Challenges in English Language Teachings: Indian outlook

Abstract

The ‘English-speaking culture’ is deep-rooted in India and its dominancy initiated when language imperialism started along with the aggressive colonial rule. India is a land of diverse cultures, heritage and languages with about 19,500 regional languages and dialects. This paper aims to focus on some of the key objectives by creating awareness on the current trends, issues and challenges that language teachers and learners have to face. Several obstacles such as a big number of students in the classroom, students from rural background, lack of motivation and confidence, illiteracy, inability to read and write, lack of participation and response and above all unavailability of trained and qualified teachers make the entire process of implementing quality education and skill orientation futile. The focus is given that how students can put their learning into practice through effective communication skills. The importance of teaching English in order to fulfill the ever growing demands of English language is also stressed. Moreover, the common prevalent problems in the classroom are discussed and solution is provided in order to tackle such situation. We need to bridge the gap between haves and have not or ‘urban’ and the ‘rural’. The needs to reform teaching methodology in literature and to adopt appropriate teaching strategies are also taken up to face the global demands. Challenges before the teachers in present day scenario are also taken up.