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KOCHI: Though English is
taught from Class I, students of state board schools lack communication
skills in the universal language. Realizing this, the state, has now
decided to hone spoken English skills of pupils. Chief minister Oommen Chandy
called a meeting of education department officials this month, to work
out methods to enhance the English speaking skills of students.
"Our students are good in written English but they are poor in spoken English. Improving the skill of teachers will change this situation," said director of public instruction A Shahjahan.
State government has sought the help of British Council to improve the spoken English of school teachers in Thalassery and Kannur. The pilot project will be extended to other areas later.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) authorities are in the process of developing programs to improve teachers spoken English.
"English is treated only as subject to be taught in classroom and not as communication tool by teachers. With the medium of instruction in state syllabus schools being Malayalam, students have little exposure to spoken English," said SCERT director K A Hashim.
To change this, SCERT has now brought out an interactive DVD to enhance communicative skills of primary school teachers. The Dvd emphasizes on pronunciation, sentence construction, vowels and consonants.
"We have identified the core problem areas. Presently, teachers are concentrating on pedagogy and not vocabulary. English listening situations in school is limited as communication is in Malayalam. Also there is no comprehensive emphasis on developing the reading and speaking skills of the students," said SSA state consultant for English KR Gopinathan.
Preetu Venugopalan Nair,TOI, July 30, 2012
"Our students are good in written English but they are poor in spoken English. Improving the skill of teachers will change this situation," said director of public instruction A Shahjahan.
State government has sought the help of British Council to improve the spoken English of school teachers in Thalassery and Kannur. The pilot project will be extended to other areas later.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) authorities are in the process of developing programs to improve teachers spoken English.
"English is treated only as subject to be taught in classroom and not as communication tool by teachers. With the medium of instruction in state syllabus schools being Malayalam, students have little exposure to spoken English," said SCERT director K A Hashim.
To change this, SCERT has now brought out an interactive DVD to enhance communicative skills of primary school teachers. The Dvd emphasizes on pronunciation, sentence construction, vowels and consonants.
"We have identified the core problem areas. Presently, teachers are concentrating on pedagogy and not vocabulary. English listening situations in school is limited as communication is in Malayalam. Also there is no comprehensive emphasis on developing the reading and speaking skills of the students," said SSA state consultant for English KR Gopinathan.
Preetu Venugopalan Nair,TOI, July 30, 2012
