Languages: Struggles at a school

Learning Languages

Up at The Hindu

Thanks to colleagues at the school and to The Hindu. 

“What exactly are we struggling with when it comes to teaching languages — is it spellings, pronunciation or sentence construction?” I opened a discussion with colleagues who teach languages at our school. “All of the above” — they were unanimous in their response. A response which was followed with silence.

Aged between five and 15, the children at our school speak Bhojpuri at home, learn social science and science in Hindi and aspire to do well in English.

The silence was followed with smiles that conveyed the reluctant acceptance of a sub-optimal situation. During the discussion that followed, we focused on ourselves, how we fared, and what else we could do, rather than ruminate on assessments and evaluations of the children’s performance.

As we delved deeper, we wondered if as a school, we have a uniform approach to languages? In other words, are our practices and actions pulling the children in different directions, and, as a corollary, pushing them away from languages? Silences and smiles took a back seat, and as we put on our thinking hats, further questions emerged.

One “school of thought”, for example, believes that it is the expression of ideas that is crucial. A child need not worry about the spellings or the sentence construction — she can also use the local language and dialects to convey what is in her heart or mind. However, what happens if one teacher is in sync with this “school of thought”, but another is conventional and lays stress on “correct” spellings and sentences? What if a word, as spelt by the child, connotes a separate, distinct meaning? Is there then a point, or an age, at which the teachers tell the child that she now needs to write “differently”, read “correctly”? What happens when the child goes for coaching or tuitions or to another school where the approach is significantly different? And, do teachers also have this space and freedom to express their ideas or they are to write only in a particular fashion?

Similar is the question for terms of one language used in another. Today, English terms have made inroads into the Hindi lexicon and vice-versa — many of these are an integral part of spoken language and some of them have also made inroads into the dictionaries. Instead of kitaab, for example, we write “book” in Hindi as well. How do we determine what is the correct way to write “book” in Hindi? What then will be its plural form? “Booksein” or Kitaabs or just ‘books’? Or, will it be bookwa if one is at Varanasi, bookan if at Hyderabad and so on? Is there a “correct” way to write a word of one language in another language? When is it okay to use terms of another language and which terms are acceptable?

Languages have evolved. The “written” language today, from poetry to textbooks, is more in sync with how it is spoken. Some years back the “spoken” and “written” languages were very dissimilar; the latter was dense and formal. Hindi, for example, was majorly influenced by Sanskrit. What if one teacher believes that the children should learn the language of the day and the other that what has been written by the previous generations is the proverbial Bible. Similarly, the fonts too, including in English, over the years have changed enough for those not engaging with books to get confused over a few letters.

How will schools, in a society like ours, deal with these, and similar, questions? A society where increasingly fewer and fewer people, including teachers and parents, read or write; more and more people borrow words from other languages when they talk; lines are getting blurred when it comes to languages — those between first and second language as also those between languages and dialects.

Is there a way out other than by engaging in sustained conversations, within schools and beyond, and continued jostling with languages?

There are no easy answers. The struggle, as always, is with the basics.

Previous posts on languages at schools 

Walking together @ The Hindu

Learning languages @ Deccan Herald

Words matter @ Teacher plus