Advent of digital and high-speed communication technologies into our lives has made an inevitable impact on the use and development of language and culture which makes effective teaching of language crucial in post modern times. The development of human capital has to be in sync with the swift move in the world of communication. A sense of balance in the fields of language, culture and communication has to be nurtured to scaffold global growth and advancement in a wide range of other fields related to IT, engineering, architecture and business. Thus, technology’s pervasiveness, a potent influential force in the shaping of local and global cultures calls much needed attention to the context of educational policies and practices related to Language pedagogy.

Keeping in mind the above scenario, the two-day international conference on Interfacing Language, Culture and Technology  aims to provide an international forum to the researchers, practitioners, advisers and consultants who are engaged in questioning both practice and policy in academia. It also aims at discussing dynamic and progressive approaches to teaching and interrogating contemporary responses to the changing nature of communication in all its forms – digital and media literacy and all aspects of language, literature and culture.

OBJECTIVES

• Provide forum to the researchers, practitioners, advisers and consultants to discuss the latest solutions, scientific methods and results in the usage and applications of ICT and interfacing of the emerging technology with language pedagogy and culture.
• Share good practice and build transnational cooperation in the field of language and culture and its interface with educational technology.
• Establish networking among English language instructors at all levels of higher education institutions, colleges, primary and secondary schools.

SUB-THEMES

• Intercultural awareness in language learning and teaching
• Social and  cultural contexts of language teacher education
• Immersion of language and culture  in pedagogy
• Innovative language teaching and learning methodologies
• Collaborative language learning and CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning)
• Learner autonomy and self instructional materials
• ICT based language teaching/ learning
• Developing contents and pedagogies using CALL
• Technology interface in distance education, e-learning, virtual learning
• Web technologies in language teaching/ learning
• Social networks and language learning/ teaching
• Applications of web 2.0 in language pedagogy

CALL FOR PAPERS

Proposals for Paper Presentations/Workshop related to the theme of the conference are invited.  Papers should be original and unpublished. Full paper should be sent only by e-mail in MS Word. Follow

MLA style sheet and don’t use endnotes. Abstract and Paper should be in English with Times New Roman 12 points font and 1.5 line spacing. The abstract should not contain more than 250 words and the full paper 2000 words which should be emailed to eltaipilani@gmail.com

All accepted papers will be compiled and published in the conference proceedings/Arab Word English International Journal.

NOTE: (Papers sent without the payment of the Registration fee prescribed will not be considered) 

IMPORTANT DATES

Abstract Submission	15 May 2012
Abstract  Acceptance	30 May 2012
Registration fee	30 June 2012
Full Paper Submission	30 August 2012

Note: For any further information about the conference, please mail to eltaipilani@gmail.com.

REGISTRATION FEES      

Early bird Registration: (Up to 30 June 2010)

Rs.1200/- only (inclusive of lunch, tea and all conference papers (for ELTAI members))

Rs.1500/- (for others)

After 30 June 2012  

Rs.1500/- for all 

OVERSEAS DELEGATES – US $ 60

ACCOMMODATION CHARGES

In VFAST Hostel (Visiting Faculty and Students Hostel)

Twin sharing (Non A/C) Rs. 600/- per day

Twin sharing (A/C) Rs. 1000/- per day.

For conference registration form, please send an email to Dr. Pushp Lata at eltaipilani@gmail.com.

TeachingEnglish team says, “What is m-learning? There is lots of discussion about this, but what most teachers want is practical examples. This webinar, aimed at teachers with little or no experience in the subject, will show ten practical ways you can exploit mobile technology in order to support language learning. We will look at uses for both the teacher in class, and for the learner outside of lessons”.

About the webinar speaker

Rob Lewis is a teacher, trainer and writer currently based in Poland, from where he manages the TeachingEnglish website.

‘Ten ideas for mobile learning’ webinar

Systematically supporting the development of students’ writing from the basics of writing sentences to advanced level academic writing, the new edition of this popular series now includes a new level on writing research papers.
The new edition maintains the tried and tested process approach to developing students’ writing that has proved so popular with teachers, guiding students at each level to develop their writing skills making them confident, creative and competent writers.

 

To know more and buy this book, please click here.

Ann Logsdon, About.com ESL Guide, has posted an informative article titled “Top 4 Tips for Choosing the Right Assistive Technology”.

