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| Thursday, 1 January 2004 |
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Study courses on English as second language: Why design is important (Continued from yesterday) However, circumstances vary with situation and I'd leave it to the individual decision makers. Where all four basic skills have to be balanced with no premium on the time and duration, use of the mother language may prove most convenient. In a time-bound spoken English course the maximum use of the target language may be beneficial. Most of us learn English not for its own sake but for utilitarian purposes. Our emphasis, needs, wants vary with these specific circumstances. So would the effectiveness of the use of mother language. Another area is vocabulary building. Learners have a tendency to amass as many words as possible into their heads and teachers encourage this as well. None could argue against this if it is possible and useful in practice; useful in the form of commensurate returns on investment including effort. Limitations in human retentive capacity would certainly come into play. Then, when we gain in such effort has to be assessed relative to what we are compelled to forego. Here again the purpose and the objectives of the individual student have to be taken into account. A prospective academic, writer, editor, journalist or lawyer will benefit from an impressive vocabulary but a Middle East job seeker may not. For the latter it may be a waste. After all don't most of us manage with a few common words, terms and expressions in our day to day lives. The stress has to be on the proper usage of what one knows rather than on building a large vocabulary which may be redundant. The way new words are added to one's vocabulary too is important. Merely noting the meaning of a word in one's own langauge is unproductive. This may be done, but should be complemented with a sentence so as to show its usage. This should be underscored in the use of idiomatic language. Yet another area is the overemphasis on hand-outs and other printed material. Students (and some teachers) have the tendency to draw a correlation between the volume of hand-outs and other notes given, and the worth of a course. The boring material though insisted on, is hardly read. But that's a different matter. I think this is, to a large extent, psychological, particularly in the case of language learning. Copious hand-outs should be limited to the most essential aspects. Instead of hand-outs, language course design may concentrate on projects, tasks and activities to be done outside the classroom in interactive situations. There, the objective and the specific contribution to language acquisition should be specified and clearly understood. I may also focus on the very controversial issue of fluency vs accuracy. This too is related to the objective of each student and course design should be able to compromise on and accommodate the varying emphasis depending on the situation-specific needs and demands. That fluency should gain priority is my personal opinion. Opportunities for free flow of language among learners, when encouraged, whatever mistakes and errors made, are extremely productive in addressing inhibition. I do not usually interrupt a learner when he/she is speaking or expressing some idea even for any correction. Deeply reticent learners have broken shackles this way. Study courses may deteriorate in quality due to inappropriate design. Design means more than the sum total of the integral parts of the course. It means the right blend, right emphasis at the right locations at the right time and a whole lot more. In the foregoing, I have listed a few pointers for a good course design in teaching of English as a second language. It isn't exhaustive. Nor is it meant to be so. My hope is that it may provide some insights for those engaged in the profession. (The writer Ranjit Weerasinghe is presently the Head, Department of English, London Business School, 323, Galle Road, Colombo 4). |
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