies, 2009). Increasingly, the researchersand language teaching practitioners aredepending on corpus evidence tosuccessfully achieve their teaching andtesting objectives (Gavioli & Aston, 2001;Sinclair, 2004).

While this widespread use of corpus in LTis overwhelmingly optimistic about itspotential in the Western world, countrieslike India are skeptical about embracingcorpus tools in formal language teachingcontexts. In this paper I discuss how corpusinclusion can promote high standards inhigher education.

Corpora in Language Teaching andTesting

Reliance on evidence is not new to languagestudies. In fact, a probe into the history ofdictionary making reveals the importancereal-life language instances in describinglanguage, especially vocabulary andgrammar (Hanks, 2012). Recentdevelopments in computer technology haveremarkably facilitated the process oforganizing and presenting idiosyncraticpatterns in real-life instances, bothsyntagmatically and paradigmatically, ineffective ways (Hanks, 2012). The ability toprocess large size corpus—a collection andorganization of texts—for specific patternsof language use and the inherent patterningof language use showed the world a colorfulpicture that was hitherto unknown (Sinclair,2004).

Large scale applications of corpus linguistics

in language pedagogy eventualized whenlinguists attempted to analyze corpora todescribe language in use. Lexicographerscollected and analyzed large amounts ofreal-life data for form, meaning, and useaspects. Subsequently, corpus analysisprocedures influenced the researchpractices of other allied fields of languagestudies such as ESP and EAP that lookedfor discourse specific languagefeatures(Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad,& Finegan, 1999).

The effects of corpora are mainly seen onthree areas of ELT: learner dictionarymaking, classroom teaching, and learnercorpora for SLA, ESP and EAP (Mukherjee,2006). Although corpus studies havebrought in radical reforms in dictionarymaking in terms of defining features,examples, collocations, pattern presentationamong others (Hanks, 2012), their proposedclassroom methods such as Data DrivenLearning (DDL) (Johns, 1991) have notreceived as much support as the CLT andother methods of language teaching,especially in the third-world and developingcountries. The following are some of thepracticality related reasons for the disbeliefamong many ELT practitioners.

a. Corpus building and use are expensive.

Building an authentic database for teachingpurposes requires the practitioners to collecta manageable size of a database, usually ofa few hundred thousand instances. Indeveloping countries the resources to buildsuch large-scale databases are scarcelyavailable. While building a database of


written texts is relatively cheaper,transcribing or coding the data intoanalyzable formats is both time consumingand expensive.

b. Corpus analysis requires specialistknowledge.

Data driven learning is a research processwhere the learner/teacher is required todeduce his answer by carefully analyzingraw instances. Often the instances makelittle sense to the observer because they arepartial instances of real life experiences.Observers whose linguistic schemata areminimal could misrepresent theirinterpretations thereby forming wronggeneralizations.

c. Corpus analysis is a time-consumingtask.

In ESL countries learning English languageis important; however, it is not mandatorythat they use a native-speaker like English.Moreover, in formal or traditionalclassrooms teachers are under greatpressure to cope with the institutionaldemands and the requirements of theongoing and summative examinations. Anintensive investigation of corpus for specificlanguage aspects will consume a lot of time.

d. Corpus based language teaching needsaccess to computers.

Often corpus related demonstrations, inseminars or workshops, highlight the roleof modern computers that can process textsin less than a few seconds. This explicationhas led teachers believe the inseparable roleof computers within a language teaching

class. In fact, in many developing countriesaccess to computers in the classroom is stilla desire to be fulfilled.

e. Textbook based examinations

Most importantly, in developing countries thereforms introduced in ELT are mainlymethodological. TBLT and CLT likeapproaches found their way into the languageclassrooms through the textbooksprescribed for study. Textbookstill-to-date are the primary sources oflinguistic input for both teaching and testingpractices. For instance, in countries like SaudiArabia, many universities strictly followpacing schedules in designing tests. Althoughinnovative case studies that utilized recentresearch developments exist, classroominstruction is primarily textbook based.

The beliefs stated are pervasive and willinfluence the ELT practices some more time.To some extent, it is true that direct corpususe is an expensive intervention andrequires a specialist’s knowledge in buildingand organizing content. However, there areseveral ways we could utilize readymade andfreely available corpus in achieving ourobjectives of language courses (Thurstun &Candlin, 1998; Davies, 2009). Indeed, inhigher education institutions, onlineconcordances are now fruitfully used tosupplement and complement languageinstruction (Daskalovska, 2013), in manyways that facilitate the ongoing practicesrather than interfere with them.

CBLT for Higher Education

Textbook writing, design of online platforms


for language study, design of large-scaleevaluation procedures, study of learnerlanguage, discourse analysis are a few areasof ELT study that are currently relying oncorpus evidence. Most importantly, in highereducation contexts, where academicdisciplines follow specific conventions oflanguage use, the direct and indirectapplication of corpus tools and the effectsof research findings is extensive (Gavioli &Aston, 2001). The following discusses howthe current CBLT research can influencevarious stages of language curriculumimplementation.

about the development of collocationknowledge among the L1 and L2 users ofEnglish. The researchers found that the L2users of English mostly preferred to use,for example, predictable and stronglyassociated words that frequently co-occurrather than low frequency words.

Similarly, in a longitudinal research studyresearchers attempted to formgeneralizations about L2 learners’ languagedevelopment patterns for tense and aspectsby quantitatively analyzing a large databaseof learner language (Meunier & Littre, 2013).They concluded that advanced learnersexhibited difficulty in using presentprogressive for planned events while theyreported no issues with using theprogressive to refer to ‘ongoingness’ of anactivity (p: 72). The purpose of utilizing acorpus-informed investigation here,according to the researchers, was to informthe ‘educational practices’ of teaching tensewith a high degree of certainty. Studies thatrelied on corpus methods in SLA are plenty.One of the main reasons to integratingcorpus with SLA research is to providereliable evidence that can inform pedagogy.

Institutional Registers and Curriculum Design

Since English ensures access to‘institutional registers’ (Biber, 2006) andfacilitate communication, the role of Englishis instrumental in higher education. Theunderlying assumption of academic Englishprograms is that success of students onuniversity level programs depends on theirability to handle discourse specific languagefeatures. Corpus based explorations could

Curriculum /Construction

LanguageTesting

SLA/FLA

Materialsfor LT

Corpus/CBLT

A cross comparison between non-nativelearner language and large native speakerdata enabled the SLA researchers identifythe typical patterns and gaps in learnerlanguage use(MacWhinney, 2016). Forinstance, processing of a large learnercorpus offered researchers (Gablasova,Brezina, & McEnery, 2017) with insights

Learning Patterns and Language Teaching


help institutions define academic standardsby identifying the idiosyncratic and frequent‘linguistic characteristics’ (2006:2) ofacademic registers. These frequent‘characteristic lexico-grammatical features’are exploited by the discourse communitiesto achieve the intended communicativepurposes (2006: 12). For example, a multi-dimensional analysis of the academic sub-corpus of Longman Grammar of Spoken andWritten English (LGSWE) (Biber,Johansson, Leech, Conrad, & Finegan,1999) identified the idiosyncratic featuresthat are ‘much more common in academicprose’ (2006: 14). Some most commonlyexploited features in academic prose,according to Biberet al (1999) include: non-finite relative clauses, nominalization,attributive adjectives, and derived verbs(especially formed with re- and -ize) (for adetailed list please read Biber, 2006). EAPprograms across the world attempt to equipstudents either with the general linguisticaspects that are pervasive across allacademic disciplines or with the registerspecific features that are specific to thedisciplines the students will study. Corpusstudies can help institutions identify andorganize such register specific features forcurriculum design.

When sub-skills such as identifying andanalyzing are combined with a certaintextual features such as verbs, adjectives,articles students can decode and producetexts appropriate for the contexts. Forinstance, for a stated objectives/sub-skillsof identifying an author, the reader willattempt to decipher the linguistic clues such

as the use of personal pronouns andreferential vocabulary. Similarly, todistinguish a fact from opinion, the learnerneeds to understand the use of verbs,signaling words such as in my opinion, infact, believes among others. To analyze atext in terms of its cohesion and coherencethe reader can be directed to noticetransition expressions such as f irstly,subsequently, while, on the other handamong others. In other words, the existingcurriculum/syllabus can judiciously makeuse of corpus instances (longer or shorter)to provide ample practice for a specificaspect.

Authentic Instances in Dictionaries andTextbooks

Identifying and using language instancesthat do not pose a threat to a student’sunderstanding of the text is important. It ishere the practitioners have to apply caution.The effect of ‘genuine” or ‘real life’ or ‘naturalEnglish’ (Sinclair, 2004) instances onlanguage teaching was strongly felt in thelast 20 years. Series of textbooks such asTouchstone (McCarthy, McCarten, &Sandiford, Touchstone Series, 2005), freeonline corpus platforms such as MICASE andCOCA (Davies, 2009), self-study materials(McCarthy & O’Dell, 2016), word-lists(Coxhead, 2000) are now available for use.

In the field of materials design two changeshave been brought in: selection andidentification of linguistic categories anddesign structure of materials. In identifyingthe authentic instances of specific linguisticcategories researchers have used the


following criteria:

a. Using of SLA research findings to identifylearning objectives (Gablasova, Brezina,& McEnery, 2017)

b. Frequency of occurrence (Nation, 2018)

c. Contextual relevance/ registers (Biber,Johansson, Leech, Conrad, & Finegan,1999)

d. Patterns of co-occurrence (Sinclair, 2004)

e. Linguistic complexity of the text (choiceof vocabulary, choice of grammaticalstructures and text length)

f. Discourse specificity (reader specificity)

In designing materials they mainly use thestrategy of reasoning: deducing the rulefrom multiple instances. Every targetlinguistic category to be taught is shown inmultiple authentic instances, and thelearners were expected to reason out theunderlying rule(s) with the help of context,linguistic clues, repetition, and analysis.Subsequently, the learner can compare his/her answers with the textbook.

Language Assessment Practices

Free access to large databases and corpusanalysis tools such as Range (Nation, 2018)simplified the process of compiling a corpus.Three types of corpora—reference,specialized, and learner—are nowextensively built for various purposes(Cushing, 2017). Even though some corporaare primarily built to provide linguisticdescriptions, a range of findings such asfrequency studies, collocations, and context

specific grammar and vocabulary havesignificant effects on assessment.

While a reference corpus or a large learnercorpus representing the target language orthe target learner group can offer thecurriculum designers and the testdevelopers with the choice of linguisticaspects to be considered, a purposivespecialized corpus identifies discoursespecific typical features to be mastered andassessed. Moreover, the informationobtained from corpus analysis is used toconceptualize “domain definition, constructdefinition, and the construction of tasks andtest items that authentically reflect thetarget language use domain” (Cushing,2017: 442). Statistical corpus basedevidence is now helpful in determining thecomplexity of language use, distinguishingbetween B2/C1 levels of CEFR as thethreshold proficiency for admission intohigher education, and in ‘characterizing’ aspecific level by providing ‘languagespecifications’ (Paquot, 2018).

If appropriate use of discourse specificlinguistic features determines the successof students on academic programs, theinstitutions need to examine whether thestudents are capable of understanding andusing them. Assessment of students’performance needs to take intoconsideration the identification of learninggoals, linguistic categories, content andappropriate scales and rubrics forassessment.

Constructs that insufficiently define theirlearning goals will not be able to provide


clear-cut guidelines for test development.Also, any random selection of linguisticcategories that do not adequately representthe real life use of language will succumbto the dangers of being irrelevant. Andfabricating hypothetical instances that aredistantly related to the discourse in questionskews content validity and test reliability.Finally, evaluation procedures that refer tovague interpretations of scales and rubricswill provide unreliable results. In otherwords, language teaching and testing is noway a straight forward process: Everydecision presupposes a clear rationale withclearly stated end results. If the definedconstructs do not represent the predefinedgoals; and if the presupposed objectives arenot represented in the test-design practices,the end results of the course will beunreliable. Corpus based constructdefinitions, corpus-based syllabus designand corpus-based teaching and testing canhelp course developers and teachers addressthese concerns.

