Learning Languages at Elementary Level: Course-503

DIPLOMA IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
(D.El.Ed.)
Course-503
Learning Languages at Elementary Level
Block -1
Understanding Language
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OPEN SCHOOLING

A - 24/25, Institutional Area, Sector – 62,NOIDA
Gautam Buddha Nagar, UP – 201309
Website: www.nios.ac.in
Block 1
Understanding Language
Block Units
Unit 1 : What is Language?
Unit 2 : Indian Languages
Unit 3 : Language Learning and Teaching
BLOCK INTRODUCTION
This course has been developed to enable you to know about various aspects of language. We
hope that after completing this course your sensitivity to language will increase and you will
become more sensitive learners and teach the language classes in a more pleasant and efficient
way. The unit-1 is about the nature of language, language usage and the psycho-social aspects
of language. In the unit-2 we will give you an idea about the multilingual character of India and
we will discuss how a country with thousands of languages is still one linguistic area. In this
unit we will discuss constitutional status of languages spoken in India. The unit-3 is about
language learning and language teaching methods. Children are born with an infinite capacity
to learn language and by the time they are 3-4 years old, they start using the language
effectively. In a very short time they begin to understand and produce new sentences giving us
evidence that they have internalised the structure of language. It is really surprising to notice
how children pick up such complicated grammatical structures in such young age. Are they born
with a universal grammar imbibed in their brain? We will discuss this in detail. We will discuss
what role grammar teaching has on language teaching. We will look at the advantages and
disadvantages of various language teaching methods such as Grammar Translation Method,
Direct Method, Audio-lingual method, Communicative Approach etc. Unit four talks about
techniques of audio-lingual method in some details.
CONTENTS
Sr. No. Unit Name Page No.
1. Unit 1: What is Language? 1
2. Unit 2: Indian Languages 17
3. Unit 3: Language Learning and Teaching 35

What is Language?
UNIT 1 WHAT IS LANGUAGE?

Notes
STRUCTURE
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Learning Objectives
1.2 Scope
1.3 Language and Grammar
1.3.1 Sound System of Language
1.3.2 Word Formation
1.3.3 Sentence Formation
1.3.4 Discourse Structure
1.4 Standard Language
1.5 The Psychological Aspect of Language
1.6 The Social Aspect of Language
1.7 Language and Literature
1.8 Language Proficiency
1.9 Let Us Sum Up
1.10 Suggested Readings and References
1.11 Unit-End Exercises
1.0 INTRODUCTION
In this unit, we will explain what language is? What is the definition and scope
of language? What is the role of grammar in language? How do we acquire
sound system, word formation, sentence formation and information sharing in a
language? We will discuss psychological and social aspects of language. We will
discuss in very short, what is the importance of language proficiency and how
various language evaluation and assessment techniques work. We will also discuss
about language and its relation to literature.
1.1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

This unit is largely about nature and structure of language. After you have read
this unit, you should be able to respond to the following issues:
Block 1 : Understanding Language 1
What is Language?
• language as a concept
Notes • relationship of language and society
• innate language faculty of human beings
• the nature and structure of language
• how language is used
• language learning assessment tools
• concept of language proficiency
• difference between informal and formal communication
1.2 IMPORTANCE AND SCOPE OF LANGUAGE