Logsdon says, “Today’s assistive technology (AT) can meet a broad range of needs for students with many types of disabilities. AT can help students with physical and sensory impairments and all types of learning disabilities participate more fully in classroom instruction, read better, write more independently, and learn more efficiently.

To read the full article, please click here.

The production and delivery of online courses through internet have gone quite beyond the simple binary alternatives – web / not web; discussion groups / no discussion groups; chat provisions / no chat provisions. Nowadays, it is not as simple as posting course outlines or reading bibliographies in HTML form. Online Education at tertiary level is a segment of a much larger organic whole in which the expectations, quality, communities, and content of online delivery are determined by the thoughts and deeds of approximately 100 million online users. The internet has presently been a powerful social phenomenon, leading as well as guiding an upward cultural revolution. The traditional strengths of higher education – a commitment to liberating knowledge, creating and sharing of new knowledge, open ended deliberation by communities of scholars, nurturing a refined comprehension of complex process or scholarly environments for the nourishment of future knowledge thirsty generations – take precedence in online learning too.

Virtual Education was popularized to overcome the obstacles of time and distance in its original state of commencement. However, both teachers and students in traditional classrooms began using online tools and resources for “blended learning” that enabled the tradition classroom to combine conventional learning with online resources to expand knowledge and research horizons with the help of continuing evolution of technology and the growing experience with digital resources. Virtual tours of historic monuments and museums, online experiments in science labs, lectures and guidance by online teachers and experts, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube sharings have become inevitable assets of contemporary classroom experience in the same way as the tool kit of earlier generations accommodated audio recording, visual videos, radio and television.

Broad band connectivity enables thousands of international students of all age, working parents, disabled people, and folks living in remote inaccessible areas of the world to explore new academic avenues available at door steps. Lifelong learning has become the basic mantra of concurrent life, provided that learners have access to broadband connectivity. The advent of sophisticated mobile devices that can stream data and images with a wireless link to the internet has proven itself as a magical miracle to get connected with knowledgeable favourite professors who might be available anywhere off campus in the world. More significantly, reliable researches establish the fact that online instructions and interactions are as effective as the conventional face to face discussions of teachers and students contained in a physical traditional classroom.

As the Federal Communications Commission in US observed in its National Broadband Plan of March,2010:
“There is strong evidence that online learning classes do not sacrifice quality of instruction for convenience and efficiency. For example, students attending Florida Virtual Schools (FLVS) earned higher AP scores and outscored the state’s standardized assessment average by more than 15 percent points in grades 6 through 10.”

E-learning has proved itself as a good omen to decrease students dropout rates, make possible for innumerable students to graduate on time and provide unique opportunities for aged persons who have been encountering insurmountable physical and mental life challenges. For instance, the National Broadband Plan of US reported: “Salem – Keizer School District in Oregon has re-enrolled more than 50 percent of dropouts and at-risk students through its online Bridge Program annually. At Florida Virtual Schools 20% of the students enrolled in the program for earning remedial credit. The passing rate of students taking makeup courses was 90 percent.”

It has already been established by now that online interactions can stimulate intellectual growth and academic progress competitively with campus-based classes. The 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) of US  found that, compared with their counterparts in traditional classrooms, online students were most likely to “very often participate in the course activities that challenged them intellectually, in discussions that enhanced their understanding of different cultures (and social responsibility), discuss topics of importance to their major.”

Due to higher level of independence and freedom offered by online courses, online students would use and exhibit a wider spectrum of effective LSWR strategies in their academic performance. This fact strengthens the theory put forth by Charlene Dykman and  Charles Davis that online learning is particularly well suited and tailored to newer approaches to instruction in which the teacher performs as a “ guide at the side” rather than as a “sage on the stage.”

The most recent and exuberant fact is that online educators and learners can adapt online teaching and learning to fit various learning styles, permitting learners to relish a high level of flexibility and customization that seems difficult or often impossible to achieve in a typical traditional classroom teaching. Online students have admitted that it is easier to ask questions, receive response, acquire attention from teachers, and exchange views and opinions with classmates in an online environment. Thus, e-learning offers a more informal ‘class’ atmosphere by encouraging increased intuitive interactions. For instance, new ICT makes it both possible and permissible for learners in an online environment to talk and walk during class and even to circulate notes and findings amongst themselves.

