Technology for Reading and Writing

Dear Courtney and fellow-participants,
I am now making a new posting for your reference.
This week is dedicated to reading and writing skill and buiding webskills for improving these skills.
I searched on the selected websites and articles I went through also.
The tips for reading and writing skills including the subskills such skimming,scanning, note-making and note-taking are covered in the given articles.They refreshed my idea about the language skills.
Particularly,the use of technology and different web-sites for various activities related to the above skills amazed me.
The web-sites I went through during last week are:
1. www.microsoft.com/education...
2. www.ehow.com
These two sites helped me to know about the technology-enhanced lesson plan on the core subject.
Also I went through the research articles:
1. Margo Dill's "How to write an integrated Lesson Plan?"
2. Jarek Krajka's "Using the Internet in ESL writing Instruction"
I was immensely benefited from these sites and articles.
Definitely I will impart my lessons using more technology-based lesson plans and more freely available materials on the Net.
I am too busy in my administrative roles as examination superintendent in my university because this is the term-end examination season in India.I have not implemented any of my newly acquired knowledge in classrooms but once the students return back to classrooms after the semester break, I will begin with a technology-based lesson and try my best to make my traditional class room more interactive and interesting.
Hope my colleagues would understand my situation after going through my reflection.All my colleagues are welcome to leave their comments to my post.
Bye and best regards.
Sincerely,
Mahesh    

Building Aural/Oral Skills: A Self Reflection

Dear Colleagues,
Here is my self-reflection on the new assignment for the third week.
The topic given is "Building Aural-Oral Skills", which I think is very much useful to my learners.
My learners are from the vernacular medium schools and they have less exposure to Spoken English as used by the native speakers of the UK, USA or other English-speaking nations.
My students are MA students in English, but they do most of their routine communications in Gujarati, that is the regional language of the state.They are not comfortable to use English for oral or written conversation.
They largely depend on their teachers for comprehension of prescribed lessons/texts of literature.
Once the classroom activity is over and writing answers for passing in the examinations is managed, they do not feel like having a spontaneous natural conversation in English as English professionals or scholars.
That is why I thought of the methods for improving their aural and oral skills using technology.
I suggested them to use the BBC programs on Pronunciation, Grammar and vocabulary based on quizzes, activities, exercises, and a lot of downloadable materials. They try to use them for self-learning in computer lab where internet facility has been provided for limited use. Some students are good learners and they have immediately adopted the strategies to improve their pronunciation but a large number of them are lagging behind till now. I think the situation will change after a few months once they regularly use various tools and skills for improving their presentation skills.
I will try to provide them some freely available materials to read and comprehend. Then they will be helped to complete exercises based on the given materials.Hope they will learn gradually the role of pronunciation in their future if they become English teachers.
I would request some co-participants to go through my reflection and give their comments.
Best wishes.  
Sincerely,
Mahesh 

The Status of English In India Today

Dear Colleagues,
Today when the second week is coming to an end, I think of making a new post on the status of English in India today.
The language of the colonial masters who came to India as traders and then ruled us for almost two centuries wanted to create a local class of Indians who would have brown skin but English taste became our own language-the official language, the link language, the library language, the language of trade and commerce, and now the language of science and technology including computer and the Internet.
Indians has their mother-tongues to communicate locally and use Hindi as the national language, but also learn English as the medium of instruction. There is immense influence of the regional languages, which is also known as the "mother-tongue interference", in the learning and use of Indian English. We have a recognized variety of English-General Indian English (GIE) that is an intelligible one understood nation-wide among the elite Indians. The reality is that this GIE has its regional varieties-southern, northern, western and eastern       ones. People belonging to a particular region are identified by their manner of articulation, intonation and stress, pitch and accent. Now the question originates-how to deal with this GIE for international communication and transfer of information. The answer is not that easy to find out, but the experiment should go on through debates and research activities.
Many have begun the research work in this area and many more are to join in the race. The global English has to survive locally with a mixed bag of many elements. Indian English teachers have to carry this bag with all its stuff in the future years.
Hope for a better future when Indian scientists, technocrats and researchers would also be users of global English.
Best wishes to all.
Sincerely,
Mahesh Dey

Web Skills-A Reflection

Dear Courtney,
Hello.
Hope you must be getting acquainted with all the participants around the globe.
I note down my reflections of my first week's experience below:
1. The course has opened up many doors through technolgy. I was unaware of many tools and sites, which my colleagues knew and shared with me.
2. I revived my blog which I created earlier but did not post anything for many days.
3. I joined a large social academic group for wider networking and academic exchanges.
4. I will use the web tools to teach lessons online with my students and in an interactive mode.
5. Many informative sites will be listed for reference again and again by my learners and me.
I thank the sponsoring agency for giving me this opportunity to connect with the AEI (UoO) family.
Hope the reflections after the second week will be more detailed and enlightening.
Best regards and thanks.
Sincerely,
Mahesh   

English Language Teaching in India

The topic "English Language Teaching" is a complex one, dealing with a number of aspects such as communication, duality in oral and written modes, four different skills namely listening, speaking, reading and writing (LSRW), several elements such as sounds, vocabulary, and grammar. Along with these aspects, we also consider the relevant related disciplines such as Linguistics, Psychology, Sociolinguistics, Psycholinguistics, etc. The approaches, methods and techniques are very important aspects for enabling us as competent and effective teachers. When English becomes the second/third/foreign language in a country like India, then it becomes the most difficult subject to learn, practice and use in daily life. However, it has already completed three centuries after its arrival in India in the early eighteenth century. It is no more the language of the colonial masters but one of the national languages used for all official purposes in this country.

Thousands of English teachers earn their daily bread and butter from this subject, taking it as their main profession throughout the entire life. A lot many professionals like doctors, lawyers, engineers, industrialists, scientists, and corporate executives use this language for all sorts of official communication. The ESP courses and ICT has been the demand of the day. The English teachers of India have to update themselves in all these aspects keeping the demands of the modern times in mind. The market-driven society, the globalized economy, the demand for immigration from one country to another for better prospects are the need of the future learners and English plays a crucial role in this affair as the "link language" and the "library language". We have to focus on these two roles at least, even we forget other roles of English, the only global language of the future times. Indian teachers and learners are aware of this importance of English and should respond to the challenges too.