ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION IN INDIA:AN APPRAISAL

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(No Transcript)
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SYMPOSIUM LANGUAGE ISSUES IN ENGLISH-MEDIUM
UNIVERSITIES ACROSS ASIAUNIVERSITY OF HONG
KONG JUNE 8-9, 2006
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LANGUAGE ISSUES IN THE CONTEXT OF HIGHER
EDUCATION IN INDIA
RAVINDER GARGESH Professor Department of
Linguistics University of Delhi DELHI-110007 INDIA
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General View

• Language use in education depends on the
  linguistic situation of a country
• Intimately bound are the issues of language
  rights, language empowerment, language promotion,
  language policy and language planning
• A multi layered or multi strata based solution
• Serious problems in the formation of educational
  policy in the context of medium of
  instruction/examination
• Problem of shift from one medium to another

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Plan of the PaperThis paper attempts to present
the Indian scene as follows

• Presents the socio linguistic perspective of the
  country with special reference to the English
  language
• Presents the de jure position in the context of
  bilingualism and the education scenario
• Presents a broad picture of the universities in
  India, with special reference to the medium of
  instruction/examination
• Presents a broad picture of the University of
  Delhi, with special reference to the media of
  instruction/examination

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SOCIOLINGUISTIC SITUATION
India has a population of over a billion
people(1,027,015,247 as per the Census of India
2001), 1652 Mother Tongues (1961 Census), 67
educational languages and an area of 3,287,590 SQ
KM. India is a multilingual giant.

• Characteristic feature of Indian multilingualism
• Allocation of social roles to different
  languages
• Pandit(1976 172-173) provides an apt example
• Language use of an Indian businessman living in a
  suburb of Bombay
• His mother tongue and home language is a dialect
  of Gujrati
• In the market he uses a familiar variety of
  Marathi, the state language
• At the railway station he speaks the pan-India
  lingua-franca, Hindustani
• His language of work is Kachhi, the code of the
  spice trade
• In the evening he watches a film in Hindi or in
  English
• Listens to a cricket match commentry on the radio
  in English

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Languages of India

• -Language families Indo-Aryan, Dravidian,
  Austro-Asiatic and Sino-Tibetan.
• Indo-Aryan and Dravidian cover over 97 of the
  population
• Grierson - 179 languages to 544 dialects -
  Linguistic Survey of India (1888 and 1927)
• 1951 census - 845 languages including dialects
• More than 10,000 speakers each speak 60 of these
• 1961 census -1652 mother tongues corresponding to
  193 classified languages
• Classified languages belong to four language
  families
• Austric (20), Dravidian (20), Indo-Aryan (54) and
  Tibeto-Burman (98)
• 1971, 1981, and 1991 Census - distribution of
  household population is presented along with the
  Schedule VIII languages and other major languages
• Census 2001 Language figures not yet available
• Mr. Jaipal Reddy, Union Minister of Culture,
  stated in the Rajya Sabha on December 13, 2004.,
  There are 3,372 languages in India, 10,000
  persons or more speak only 216 languages.
• 85 languages out of the 216 are subsumed under
  the 18 scheduled languages, the remaining 131 are
  classified as non-scheduled languages.

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Multilingualism and Convergence

• All major languages of India exist beyond their
  home territory
• Border areas reveal a state of diffusion --
  contact patterns
• Frequent code-switching vital function for
  intelligibility condition
• Close contact formation of Pidgins
• Halbi Convergence of Chattisgarhi, Oriya and
  Marathi
• Malwi Rajasthani and Gujarati
• Saurashtri Convergence of Gujarati and Tamil
  (unrelated languages)
• Kupwar dialect shows features of Kannada,
  Marathi and Urdu

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Bilingualism/Multilingualism and the Census
All major languages of India exist beyond their
home territory
Distribution of the 18 scheduled languages in
some states (Source Census of India
1991) Numbers of speakers in States
Languages Andhra Haryana
Maharashtra Uttar West
Pradesh
Pradesh Bengal
Assamese 1,302 348
2,310 2,844
4,021 Bengali 30,281 9,995
161,497 263,917
58,541,519 Gujrati 43,844
2,266 2,016,381 11,311
38,319 Hindi 1,841,290
14,982,409 6,168,941 66,761,621
2,602,268 Kannada 519,507
936 1,060,701 3,727
1,624 Kashmiri 612
923 2,680
5,227 462 Konkani 3,794
148 312,618
364 944 Malayalam
66,409 1,257 340,597
15,721 17,215 Manipuri
221 75
748 576
824 Marathi 503,609 3,088
57,894,839 17,698
11,849 Nepali 6,634
5,823 39,751 99,859
860,403 Oriya 129,697
2,634 38,183
14,742 70,001 Punjabi 24,773
1,170,225 225,511
661,215 1,376 Sanskrit
199 81 277
44,847 41 Sindhi
12,919 369
618,696 52,168
5,404 Tamil 753,484 5,202
427,447 15,569
25,797 Telugu 56,375,755 2,402
1,122,332 10,597
108,443 Urdu 2,836,179 261,820
5,734,468 12,492,927 1,455,649
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Bilingualism/Multilingualism and English

