
6 Difficulties in teaching English to Indian students
In India, people learn English as their second, third language. For a long time in India, English speaking was acknowledged as something which elites do. The phrase is commonly used - 'Angrej Hai kya.' For the 'fault' of speaking English, There is a stigma attached to it - a form of social classism.
This discrimination has been deep-rooted that the middle class sends their children to Hindi medium government school while the upper class admits their children to private English medium school.
The most spoken language in India is Hindi. (According to census data). Only 30% can speak English. To emphasize more on the difficulty that comes when Indians are taught English is as follows -
- Lost in Translation - A significant problem that Indian English speakers in India face. They translate phrases directly from the Hindi language. This makes pronouns, article learning a big struggle. For example, A common phrase you might have heard is, "my health is bad." However, the proper use would be, I feel sick. Indian speakers should start learning English from scratch, then trying to translate.
- English speaking environment - There is a lack of awareness and role models in our environment. Let's be honest, not everyone's parents are fluent in English speaking. Kids learn through interaction, and this becomes a significant issue.
- Limited vocabulary - India is a language-driven country. Even with the wide range of regional languages. There is no similarity between the two. This is the root cause of the limited vocabulary.
- Grammar issue - The education system is designed in a way that provides grades to the muggers. We have been taught to learn the rules of grammar rather than making us understand. We learn grammar by hearing people talk. What appears to sound good is grammatically correct for us.
- Peer pressure - We are made to learn the English language to go through the cut-throat competition. We don't love the language. We have spoon-fed the terminology, definition. Learning cannot be fun if the purpose is not slated.
- Mother tongue impact - One оf the mоst frequently enсоuntered рrоblems fоr English leаrners in Indiа is the mоther tоngue influenсe. The рrоnunсiаtiоn is heаvily influenсed by their nаtive lаnguаges.
Every yeаr, mаny Indiаn gо tо рursue their studies аbrоаd in соlleges where the mаin lаnguаge оf instruсtiоn is English. Once these problems are acted upon, half of our issues will be resolved.