Most importantly, online learning can encourage educators to continue career advancement and professional progress in ways that match with their personal preferences and priorities. According to the National Broadband Plan of US, online post graduate studies for instructors is as successful as traditional teacher prep, and might be even more successful in achieving diversity and multi-ethnicity in race and gender.

Let us have a cursory look at the social components of online education system:

• The flexibility of online education can be translated into fruitful financial benefits because it allows lower-cost accommodation facility than is available on campus making it possible for the students to live wherever they want. Through lower tuition, lower boarding and lodging expenses, the possibility to work part-time or full-time, the student can accrue less debt and increase earning potential which seems immediately attractive and appealing.
• Shy students lacking confidence may feel more engaged in online interactions than they would feel in person. The students, for whom to address or face the situations where peer pressure and social challenges is a problem rather than a benefit, can be most benefited from online learning.
• As Byron Henderson from the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada notes:

“The power of lifelong learning for higher education resides in its ability to tie a life to the traditions of scholarship and the richness of great institutions bound by great histories of thought. Online learning is not just a way to deliver courses. It is a way to tie the student and graduate scholar (now in a job) to the ongoing community of scholars in which the student found his/her way as an academic.”

Online education opportunity also offers co-curricular components in its own way:

• E-learning allows students to develop and maintain meaningful relationships with online classmates and people of similar interests through online clubs and cohorts. Certain co-curricular activities like producing a college newspaper or a university magazine or taking part into a reading club or chess congregation translate very well to the e-learning environment.
• Online learners can have a boarder array of interactive opportunities with people from an even wider range of cultures and nationalities than their counterparts on brick-and-mortar campuses.

Senior or employed learners might have been early adopters of online education due to the flexibility they require in achieving ultimate career goals. These students might have little or no interest in acquiring ‘full’ college/university experience.

However, there is enough strength of students who prefer e-learning as it gains wider visibility, acceptance, sophistication and less financial requirements. These students are always in search of those e-learning courses which not only provide complete college class experience, but also accommodate an adequate range of social and co-curricular components.

For these students a hybrid higher education experience may be the best approach, offering the best of both worlds by combining e-learning characteristics with acceptable level of face –to-face interactions. A team that led a hybrid English nonfiction prose class in British Columbia, Canada described that compared with the traditional approach, “collaborative Web-based learning may be more likely to result in the pluralist, and diversified kind of course we aimed for.”

Extreme learning is a very new and innovative concept that explains how education happens in causal informal environments as well as how formal learning stretches itself beyond the confinements of schools, colleges and universities to more extreme learning environments. Extreme learning stretches prospects and perspectives about when, where, how, why, for whom and with whom learning takes place. It tracts scientific discoveries taking place in the Indian Ocean, blog posting during polar expeditions, or learning a new language from someone camping on faraway forests. Some educationists have distinguished informal learning from extreme learning in a very subtle way. Informal learning is a self- paced, self-motivated and self-directed phenomenon that can happen at any time, at any place and at any pace one wishes, and could be in the form of school homework, college assignment, family life, leisure activities, or pleasure pursuits. The more such free and open academic resources enhance themselves, the more learning becomes increasingly personalized and catered to particular learning priorities or learner preferences. Online teachers aided by ICT are now better equipped to personalise the learning experiences for online students.  The extreme learning includes both physical and cyber learning, and also embraces the idea how people learn or teach with the help of new technology in unusual ways; for example, from aircrafts, hovercrafts, mountain summits, deep valleys, islands, icebergs, monuments, museums, conferences, cafes, bookstores or nursing homes. It certainly accommodates learning from interactions among online communities, virtual worlds, webinars, webcam experiences, mobile devices, text messaging, tracking the blog and podcasts postings, open educational resources and OpenCourseWare (OCW), open universities, and free virtual courses. The following 10 different technologies have commenced transforming education across academic sectors and age levels expanding education to countless millions of people. A simple mnemonic, “WE-ALL-LEARN,” captures those ten trends.