• 1961 bilingualism returns of 15 states and the
  union territory of Delhi show
• Hindi-Urdu (H-U) and English (E) together ½
  bilingual population
• (52.5 H-U 26.8 E 25.7) (Khubchandani
  1972)
• Overall picture is one of growth
• National average for bilingualism is on the
  increase
• 9.7 in 1961 ? 13.04 in 1971 ? 13.34 in 1981 ?
  19.44 in 1991. (Vijaynunni 1999)
• Hindi a language of wider communication/link
  language
• for trade/commerce, mass entertainment and
  informal inter-group interaction
• Khuchandani (1994 19) Consolidation of English
  during 1961-1971
• bilinguals with English increased from 26 to 35
  of the bilingual population. The present figure
  till the arrival of new data stands at 57.3
• Hindi returned as second or third language by
  70 million (of 807 million) speakers of scheduled
  languages (8.67)
• English - returned as second/third language 90
  million people (11.15 8 report it as second
  language and 3.15 as a third language)

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Functional Role of English in Multilingual India
Auxiliary (1) Supplementary (2) Complementary (3) Equative (4)
Social Function Library Language Vehicular Language Link Language Alternate Language

• (1) for acquiring knowledge - library language
  - creates passive bilinguals
• (2) for restricted needs tourism - vehicular
  language- unstable bilinguals with partial
  competence
• (3) complementary function - link language-
  creates stable type of bilinguals with partial
  competence
• (4) equative function - an alternate language in
  all domains - ambilinguals

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De Jure Status of Languages

• The Constitution of India adopted on Nov. 26,
  1949 in the Constituent Assembly
• Effective date Jan 26, 1950
• Provisions about languages
• Part XVII deals with the official language of the
  Union in 4 Chapters.
• Chapter I Language of the Union (Articles 343
  and 344
• Chapter II Regional Languages (Articles 345-347)
  
• Chapter III Language of the Supreme Court, High
  Courts etc. (Art. 348-49)
• Chapter IV Special Directives (Articles 350-351)

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Chapter I Language of the Union (Articles 343
and 344)

• Article 343 Hindi in the Devanagari script as
  the official language of the Union stipulates
  Art. 343(3) English should continue to be used
  for another period of 15 years
• Article 344 The President empowered to
  constitute an official language commission after
  5 years and then to review the progress made by
  Hindi after 10 years

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Chapter II Regional Languages (Articles
345-347)

• Art.345 Empowers Legislature of a State to adopt
  as official language any one or more languages in
  use in that State or Hindi
• Art. 346 Official language of the Union shall be
  the official language for communication between
  one State and another State, and between a State
  and the Union
• Art. 347 On demand the President may direct the
  use of language if demanded by a sizable number
  of people

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Chapter III Language of the Supreme Court, High
Courts etc. (Art. 348-49)

• Art. 348 The language of the Supreme Court and
  the High Court shall be English until the
  Parliament by law otherwise provides
• Bills, authoritative texts of Acts, Byelaws,
  Rules, and Regulations etc shall also be in
  English
• States in addition may use their official
  language/languages for this purpose but English
  text/texts will be authoritative
• Art 349 No change in the language of Bills,
  Acts, Rules, Bye-Laws etc can be contemplated for
  15 years and after that period the President must
  be satisfied of the need for a change

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Chapter IV Special Directives (Articles 350-351)

• Art. 350 provides for every person to submit a
  representation for the redress of any grievance
  to any officer of authority of the Union or a
  State in any of the languages used in the Union
  or the State, as the case may be
• Article 350A Every State and every local
  authority is directed to provide adequate
  facilities for instruction in the mother tongue
  at the primary stage of education to children
  belonging to linguistic minority groups.
• Art 350B A special officer for linguistic
  minorities to be appointed by the President who
  is to investigate all matters relating to the
  safeguards provided for linguistic minorities
  under this Constitution and report to the
  President upon these matters at such intervals as
  the President may direct, and the President shall
  cause all such reports to be laid before each
  House of Parliament, and sent to the Governments
  of the States concerned.
• Art 351 Govt. to promote the spread of Hindi
  language in such a way that it may serve as a
  medium of expression for the composite culture of
  India and to secure its enrichment by
  assimilating the forms, style and expressions
  used in Hindustani and in other languages of
  India and by drawing for its vocabulary,
  primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other
  languages.

