Teaching English in India

In December 2008, myself and Peter (our academic director) had the opportunity to travel to the state of Tamil Nadu on a “recon mission” to see if we could set up an English programme, sponsored by Annalivia School, for a small charity called SPPD (Society for Poor People Development). The charity is run by Raju who set it up to give the local disadvantaged children a chance of an education, shelter and food.

We had an amazing experience and took a lot from teaching the staff and children. It was unlike anything we have experienced before. The English that the Indian students have been taught is very different to the English that we are used to. We had a problem though…

Should we have corrected their English mistakes?
In a English class in Dun Laoghaire, in front of a group of mixed nationalities, someone who uses the third person singular without an “s” at the end of “eat” will expect and want to be corrected. Does the same rule apply in India, teaching in a very rural area, a group of children, all taught by teachers making the same “mistakes” (I’m having problems with the word “mistake” but for the moment I’ll leave it) as they are making?

Who is to say that standard British English or American English is more correct than Indianised English?

It raises a huge dilemma. By not correcting their issues (a little better than the word “mistake”) they will not be able to send an e-mail, for example, to the States or to the UK without the recipient pre-judging them based on the irregular content (even better than “issues”). One way of looking at this would be to say that it is, in fact, the recipient in the UK that is blinkered and insufficiently travelled to recognise that they are not mistakes, issues or irregularities but more a dialect or adaptation of the English language.

Is it more correct to write “recognized” or “recognised”? Microsoft word’s spell check will accept both as correct. Amercian readers will accept both but recognise that the latter is someone who speaks British English (or has been taught British English). What about the following sentence consider the following “One of my cow died last night in the storm.” Grammatically incorrect? Completely wrong? Whether it be in American or British English, “One of my” implies a plural and so “Cow” should be “Cows”.

I don’t think so. There are 90 million English speakers in India which is a lot more than in the UK. Isn’t there a case to be made that any language (which is constantly evolving anyway) should be ruled by a majority rule? Or what about this “I is going to that party!” Completely wrong? Try saying it with an American accent. Isn’t it just as acceptable as “I am going to a Party”? Same question for the now very common British “He were…”

If your answer is simply, no, it’s completely incorrect then consider the same question but replace incorrect grammar with differing phonetics and accents…

A Dublin Irish person might say “Oim goin to da pub”. If you it’s accepted that “I is” is WRONG then so is the Irish “PUB” vs the UK “PAB”. I think it’s easier to accept that accents are a part of our culture and national identity but more difficult to do the same with grammar.

Anyway, all that aside, we are offering 2 scholarships per year on our teacher training courses (CELT). Annalivia School will give you a free place on a course in exchange for 4 months of teacher training in SPPD in India. Please click through here for the link.

There’s also a nice article that Peter wrote for the UCD tribune here.