Ten Openers: (WE-ALL-LEARN)

1. Web Searching in the World of e-Books
2. E-Learning and Blended Learning
3. Availability of Open Source and Free Software
4. Leveraged Resources and Open Course Ware
5. Learning Object Repositories and Portals
6. Learner Participation in Open Information Communities
7. Electronic Collaboration
8. Alternate Reality Learning
9. Real-Time Mobility and Portability
10. Networks of Personalized Learning

However, one undeniable fact cannot be overlooked that not all people everywhere in the world have an easy access to online learning. In remote rural areas, the barriers of distance and constraints of accessing online academic resources are still unconquerable. Unfortunately, innumerable people still live in an offline world. A few of them try to compensate the lack of home-based broadband with mobile devices. But still, hosts of people rely upon antiquated dialup technology, and for them slow speeds and reliability problems create unreachable obstacles. In many schools in rural world, computer and internet infrastructures are minimal or non-existent. For thousands of school or college going students, e-learning opportunity is still ironically confined to the four walls of their academic institutes.

To equalize virtual education opportunity, these divides must be bridged promptly and efficiently. Historical evidences have established one fact that disparities in educational opportunity mean disparities in economic and qualitative life opportunity. For students, e-learning is a solution to receive maximum out of school and university experience, expand academic horizons, inaugurate an avenue of a new career field of their preference and obtain the best possible chance to achieve milestones of their dream. For adults, online education offers a great chance to earn a desirable degree, improve professional credentials, gain knowledge, skills and wisdom, and explore unknown career paths.

In spite of all the above mentioned obstacles and impediments, once learners and academicians comprehend the superior strength of online education, all concerns, misconceptions and ignorance would disappear. The academicians, researchers, employers, employees and all segments of mankind such as pre K -12, colleges, universities, research centers, government, military, telehealth, home schooling, old age homes, orphanages, prisons have all commenced the inevitable process of embracing the explosion of quality online opportunities. As a new United States Distance Learning Association corporate CEO member commented, “Today we have the capability and capacity through broadband applications to deliver online classes in multiple learning styles using diversified learning strategies which result in upwards of ninety five percent cognitive achievement and overall student and teacher satisfaction.” Indeed, technology has the power to be a true equalizing force in education so that all students have access to the same treasure of knowledge and reservoir of resources; no matter where they live, whatever would be their priority and preferences and of whichever age group they belong to.

Academicians, experts, policy makers and executors should share the responsibility, by working in concert, to accelerate online education success:

• Academicians and educational policy makers should march ahead with hand in hand for development and implementation of virtual curriculum and the digital content to support it. Evaluation of effectiveness of different approaches to online learning is quite necessary to educate parents, students, teachers, researchers and all others involved in academia about the advantages of e-learning.
• Educational policymakers at every level should review and revise, if necessary, accreditation rules, teacher licensing requirements and copyright laws that limit the online access to educational content and the use of digital technologies in the classroom.
• To motivate late adopters to embarrass online education through broadband connectivity, it is mandatory for public policymakers to redouble efforts to let the rural gentry enjoy online learning opportunity through broadband connectivity and to take substantial academic initiatives for encouraging the digital literacy.
• As suggested by many scholars, technology policymakers should invest maximum efforts to create a universal broadband support fund and to enable the deployment and adoption of broadband in high-cost areas. They should create policies to reduce connectivity costs, and avoid or eliminate those policies that makes harder for underprivileged learners and marginalized individuals to fully adopt ICT through broadband.

Tertiary education is becoming expensive and industrialized. The internet has created the open market demand and competition for learning, and will generate grass root changes to reincarnate the complete educational production system. Technology doesn’t drive the industrialization of higher education, but demand does. The miraculous phenomenon of interacting, sharing and working online creates similar expectations (demand) in education. These demands are overtly overwhelming, and cannot be fulfilled by assumptions and execution of conventional classroom learning facilities. Students alone make major share of 20% of the world’s population; educational budgets amount to almost 10% of the GBP in the Western world. The internet is regenerating and reformatting fundamental perceptions and perspectives of where education would be delivered, its time of delivery, and the bond between recipients and deliverers. It is truly said that the skills, qualifications, production expertise, creation methods, and financial strength of online delivery are expanding surprisingly leading to a projected $700 billion industry in less than four years. E-learning products and services are delivered anytime and anyplace; are learner specific and built according to the recipients’ preferences. Without the scaffolding support of academicians, it is impossible to metamorphose education. In the decentralized, peer-to-peer, collaborative, and distributed environment of the Internet, higher education comes with three major areas of strength: strength in community building; strength in alliance building; and strength in specialization. A number of corporations, organizations, academic institutes and government agencies are working on ways to design and deliver online education in the form of components that will be less expensive to produce and deliver, more easily modified and reused, and will allow custom, learner determined content.