There are two ways of looking at language. Ordinary people recognise language
only as a means of communication. Linguists generally look at language as a
pairing of a grammar and a dictionary. These two ways of looking at language
restrict the versatility of language and its usage. These perspectives conclude
that speakers of a given language come later than dictionaries and grammars that
exist in a given language. However, unlike ordinary people or linguists for that
matter, it is important that you know there is no language without speakers.
Dictionaries and grammars cannot be made unless there are speakers of a language
who would participate with linguists or people to prepare dictionaries and
grammars. Speech community is the only vital part of language and its usage.
Speech community is formed by people who speak a given language and give
the given language a shape or standard. There is no doubt that language developed
as humans developed in a certain process through various phases. Had there
been no society or speech community, the dictionaries and grammars would have
had no value. Therefore, to be able to define language, we will have to understand
various aspects of language including evolution of language.
First of all, language is associated with the identity of an individual. When a
person says that he speaks Gondi, he not only says which language he speaks, he
also tells a lot about the society he belongs to and the social customs and norms
of that society. He indicates what class of people he lives with and is exposed to
and where would he return after it gets dark. Secondly, speaker of a language
takes into account all these factors that are a fact of his life. Who is to be respected,
who is to be loved, who is too hated and who is small etc get their due identity
from the language heard to be spoken by them. Language really has got a special
relationship with society. Language is a medium that maintains and moderates
class hierarchy too.
The psychological aspect of language is also a very important aspect of language.
It is surprising to note that children from all over the world, no matter whichever
social class or geographical location they belong to, develop an adult like
2 Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed)
What is Language?
command over the language they speak. By the time she is four year old, the
child develops a language of her own that matches the correctness principles of
the appropriate words and grammar of a given language. We don’t find it difficult Notes
to tell new stories to a four year old everyday and hear the same from her.
There is another important of aspect of language. Language is a medium that
nullifies distance. A friend who lives thousands of miles away from you can get
upset with over phone and that anger can get pacified if you call up again and
pacify his anger. How does it happen? Only by the use of appropriate language.
It is also very common that children learn the languages spoken by their
neighbours, friends, family and the environment. The capacity to learn a language
is not restricted to the fact that we can learn only one language. Everyone has the
capacity to acquire various aspects of language use at various levels and learn
multiple languages. In fact, multilingualism is constitutive of being human.
Structural aspect of language is important to explore too. We will discuss this
aspect in the next unit. The overall concept of language is that every language
depends on a certain set of principles at the levels of sounds, words, grammar
and usage. We simply cannot use sounds of a language in any order we like;
there are very strict rules that define that order; nor can we use a grammatical
structure that is not permissible by the set of principles that govern a language.
Nor can we arrange the sentences of a language in any random order so that they
would constitute a legitimate dialogue.
You must also know that the nature and use of language is such that it always
remains in the process of change. But the process of change is so gradual that
even parents think that they speak the same language that their children speak.
But it is true that the language of grand children is often different from the language
of grandparents.
Check Your Progress-1

1. What is most the important for linguists?
(a) words and sentences (b) sound system and sentence
(c) dictionary and grammar (d) sound system and grammar
2. How does environment help children to learn a language?
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3. Language is identity of an individual. How? Explain.
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What is Language?
1.3 LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR

Notes People often see different kind of differences in correct and incorrect speech.
Usually when you speak in your language you can never make a mistake; even if
once in a while you do make a mistake, you know how to correct it immediately.
Incorrect speech is always related to the acquisition of other languages. This
may also happen when we start regarding a specific variety of a language as
standard. In such cases, children born into families speaking the non-standard
variety often become a target of ridicule for no fault of their own. (We will
elaborate this point later.)
Each language, whether you call it a language or dialect, has a grammar of its
own. That language has its own sound system, grammar rules and all levels of
language formation straight. We can understand this point with examples taken
for each level.
1.3.1 STRUCTURE OF SOUND SYSTEM

Every language has its own sound system. But the sound system is such that it is
finite and every language has sounds that are found in the finite system of sound
structures of the world. For example, every language has vowels and consonants.
They may be more or less in number. There are very few languages in the language
that can have less than three vowels; rather there are some languages that have
20 vowel sounds. Consonants vary from 8-10 to 40-50. The difference between
Hindi and English is the following:
Vowels Consonants Total
English 20 24 44
Hindi 10 33 43
These sounds are not listed in the alphabetical system of the language. These are
corresponding sounds of English and Hindi. That means, these have specific
significance in the language and these are the minimum meaningless sounds of a
language that can change the meaning of the words in a language. For example,
English- kil ‘kill’
pil ‘pill’
Hindi- kal ‘tomorrow’
pal ‘moment’
These examples show that /p/ and /k/ are significant sounds in these two languages.
But can we treat all the 43/44 sounds of either Hindi or English alike? Would
these two languages have these sounds in the same sequence like the other, as the
native speaker or the learner of the given language learns the alphabet system of