Conclusion

While promoting data-driven academicstandards is a commendable choice,developing a far-removed standard ofEnglish that the students have a limitedaccess to will affect the quality ofeducational intervention. However, corpusevidence when drawn especially fromcontexts of high relevance and when usedwith effective methodologies canrevolutionize language teaching. Therefore,the ELT practitioners need to apply cautionbefore embarking on a full-fledged use ofcorpus in language courses. In fact, novice

users can use corpus, initially, only inspecific stages of language coursedevelopment—in selecting instances toteach collocations, in identifying examplesfor specific grammatical categories and todevise comprehension related cloze items—and develop specific sub-skills that influencethe overall learning process of the students.

Works Cited

Oxford University Press. (2014). OxfordLearner’s Dictionary of Academic English.Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Biber, D. (2006). University Language: Acorpus-based study of spoken and writtenregisters. Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V.

Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad,S., & Finegan, E. (1999). Longman Grammarof Spoken and Written English. London:Longman.

Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic worlist.TESOL Quarterly , 34 (2), 213-238.

Cushing, S. T. (2017). Corpus linguistics inlanguage testing research. Language Testing, 34 (4), 441-449.

Daskalovska, N. (2013). Corpus-basedversus traditional learning of collocations.Computer Assisted Language Learning(September), 1-16.

Davies, M. (2009). The 385+ million wordCorpus of Contemporary American English(1990–2008+): Design, architecture, andlinguistic insights. International Journal ofCorpus Linguistics , 14 (2), 159-190.

Fotos, S., & Browne, C. (2004). New


perspectives on CALL for second languagec l a s s r o o m s . Mahwah: New Jersey: LawrenceErlbaum Associates, Inc.

Gablasova, D., Brezina, V., & McEnery, T.(2017). Collocations in corpus-basedlanguage learning research: Identifying,comparing, and Interpreting the evidence.Language Learning , 67 (S1), 155–179.

Gavioli, L., & Aston, G. (2001). Enrichingreality: language corpora in languagepedagogy. ELT Journal , 55 (3), 238-246.

Hanks, P. (2012). The corpus revolution inlexicography. International Journal ofLexicography , 25 (4), 398–436.

Johns, T. (1991). Should you be persuaded:Two samples of data-driven learningmaterials. English Language ResearchJournal , 4, 1-16.

MacWhinney, B. (2016). A shared platformfor studying second language acquisition.Language Learning , 67 (S1), 254-275.

McCarthy, M., & O’Dell, F. (2016). AcademicVocabulary in Use (2 nd Edition). Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

McCarthy, M., McCarten, J., & Sandiford,H. (2005). Touchstone Series. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Meunier, F., & Littre, D. (2013). Tracking

learners’ progress: adopting a dual‘corpus cum experimental data’ approach.The Modern Language Journal , 97 (S1),61-76.

Mishan, F. (2004). Authenticating corporafor language learning: a problem and itsresolution. ELT Journal , 58 (3), 219-227.

Mukherjee, J. (2006). Corpus linguistics andlanguage pedagogy: The state of the art—and beyond. English Corpus Linguistics , 3,5-24.

Nation, P. (2018). School of linguistics andapplied language studies . Retrieved 6 29,2018, from www.victoria.ac.nz: https://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/paul-nation

Paquot, M. (2018). Phraseologicalcompetence: A missing component inuniversity entrance language tests? Insightsfrom a study of EFL learners’ use ofstatistical collocations. LanguageAssessment Quarterly , 15 (1), 29-43.

Sinclair, J. M. (2004). How to Use Corporain Language Teaching. Amsterdam: JohnBenjamins Publishing Co.

Thurstun, J., & Candlin, C. N. (1998).Concordancing and the teaching of thevocabulary of academic English. English forSpecific Purposes , 17 (3), 267-280.


Introduction

The functionalist approach to education, inwhich language study has been viewed interms of its practical benefits, has gainedprominence over the past few decades andthis has resulted in the increase in the studyof specialized discourses. Socio-politicalreasons favoured the unprecedented growthof the English language and gradually itestablished its deep-rooted influence inalmost all domains of human endeavour.Its emergence as the ‘lingua franca’necessitated the need to study it on a globalscale. English proficiency became one of themain criteria to get placed in the newgeneration jobs. Soon job seekersconcentrated on mastering the ‘specificskills’ they would need to fare well in theworkplace than acquiring broaderknowledge in the basic skills of thelanguage. Studying this language of

opportunities came to mean largely a thepath to a better life and the demand to studythe specific language needed in theworkplace triggered the growth of a newbranch of ELT, i.e. ‘English for SpecificPurposes’ (ESP).

The relevance and scope of ESP as ascholastic focus necessary for achievementin the workplace has scaled new dimensions,especially in the global context. The increasein the number of universities in major FirstWorld universities offering M.A programmesin ESP and the rise in the number of studentspursuing courses are indicative of the globalrelevance and acceptance of ESP. Ministriesof Education in a number of countries regardit as one of the keys to their country’s futuredevelopment and firms and businessorganizations frequently conduct in-serviceESP crash courses for the employees(McDonough Jo, 1984). English for Specific

English for Specific Purposes: Perspectives andPedagogic ImplicationsLal C.A.Associate Professor of English, University of Kerala


Jalson JamesAssistant Professor of English, Govt Polytechnic College, Vennikulam, Kerala

ABSTRACTESP which matches the teaching content to learner needs has gained considerableprominence in the global scenario. But in the Indian context it is still in its infancy andeven the academic community is yet to broaden the knowledge about its perspectivesand pedagogic implications. This paper attempts to draw together some of the manylines of ESP growth and looks at the basic considerations when ESP is implemented.


Purposes: An International Journal has gainedwide popularity and it remains to be one ofthe most popular journals referred to in thelanguage learning realm in the past fewyears.No other dominant alternativeapproach to teaching English as a languagefor the workplace has so farevolved.

But in the Indian context the position of ESPis yet to gain a level of visibility one mightexpect. Adequate significance orconsideration is not seen given to includingEnglish language skills in the syllabi oftechnical education, whether it is in coursesoffered by Industrial Training Institutes orColleges of Engineering . There even seemsto be a general notion that such an aspectis of little significance "as the learners arelikely to be successful in their workplacewith the pre-existing knowledge of thelanguage embellished by the bits picked upin the process of negotiating job situations"The current syllabi in these centres oftechnical education often have onlynegligent language learning components.Scrutiny of the curricula related to differentIndian universities show that workplacelanguage skills (ESP oriented courses) havenot been implemented in full force in manyof the courses offered. However, some newcourses in the undergraduate level,incorporating the principles of ESP, areindicative of the gaining importance of ESPin the Indian context. But, it is generallyseen that these courses help to equip thelearners to understand academic genresrelated to workplace like writing dailyreports, drafting emails for various purposes

etc., but they do not completely succeed intransferring the perceived skills in the realworkplaces. These courses fail to attain theirobjectives as it is conceived and transactedin the conventional way, rarely beingbeneficial to the workplace needs. A realisticappreciation and a serious critique of theexisting practices along with a thoroughunderstanding and careful implementationof ESP would naturally bring in the desiredeffect.

Defining ESP

The general approach and workingprinciples of any discipline can better beunderstood by looking at its definition. Somedefinitions of ESP briefed below help us tounderstand in detail the nature of of ESP.

In fact, the term ESP has been in use for aquarter of a century now, and it was T.Hutchinsonand A.Waters who gave a classicdefinition of ESP by showing what ESP isnot:

a) ‘ESP is not a matter of teaching’specialized varieties’ of English’.

Many tend to see ESP as a branch of ELTwhich deals with special varieties of Englishdifferent in kind from other branches.Though ESP deals with the special languageforms used in particular fields, it is wrongto consider ESP as a separate domain. AsLorenzo (2005) reminds us, ‘ESPconcentrates more on language in contextthan on teaching grammar and languagestructures’.

b) ‘ESP is not just a matter of science words


and grammar for scientists, hotel words andgrammar for hotel staff and so on’.

When we look at a tree, we see the leavesand branches, but there is much more tothe tree than just these, much of which ishidden from view inside and beneath thetree. The leaves do not just hang in the air:they are supported by a complex underlyingstructure. A superfluous examination of ESPwould prompt us to think that ESP isEnglish used in a restricted sense; a branchof ELT which teaches some words,structures and functions of specialoccupations. ESP does not deal withrestricted or specialized language alone, butenables leaner to see language as a whole,in an extensive manner.

c) ‘ESP is not different in kind from any otherform of language teaching’

ESP does not have a separate methodology.Though the content of ESP may be different,the teaching methodologies and learningstrategies are similar to any kind of Englishlearning, that can be defined under theumbrella term Communicative LanguageTeaching (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987).ESP predominantly focuses on languageskills, structures, functions and vocabularythat will be needed by the members of achosen target group in their professionaland vocational environment. Nevertheless,it should be stressed that ESP is not aparticular kind of language or methodology,“but an approach to language learning,which is based on learner need” (Hutchinsonand Waters, 1994).

A few other apparent variations in the

interpretation of ESP definitions can besummarised as follows. ESP is sometimesdescribed as simply the teaching of Englishfor any purpose that could be specified.There are more precise descriptions whichclaims ESP to be the teaching of varieties ofEnglish particular to specific academicstudies or specific vocational or professionalpurposes (Anthony, 1997). Mackay andMountford define ESP as being” generallyused to refer to the teaching of English fora clearly utilitarian purpose.” Generallystudents study English “not because theyare interested in the English Language orEnglish culture as such, but because theyneed English for study or work purposes”(Robinson, 1991).

Emergence of ESP

The emergence of ESP was an evolutionaryprocess, not directly related to any newpedagogic theory as such. The societydemanded a particular knowledge of Englishwhich is mainly need-oriented, marketdemanded and purpose driven, and thegenesis of ESP can be traced in these factors.Factors favourable for the rise of ESP layembedded in the general global expansionin the domains of industry, business,computer science, and specialised academicresearch. According to Hutchinson andWaters (1987) the demands of a brave world,a revolution in linguistics and focus on thelearner were the three common reasons forthe birth of ESP. They further argue thatthe Second World War and the Oil Crisis of1970s were the two historical events thatwere responsible for the emergence of ESP.Western countries focused their resources


and money on the oil rich countries andnaturally the demand for workers skilled ina link occupational language became theneed of the hour. As the language of the‘Knowledgeable,’ English became morepowerful pushing other languages behind.By this time ELT was forced to modify itsapproaches, methods and materialsaccording to the needs of the learners andclients. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) aptlyobserve that, “English now became subjectto the wishes, needs and demands of peopleother than language teachers”.

Again there occurred a shift from the teacheror instructor driven curriculum to thelearner-centred one. In the syllabus designlearners was given prominence by fixingthem as the centre and their styles oflearning, thier needs and priorities weretaken into consideration. Around this time,changes took place in the field of linguisticstoo. For instance, the traditionalsegmentation of language into its discreteelements like phonemes, morphemes andwords was revised and the new linguisticapproach of language as means ofcommunication used in the context cameinto vogue. Communicative LanguageTeaching, in its myriad manifestations wasfast gaining popularity, giving importanceto the contextual use of English for variouspractical purposes.

ESP and its Classroom Implications

ESP teaching, just like any pedagogicalactivity is a multifaceted activity whosemajor transactions take place in theclassrooms. For a successful

implementation of an ESP curriculum, focushas to be given to three basic considerations.