It is a proven fact, that online interactive learning can be as meaningful, interesting and productive as four walls classroom teaching. The medium does not determine the outcome; rather, the quality of interaction depends on how the medium is used. Moreover, modern state-of-the-art technology allows instructors to tailor education to requirements, preferences and priorities of the individual learners in a way that might not have been possible till today in a conventional classroom.     

Bibliography

http://www.trainingshare.com/workshop.php. April 2012.

McKeown, Karen. “Can Online Learning Reproduce the Full College Experience?” [http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/03/can-online-learning-reproduce-the-full-college-experience ]. April 2012.

Bonk,Curtis. “Technology Enhanced Teaching: From Tinkering to Tottering to Totally Extreme Learning”.[http://www.trainingshare.com/pdfs/Curt_Bonk_Extreme_Learning_Philippines_Conference--Citation.pdf].  April 2012.

Flores, John. “Enabled by Broadband, Education Enters a New Frontier.” [http://www.usdla.org/assets/pdf_files/OnlineWhitePaper-V10312.pdf].  April 2012.

Henderson, Byron. “ The Components of Online Education: Higher Education on the internet.” [http://www.usaskstudies.coop/pdf-files/OnlineEd.pdf].  April 2012.

Research paper abstract

This article reports findings from an investigation of the English language arts (LA) assessment strategies used in Hong Kong secondary schools, and the extent to which these strategies reflect the principles of performance-based assessment. The summative and formative assessment tasks, together with their criteria, assessment checklist, holistic scoring guide, and student language arts work were examined to capture the reality of language arts assessment and identify what was expected and valued in student performance in language arts. Three case studies also allow a comparison and contrast of the use of performance-based assessment (PBA) in the teaching and learning of LA. It was found that the teacher participants recognised the need to conduct LA assessment in the classroom, but the degree of classroom attention paid to it varied as teachers had only a partial understanding of this new mode of assessment, which hindered the pace of change in assessment reform. There appears to be a gulf between the features of PBA as provided in the LA curriculum and the assessment practices currently espoused by many teachers of English language in Hong Kong. To enable teachers to develop the strategies that cater to students’ capabilities, professional development opportunities focusing on performance-based assessment need to be provided.

To read the full paper, please click here.

No one can deny the fact that the importance of English language is increasing day by day. It has become a world language. It is a window through which we can see the whole world. English is at all steps in day to day life. How can our students be ignorant of this fact, how can they afford to leg behind today’s demand. Keeping this view in mind, the present study shall try to formulate a few theories and methodology through which the students in the classroom can be taught and can be made responsive and communicative in English language learning. The teacher shall reach to the reasoning of the learners and he should make them think, feel and respond in English, Gujarati students are said to be good at listening or reading or writing but they are poor at speaking. They cannot easily bring forth their ideas in English. They can’t converse in English as easily as they talk in their vernacular language. The present study shall focus on the learner’s conversational and communicative ability.

2. Statement of the problem

The present research had studied under the following problem:

“Making the teaching of English communicative at the undergraduate level”

3.            Definition of terms

3.1     Communicative

The chief target of this research is that to make English communicative, the student can at least talk easy sentences to one another after their graduation. They can face the interviews in the world for employment.

3.2     Undergraduate

The research will be limited to only undergraduate English classrooms; the students who have compulsory paper of English in first year of B.A. only.

4.            Objectives of the study

4.1         To produce materials in accordance with the learners needs.

4.2         To try out the materials to enhance student’s ability of communication.

4.3         To bridge the gap between the language used in the class room and the language used in society.

4.4         To encourage and motivate the learners to create a liking for English language through several responsive activities.

5.            Hypotheses to be tested

5.1         There will be no significant difference between the mean of score on pretest of Experiment and Control Group.

5.2         There will be no significant difference between the mean of score on post test of Experiment and Control Group.

5.3         There will be no significant difference between the mean of pretest and post test of Experiment Group.

5.4         There will be no significant difference between the mean of pretest and post test of Control Group.

6. Significance of the study

The English language is entered more or less into everyone’s life. Today’s aspiring youth, at least, of Gujarat, is legging behind in the race of spoken English. The aim and significance of this study is in the direction to make the learners communicate in English easily. Having studie the problems of the learners, the produced material will be tested out whether it is useful for the learners in the long run.

