English: The Role Of English Language In India

After the independence in 1947, there was no vast change in the system of English language teaching. The role and importance of English Language was also felt after the British people left India. English has been the medium of instruction in colleges, universities and many schools. The growing influence of English language and the difficulty in finding an alternative language acceptable to all Indians were the main reasons for the arrival of English Language. The University Education Commission (UGC), under the chairmanship of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, was of the opinion that learning English would help Indians to update themselves with the developments happening in other parts of the world. English will promote national unity and nationalism.

There was admiration of Indian culture and Language. Educationists needed that Indian languages can be made the medium of instruction beginning from primary to college level. People were sensitively charged and considered English as a vestige of slavery.

Gujarat became a separate state in 1960. Until then it was a part of Bombay state. After the partition, the Bombay state introduced English from class V and on the other side Gujarat introduced it from class VIII. It was a compulsory subject in classes VIII and IX. Moreover, it was an optional subject for class X.

The Integration Committee on secondary education, held on 26th May, 1960, declared that English could be taught voluntarily from class V to class VIII. The Gujarat Government was anxious about the poor state of affairs in English Language Teaching and it announced a decisive policy on 2nd June, 1960. But the results were not satisfactory.

This affected learning of English unfavorably in two ways. First, the late beginning created psychological problems for learners; secondly, they were less enthusiastic to learn English because there was a provision of doing without it. In those days English was taught apparently through grammar translation

The need for instruction in the language has led to a variety of education approaches and methods, which aim at nurturing L2 learning process. Not all the methods have been adopted in Gujarat. From 1960s to 1990s, the structural approach and the audio-lingual method were reflected in the textbooks, but most of the teachers used the grammar-translation method in the classroom.

From 2004 Communicative Language Teaching method has been used. The functional approach has been adopted. The textbooks focused on the functions of the language. The functional approach is an outcome of CLT. Now students learn to use the language first and then learn it. Formerly they learnt it first and then used it, if possible.

• Now students have realized the importance of English as far as higher education is concerned.

• India has two official languages – Hindi and English. So English is taught as a second language. English is now no longer only a subject.

• In the classroom students are made to communicate in