1) Learner-Centeredness

Learner centeredness in ESP goes beyondjust the notion of learners being givenprominence in the teaching- learningprocess. Here it is assessing the learnersbefore the course takes shape, andformulating the course according to theirneeds and demands. The learners’ pace oflearning, the amount of target languagealready known, their professionalknowledge, their motivation and interest allhave to be seriously considered. If theteacher fails to analyse the present situationand subjective needs of the learner theeffectiveness of the ESP course may not beattained. The content and methodology ofESP courses should be attuned to individuallearning needs and priorities.

2) Material Selection

“Materials can be anything in linguistic,visual, auditory and kinaesthetic forms thatare used to facilitate the teaching learningprocess” (Tomlinson, 1998). Materialselection, adaptation and writing areimportant areas in ESP teaching.

ESP Practitioners often face a dilemma:choosing a textbook designed for a specificbranch of ESP like English for Nurses/Engineers or choosing authentic materialsrelated to the field of study, includingdifferent documents and reading materialrelated to the specific area of study. As themerits of the authentic materials outsmarttheir demerits it is advised that in ESP


contexts authentic materials are to be givenweightage and preference. According toRobinson’s explanation, in addition to theauthentic materials that we use in ESP, weneed to consider whether the goals that weset and the tasks that take place in thelearning situation are authentic withregards to student’s real work roles.

But as authentic materials are actualtransactional discourses of the nativespeaker, produced not for classroombusiness as such,they may pose difficultieswhen used as learning material in the realclassroom.In readymade commercialtextbooks the possibility of finding suitableneed based materials and tasks that wouldstimulate learner’s real life situation wouldbe less. Hence they fail to offer a rich sourceof input for the learners.

Developing in-house, subject specificmaterials which would cater to the ESPlearner’s specific needs is another criterionto be thought of in material selection. Asin-house materials developed by thepractitioner take into consideration themental ability and other learning factors ofthe learner, it facilitates much moremeaningful interaction by the learner. Thisis a challenging proposition, but if teacherscan be suitably motivated and taken intoconfidence, this is bound to produceremarkable results.

Hutchinson & Waters (1989) put forwardfour elements that can be incorporated inthe writing of ESP materials: input, contentfocus, language focus and task. The inputrefers to the many varied things given to

the learners as part of the language learning.They can be new language items, models ofcorrect language use, topics forcommunication, opportunities to use theirexisting knowledge in subject matter as wellas in language. Content focus and languagefocus refer to the non-linguistic andlinguistic content that can be given togenerate meaningful communication in theclass room. Any activity that leads towardscommunication building can be called tasks.The language and content are drawn fromthe learner input and are selected accordingto what they will need in order to do thetask.

3) Exercise and Task Design

All materials, in-house, authentic andcommercial, communicate with the learnerthrough different tasks and exercisesstructuredby the trainer. Indeveloping tasksand activities, an ESP practitioner shouldlean more heavily on tasks which are morelearning specific than linguistic specific.Linguistic specific materials are exercisesthat contribute not much to the languagedevelopment of the learner and are meremechanical reproduction of the thingslearned. But on the other hand languagespecific materials are process-oriented andtry to involve the learners. Linguistic specificexercises cannot be easily dispensed within an ESP class but the tasks and exercisesshould be selected based on the frequencyof occurrence rather than their assumedimportance. Kinds of tasks that can beinvolved in language specifications are pre-text questions, questions interspersed in atext, and appropriate post-text questions.


Conclusion

Basic precepts about ESP make ESPimplementation meaningful and result-oriented. Learner-centeredness isunderstanding the learners and identifyingand analysing their needs. In fact, needsassessment is a systematic approach toidentify the actual learner problems, toanalyse their nature and cause and toestablish priorities for future actions. Afterneeds assessment suitable materials are tobe selected by the practitioner to be usedas the learning material in the classroom.The materials interact with the learnermainly through tasks and exercises. Theyshould provide rich language learningexperience for the learners and shouldprepare them to acquire necessary languageskills they need at the industry.

References

Anthony, L. (1997). “Preaching to Cannibals:

A look at Academic Writing in Engineering”.InThe Japan Conference on English forSpecific Purposes Proceedings. Junuary 31,1998.

Hutchinson, T. and A. Waters (1994).Englishfor Specific Purposes. Glasgow: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Mackay, R., & Mountford, A. (Eds.). (1978).English for Specific Purposes : A Case StudyApproach. London: Longman

McDonough, Jo.(1984) ESP in Perspective-A practical Guide. Collins ELT: London andGlagow.

R ob in son , P . ( 1991 ) . E SP T od ay .H em e l H em p s t e ad : P r e n t i c e H a l lInternational.

Tomlinson, B.(1998) ‘ Materials Developmentin Language Teaching’ Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Dear member, Have you used any of the following digital platforms (or any other also), forpromoting online discussions among your students? Course Management systemsMoodle, Edmodo, Collaborize classroom Social networking/Discussion sites Ning, Facebook, Google+, Google groups and Yahoo groups. Online Discussion Apps. Collaborize classroom and Subtext If yes, please send your paper, giving an account of your experiences in usingthem . and also with what effect, to <[email protected]> cc to Dr. Xavier Pradeepsingh at [email protected] All selected papers will be given cash awards and also published in our E Journal—Journal of Technology for ELT (Impact factor:4.530

S. Rajagopalan, www.eltai.in


In the title I have used the word expert. Butthe talk is actually againstestablishmentarians, people who supportthe system. So how many of you areestablishmentarians, supporting the systemof IIT? Establishmentarians are not many,especially in a crowd like this, which is good.I am going to attack establishmentarians.But, the focus of the talk is on how I learntspoken English, or English, actually.

I was an establishmentarian, was an“expert”, until about ten years ago. Andthen, when I left the British Council, I lostall the positions of the head of the unit,curriculum committees, chairperson, andsimilar other positions. When you lose thesepositions, you actually get the freedom tobe an anti-establishmentarian, anti-expert.So, I am in a lucky position now to be ananti-establishmentarian and anti-expert.You can call me contrarian - not havingtypical popular views, not having a position,and, thus,not compelled to do certainthings, but be a person who has absoluteintellectual freedom, at least to think whathe wants to think, if not to do what he wantsto do.

My village is about three miles away fromthe small Taluk Headquarters calledTiruchendur, about 30 kms from the portcity of Tuticorin.

The further south you go, circumstancesto learn English actually become moredifficult. What are the difficulties in avillage? First of all, my home language wasa non-English language, Tamil, only Tamil.My father was very keen on fighting casesin the court, and, therefore, he had a boxfulof papers in English. They were allcasesheets produced by my father’s lawyer,and also by the lawyers of other people inthe village. These papers were there withmy father because my father used to playthe role of adviser to the local people. Hewas knowledgeable, as far as local law wasconcerned, the local politics was concerned.So, there were some papers in Englishrelated to court cases.

There was one book also in my home, twobooks, actually, in English. One was mysister’s Lifco English – English- TamilDictionary. The Bible we had at home wasnot in English, it was in Tamil; the otherbook was my sister’s English textbook.

Against the ExpertsV. Robert Bellarmine1

1Edited transcript of a talk given in 2013 in the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Instituteof Technology Madras, Chennai 600036. Bellarmine retired as English Studies Officer of the British Council inIndia in 1997. Earlier, he taught at the Central Institute of English & Foreign Languages, Hyderabad. He hadstudied in Madurai and in Edinburgh. Besides teaching “slum children” under his “Teaching English to theDisadvantaged” (TED) Project, funded, among others, by The Hindu group of publications, he has conductednumerous communication seminars for executives in industries. Robert is one of the few progressivethinkersin ELT in India.


So, what were the terms we were using whichwere from English? About four hundred andfifty words were found to be borrowed fromEnglish into Tamil – paper, pencil, train. Youknow, such words have become Tamilnow.And therefore, those words were familiarto me. But proper English words wereunfamiliar to me and to the other membersof the family. SoI come from a family whereTamil was the home language.

Now what about my school? We had a Girls’Elementary School, a Boys’ ElementarySchool, and a Training School in the village.Only two people conversed in English. TheHead Master of the Boys’ School, SusaiMarian, used to speak in English. He hadbeen educated in what was in those dayscalled the Oxford of Tamil Nadu,Palayamkottai, or Tirunelveli. This districtheadquarters had many schools andcolleges. They were all doing outstandinglywell educationally, and also in sports. Manyhockey players came from my college. Somerepresented Madras University. But manyplayers for hockey, volleyball, some also forfootball, came from our colleges. In otherwords, these colleges, St John’s and StXavier’s, were good at both sports andeducation. They were so reputable that theywere known as the Oxford and Cambridgeof that area of Tamil Nadu, actually. Sothis Susai Marian went to Palayamkottai tocomplete his tenth standard.That’s how helearnt English.

And what about the village? There wereoccasions when there were three people whocould speak English. The inspector of police,who came from Tiruchendur, the Taluk

headquarters, could speak English. Later, Iam going to refer to these three people whowere responsible for creating in me what Icall Machiavellian, chanakyan motivation tolearn English. These people were at leastpartly responsible for my motivation, mykeen motivation to learn English. I will comeback to this story in a minute. So that isthe kind of school and village I come from.

Now the neighbouring town,Virpandianpattinam, where I had my highschool education, is very peculiar. Becauseall the citizens of that town wereChristians.They were Anglophiles; theyloved English; they had Anglicized Indianculture. Or, you can say,they had theWesternized Indian culture, because ofabout two hundred years of Portugueseinfluence, the Western influence. Manypeople from this place worked abroad.Theyalso went abroad to learn English, becausethat was prestigious in those days.

So, there was a small town, only about twomiles from my village, where English wasfrequently spoken; where English was ahome language; where English was thelanguage of the school;where English wasspoken even on the football field. Yet wecould not benefit from that, because ourvillage would not have anything to do withthat village. Can you guess the reason? Is itreligion? Language? Our mother tongue wascommon, Tamil. Why do you think eventhough there was opportunity to learnEnglish from the neighbouring village Icould not learn it? My peers, people likeme, in the village could not pick up thelanguage from that village, even though we


went to that school to get education upabove the ninth standard. What was thereason? Caste came in the way. Therefore,they would have only religious activities withus, but not educational activities with us,not linguistic activities. Therefore, I lost theopportunity to learn English from them.

In the whole village, there were about 250voters at that time. There must have beenat least 2000 people in the village. And yetthere was only one newspaper in English,and only two speakers of English. I had towalk three miles to Tiruchendhur, the TalukHead Quarters, to have access to Englishnewspapers. Remember even when I walkedthe three miles, went to the library, run bythe Panchayat Office, I had to wait for myturn. Because I was not the only one there,but there was only one newspaper. We couldnot separate the sheets of the paper. Theywere all stitched together,and, therefore,after one person finished reading, the nextperson in the queue could read the paper.They were very strict with that. And,therefore, access to English materials wasextremely limited.

Paucity of time was another importantobstacle which I had to overcome. I used toget up at three thirty or four o’ clock in themorning. Otherwise, we were not in aposition to get money for food. Therefore, Iused to get up at three thirty or four o’clock,walk about a mile, and go to the grove ofcasuarina trees; this is a kind of tree wewere supposed to water to earn ourlivelihood. Sounless you got up early, andworked for about three hours in thecasuarina grove, you would not be able to

get any food. All your sparetime, thus, wasspent on working for food.

Poverty does another thing to the learner.It doesn’t give any opportunity where youhave a sense of hope, hope for the future.You do not have many opportunities whereyou can think of a bright future. But thensomebody, who may be a total stranger, willappear in your life and will help. Or,somebody who can be a role model for you,in your village, or in the neighbouringvillage, will transform you. So, when thereis utter poverty, there is only hopelessness.Now when you are hopeless, everything getsaffected; whether you want to learn English,or you want to learn to play football. Whenyou are not hopeful, then you can learnneither this nor that. So, I was in thatsituation, and, therefore, eventhough Iwanted to learn English, I could not do sobecause of poverty.