7. Limitations of the study

The following are the boundaries of the study which help researcher to conduct the study. The present research study is limited to the following areas, variables, levels, materials and methods.

7.1 Limitation of area: M.B.Patel Rashtrabhasha Arts and Commerce College, Gujarat University.

7.2 Limitation of sample: First year students of B.A. who study English as a compulsory Subject.

8. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

8.1 Type of Research

8.2     Research Method

8.3     Research Tool

In the present study the investigator had used and constructed the following research tools:

• Draft questionnaire
• Final questionnaire
• Tasks for pilot study
• Final tasks
• Pre test
• Post test

9. SCHEME OF PRESENTATION

The present research work has been divided into six chapters and they are as follows.

Chapter I: In chapter I, the researcher puts the statement of the problem, operational definition of the terms, Delimitation, Research Questions, Objectives, Assumption and hypothesis, Research hypothesis, Null hypothesis, Research methodology, Tools and Significance of the study, Scheme of Presentation.

Chapter II: In the second chapter, the researcher has discussed and reviewed the related literature of communicative language teaching. The need and history of CIT has been briefly discussed as well as the position of CLT in twenty first century has also been reviewed. Material production related to CLT has also been the demand of the time. Therefore, the researcher has reviewed several techniques, principles, methods, syllabus design and approaches in order to produce appropriate material for today’s learners. The research has also reviewed the recent material available in the market briefly. The review of past researcher has also been mentioned and how the present study differs from the past researchers is also discussed.

Chapter III: In the third chapter, research planning and procedure has been discussed. The researcher has focused on variables, population of the study, selection of sample, research tools, research procedure and data analysis and interpretation.

Chapter IV: In the fourth chapter, the researcher analyse the data collected and interpreted accordingly. Students’ questionnaire has been interpreted, students feedback has been interpreted and analysed and lastly the teacher’s questionnaire has been analysed and interpreted.

Chapter V: In the fifth chapter, the researcher has put the major findings, conclusions and suggestions.

Chapter VI: In the sixth chapter, the researcher has discussed the over all conclusion of the present research work.     

10.     Collection of data

The investigator of the present study collected the relevant data for the research with the help of the above mentioned research tools. All the research tools were self-made by the investigator himself.

11.     Analysis of data

The investigator has adopted such statistical measures as were suitable to be analysed. There were fifty respondents from five colleges for the students questionnaire and twenty five respondents of the teacher’s questionnaire. There were some learner attributes that were studied in relation to the different methodology of teaching English at the 1^st year B.A. level. These were sex, age group, socio-economy factor and area. For comparison between the use of different methods and various learners attributes, the investigator has used ‘t’ value, which is appropriate for a large sample interpretation of available data. It was based on ‘t’ score, Mean, S.D. and ‘t’ value for each comparison.

12.     FINDINGS

12.1   It has been found that the syllabus prescribed by Gujarat University do not match to the needs of the learners. Teachers are also dissatisfied with the syllabus and its contents. It does not in any way improve the learner’s communicative skills. The teachers want that syllabus should emphasis more on communicative aspect of the language. Dialogues, comprehension, conversational passages are considered to be useful components of the communicative syllabus of English.

12.2   It has been found that the learners have less exposure to grammar rules, poor vocabulary, lack of confidence while speaking, no knowledge of proper pronunciation, light sentence structure are the main problems of the students pointed out by their teachers as well as by themselves.

12.3   It has been found that learners are mostly interested in form-filling exercises, writing job applications, doing comprehension exercises (more interested in picture comprehension exercise), dialogue-reading and speaking exercise, receiving and sending E-mails, receiving and sending SMSes. These are considered to be the important forms of communication. Students do not take interest in the traditional ways of teaching by the teachers.

12.4   It has been found that students become active when the class turns into learner-centered and then they participate in the classroom activities. Students take active participation in the following activities.

(1) Describe your experience (2) Describe your likes and dislikes (3) Describe your favourite book (4) Describe teacher, leader, hero, picnic spot etc. Besides all this social, cultural and political views, variety of professions, entertainment (films, serials), use of mobile phones, i-pod, i-pad, laptop, desktop with high-speed internet, moreovers views on street festivals, domestic ritual, issues related to women and youth are the preferred topics for communicative English in the class.

