Understanding the learner’s need is key to enhancing the teaching output as well as academic excellence. Feedback from the learners has inspired me to effectively deviate from the usual way of teaching courses and to use techniques and technology to generate interest among learners. The use of the latest teaching materials in my classes, organizing film shows and extra curricular activities like quizzes, debates, etc. (basically involving learners as active participants rather than passive listeners) have also helped create a positive learning environment. In a course on ‘development of spoken skills’, the usual teaching method is to provide learners with texts, after which grammar and vocabulary are explained in the class and learners are asked questions based on the texts. Most Learners mug up the texts, often without understanding, and answer. Learners often hesitate to speak in a foreign language and seldom pay attention to what and how they themselves speak.
4 Awareness about the use of neologisms, borrowed words, slang, change in the connotations of words is necessary. 5 video conferencing, use of computer & internet, radio, television, advertisements, pictures, slides, films, music etc.
112 In my classes, I recorded their answers, and then made them listen to their own 113 voices. Many learners, when they heard their recorded voice, understood their
own mistakes (grammatical or phonological) better and tried to correct them. Over a period of time, it helped them improve their own speech, build their confidence and inculcated in them the skill to consciously and carefully join words together.
Another course called “text rendering” is designed primarily to consolidate listening skills, such that learners are made to listen to simple unknown texts, process the information in their mind and write the text in their own words.
Most learners dislike this course, while others find it boring and often question the utility of the course.
A lot of learners take listening for granted and do not listen attentively, hence do not understand enough to reproduce the text. I used simple texts, jokes, anecdotes, and sometimes I made the learners listen to the texts recorded in the voice of a native speaker and also used short films as texts. Each learner was then made to narrate their texts in class, and I would correct their mistakes there and then. Sometimes I would record their voices also. This way the classes became more interactive and interesting, helped the learners to improve their concentration which also proved to be a good way to make them listen attentively.
Use of alternate teaching materials like cassettes, newspapers/magazines, films, TV programmes, radio, physical objects, pictures, etc. especially in a non-native environment, enhances the learning environment, provides content and variety in the classroom and helps learners develop a ‘mental image’ of the society and its culture. Films, for example, through images and sound provide a completely different socio-cultural experience which capture the learner’s imagination, stimulate ‘intellectual curiosity’ and help to understand the ideological setup, the socio-political trends and achievements, and also cultural values through the ages in a society which are reflected in the language.
Involving learners in extra curricular activities like quizzes, debates, singing songs and staging plays, showcasing the society, history, art and culture helped to break the monotony of classroom teaching and allowed them to learn about various aspects of the foreign society which go well beyond classroom learning.
Such activities help learners to shed their inhibitions and overcome their reluctance to communicate in a language and eventually build up their confidence.
Conclusion
It is often seen that learners feel that teachers should use contemporary material and make lectures interesting for them, whereas teachers feel that learners are not serious, are lazy and less dedicated towards the learning of a language.
Designing more needs-based courses is the need of the hour to sustain the interest of our learners. More courses in translation and interpretation, dubbing of films/ programmes, film appreciation, art and culture studies, etc may be useful.
Interaction with native speakers should be promoted to provide learners with an opportunity to hear live speech.
Offering more scholarships to the learners will allow learners to spend some time in the native environment to refine and perfect their language skills.
Thus, a mixture of qualitative and quantitative measures can ensure the development of a positive attitude among learners, can motivate them to learn better, develop better communicative abilities, and sensitize them towards another society and culture.
References
Bhatnagar M., ( 2010), Understanding Russia’s past and present through Russian Films, paper presented at the 3rd Annual International Conference on Philology, Literatures and Linguistics organised by Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER) in Athens. (under publication) Bhatnagar M. (2001) “Russian Neologisms at the end of the 20th century from the point of view of pedagogical linguistics”, ‘Pushkinskiye Chiteniya’ Moscow.
Dimri J P, (2010) ‘Foreign Language teaching scenario today’. Foreign Language teaching in India, challenges and strategies.
Herring S., (2008), Questioning the generational divide: technology exoticism and adult construction of online youth identity, Ed, by David Buckingham.
Kostomarov, V.G (1999). Language taste of the epoch. St. Petersburg: Zlatoust [In Russian] Kramsch, C.J. (1993). Context and Culture in Language teaching. New York: Oxford University Press.
Krashen, S. D. (2002), Second Language Acqusition and second language learning. Pergamon Press Inc.
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