<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Tracing back to the history of using English in Nagaland, it has been almost 150 years but many Naga research scholars have commented in their findings that the learners’ proficiency level of the English language is still much to be desired. Of course there are some exceptional cases taking into consideration the family background but the rest should take a large amount of time and effort to improve. In Nagaland, English is taught as a subject and not as a language and it becomes evident from the memorization of it for the sake of securing good grades. Students’ exposure to the language is very limited as they speak their mother tongue or Nagamese at home as well as often inside the classroom. Students get very less reinforcement outside the college\/school and were found taking private English tuitions. This inadequacy is unexpected at the undergraduate level since a majority of the students start learning English from a very young age. English is the official language of Nagaland but the irony is, it is treated more like a subject of discourse. <\/p>\n
A majority of us think that “ENGLISH” is a study of only literature since literature has only been the area that has been focused on. Whereas, linguistics and ELE (English Language Education) have never been focused or even given importance. Linguistics, which is a scientific study of language focuses on; Phonetics, phonology, semantics, morphology, generative grammar, syntax, socio-linguistics, computational linguistics and many more. English Language Education or TESL (Teaching of English as a Second Language) seeks to develop learners’ proficiency level in English for study, work and leisure\/real life communication by providing enough activities and opportunities enabling them to use the language fluently and accurately. One of the main aims of studying literature is to learn the English language as well as to know the English culture and tradition. But the question is, is the language really learnt? Is the content of the syllabus really in line with the objective of a course\/subject? <\/p>\n
Now, the query lies in how the curriculum has been carried out over the years. When we talk about curriculum, a syllabus is one of the main weapons to acquire the targeted objectives of a course. However, in order to carry out the content of a course\/subject, teachers should play a vital role because they translate the content to the learners by using appropriate materials to fulfill the objectives. So, are teachers really equipped with the required skills? Are they from the right background? An example to make the scenario clearer, to teach linguistics, are the teachers from the linguistic background? The same may follow with language skills\/Functional English\/communicative English\/English for Specific Purposes where teachers from the English Language Education (ELE)\/English Language Teaching\/Teaching English as Second Language\/English as Second Language backgrounds are felt to be the most appropriate teachers to fulfill its every objective. When it comes to learning a second language\/ third language\/Foreign Language\/, it is first the mastery of the sound system, and secondly, it is the mastery of the features of arrangement that constitute the structure of a language. Therefore, foundational courses should be introduced to get more familiar with the sounds so as to improve the learners’ pronunciation and reduce the level of mother tongue influence over the language. In addition, various situations, notions and functions should be provided to the learners\/students to make them use the language confidently.<\/p>\n
The importance of English as a language has been taken into consideration by a growing body of academicians in our state, as such the North East Christian University which was established in the year 2012 offers Bachelors’ Degree (honours) and Masters’ Degree in English TESL (Teaching of English as a Second Language). English TESL focuses on the introduction to phonetics and phonology, historical perspectives of language teaching and learning, enhancing listening, speaking, reading, writing, teaching grammar and vocabulary, how to design curriculum\/syllabus and language materials, how we acquire a second language, English for specific purposes, sociolinguistics and research methodology. The masters’ degree students in the fourth semester get the opportunity to write a dissertation for the fulfillment of the course. Therefore, it is believed that this course will make the learners use the language (English in our context) efficiently and confidently in various situations and make them well equipped with the necessary skills to become employable citizens of the state as well as the country as a whole. <\/p>\n
Arenka Kichu, Department of <\/p>\n
English TESL, North East Christian University (NECU) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
English as a language but not as a subject: Learn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}