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Some other provisions

• Art. 120 in Part V and Art. 210 in Part VI of the
  Constitution vest powers in the presiding
  officers of the Union and State legislatures to
  use their discretion for allowing any member to
  speak in his mother tongue if he is unable to
  speak in the recognized official language or
  languages.
• VIII Schedule today has a total of 22 languages
  in the list of scheduled languages In 1949
  these were 14 languages, including Sanskrit,
  Hindi and Urdu
• In 1967 Sindhi was added to the list
• In 1992 Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali were added
• In 2004 Dogri, Maithili, Rajasthani and Santhali
  were added.
• The languages of the Eighth Schedule are more
  concerned with Art. 345 and 351. The former
  empowers a State government to adopt one or more
  languages or Hindi for official use in the State.
  
• A demand for the inclusion of English in the
  Eighth Schedule was made in a meeting of the CABE
  (Central Advisory Board of Education) in early
  August 2004. One of the issues widely reported
  was the discussion on the inclusion of English
  in the list of modern Indian languages (The
  Times of India August 12, 2004, p.2)

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Languages in Education

• The Three Language Formula was first devised for
  school education by the Central Advisory Board of
  Education in 1956, subsequently modified by the
  Conference of Chief Ministers in 1961, and
  formalized by the (Kothari) Education Commission
  (1964-6) (see Aggarwal 1993 175-193)
• Based on the following three factors
• (a) recognition of the right of ethnic minorities
  to get educational instruction through their MT,
• (b) promotion of state official language as a
  major regional language for bringing the
  different ethnic groups of the region into the
  socio-cultural mainstream,
• (c) development of pan-Indian official language
  of the Union for the integration of the country
  as a polity.

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The Three Language Formula

• Recognizes the following languages
• The first language to be studied must be mother
  tongue or the regional standard.
• The second language In Hindi speaking states
  will be some other modern Indian language (MIL)
  or English, and, in non-Hindi speaking states
  will be Hindi or English.
• The third language in Hindi speaking states will
  be English or an MIL not studied as second
  language, and in non-Hindi speaking states
  English or Hindi not studied as the second
  language.
• Implications Teaching of the first language
  commenced from class I, the teaching of the
  second language was recommended from Class VI or
  a bit earlier from class III, or at a convenient
  stage depending upon the resources of a state.
  The third language was also recommended to be
  taught from Class VI (Gargesh 2002
  191-203)
• Presently - an increasing trend to begin teaching
  of English as a subject from Class I, e.g. Delhi,
  Haryana and Bihar have begun to teach English as
  an additional subject from Class I from the year
  2000, 2002 and 2003 respectively.
• The 1967 Official Language Amendment Act has
  ensured the continuation of English and this has
  affected the domain of education

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Language for higher education

• Debates regarding the medium of instruction in
  education in India since independence
• 1. Education Commission (1948)
• English has become so much a part of our
  national habit English cannot continue to
  occupy the place of state language as in the
  past
• 2. Kunzru Committee (1955)
• (a) Change in the medium of instruction at the
  university stage should not be hastened
• (b) Even after the change English should continue
  to be studied by all university students
• (c) English should be retained as a properly
  studied second language in our universities
• 3. The Education Commission (1964-66)
• (a) Concerted effort needed for Hindi/regional
  languages as the media of instruction
• (b) The medium of examination should be the same
  as the medium of instruction
• (c) English should be studied and taught as a
  library language
• (d) No student should be allowed to graduate
  unless he is proficient in English
• (e) The universities should offer special courses
  in remedial English and English for Special
  Purposes.
• 4. National Integration Council (1962) observed
  that
• Need to make regional languages as media of
  instruction at the university stage.
• 5. The Working Group of the University Grants
  Commission (1978)
• (a) English has the advantage in publications and
  reference materials over RLs
• (b) Employment prospects of students educated
  through English medium are better
• (c) The shift from RLs to English in universities
  (instruction) ia a problem

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Language for higher education