How did I overcome all these challenges?After my pre-university course, I wasworking in Kodaikanal, in a hotel, as awaiter. There, waiters are also called roomboys. So I was one of those room boys in ahotel. Because my plan was to earn somemoney for two months in the summervacation in the summer resort, and thenpay the first semester fee for my Chemistrycourse. When I was working as a waiter, Iwas about seventeen or eighteen.

One day I noticed that a rather large familycame from Gujarat. They stayed in thedeluxe suite. There were many young andold people in the group, men and women,but I was attracted by one member of thegroup. It was a girl, about my age, not fat,


not too thin, of very fair skin, very attractive!At that age, any girl is attractive. But I wasespecially attracted towards this girl.

You know what I did? As a room boy, if Ihad to take tea, I would make a mistake. Ifthey said five cups of tea and five cups ofcoffee, I would take six cups of coffee andfour cups of tea, making the mistakedeliberately so that they would ask me tocome to the room again. This way I couldhave a look at the girl again. Now thiscontinued for about ten days because theywere staying there only for ten days. Andthe tenth day came, and I knew they wereleaving. That meant that this girl was alsoleaving. That is what mattered to me. And,therefore, that day when there was an hourbefore they left, I went to the room with cupsof tea, biscuits, snacks and so on, and whenthey were distributing these things amongthemselves, among the members of thatGujarati family, then I heard suddenlysomebody shouting at me. It was this girl.She said, “Why are you staring at me like acur!” Yes, that was the sentence.

She shouted at the top of her voice, “Whyare you staring at me like a cur!” Now whatis the meaning of the word “cur”? That’swhat attracted me. The girl was abusing me,cursing me, shouting at me, therefore, itsounded something like a swear word, acurse. It is an animal. Cur is a special kindof dog. Do you think dog is clean? Do youthink a dog is well-fed? No, do you think itis somebody’s pet? It’s a street dog, straydog, hungry dog, dirty dog!

Actually, I was not sure of the meaning of

the word. I was not bothered about whethershe cursed me, or, whether she praised me!Now that was not what mattered to me onthat occasion. I was focusing my attentionentirely on the term ‘cur’. In other words,what mattered to me in my life at that point,in spite of the girl, was English. In otherwords, I was so madly in love with Englishthat even when somebody cursed me,abused me, called me pariah dog, I wasinterested in learning a word rather thanfeel sorry about being cursed by that girl.The point I am making here is wheneveropportunities arose for me to learn English,that is what mattered to me. Whether it wasa negative feeling, whether it was anoccasion when somebody abused me, itdidn’t matter. If that could give me anopportunity to learn a single word, I valuedit highly. And I learnt it.

So what I did was to run to my room, openmy old tin trunk, take my Lifco Dictionary,and refer to the meaning of the word. Andthat word became one of my possessions.Even today I have not forgotten it. Eventhough I have not called anybody a cur, Iknow what that word means, how it isdifferent from the “dog”, the puppy.

So, the first point I am trying to make is wecan learn, not only you and I, anybody canlearn a second language, not only English,any second language, whether its spokenaspect or the written aspect, if themotivation to learn, especially genuine,deep, keen motivation is there. So that isthe first point I am making.

Do experts agree with me? You will listen to


it after I list a few more lessons we can learn.

Earlier, I referred to the Machiavellianmotivation. Can anybody find out who I amreferring to. I am not sure of his nationality,it doesn’t matter. Italian? He wrote a bookcalled The Prince. That book was used bythe royal families in Europe as a textbookto train their children in the art of ruling,the art of politics. So Machiavelli is supposedto be the father of politics. That is why,earlier I referred to Chanakya. What isMachiavellian motivation?

Let me return to my story of the Inspectorfrom Thiruchendur. Whenever the inspectorcame to our village, the three people joinedtogether – the parish priest, the headmasterof my school, and this inspector of police.These three joined together and spoke inEnglish. They knew Tamil, but they wouldn’tspeak in Tamil. Why? Only then thePanchayat, the villagers, will not actuallyunderstand what they were saying.

The second thing is whenever somebodyused English, these three people believedthat whatever was said was true. If awoman is giving witness, and if that womancould utter one or two words in English,especially a complete sentence, they wouldbelieve her, but they would not believe theman who would really be speaking thetruth. In other words, English wasconsidered by these three people as thelanguage of power; more importantly, asthe language of truth.

Now, my father, as I told you before, usedto fight for the villagers, he was very active

in the local politics. So, if my father spokethe truth, in the panchayat during thediscussion, he was not believed, he was nottrusted, his statements were not valued,because he could not speak English.Whereas the police officer, the parish priest,and the headmaster, when they saidsomething, especially using English, thenpeople who had the authority to judgethought that that was the truth. In otherwords, English was presumed as not onlythe language of power, but also of truth.And, therefore, I decided to learn thelanguage so that one day I could use itagainst them, against the inspector of police,against parish priest and against the headmaster. That is what I achieved about tenyears later.

I was able to get my M A degree, I was ableto go abroad, and then come back and getthe lecturer’s job, and then use my position,use my English language proficiency to workagainst them. I went even to the Episcopalcourt set up by the Pope from Rome andargued my case in Tuticorin and won it.Because I spoke in English fluently, perhapsmore fluently than the bishop, they passedthe judgment in my family’s favour. That ishow my sister’s marriage was saved. So atthat young age I was able to see English asthe language of not only power, but also thelanguage of truth.

Earlier, I told you that I used to get up atthree thirty or four o’clock. That is becauseI had to water the casuarinatrees. But thatpractice had to continue because the BBCRadio, started special English programmesfor learners like us at four thirty in the


morning. Even now at four thirty there isnews, and after that, till about six thirty,there are special programmes for learnersof English. So, even in those days with anold radio set at four thirty in the morning Istarted listening to good spoken English.And it went on up to six thirty in themorning. So, for two continuous hours, if Ihad some freedom from work, then I listenedto the British Broadcasting Corporation’sradio programme.

How many of you are familiar with Wrenand Martin’s Grammar & Composition?Good that it is taught even now! Now I amgoing to make an important distinctionbetween knowledge about English andknowledge of English. If you look at the firsthalf dealing with articles, prepositions,relative clauses, etc, then the authors dealwith knowledge about English; but if youcome to the second half of the book, wherethere are letters, essays, paraphrases ofpoems, and things like that, then thatsection deals with knowledge of English.

In the second part, they actually teach youor develop your skill to use English – to helpyou understand poetry, use English tounderstand a letter of complaint, useEnglish to understand anything, or to writeanything. So, these days we make animportant distinction between knowledge ofEnglish and knowledge about English. Evenin those days, even though I had not metany English language expert, I somehow feltthat the second part of Wren and Martinwas more important than the first part, and,therefore, I focused on knowledge ofEnglish, not knowledge about English. In

other words, I did not bother about grammarof English, but bothered about use ofEnglish. And that is how I was able to pickup English very quickly, even without theteacher.

1975 was a turning point in my life, becausethat was the time when I got an applicationform for which I had not made any request.From somewhere, it came to my Maduraihome, and it was an application form for afat scholarship. I was able to go to the UKfor one year, carry out a post graduateeducation, M Sc in Applied Linguistics, withall the expenses met, including air fare, foodand accommodation, money for books,money for travel, money to get evenmaterials from abroad, like the U S andFrance. It was a very rich scholarship, andI did not ask for it, but the application cameto my house. I knew who sent it later. WhatI am saying is that showed that the BritishCouncil, which sent me the application,started recognizing me as a good user ofEnglish. That’s why I am choosing 1975 asthe tipping point in my life.

The first point is that if you want to reallyovercome the difficulties, if you want toreally master the language, especiallyspoken language, it is not enough to knowthe tricks of the trade. But on top of them,you need some general success mantra.That is why self-development books are soimportant. Today, I don’t know anybody inthe world, any expert in the world, who saysto master English you need to know somerules of good language learning, besidessome general success mantras, successsecrets.


Now one of the first success secrets I learntin my life even at that young age was thatall of us are gifted to learn any language.This is a general rule, though the EnglishLanguage Teaching specialists may not saythis so openly. They write reams and reamsof papers, they publish in journals, but dothey openly say that all our learners actuallyhave the gift given by God, or Nature, tolearn a second language? They don’t tell youthat. But that is something which I observewhen I notice people around. People whowant to learn something can learn it.

So the first lesson I would like to pass on toyou is that all of us are wired to learn asecond language. There is research evidencealso to prove this. A professor called PittCorder2 of Edinburgh university, where Icarried out my M Sc in Applied Linguistics,has studied this problem very deeply, andhe claims that if learners have two thingswhen learning a language, learning willautomatically follow. Number one,motivation; number two, exposure. Givenmotivation and exposure, second languagelearning is automatic.

Where is this other piece of proof? You lookat English medium schools. Why do youthink my servant wants to send herchildren to the English medium school?Why do you think 500 CBSE Englishmedium schools have been started in TamilNadu in one year? It is a record breaking

number. Why do you think so manyparents are keen to send their children toEnglish medium schools.Why? It is becauseof this, because of exposure, because thatis the best situation to learn English. Youhave got motivation, but they are neededto give you exposure. And the exposure isideal in the English medium situation. So,whenever English medium is used, youknow, people learn the languageautomatically. The best way to learn alanguage is to use that language as themedium of instruction.

Do experts say this? No! That is theproblem. They know that this is a fact; myservant knows that this is a fact; and amajority of parents know that this is a fact.But the experts don’t say this. Instead, intheir own institutions, in the governmentof Tamil Nadu maybe, in the universitysystem, Madras University, or MaduraiUniversity, what do these experts do? Theytry to produce not the English mediumsituation. To teach English, they try toproduce a separate English curriculum.They have a separate set of English textbooks. They have separate Englishlanguage texts, and they claim that theircurriculum can teach English. Is it true?Does it succeed? Does the system succeed?No!

I am teaching slum children now, in theevening. And there is a sixth standard child

2Stephen Pit Corder (6 October 1918 – 27 January 1990]), generally known as Pit Corder, was a professorof applied linguistics at Edinburgh University, known for his contribution to the study of error analysis. Hewas the first chairman of the British Association for Applied Linguistics, 1967–70, and was instrumental indeveloping the field of applied linguistics in the United Kingdom See <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_Corder>


who is not able to write his own name inEnglish! Remember, English is begun inTamil Nadu in Standard One. This boy haslearnt English for six years, and yet he isnot able to write his own name in English! Itried to find out, if he was suffering fromdyslexia, or any brain deficiency. No, he isnormal.

What does it mean? What do the expertssay? This is my final point. Have you heardabout a famous agricultural scientist, inAmerica? I am referring to GeorgeWashington Carver3, who was one of the fewpeople to create the agricultural science inAmerica. People were not ready to eattomato. The Blacks in America at that pointof time thought that tomato was poisonous.So Carver had to go from village to villageto eradicate poverty, and to show them howto eat tomato, and yet survive, be alive. Healso became a great scientist. He discoveredabout 200 derivatives from the peanut.

Now, I am going to tell you an anecdote fromhis life and then compare it with actions oftoday’s English language teaching experts.

One day Carver’s students wanted to pullhis leg. They wanted to play a trick on theprofessor. Therefore, they brought a displayboard with a very new kind of bug they hadfound. Could the professor name thisspecimen, this bug?

You know what they had done. They, thesemischievous students, had created this bug

by putting three different parts of threedifferent bugs together, and had tried todesign a new bug. They took the body of thebeetle, the legs of the spider, and the headof the ant, and fixed them here as the newkind of bug, and they showed it to ProfCarver, and said, “Can you name it?” Carverlooked at it and said this was called“humbug”. What is humbug? This is not abug, this is cheating.

So what English language teaching expertsare doing in the name of magical kind ofsyllabus, text books, learning material,training material, etc is actually humbug.What they need to do is to revise theirknowledge in the light of the successfullearners who are in thousands and millionsin the English medium schools. Let themlook at the English medium school childrenand how they have quickly, efficiently andeffectively mastered the language. This iswhy when they don’t learn lessons fromsuch institutions, we say what you are doingis humbug.

