ENGLISH IN POST 1947 LANGUAGE POLICIES

The end of the British Raj in the subcontinent during the 1940s was supposed to initiate the slow but sure demise of the English language in South Asia. That actually did not happen. The functional domains in which English is used have actually expanded rather than shrunk.

The controversy is basically about three issues: What should be the function of the English language at various stages of education? What should be the role of regional language, national language and English? And in some selected circles there is even discussion of what model of English should form part of the curriculum.

English became a vehicle for national unity, and for initiating a pan-Indian cultural and political awakening.

Present Situation

The Three Language Formula was proposed as a solution to language-ineducation policy. The formula proposes studying at least three languages in school years: the regional language, Hindi and English.

However, during the last three decades holes in the formula have begun to appear. The main problem in implementation was that not all the states of the Union accepted the formula with enthusiasm.

Attitudes about English

There have continued to be three distinct attitudes toward the role of English in South Asia. One attitude is that English has played an important role in South Asia, and that its continuation and diffusion contribute to keeping South Asian countries abreast of the scientific, technological and humanistic developments of the world. There is another attitude concerning the role of English in South Asia. In this view, English has no role in the language policies of South Asian countries. The third view rejects the enthusiasm of these two positions and has adopted a somewhat neutral position, neutral in the sense that its proponents would like to see English as one of the languages in the linguistic repertoire, as one of the foreign languages, but not in competition with local languages.

Current Issues

1      In the Outer Circle, English is essentially learnt in order to communicate with the native speakers of English.

2     English is learnt to understand and teach British and American cultural values.

3      The goals for acquisition of English are to adopt the exonormative models of English; that the varieties of English used in the Outer Circle are interlanguages and the goal of acquisition is to acquire native-like competence.

4      Native speakers of English, as teachers trainers, curriculum developers and academic administrators, provide serious input in the operation of theaching English in the Outer Circle.

5      Diversity, innovation and variation are necessarily indicators of the “decay” of English

6      English is learnt with an integrative motivation rather than an instrumental motivation, and the integrative motivation is more conducive to successful language learning.