• English in higher education was viewed as Indias
  window to the worlds technical and scientific
  information and knowledge
• The Report of the Committee for review of
  National Policy on Education 1986 notes that the
  regional languages are already in use as media of
  education at the primary and secondary stages.
  Urgent steps should now be taken to adopt them as
  media of education at the university stage
  (Ramamurti 1990 250)
• It also mentions that the Education Commission
  of 1964-66 had called for a changeover to the
  regional language media over a ten-year time
  frame but that progress in this regard has not
  been uniform or satisfactory (Ramamurti 1990
  265)
• The Ministrys document Programme of Action
  (1992 178-179) acknowledges that university
  teachers having received education through
  English find it difficult to teach through Indian
  languages, and that Indian language-medium
  courses are generally not popular amongst the
  students because of lack of professional
  comparability and poor employment potential.
• It is true that the higher we move in education
  and the more we aspire for professional
  excellence the only medium left at the top is
  English.

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De facto language use in society

• English is used throughout the length and breadth
  of the country
• Number of speakers of English in India Between
  30-50 million (estimate basis 3-5 as per Kachru
  1986 54) to about 200 million (estimate basis
  20 as per Encyclopedia Britannica 2002 796 and
  Crystal 2003 50)
• Positive attitude towards the language
• Most significant language for obtaining
  information
• Language of prestige in higher education
• Careers in business and commerce, government
  positions of high rank (regardless of stated
  policy), and science and technology (attracting
  many of the brightest) continue to require
  fluency in English

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Attitude towards English

• Some studies related to attitudes towards English
  
• Abbi, Gupta and Gargesh (2000)
• English is overwhelmingly sought as a medium of
  education but not as a mother tongue.
• Agnihotri and Khanna (1997 74) more than 90
  informants want some amount of English to be
  used, in teaching at all levels of education
• One of the major reasons for learning English is
  the instrumental function that it is also seen
  as a means for enhancing social mobility and
  individual personality (ibid 85)
• 77 of the informants believe that progress in
  science and technology will be hampered without
  English (ibid 90)
• Attitude towards English speaking Indians More
  than 60 informants considered them to be
  sensitive to Indian culture and they also
  perceived them to be progressive and honest.
• There is strong parental encouragement for the
  study of English. The extent of positive
  attitudes towards English indicates that English
  is here to stay for quite some time as a valuable
  tool.

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Major language for obtaining information

• Narendra Kumar, President of the Federation of
  Indian Publishers says that a sizeable portion
  of this clientele higher education is the
  reader of English books (199841).
• Of the about 3000 active publishers in India
  about 1/3 publish in English and the rest are
  shared by 21 other languages (Kumar 1998 44)
• Newspapers Published in India in about a 100
  languages
• Amongst the multi edition dailies, The Times of
  India edited simultaneously from seven cities has
  the largest total circulation of 1,695,945 copies
  followed by Malayala Manorama (eight editions)
  with a circulation of 1,132,813 copies, Dainik
  Jagran (12 editions) in Hindi is third with a
  circulation of 1,122,544 copies (Press in India
  2000 21).
• Radio A total time of 12 hrs 20 minutes is
  devoted to news in the Home Service out of which
  2 hours 25 minutes are taken up by 21 news
  broadcasts in English while Hindi takes up 2
  hours and 30 minutes for 20 news broadcasts. The
  remaining languages get between 10 to 40 minutes
  each.
• TVIn the National Network News in English gets
  six slots in a day which totals a 100 programs
  in the English medium. The educational programs
  too have a high percentage of programs in
  English.
• Abbi, Gupta and Gargesh (2000) more of English
  is used in India when the aim is to provide
  information.

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Higher Education in India A glimpse

• University Network
• About 324 Universities including
• 95 Deemed Universities
• 162 Traditional Universities
• 40 Agricultural / Forestry / Fisheries /
  Veterinary Universities
• 36 Engineering and Technology Institutes such as
  Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institute
  of Science, etc.
• 18 Medical Universities
• 11Open Universities
• 18 National Institutes of Technology
• 17625 Colleges of Engineering, Medical, Arts,
  Humanities, Social Sciences, Commerce, Science
  and Management Education.

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Language as medium of instruction and examination
2003-04 (108 Univs.)