So what are the lessons for us? Let me stopby saying that we should follow thesuccessful learners if we want to continueto improve our English. Let us not listen tothe experts, they are humbugs!

Thank you very much for your attention!

[Transcribed & edited by ShreeshChaudhary, Dept of English, GLAUniversity, Mathura 281 406]

3George Washington Carver(1860s[1][2] – January 5, 1943), was an American botanist and inventor. He activelypromoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion. See <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Carver>


Action research through Mentorship Model:A sustainable Framework for professional developmentIpshita H SasmalAssistant Professor, ELT, Centre for English Languge Education (CELE), Ambedkar University, Delhi


Monishita H PandeAssistant Professor, ELT, Centre for English Languge Education (CELE), Ambedkar University, Delhi


ABSTRACTAction research or classroom-based research is steadily gaining popularity in theIndian context because it focuses on the teachers’ real-life classroom issues and solvingthose through an enquiry-based approach. English teachers at the school level needto collaborate with professionals in the field to gain insights as well as receive guidancein their journey of action research. School teachers in India are not motivated to conductresearch which is largely considered the domain of ‘higher education’. Thus, actionresearch has the potential to bring research practices into the English classroom andencourage teachers to look at their classrooms critically. At present, continuousprofessional development (CPD) activities in the Indian context are based on the cascademodel (Mathew, 1998). To manage the huge number of teachers who need to be partof CPD programs, the cascade model seems to be the most feasible method of teachereducation in India. The effectiveness of this model has however been challenged.This paper argues that the mentorship or network-based model can be a sustainableframework citing British Council’s Aptis Action Research Mentor Scheme (AARMS),which is an initial attempt to gauge the feasibility of the mentorship model in theIndian context.

Key words: action research, mentorship model, enquiry-based, continuous professionaldevelopment, cascade model

Teacher education which is a continuum ofprofessional development,enables teachersto improve their classroom practices. Thefirst yet critical stage on that continuum isthe practical component of the pre-serviceprogramme which is an extended field

experience conducted under the guidanceof an experienced teacher who is oftenreferred to as a cooperating teacher or‘mentor’. As student-teachers across theworld consider this practicum of theBachelor of Education degree as most


crucial and the mentor as critical to theirsuccess in that degree (Kirk, Macdonald, &O’Sullivan, 2006; Weiss & Weiss, 2001), itis important to focus on the field experienceof the teachers under the supervision oftheir mentors. In India, while the pre-servicetraining does expose student-teachers to thefield, this experience is not enough to equipteachers to tackle the complex teaching-learning situations which they wouldencounter while in-service. This is not toclaim that ours is the only country facingthis challenge. It is a situation of concernin the larger fraternity of teacher educatorsand researchers in the field of teachereducation.

In general, pre-service teacher educationprogrammes tend to focus on the immediateand theoretical knowledge but to evaluateits impact at a distance is challenging. Asteacher education is not a single entity, whatstudent-teachers are exposed to during theirpre-service training would not work inidentical ways in other settings. Therefore,making changes to teacher educationprogrammes is not a question of reformingone specific set of practices, a specific typeof course, or a specific evaluation system.Instead, there is a need for a comprehensivere-conceptualization of what could beeffective teacher education. Given theconstraints under which we operate, thispaper argues that in-service teachers needcontinuous collaboration and support toengage in meaningful professional learningthrough a social network model beyond theirpre-service experience of mentoring as partof their practicum.

The challenges of pre-service teachereducation programmes

The international community of teachereducators today faces dilemmas of how tobring research together with practice inways that enable both a mutual interactionand a qualitative improving of practice. Anumber of reports on teacher education(Abell Foundation, 2001; AmericanFederation ofTeachers, 2000; CochranSmith & Zeichner, 2005; Darling-Hammond, 1997,2001; Haselkorn & Harris,1998; National Center for EducationalStatistics, 1999) suggest that teacher’spractice in the field is challenging andproblematic and requires constantimprovement and there is a need to raisecredibility and standards. For example,Levine (2006:1) reports that ‘Too oftenteacher education programs cling to anoutdated, historically flawed vision ofteacher education that is at odds with asociety remade by economic, demographic,technological, and global change’. Othercritiques of pre-service teacher educationprogrammes claim that (Abell Foundation,2001; Maclver, Vaughn, Katz, 2005; NIES,1999)

• The activities engaged in by preserviceteachers in college/university settings arerarely relevant to their subsequentprofessional practice

• Student teaching placements are often toobrief

• Sites are chosen to accommodate facultyand students’ comforts rather than to


challenge tacit images of good schools andgood teaching

• In f ieldwork, there is of ten littlesupervision; it is often of poor quality; andit is rarely in genuine synchrony with theteacher education program

Considering we are facing this challenge ofpre-service programmes failing to equipteachers adequately for their real timeteaching, it is imperative to re-imagine howin-service teachers can be supported in theircontinuing professional developmentactivities.

The teacher education model in India

National Curriculum Framework of TeacherEducation circulated in March 2009 hasbeen prepared in the background of theNCF, 2005 and the principles laid down inthe Right of Children to Free andCompulsory Education Act, 2009 whichnecessitated an altered framework onTeacher Education which would beconsistent with the changed philosophy ofschool curriculum recommended in theNCF, 2005. While articulating the vision ofteacher education, the Framework has someimportant dimensions of the new approachto teacher education, as under:

• Reflective practice to be the central aimof teacher education;

• Student-teachers should be providedopportunities for self-learning, reflection,assimilation and articulation of newideas;

• Developing capacities for self-directed

learning and ability to think, be criticaland to work in groups.

• Providing opportunities to student-teachers to observe and engage withchildren, communicate with and relateto children.

Given that the framework promotes criticalreflective practices, self-learning andgeneration of ideas, it is important to re-look at the existing models of providingprofessional development opportunities toin-service teachers.

At present, the cascade model is prevalentin our country which involves the deliveryof training through layers of trainers untilit reaches the final target group. Thisapproach to training was used during theUNDP/UNESCO Pacific EducationalManagement Project (1990-1992) andduring Phases One and Two of the currentUNDP/UNESCO/UNICEF/AusAID BasicEducation and Life Skills (BELS)Programme. The BELS Programme throughthe Primary and Literacy Education (PALE)Module aimed at upgrading the quality ofbasic education by training in-serviceteachers at primary level.

A cascade model requires a team of resourcepersons who can give relevant inputs andcreate a training material which can ensureuniformity and quality. Then it requires theselection of adequate number of trainersfrom the pool of best teachers. Finally, underthis model the training material needs tobe best in terms of content and delivery.

The cascade model works in situations


where there is dearth of resources andnumbers are large. It gives a large numberof people the opportunity to be involved inprofessional development activities bygetting trained and becoming trainers. Ifgiven the necessary recognition and supportby ministries/departments of education, ithelps create the initiative among mastertrainers and teachers to become moreresponsible for their own professionaldevelopment within schools and betweennearby schools.

However, the cascade model also has certaindrawbacks. There is a definite degree ofdilution which results in loss of quality fromlevel to level. As a result,by the time thetraining reaches the final target group, ithas lost some of its “real value”.Moreover,master trainers may not always have therequired skills and may also beoverburdened with responsibilities. Anotherissue is that within the cascade modeladequate monitoring and assessment ofactivities are not possible and there is noway of fairly measuring teacher performanceon a comparative basis.

Continuous professional development ofEnglish teachers in schools

Professional development of school teachersin our country at the state level is primarilythe responsibility of SCERTs and DIETs.While we deal with big numbers and a hostof challenges, an effective way to address ithas been the cascade model. This model asdiscussed earlier has its advantages as itallows us to reach out to a large number ofteacher, however, its effectiveness has been

challenged by many in the field. In 2008SCERT, govt. of NCT of Delhi, identified 200teachers to be trained by British Council asmaster trainers. 40 master trainers werethen sent out to train 7000 English languageteachers. This was done following thecascade model. However, the Impact Study(2010) showed that only 15-20% of theteachers were carrying forward thecascading. This programme was in theformat of 5days of training followed by abreak and then another 5 days followed by2 days of follow up sessions. In 2012 thesame cascading was carried out by RegionalEnglish Language Office (RELO) with Delhigovernment school teachers with similar lowimpact results.

While the cascade model has allowed us toreach out to large numbers, Impact studiesshow that the effect is low. Therefore, thereis a need to think of alternative ways tostrengthen in-service programmes. In orderto bring in the component of self-inquiry andproblem solving within the local contexts ofthe teachers, action research can be aneffective tool to engage teachers inexploratory practices.

Action research through the socialnetwork model

Action research which is also known asParticipatory Action Research (PAR),community based study, co-operativeenquiry, action science and action learningis an approach which is used for improvingconditions and practices in a variety ofprofessional spheres. The purpose ofundertaking action research is to bring


about change in specific contexts.Meyer(2000) comments that action research’sstrength lies in its focus on generatingsolutions to practical problems and itsability to empower practitioners, by gettingthem to engage with research and thesubsequent development or implementationactivities. Meyer states that practitionerscan choose to research their own practiceor an outside researcher can be engaged inhelping to identify any problems, seek andimplement practical solutions, andsystematically monitor and reflect on theprocess and outcomes of change.

Action research supports practitioners inseeking out ways in which they can improveclassroom practices. Koshy (2010: 1) writesthat,‘Action research is a method used forimproving practice. It involves action,evaluation, and critical reflection and –based on the evidence gathered – changesin practice are then implemented.It isparticipative and collaborative, situationand context specific, develops reflectionbased on interpretations made by theparticipants. It results in creation ofknowledge through problem solving, if thesolution to the problem leads to theimprovement of practice. In action researchfindings will emerge as action develops, butthese are not conclusive or absolute.

Research is about generating knowledge.Action research creates knowledge based onenquiries conducted within specific andoften practical contexts. The purpose ofaction research is to learn through actionthat then leads on to personal orprofessional development. Kemmis and

McTaggart (2000: 595) describe it asparticipatory research. The authors statethat action research involves a spiral of self-reflective cycles of: Planning a change,Acting and observing the process andconsequences of the change, Reflecting onthese processes and consequences and thenreplanning, Acting and observing, Reflectingand this goes on.

Cohen and Manion (1994: 192)describe theemergent nature of action research in theirdefinition and maintain that action researchis: essentially an on-the-spot proceduredesigned to deal with a concrete problemlocated in an immediate situation. This meansthat ideally, the step-by-step process isconstantly monitored over varying periods oftime and by a variety of mechanisms(questionnaires, diaries, interviews and casestudies, for example) so that the ensuingfeedback may be translated intomodif ications, adjustment, directionalchanges, redefinitions, as necessary, so asto bring about lasting benefit to the ongoingprocess itself rather than to some futureoccasion

Considering that in-service teachers needto engage in self-enquiry and reflectivepractices through action research, thequestion then arises as to how can they besupported and encouraged to do so. Thepresent cascade model lacks the potentialto support such a practice. We argue for asocial network model of teachercollaboration to enhance teacher learningand professional development. In the past20 years, educational researchers and policymakers have become increasingly interested


in teacher relationships and teachercollaboration to support teacherprofessional development and capacitybuilding in schools.

As teachers need to play an important rolein curriculum implementation, researchersand policy makers have started toacknowledge the importance of teachercollaboration for strengtheningschools andbuilding individual teachers’ knowledge. Asocial network model promotesteachercollaborationof various kinds. Using thisframework, social network studies outsideof education have indicated the significanceof social networks for organizationalperformance and innovation (e.g., Nahapietand Ghoshal 1998; Tsai and Ghoshal 1998)and suggested useful principles for thedesign of effective initiatives to enhance thevalue of collaboration (e.g., Cross et al.2002).

