English Language

A▪︎History,

B▪︎ Aspect of English Language,

C▪︎ Nature of English Language,

D▪︎ Development of Language Skills,

E▪︎ LSRW Skills ( Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing ).

A▪︎ History

1•During the British period, English was introduced as a subject of study, as well as the medium of institutions in the Indian educational system.

2• In fact , in 1823 Raja Ram Mohan Roy requested the Governor General to establish a college in Calcutta for this new and liberal education.

3• In 1835, an act was passed and English education was adopted under the British Governor General in India.

4• In 1854, the then president of the board of control of the East India Company recommended the establishment of Education department to cooperate the system of education in different parts of India under their rule.

5• It should be noted that the East India company was interested more in training Indians through English, to utilize their services to their government in India.

6• So we can say that, their objective in introducing English education was not to impart education to them(Indians) but to serve as their servants.

7• Language policy was one of the immediate concerns of the government of India after Independence.

8• In part XVII(17) of the constitution, Hindi devanagiri script was given the status of official language. However, a provision was also made to continue English for the first fifteen years.

9• Official language Act of 1963 which, alongwith Hindi as official language, adopted English as Associated Official language without any limit of time.

10• The English is learnt mainly as a second language. But now, the younger generations of India have realized that English is a language of job opportunity and upward social mobility.

B▪︎ Aspects

1• English Language is a part of a large family of languages called Indo European family of languages.

2• This family, which is said to be three thousand years old, is also the largest family of language groups and has many branches.

3• Sanskrit, the language of India is also part of this family and belongs to Indo - Iranian branch.

4• In the course of its history, English language is recognized in three stages as Old English ( 500AD to 1100AD ), Middle English ( 1100AD to 1500AD ), Modern English ( 1500AD to Date ).

5• All International relations happen through English. The world of internet and computers cannot survive without English.

C▪︎ Nature

1• The English word 'Language ' have been derived from the latin word "lingua" which means "tongue".

2•Without a language, human society is totally unthinkable, as it is the only means of communication of thoughts, feelings and ideas either in speech or in writing.

3• Jesperson says 'language is the set of human habits, the purpose of which is to give expression to human thoughts and feelings especially to impart them to others.

NOTE: English finds a place in the Eight schedule of our constitution and has a major role to play in our society.

D▪︎ Development of Language Skills

1• Language Skill is divided into two types.

▪︎Active or Productive ( speaking and writing )

▪︎Passive or Receptive ( listening and Reading ).

2• He/She has to express or produce or transmit information. Hence Speaking and Writing are also called Productive or Active skills.

3• A person is at the receiving end of the communication channel. He /She receives the information. Hence, Listening and Reading are also called Receptive or Passive skills.

E▪︎ Listening Skill

1• There are two types of Listening:

a- Listening without attention- In casual listening, we listen to the speaker without any specific purpose or intention.

b- Focussed Listening- When we listen to the speaker with a purpose or intention of knowing the details, it may be termed as Focussed Listening.

F▪︎Speaking Skills

Skill of listening and skill of Speaking are interdependent and are the two sides of the same coin i.e. oral communication.

G▪︎ Reading Skills

Reading is one of the most useful skills in learning a language. The encoder(writer) encodes the message, while the decoder(reader) decodes the message and understand it.

Types Of Reading

1- Reading Aloud- Much of the reading to be done at the early stage will be reading aloud.

2- Silent Reading- Most of the Reading done at the higher stage of learning will be of this nature only.

3- Intensive Reading- It is done while the students try together facts or arrive at some conclusions on the basis of the facts.

4- Extensive Reading- It is done when one reads longer texts like novels, stories for pleasure.

D▪︎ Writing

Language first in Speech and then in writing.

In the word of Bacon"reading makes a full man and writing an exact man".

Further, writing makes the record permanent. Whatever is written once, it remains forever. Out of the four Skills in language learning, 'writing ' is very important and most difficult of the language Skills.