• MOI MOE MOI MOE
  H/RL
• Faculty/Subject E- E- H/RL-
  H/RL- Languages
• Arts 52 53
  30 30
  H(18), P(2), G(3),
• 
  
  K(2),T,B(3),Mar(2)
• Science 64 64
  07 07 H(4), G(2), T
• Comp Science 32 32 03
  03 H, Skt, G,
  
• Commerce 36 36 06
  06 H(2),
  G(3), T
• MBA 37 37 03
  03 H(2), G
• Engineering 34 34 01
  01 H
• Medicine 19 19 02
  02 H(2)
  
• Education 38 38 16
  16 H(10),
  G(2), K,B, Mar(2)
• 
  
  
• Law 23 23 08
  08 H(6), G, P
  
• Agriculture 16 16 02
  02 H(2)
• Vet. Science 12 12 01
  01 H
• Others 58 59 26
  26 H(17),
  B(3),Mar(2)

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Medium of Instruction and Examination in
University of Delhi

• Faculty-wise Distribution of Students during the
  Year 2003-2004
• UNDER-GRADUATE
• --------------------------------------------------
  --------------------------------------------------
  ----
• Name of Faculty REGULAR NON-FORMAL
  TOTAL M
• --------------------------------------------------
  --------------------------------------------------
  ----
• 1. Arts 41826 102427
  144253 E/H
• 2. Ayur.
• Unani-Medicine
  605 605 H/S/U
• 3. Inter-Disciplinary 1782
  1782 E
• 4. Mathematical Sc. 5768 --
  5768 E
• 5. Medicine 2149
  2149 E
• 6. Music Fine Arts 486
  486 E/H
• 7. Science 15449
  15449 E
• 8. Social Science 16249
  2798 19047
  E/H
• 9. App.Soc.Sc. 1799
  1799 E
• 10. Commerce
• Business 27877
  73236 101113 E/H
• 11. Technology 3958
  3958 E
• 12. Education 763
  763 E/H

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Medium of Instruction and Examination in
University of Delhi

• Faculty-wise Distribution of Students
  (2003-2004)
• POST-GRADUATE
• --------------------------------------------------
  --------------------------------------------------
  --------
  
  
• Name of Faculty REGULAR
  NON-FORMAL TOTAL M
• --------------------------------------------------
  --------------------------------------------------
  --------
• 1. Arts 3121 3149
  6270 E/H
• 2. Ayur. Unani-Medicine 0 0
  0 H/S/U
• 3. Inter-Disciplinary 418
  418 E
• 4. Mathematical Sc. 1199 231
  1430 E
• 5. Medicine
  1042 1042 E
• 6. Music Fine Arts 309
  309 E/H
• 7. Science 3269
  3269 E
• 8. Social Science 1873 601
  2474 E/H
• 9. App.Soc.Sc. Humanities 243
  243 E
• 10. Commerce Business 801 1662
  2463 E/H
• 11. Technology 366
  366 E
• 12. Education 697
  697 E/H
• 13. Law 3913
  3913 E

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Perceived benefits of English-medium education

• English is a highly developed language and is at
  present best suited for the countrys industrial
  and scientific progress
• English is less divisive because of its neutral
  character
• English enables the educated Indian to move about
  inside and outside the country
• English brightens the students prospects of
  getting prestigious jobs
• English is still the language of administration
  at the Center and in many States.
• Beneficial for good effective education
• Helps the country in maintaining a competitive
  edge in the production technical manpower

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Problems Perceived in English-medium education

1. Very large population does not use English in
   daily life
2. Those who come through the RL medium find it
   difficult to cope with English medium at higher
   levels
3. There is a need for creating effective
   intermediate language courses so that the shift
   in medium at any stage doesnt remain a major
   hindrance
4. Need to perceive English as a functional language
   rather than as an elite language that creates
   socio-political conflict.

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• CONCLUSION
• English occupies a special place in the domains
  of education, law and administration.
• It is widely believed that one cannot become an
  engineer, doctor, lawyer, scientist, pilot etc.
  without proven proficiency in English.
• It has been absorbed in the multilingual fabric
  of India.
• Creative writings reveal that English in India is
  undergoing a process of decolonization.
• The main Educational goal is to minimize social
  and economic disparities and to create a positive
  discrimination in favor of the weak by giving
  each person an opportunity to learn this
  language.
• Intermediate programs of English need to be
  created which may enable students to smoothly
  switchover from a regional language to English as
  a medium of instruction in higher education.
• The present system of English Language education
  is unable to meet the growing aspirations of the
  people in the new globilized contexts. Hence, the
  mushrooming of private English medium schools.
• In the emerging new situation using RP would be
  an impractical goal with so many varieties of
  Indian English today. We are gradually moving
  towards an indigenous standardized Indian English.

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