Social network perspective facilitates ourunderstanding of human interactions. Inorder to support this claim, the social capitaltheory (Degenne and Forse ì 1999; Portes1998; Scott 2000) is invoked by scholars.Social capital theory proposes that socialstructure, or the web of relationships amongindividuals, offers both opportunities andlimitations for the exchange of resources.Individuals may tap into the resources thatare available in the social structure in whichthey are embedded and use these resourcesto their advantage to achieve individual ororganizational goals (Nahapiet and Ghoshal1998).

Social network model is based on three main

assumptions (Degenne and Forse ì1999):First of all, it assumes that resources,such as information and knowledge, areexchanged in relationships amongindividuals. These resources flow througha social network and are transferred throughsocial interaction among the individuals—for example, by asking for advice,collaborating, or helping (Borgatti and Ofem2010; Burt 1992).

Secondly, social network theorists believethat individuals are inter-dependent ratherthan independent as they are embedded intheir local social context (Degenne and Forseì 1999). Third, a social network perspectivefurther implies that social networks mayprovide opportunities for, but alsolimitations for, the actions of individuals andorganizations. In other words, in schools,teachers may benefit from the tangible andintangible resources that flow in a school’ssocial network, such as instructionalmaterials and expertise. However, teachersmay only benefit from these resources if theyhave access to them through their socialrelationships. If the patternsof socialrelationships are not favourable for teachersto tap into this flow of resources then it willhinder the ability of the school toachieve itsgoals. In the last few years, educationalstudies have been exploring social networktheory to comprehend ways in which thecomplex role of teacher relationships canimprove teaching and learning in order tofacilitate educational change. Social networkmodel can involve teacher collaborationacross schools or districts (e.g., Lieberman2000; Veugelers and Zijlstra 2002). This can


include collaborations with universities (e.g.,Cornelissen 2011); teacher support groupsbetween schools (e.g., Anderson 2010); andschool partnerships in which two or moreschools collaboratively work on a sharedgoal (e.g., Muijs et al. 2010). It can alsoinvolveteacher collaboration within schools(e.g., Daly, Moolenaar, Bolivar et al. 2010;Moolenaar 2010; Moolenaar, Daly et al.2011; Penuel et al. 2009).

The Social network model needs to beadopted along with the cascade model inthe Indian context to ensure reflexive andenquiry based approach to teacherdevelopment. As we are struggling with largenumbers, rejecting the cascade model maynot be an immediate solution. However,along with the cascade model if we are ableto build strong social networks both withinand outside schools and districts, it has thepotential to begin a new discourse in India’sexperiences with in-service teachereducation. Coupling the social networkmodel with the idea of a cooperating teacheror mentor, as seen in pre-service trainingprogrammes, in in-service situations amentor teacher and a group of menteeteachers will allow teachers to collaborateand learn in a reflective manner by engagingin action research projects that areembedded in their classroom practices andlocal micro-contexts. Collaborationsbetween school teachers and universityteacher educators/teachers, researchers,other school teachers is the first step toexploring the social network model whichallows teachers to access new ways ofimproving their classroom practices. Such

exploratory research must be incentivisedand brought into the school system toencourage and support teachers.

British Council’s Aptis Action ResearchMentorship Scheme (AARMS) launched inFebruary 2017 is an initial attempt toexplore this on a small scale. It identified14 mentors who in turn build socialnetworks with 80 teachers across India towork over a period of one year. This schemeaims at supporting English teachers andcreate an environment and framework thatenables a group of teachers to try outdifferent approaches and ideas, developtheir reflective practice, make choices anddecisions about their teaching styles,develop their confidence and help themimprove their student learning.

Conclusion

Though there are a number of challengesinvolved in exploring the social networkmodel in the Indian context, adopting itwithin the existing cascade model will be agood first step to explore ways to supportteachers’ continuing professionaldevelopment. Tapping into the availableresources within a network of schools willmaximise opportunities for teachers toengage in reflective practices. Specificmentors can also be stationed in a particularschool (for a specific period of time) tofacilitate networking and action researchwork. The social network model thus hasthe potential to encourage school teachersto collaborate with mentors and explore andaddress their classroom concerns emergingfrom authentic teaching learning contexts.


This model can be implemented in theIndian context only when school teachersare motivated at the institutional level toengage in action research. Unless suchrequirements are made an intrinsic part ofthe institutional culture, in-serviceprofessional development activities willcontinue to have a diluted impact.

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ABSTRACT

Any presentation can be made effective with good planning and a systematic approach.The most important visual in a presentation is not that dazzling animation or PowerPointslide overflowing with data. The most important visual is the presenter who presentshis/her point of view in front of the audience. And when presenting, a large part of the“visual you” is conveyed by the means of the body language. Various studies confirmthat gestures, postures, movements, paralinguistic features and facial expressionsappreciably help the listeners to grasp what one says. As the audience analysis showsthat the body language communication is a very important part of any presentation,one needs to be aware of their body language from the moment one stands up untilthe presentation is complete.This paper unveils the facets of body languagecommunication during presentation.

Keywords: gestures, body language, locále

Efficacious Presentation SchemataShravan KumarNational Joint Secretary, ELTAI, AP-III, Amity Institute of English Studies & Research,Amity University, Noida

Harleen KaurAP-III, Amity Institute of Corporate Communication, Amity University, Noida

Human beings are special creatures ofGod with special features of expressingtheir emotions and feelings in words andthey express their feelings, emotions, andideas through a process ofcommunication in which they ideate theirideas by encoding those ideas in wordsand receivers comprehend the ideas bydecoding the encoded words and then givefeedback. Until and unless this processgets completed the communicat ioncannot be completed. The act ofcommunicating can be broken down intothe fundamentals of wr it ing and

speaking. There are hundreds of smallsocial cues that bui ld upon thosefundamentals that make any person asan effective communicator. Tone and bodylanguage play an enormous role incommunicating to others while wordchoice and even the way people write theletters can convey an unspoken message.Effective presentation skills are a subsetof good communication skills. All effectivepresentation skills may be a result of goodcommunication skills, however, all goodcommunication skills cannot produceeffective presentation skills. All these


things are important to learn even forjobs. The following chart by Times of India

Skill survey 2016 clearly states theimportance of better communication.

Let us make this point more clearly byexplaining one of the oldest of all thepresentation techniques and this is knownsince the time of Aristotle. The rule of threewas described by Aristotle in his bookRhetoric1 in which he portrays that peopletend to easily remember only three thingsduring presentation. We can understand itby taking an example of a kid who goes downto the shop to buy a number of things. Theboy remembers only three things out ofmany things but if a mature woman/mangoes to the shop, the same applies with themalso but they recollect after putting theefforts to remember all the things. This isthe rule of three and keeping this in mindwe have to decide which three things wewant our audience to remember. So, it canbe said that a good presentation does notonly require exact knowledge and enhancedmatter but also needs proper body language,gestures, postures, eye contact, voicemodulation and rate of speech. In other

words, it can be said that the basic threethings during presentation are bodylanguage, voice modulation andconfidence. A good level of confidence isboosts the presenter. Once a presenteracquires even the basics of it, they start tofeel more confident and positive. In the longrun, they will realize that their workpersonality will also improve.

By corroborating with Aristotle’s point ofview of remembering three things oneshould commemorate three things duringpresentation which are: Body Language,Voice Modulation & Confidence. Firstimpression is the last impression; thistraditional saying is always true. So, the goalof a good presentation should be to makethe audience and auditors mesmerized. Thisgoal can be achieved by the means of a bitof toil and planning as presentations canbe made flourishing with good planning anda systematic approach. The most important

Figure 1TOI Skill Survey 2016


visual is you. The most important visual ina presentation is not that dazzling animationor Power Point slide overflowing with data.One should not parrot the slides as theseslides should be used as cue. As Microsoftitself emphasizes that PowerPoint doesn’tgive presentations – PowerPoint makesslides. The presenter’s comments should bemore compelling than the slides. A presentershould keep in mind the following things:

• Do include 50% white space in each andevery slide

• Do make it obvious which section of youroutline you’re in

• Do make each slide stand on its ownwhich generally conveys a main point foreach slide

• Do use animation but it should not beoverused because it makes difficult andannoying to navigate for the audience

• Don’t forget to add meaningful labels,titles, captions, etc. to graphs

• Don’t use dark background and lightcolour of fonts

• Don’t include period if anything is beingwritten. Bullet points are incompletesentences which should not carry periods

The most important visual is the way onepresents one’s point of view in front of theaudience. And when presenting, a large partof the “visual you” is conveyed by the meansof the body language. It is well fact thatgestures, movements, and facial expressionshelp the listeners to grasp what one says.

We need to understand the need anddemand of audience by which we canprepare the things accordingly. Whileanalyzing the audience a presenter shouldanalyze the following things:

• Who is my audience?

° Age

° Gender

° Education

° Occupation

° Cultural background

° Social status

° Economic status

• What is their purpose to listen

This analysis gives an idea about thelinguistic competence, academicbackground, beliefs, values and opinionsand interests and attitude. All these thingshelp in change, mould and reorganizearguments in a way that suits the audience.

It is well known fact that only a smallpercentage of communication involvesactual words: 7%, to be exact. In fact, 55%of communication is visual (body language,eye contact) and 38% is vocal (pitch, speed,volume, tone of voice). So, the first andforemost thing for effective presentation skillis body language. Many recent studies haveshown that people react most positivelywhen a message is delivered alongside goodbody language. It can be better understoodwith an example:


Let’s assume Mr X is going somewhere andhe forgets the proper address. He asks aperson that how to reach here. The strangersays, the left turn is right turn withoutusing the gesture.

Mr X gets confused where to go because hecomprehends this statement in twofollowing ways:

• The upcoming left turn is right turn

• The turn which he has left is right turn

This statement could give better clarity byusing the gestures. Otherwise, poor bodylanguage can send mixed messages and turnoff an audience to what you’re trying toconvey to them as stated in above example.Effective presentation skills dictate the bodylanguage which helps the audience to followwhat you are saying and keeps theirattention; sometimes too much usagebecomes overly confusing and annoying attimes. In order to master effectivepresentation skills that involve your body,it’s a great rule to make natural movementsand anything that does not come or feelnaturally should be avoided. Confuciusdeliberates, “I hear and I forget.

I see and I believe, I do and I understand.”A presenter should try to involve his/heraudience during any presentation by askingquestions, using humours, pictures etc.

It is the human nature that s/he should befelt special during the conversation by givingthe proper attention. They want to feel asthough a presenter is speaking to themdirectly or that they are the most important

person in the room during the conversation.As eye contact is a powerful communicationtool and it enables to connect with audienceand their attention. But major question isthat how much time we should keep eyecontact to the audience? A good presentercan only look into someone’s eyes for at mostthree seconds before either person glancesaway. Although eye contact shows intimacybut longer direct glance becomes moreintense. So, our survey, during aprofessional speech, look directly intosomeone’s eyes only for about a second.There are some cultural differencesregarding eye contact. In the United eyecontact is as basic and expected a form ofnon-verbal communication as the firmhandshake. This is not true in other partsof the world. In Asia, Africa, and LatinAmerica, people avoid direct eye contact asa sign of respect.

Even within a country, people of differentcultures use eye contact differently. African-Americans use more eye contact whentalking and less when listening. People fromArab countries use prolonged eye contactto gauge trustworthiness. So, one shouldconsider these cultural differences whenusing eye contact with your listeners. Assomebody has said that the way you look atsomeone can make a big difference inregards to how you are perceived.