12.5   It has been found that in order to assimilate the communicative aspect of English, the teachers and the learners favoured the English that is related to the real-life situations where in the learners mostly needed the communicative English-form filling, giving instructions, making request, making compounds and apologies, expressing sympathies and offering help, describing objects/ places/ persons. Showing ways to giving directions to show the way. Making suggestions, asking for permission, inviting, greetings, giving good wishes to someone.

12.6   It has been observed by the researcher that the learners need English to serve their day to day needs, they want to fill the forms, they want to apply for different posts, they want to face interview successfully, they want to speak on the stage before the people. The learners want all this but their syllabus prescribed by the university do not train them like that.

12.7   It has been found that the analysis of teacher’s questionnaire reveals that the syllabus and it’s components presently used for first year B.A. students do not suit to the learners ability of being communicative in English. Hence, there is an urgent need to prepare need based materials for the learners.

12.8   In order to make the learners communicative in English, the teachers today are supposed to be familiar with the latest trends and recent methods of teaching English. It has been disclosed from the analysis of the teacher’s questionnaire that most of the teachers are not familiar with the modern methodologies of the ELT.

12.9   It has been found that the communicative activities, task based activities, pair work, group work, role play, picture description etc. generated a lot of interest among the students. The learners want their syllabus must contain the component like that.

12.10 The present study revel that the package of innovative materials has immensely helped the learners in enhancing their communicative competence. It has developed their communicative skills and made them confident while using English in the social interaction. It has also provided them enough opportunity to interact in English with other students.

13      IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY

13.1   The teacher should adopt the communicative approach for teaching English at first year B.A. level.

13.2   The teachers should adopt the communicative approach of teaching English language and they should see that the students develop the desired skill of speaking.

13.3   The teacher should discuss about the study materials and encourage the students to the original text contents.

13.4   The teacher should dictate English notes in the classroom only when necessary.

13.5   The teacher as far as possible should keep away structural approach and depend on other innovative material in the classroom to bring about diversity in the teaching methodology.

13.6   The teacher should give ample practice in reading and speaking while teaching English in the class room.

13.7   The teacher should give them extra practice in grammar (communicative use of grammar)

13.8   The teacher should take up to use some new innovative material specially useful to the students during the year.

13.9   The teacher should think about the way and means of solving student’s communicative problems in English.

13.10 The teacher can use the grammar-translation method while teaching in the class-room if at all necessary.

13.11 The teacher can use the oral reading comprehension method while teaching the English prose.

13.12 The teacher should use the group discussion workshop method for enhancing the reading and speaking skills.

13.13 The teacher can also use illustration method while teaching English grammar in use.

13.14 The teacher should use language laboratory in their college / institute for about two days in a week if available.

13.15 The teacher can speak both English and regional language in the class room if and when necessary.

13.16 The teacher should encourage the student to come with their English text-books in the classroom.

14.     SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aslam, Mohammad, (2009) Teaching of English, Cambridge University Press. India Pvt. Ltd.

Byram, Michael (2000) (Ed.) Rontledge Encyclopaedia of Language Teaching and Learning. Routledge.

Doff, Adrain (1996) Teach English A training Course for Teachers, Cambridge University Press.

Kaushik, Sharda (2009) A handbook of Teaching English Orient Blackswan Private Ltd.

Larsen, freeman Diane (2004) Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press.

Nagraj, Geetha (2008) English Language Teaching Orient Longman Private Ltd.

Nunan, David (1991) Language Teaching Methodology A Textbook for teachers. Prentice Hall,

Nunan, David (2004) Task Based Language Teaching Cambridge University Press.

Oxenden Clive et al (2004) New English File Elementary Student’s Book. Oxford University Press.

Ur, Penny (1988) Grammar Practice Activities Cambridge University Press.

Ur, Penny (2005) A Course in Language Teaching Practice and Theory, Cambridge University Press.

Viney, Peter and Karen Viney (2005) in English Pre Intermediate Student’s Book. Oxford University Press.

Windeatt, scott and et al (2000) The Internet Oxford University Press.

University of Toronto Physics professor Robert K. Logan on The Origin and Evolution of Language and the Emergence of Concepts