Several insights into foreign language teaching came to light during the intensive discussions which marked the two-day international conference on Foreign language Teaching (FlT) which concluded at Doon University this evening.
A galaxy of academicians and language experts from various parts of the country gathered at Doon University for the conference which began yesterday. It was organized by School of languages, Doon University.
Today’s discussions began with a session on methodologies of foreign language teaching with papers focussed on different methodologies and strategies employed in the dissemination of foreign languages. The second session of the day was titled “Role of art, literature, cinema and media in Foreign language teaching.” Papers talked about using music, art, literature, cinema in teaching languages. A paper presented by Mala Shikha and Tanvi Negi of School of languages (Doon University) was titled “Minimising Paradigm Shift with use of Folk
Narrative in FlT”. It said that folk tales provide “ideal opportunities for presenting cultural information and encouraging cross-cultural comparison”. Themes that these folk narratives deal with are universal and yet at the same time very specific to a culture. Chinese folktales in the Chinese language classroom can be a very effective way to teach not only language but culture, history, philosophy and beliefs of Chinese nation..Today’s learner of Spanish language in India can be introduced to the genre of romance and knight errantry which form a very important part of Spanish history, culture and literature,said the paper,concluding that incorporation of folk narrative in the class curriculum to teach language, literature, history and culture can also be an attempt to save the age old cultural heritage of people by looking into it from a constructive perspective.The final session was on intercultural dialogue. It discussed how in a multicultural society, it is important to understand the "other" culture .
Professor Vinod Kumar Jain, Vice Chancellor of Doon University , said while opening the conference that the School of languages at the university was making wonderful progress. “I congratulate the school on its achievements and efforts and I can see that with its bright young faculty and keen students, it has a great future,” he said. The Keynote Address was delivered by Professor B.R.Deepak ,Chairperson, CCSEAS,JNU (Former Head ,School of languages ,Doon University). In his address, he said that foreign language teaching and learning had emerged as an important skill and had a great role to play in promoting understanding among nations and creating a global knowledge society.
He said a new paradigm had evolved around the middle of the twentieth century which had shifted the focus from language as writing to language as speaking.”Teachers of foreign languages must be facilitators rather than become a dominating presence in the classroom.” He said the judicious use of the first language in teaching a foreign language was important.
Prof Deepak said that even today, there was a lack of good text books for foreign language teaching.
Professor Sonya Gupta from Jamia Milia Islamia said that foreign language teaching could be described as being of recent origin in our country..” If we stretch it , then we can say that around 100 years old, which we can call quite young. In fact, half a century old would be more appropriate.”
She said that this conference was perhaps the first one of its kind as it had brought together a large number of young language teachers from all parts of the country.She spoke on “Political Economy of Foreign language Teaching in India” and stressed the fact that the “power dimension” was an important part associated with foreign language teaching.
Among the others who spoke t were Rakesh Kumar from JNU, Babusha Verma from Delhi University, Vikas Kumar Singh (INOU)< Professor Madhu Sahni from JNU, Dr.Asima ranjan Parhi (Rajiv Gandhi University) , Richa Nehra (JNU),Mahmoud Ahmad Thabet Al –Maqtri and Sahidul Islam from King Khalid University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and T.Srivani from EFlU.
Titles of the sessions include “ Politics and Economics of Foreign language Tecahing (FlT)”, “Methodologies of FlT”, “The Role of literature ,Films and Art in the Dissemination of other languages and Culture “ and “Inter-Cultural Dialogue in FlT.” Foreign language teaching (FlT) and study is witnessing a renaissance in India after its introduction in the universities of Delhi in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The last decade has seen departments being opened and expanded in all parts of the country. Often they work in tandem with language centers run by the embassies such as those of Japan, Portugal, Italy, Spain,Germany and France who pool resources on the array of teaching methodologies, and sophisticated strategies to attract learners. FlT methodology forms a vital aspect of all language departments and in the last few years there has been a spurt in learner corpora and publications on this subject.