It is a real fact that breaking eye contact isa surefire way to break the connection. Toattain proper attention of audience duringpresentations, A presenter should mentallysplit the room into three parts. Address


some of your comments to one side of theroom, turn your attention to the middle, andthen look to the last section. Try to identifyone person in each section and direct thecomments towards that person. The peoplesurrounding that person will think you aremaking direct eye contact with them.Maintaining eye contact throughout yourpresentation requires preparation. Don’t letanything come between you and yourlisteners. Crossing your arms, standingbehind a lectern or chair, or talking tosomeone from behind a computer monitorall are the examples of blocking, whichprevents a real connection from takingplace. By this very fact, It is sure that themost important visual in a presentation isnot that dazzling animation or PowerPointslide overflowing with data but the mostimportant visual is the way one presentsone’s point of view in front of the audience.The way that a presenter moves his/herbody and limbs will also have a majorinfluence on how the audience perceives.When presenting a presenter will normallybe standing, and an ideal stance is with feetclose together and the weight evenlydistributed between them. We should notstand in one position, but try to injectmovement as we speak. This helps to add anatural animation to our presentation asthe audience have to adjust their gaze tofollow us rather than stay looking at a fixedposition. By developing a practiced way ofmoving we can add a confident andprofessional air to our presentation style.

A presenter should also focus on gestures;a form of body language, are also a part of

overall visual picture. There are visualreinforcements of the words and ideas apresenter is trying to communicate to theaudience. Gestures include hand, arm, andhead movements and can enhance thepresentation or detract from it. It is an aidto, not a substitute for the expression ofideas. One should be sparing with gesturesand one should give attention to certainpoints like arms and hands should move ina flowing and relaxed manner, at that timethe gestures should be consistent with theideas being expressed, hand gestures shouldbe supported with your head and bodymovements, one should not be artificiallyrepetitive with gestures. One should notforget that nodding the head and smilingare the effective ways to emphasize whatyou are saying.

The most important thing to accomplishthese features is that one should have ampleof confidence which can be attained byhaving faith in oneself. The emphasis shouldbe on the sharing of ideas, not on theperformance. Strive to be as genuine andnatural as you are when you speak to familymembers and friends. Another importantfactor for confidence is knowledge. Nothinginfluences a speaker’s mental attitude morethan the knowledge that he or she isthoroughly prepared. This knowledge leadsto self-confidence, which is a vital ingredientof effective public speaking.

The second most important thing forcommunication is how one speaks. It canbe better understood by an example of riverand canal to emphasize on the variation inspeaking in fact about intonation, stress and


pause. The difference between apresentation with variety and one withoutit is like the difference between a river anda canal. If you are floating down a river, itoffers you different surprises at every bend.You may go from farmland to valleys toforest, just by floating along a river. A canal,on the other hand, is a man-made channelthat is straight and not very interesting. Bythis we want to convey that variation in tonecan avoid monotony and it will allure theaudience. Tone has as much if not moreimpact on the way people interpret what youare saying, as your word choice does. Anymessage said in an inappropriate tone canquickly lead to confusion and your audiencereads into what you are saying and derivesa mistaken meaning. Being able not only toselect what you say carefully to avoid anydouble meanings, controlling how you saythem is one of the major effectivepresentation skills. Effective presentationskills should not only help you communicatewith the people around you but they shoulddo so in a way that is appropriate forpresentations, which can be very differentfrom casual conversations or intimateexchanges which all have a set of skillsthemselves. In presentation, choosing thecorrect words, the perfect grammar and thebest sentence structure is not going to winus any speaking awards. In English, we needto use tone, stress and the art of silence.We often face some problems regarding voiceand tone which are wrong pronunciation inwhich sound of pronunciation is major thingwhich happens because of Mother TongueInfluence i.e. MTI. It plays a vital role as

words like ‘s’ and ‘sh’ ‘j’ and ‘z’ and too manysounds are there. Mispronunciation leadsto wrong interpretation as example:

She sells sea shells on sea shore.

Just imagine and think by replacing soundof ‘s’ with ‘sh’. So, one should learn properpronunciation and then try to learn to putproper pause & stress on particular wordsas there is a popular saying in Hindi that:

Maaro mat, jane do & Maaro, mat janedo

In this sentence pause after mat and pauseafter maaro creates major difference so oneshould take care while speaking. In apresentation, there is an introduction, followedby a series of main ideas with supportingexamples or illustrations. To finish there’ll bea conclusion. Now think of the thread (theme,main idea) linking it altogether. It is similar toa road. We are taking our audience on ajourney. Our speech is the vehicle carryingthem along and our mouth is the driver.

As the driver we make choices. We can whirlthem through so fast the scenery blurs.While we’re busy negotiating a series ofcomplicated hair pin bends at full throttle,we’re gazing out the back window trying towork out what they’ve missed and wherethey are. One by one your listeners get dizzy.Then they close off their ears and sit quietlywaiting for the ride to stop.

Or by contrast we can proceed so cautiouslythat our passengers want to get out andwalk.


The third and final set of criticalpresentation skills is appearance. It is a sadfact that even today everyone makesjudgments and decisions based upon howsomething or someone looks. If we fail todress the part it will take even more workon our part to win back the audience andstarting at a disadvantage is not a good idea.While it’s important to be able to relate tothe audience and the topic of ourpresentation, it’s also important to alwaysdress up just a bit more than necessary.While we’d never want to wear a suit andtie to a presentation about surfing, we alsodon’t want to show up wearing swim trunks.Finding a good middle ground between thetwo extremes is part of the appearancepresentation skills and it will help ourpresentation be taken more seriously.

Above all with these three assets ofcommunication any human being candeliver good presentation but before this heclarity and follow the aims of presentationwhich are : to persuade, to inform, tomotivate and to entertain. These can beattained by proper planning of writing. Forthe success of any presentation the audience

also plays a vital role.

During a presentation the beginning is idealfor an attention grabber or for an icebreaker. The end is great to wrap things upor to end with a grand finale. Basically, itdefines our character as a matureprofessional. Anyone who understands thebasics of presentation skills and knows howto put it into proper application is a goodindication of a potential asset. Conductinga presentation is a talent and a skill. So itshould not be perceived to be a typicalpractice because this characterizes a personas a true professional. This skill enhancesour ability one step up the ladder of successin the aspect of our career.

References:

1 Kennedy, George A. (trans./ed.). 1991.,Aristotle ‘On Rhetoric’: A Theory of CivicDiscourse. New York/Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press

Sinha MP, Kumar S and Kaur H,

Fundamentals of Effective Communication.India: Pearson Education


Enhancing Communication Skills in English throughInteractive MaterialsP. SathyaAsst. Professor in English, Holy Cross College (Autonomous), Nagercoil


Catherin EdwardAssociate Professor in English, Holy Cross College (Autonomous), Tiruchirapalli


ABSTRACT

This article reports on the effectiveness of interactive course materials to enhanceadvanced English communication skills of the learners. The study made use of arailway timetable along with a travelogue to engage the learners in meaningfulinteraction, which resulted in developing their basic and advanced communicationskills. Basic communication skills are the four language skills namely, listening,speaking, reading and writing and advanced communication skills refer to languagefunctions such as discussing, persuading, negotiating, sharing ideas, opinions andviews, agreeing and/or disagreeing with others opinions, etc. Literary materials alongwith non – literary materials were used in order to train the learners to develop theirability to use the language in various circumstances. An action research project iscarried out to train the tertiary level learners in using the language in different situations.The result was satisfactory in enhancing not only the language skills of the learnersbut also their referencing skills.

Keywords: interactive materials, communication skills, referencing skills.

Introduction

Interaction is an essential factor that needsto be focussed in the current scenario. Manyrecent researches emphasize the importanceand relevance of interaction in theclassroom. Lev Vygotsky, a Russianpsychologist and Jean Piaget, aconstructivist emphasize the interactionbetween the human mind and environment(Oates, 1994). Vygotsky believes that

learning and development are collaborativeand children develop the context ofsocialization and education (Oates, 1994).

Vygotsky (1978), defined socialconstructivism as “... the distance betweenthe actual development of a child asdetermined by the independent problemsolving, and the level of potentialdevelopment as determined throughproblem solving under adult guidance or in


collaboration with more peers.” Therefore,with the help of social interaction, such asgetting guidance from the teacher, thelearners understand the concepts and actaccordingly.

Changes in methodology and materials

ELT has undergone drastic changes in the21st century. The expedition propelled ELThas crossed several milestones such aschalk and talk method, teacher – centered,learner – centered, task based teaching andlearning, communicative language approachand learning – centered. Now the focus issolely on learning and by all means thelearners must be able to use the language.Learning – centered classrooms cater to theindividual differences of the learners andalso their strengths and weaknesses.Learning – centered approach providesopportunities for varied learning styles andstrategies, taking into considerationmultiple intelligences and the needs of thelearners. ELT practitioners believe thatlearning is process – oriented and notproduct – oriented. This kind of approachis essential in this era of technology.

Interactive materials

Materials which interact among themselvesto reveal and make them understand arereferred as interactive materials. Instead ofgoing to the established items of grammarbook, thesaurus or appendices, learners cancomprehend materials by consulting theother related materials included in thetextbook. Interactive materials developstudy skills and enhance self learning.Materials can be referred as interactive as

they interact with one other and enable thelearners to interact with them to be morecomprehensible. Interactive materials aredesigned in such a way that it is pertinentto the learners and keep them engaging. Thelearners know their progress as they do thetask or activity. They receive immediatefeedback. In general, interactive materialsare referred to e-materials. But in thecontext of a semi-urban context wheretechnology is not practiced much,interactive materials is of great help to thelearners. With a wide range of materialsavailable, the teacher can exploit them inorder to enhance the communication skillsof the learners.

E-materials

E-materials or online materials are an oceanof materials where learners have to spendmore time to choose even amidst irrelevantmaterials. E-material content is availableonline globally and is more suitable for adultlearners. The advantages of using onlinematerials are the following: they providefeedback immediately and give a global viewof the topic given; they help in independentlearning and they are individual oriented.On the other hand, there a fewdisadvantages of using e-materials, viz. theyprovide objective feedback withoutconsidering the psychology of the learnerand also they are not suitable for a coreprogram.

Interactive materials as opposed to E –materials

E- Materials have multiple information andwill be readily available for the learners.


Though e-materials enhance theirknowledge horizon, they confuse thelearners of what to learn. E-materials makethe learners grope in darkness in what tochoose and what not to choose. Withrelevant choices, a course book can bedesigned to give essential information as wellas opportunity for referencing. Materialproducers must diagnose the needs, themental make-up of the learners of certainage group and the level and amount ofconcepts that a learner of a particular groupcan take it. It is very challenging for thematerial producer to take account of all theabove factors and prepare a text book usinginteractive materials.

The study demanded the learners to dohome assignment on specific topics whichforces the learners to consult e materials toget a global view of the topic. The study doesnot disregard the use of e-materialscompletely, but it stresses the importanceof interactive materials at the beginning ofthe programme and slowly moves towardsthe consultancy of e-materials. Therefore,interactive materials are more suitable forbeginners and for advanced learners, e-materials are appropriate provided thelearners know how to choose the relevantmaterials.

Research questions

• Can the proposed interactive materialshelp the learners to enhance theircommunication skills?

• To what extent will an interactive coursebe effective on the learners?

Research Statement

The primary aim of this research is to studyhow the interactive course materialsenhance advanced communication skills ofthe learners by involving themselves inmeaningful interaction.

Hypothesis

Interactive course materials used forteaching English at the tertiary levelenhance the communication skills of thelearners.

General objectives

• The communication skills (LSRW) of thelearners will be enhanced.

• They are encouraged to involve in theclassroom activities.

Specific objectives

• Learners will comprehend the text givenfor listening and answer the questions.

• They will be able to comprehend thereading text (here, railway timetable) andanswer the questions.

• They will be able to use appropriate wordsto describe a place in speaking andwriting.

Description of the cohorts

The target group is the Undergraduate rurallearners. They are socially, politically andlinguistically disadvantaged. Out of thirtyfive, ten are first generation learners.

Materials & Methodology

The present experimental study uses the


principles of Andragogy and not pedagogy.These materials used in the study arepractised to make the learners independent.Even after learning English for more thantwelve years, the learners are not able toattain proficiency. In order to bridge the gap,the research employed interactive materials.

A short term programme with thrust onLSRW skills was planned and executed. Thematerials chosen were Vinu Abraham’sFloating Fantasy and a railway timetable.The learners were asked a few questionsabout a place they visited, and thememorable experiences they had duringtheir visit. Then they were given thedifferences between picnic, excursion andtour. They were asked to list the words usedfor describing places, travel, etc. through abrain storming session.

The learners were asked to listen to thetravelogue by Vinu Abraham titled FloatingFantasy. A few questions were asked fromthe passage to check their comprehension.They were given a railway timetable and theyhad to scan for information from thetimetable. An exercise was given based onthe railway timetable. They were asked tochoose a tourist spot and take up a role of atourist guide and describe the place. Havingthe text as a sample, the learners were askedto write about a place they visited. Theyconsulted the railway timetable whileperforming role play and describing a place.(Refer appendix)

Main and sub-skills

Listening, speaking, reading and writing are

the main skills focused. The sub-skills oflistening include listening to descriptionsand a short account of experience for details.The following are the sub - skills of speaking– sharing experiences, describing places andincidents, choosing exact words to describe.The sub-skills of reading include scanningfor relevant details and reading for localcomprehension. The sub-skills of writinginclude description of a place and touristspots using cohesive devices. They also learnappropriate words to use for travel and tourand also descriptive words. Besides these,they refer the text and a railway timetableand use them when required. On the whole,the learners apply their knowledge of LSRWskills along with thinking skill to completethe activity by working individually and ingroups.

Analysis of the material

The materials used are a literary text –Floating Fantasy and non literary materialsuch as a railway timetable from newspaper.The learners are expected to consult thematerials when they are given each activity.For example, the learners consulted the textwhich is about the experience of the authorand used it as an example to describe theirown experience and also while acting as atourist guide. Interaction takes place withinthe materials, among the learners, betweenlearners and materials and between learnerand teacher.

This short term programme enables thelearners to use the language. Their use ofthe language does show a significantimprovement. However, factors such as


motivation and attitude of the learners affectthe learning process but were worked on bycontinuous practice. The learners’ thinkingskill along with their basic and advancedcommunication skills is honed.

Findings

The findings of the study are listed below:

• Learners involved themselves in theactivities. However, factors such as lack ofproper motivation, attitude and fear ofridicule were predominant in the beginningwhich was reduced at the later stage.

• The learners referred to the travelogueFloating Fantasy and used it as a scaffoldingto speak about a place.

• They shared their unforgettableexperiences they had during their travel.This activity lengthened their noun and verbphrases and also enabled them to use thelanguage without any hindrance.

• Role play enabled the learners to work ingroups and each of them took turns todescribe places.

• The activities enabled the learners toconsult and cross refer the materials inorder to speak and write. The same materialwas used to teach three skills. Theircreativity and critical thinking faculty arehoned.

• They learnt the differences among picnic,excursion and tour. They learnt to speakand write about their favourite place. Theyused persuasive language and details totheir description about a place when they

took up the role of a tourist guide.

• Constant repetition and exposure to aparticular topic enabled the learners to berefined, clear and precise in their responses.The skills are integrated in the followingorder – listening, reading, and speaking andwriting.

• The general objective was to make theminvolved in the process of teaching andlearning which was fulfilled at the end ofthe programme.

• When learners are given opportunities touse the language without many restrictions,their communication skills are enhanced asa result of their creativity.

• It is found that interaction with thematerials and other learners play a majorrole in language learning.

• Learning takes place when the classroomclimate is conducive.

• Immediate feedback of the learners’performance and the learning processenhances learning and active involvementin the tasks.

• Since most of the learners do not have anopportunity to use the language outside theclassroom, they were not exposed much toEnglish. In that case, they tried to use theirmother tongue which is again seen as ahindrance in language learning. Besidesthese, their political, social and linguisticlevel affects language learning.

Conclusion

Learning happens when it is of relevance to


the learners. Also learning a language takesplace only if there is meaningful interaction.The learners must be involved in theteaching learning process and the teachertakes up the role of a facilitator in makingthe learners to participate in classroomactivities and also promote interaction.Interactive materials enable the learners touse the language by enabling them toconsult the materials and use them incontexts.

References

Baker, Fiona. S. (2013, July). Role Playing.Modern English Teacher. Vol 22.Number 3.pp. 70 – 72.

Batstone, Rob and Jenefer Philip.(2013).Classroom Interaction and learningopportunities across time and space. InMcDonough, Kim and Alison Mackey. (Ed.).Second Language Interaction in DiverseEducational Contexts. Amsterdam: JohnBenjamins Publishing Company. pp. 109 –128.

Gass, Susan. M. and Larry Selinker. (2008).Second Language Acquisition. AnIntroductory Course. Third edition. New York:

Routledge Taylor & Francis.

Gupta, Richa. (2002, May). OptimizingLanguage Interaction with SociallyDisadvantaged Learners: A Study. M. Phil.Hyderabad: Central Institute of English andForeign Languages.

Oates, John. Ed. (1994).The Foundations ofchild development. Massachusetts:Blackwell Publishers.

O’ Banion, Terry. (1997). Creating MoreLearning-Centered Community Colleges.U.S.: The Association of Community CollegeTrustees. Special Issue of the TrusteeQuarterly.

Rivers, Wilga. M. (Ed.). (1987). InteractiveLanguage Teaching. New York: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Peter, Francis M. (2008). A Glossary of ELTterms and Key Concepts. Chennai. RACE.Print.

Tomlinson, Brian. (2003). Developingmaterials of Language Teaching. London:Continuum.

Vygotsky, L. S. (2006). EducationalPsychology. New Delhi: Pentagon Press.

ANNOUNCEMENTAnother milestone in the history of our Association

ELTAI E-NEWSLETTER (A Quarterly)It carries ELTAI updates, news from our chapters as well as IATEFL

and other ELT Associations worldwide.You may access it at any time from thehomepage of our website www.eltai.in


The book under review is a self-help bookbrought out as a sequel to the author’s earlierbook Skill Sutras published in 2015 by the samepublisher.

In today’s world when the youth are facing avariety of challenges in the form ofunemployment, discrimination, and subjectedto abuse of various types - suicides, killing ortaking to crime has become more of a norm thanan exception. It is essential to bring these youthback to the mainstream and channelize theirenergies by counselling them properly. As thepopular adage goes, ‘we should catch themyoung’. In other words, the help should reachthem early in life when they are still in schoolsand colleges. Such work, if it can be integratedinto the curriculum, nothing more can be wishedfor.

Both the books by the author make a seriousattempt to offer help without being didactic. Thisis the highlight of both the books.

India has a rich tradition of storytelling.Panchatantra and Hitopadesha have simply notremained names in our society, but have beenwidely popular and have been transmitted orallyfrom generation to generation. This goes to provethe richness of the methodology adopted andthe sustained values they have trasnmitted.Jayashree Mohanraj, in her books has takenrecourse to similar technology and developed astoryline to drive home the point. Skill Sutras isa sustained conversation between a mature auntNandita and her young nephew Raju. Raju, whois schooled in a village, reaches the town to joinhis course in Engineering. Though well readand informed, he feels diffident in the presenceof his English speaking confident urbanclassmates and becomes tongue-tied when ateacher asks him a question despite knowingthe answers. He shares his woes with hisfriendly aunt who counsels him and makes hima confident boy. This is in brief the gist of SkillSutras.

In Life Sutras, Raju is a successful student inthe final semester of his Engineering course isconfident and is ready to give back to the societywhat he has learnt. He is badly disturbed, when

BOOK REVIEW

Mohanraj, Jayashree. (2018). Life Sutras – Collective Wisdom for the Young. Bangalore,Prism Books Pvt. Ltd. [ISBN 938650674-2] pp x + 158. Price Rs. 175/-

one of his juniors unable to cope with his studiescommits suicide. He discusses the matter withhis aunt and plans out a strategy with his friendsto publish a series of stories on the notice boardaccording to a design given by Nandita. He andhis friends Ashish, Amina, Swapna, Tejas,Hemanth and Anjanli (all names beginning withRaju when put together form an acronymRAASTHA – a way forward) meet every week toget clarification on conceptual details fromNandita. To illustrate the concepts they lookfor stories from all possible sources and sharethem with each other and discuss them. Thestories are put up on a specially marked noticeboard (with the permission of the principal) forall the students in the college to read. Thisbrings about a sea change in the college thoughit happens gradually. The goodness does notstop with one college, but spreads to othercolleges like a good contagion. The studentsopen up, discuss and take the initiative to addtheir own anecdotes to the published ones. Thatushers in a sign of willingness to learn andchange voluntarily.

With 112 stories drawn from various parts ofthe world, based on lives of great people, thebook helps students fight stress, develop positiveattitude, guard their self-esteem, manage theirtime, help others in need and what have you.The book with its 12 chapters is modular. Onemay pick up any chapter and read itindependently of other chapters and yet standto gain. To support the stories and anecdotes,the book carries a few but meaningfulillustrations thoughtfully crafted by AnupamArunachalam.

There are several books available in the marketon self-help. This is not just one more additionto the existing lot. It is different and has made asuccessful and persistent effort to fill the voidthat existed for a long time. The book is worthbeing prescribed and used as a course book orjust read as bed time reading and still stand togain.

Prof Julu Sen (Retd)EFL University

Hyderabad


READING ACTIVITY

Visualization* (Comprehension and retention strategy)

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

Objective : Facilitating students to convert words into mental pictures leading to richercomprehension and retention.

Participation : Individual.Material : Any text.( My Greatest Olympic Prize - Jesse Owens)Preparation : Reading a text with a conscious focus on the strategy of visualization until it

becomes an integral part of one’s reading habit.Procedure :• The moment you look at the title initiate the process of picturing it in mind and continue doing

so during and after reading. The title, “My Greatest Olympic Prize”, lends itself to imagine theOlympic prizes – gold, silver and bronze.

• In the story when Jesse Owens describes the German long jumper, Luz Long, as, “An inch tallerthan I, he had a lean muscular frame, clear blue eyes, fair hair and a strikingly handsome face.”It is not difficult to picturize him in our mind’s eye.

• The crux of the narration is the Luz’s advice to Jesse Owens: “… why don’t you draw a line a fewinches behind the board and aim at making your take-off from there? You’ll be sure not to foul,and you certainly ought to jump far enough to qualify.” Following his advice he drew a line a fullfoot behind the board and jumped from there and qualified himself for the final. Interestingly,even the not so imaginative ones also can form picture of this scene.

• The scene of Luz genuinely congratulating Jesse Owens on winning the long jump is easy toimagine even by young children. Similarly, the warmth that Owens felt for Luz, “the 24 caratfriendship” can also be picturized by anyone.

• The whole narration can be visualized in the form of four tableaus: a) Jesse Owens with thefeatures of a “negro” and Luz Long, a German, b) they taking part in the qualifying round andJesse Owens failing to do so in the first two rounds, c) Luz’s advice to him and d) the friendshipbetween them. These pictures will not easily vanish from one’s memory.

• Any kind of task based on the text can be tackled by students with great ease if they cultivate areading habit of this sort.

Learning outcomes:1) Learners realize that creating mental images engages them actively with the text and rarely do

they get distracted.

2) Learners (but not all) recognize that more than the other learning strategies visualization enablesthem to retain the information longer.

Further activity: Reading all kinds of texts employing visualization technique repeatedly until itbecomes an unconscious reading strategy.

____________________________

*Visualization: In brief, a mental picture or a “movie in the mind”. It is also referred as sensoryimaging or imaging. Visualizing is a process of creating images based on the words found on thepages and the images are shaped drawing from all the five senses and the emotions they evoke.

“If I can’t picture it, I can’t understand it.” – Albert Einstein

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C O N T E N T Seltai.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/ELTAI-SEP-OCT2018-WEB-ISSUE.pdf · ESP which matches the teaching content to learner needs has gained considerable prominence in