What is Language?
that language in certain sequence by the age of 4 or 5? Let us imagine a situation

where we would like to put the alphabet /p/ in the consonant clusters in Hindi.
Do you think, in such a situation, any other consonant of Hindi can cluster with Notes
the /p/ sound of Hindi? Look at the following examples:
*pkav *pkhil *pgel *pchav *pchil *pchel
*ptav *ptil *pthel *ptav *ptil *pthel
Are these possible words in Hindi? If no, then what is the rule in Hindi?
Look at rules in Hindi.
Rule – 1: If a word starts with a consonant cluster and the first consonant is /p/
then the consonants that can cluster with /p/ are /y/, /r/, /l/, and /v/ only and none
else.
Following this phonological rule, you can make any word or find a word that has
such a cluster in the dictionary.
Let’s look at another phonological rule. Let’s try to understand how many
consonantal sounds (not letters) can appear together before a vowel sound appears.
You would notice that no Indian language including English allows to have four
consonantal sounds at the beginning of a word. See that in English in a word
such as ‘Psychology’ (where you see 5 consonant letters at the beginning), there
is actually ONLY one consonantal sound i.e. ‘s’. The word ‘psychology’ is actually
pronounced as /saikoloji/. However, the English word ‘stress’ has three
consonantal sounds such as, /s/, /t/ and /r/ at the beginning of a word. It is the
same in the word ‘street’. Let us look at some such clusters in Hindi and English.
Hindi - ‘smriti’ memory
‘skru’ screw
English- spray, street, scratch, splash, squash etc
Don’t Hindi or English have any word that can start with a consonant cluster of
4 or more sounds? Recall if the languages you know have such a cluster. Now let
us make the second rule for Hindi sound system.
Rule 2:
(a) Not more than 4 consonantal sounds can precede a vowel in the word initial
position
(b) If 3 consonant sounds occur in a cluster then we have to arrange them in a
row. Let’s refer to consonantal sounds as C1, C2 and C3.
C1 can only be /s/ sound
C2 can only be /p/, /t/ and /k/

What is Language?
C3 can only be /y/, /r/, /l/ and / v/ sounds
Notes It should be clear to you how well organised and systematic is the rule
system of a language at the level of sounds.
1.3.2 WORD FORMATION

Language is systematically organised at the level of words also. There are fixed
rules about how a singular would be converted into plural or a noun to adjective.
Rules are so systematic that they clearly differentiate consonant ending words
from vowel ending words and also words ending with different vowel sounds.
In Hindi, ‘/ghar/ meaning house’ and ‘/laRkaa/ meaning boy’ are masculine words.
They are singular too. What would be the plural of these two words? Of course
we do know about it, but we need to know how to put them into systematic rules
that all the children who learn Hindi know about and discuss it in detail. Now
you tell me whether “/laRke/ boys” is singular or plural. Let us look at some
sentences:
1. laRke fuTbol khel rahe haiN
2. laRke ne khaanaa khaayaa
3. mohan ke paas kai ghar haiN
4. yah ghar bahut sundar hai
Sentence 1 and 3 make it clear that ‘laRke’ and ‘ghar’ are plural because in both
the cases the plural marker ‘haiN’ has been used in the verb. But notice that in
sentences 2 and 4, the same word ‘laRke’ is singular in number.
Let us now investigate this rule in detail because English and many other languages
of the world have only one word for the corresponding word in plural. Therefore,
let us assume that even Hindi would definitely have one plural number for its
words. But this is somehow not the rule in Hindi. Sanskrit not only has singular,
dual and plural, but it also has 15/16 different forms. In Hindi, there are 2 or 3
and even multiple plural markers for each noun, and all are rule bound. In most
of the cases, there is only one number system, either in singular or in plural, for
one word. Consider the following table and see how such a system gets
exemplified in words such ‘laRkaa’ and ‘ghar’.
ghar ‘house’
Function Singular Plural
kartaa kaarak/ Nominative ghar ghar
bibhakti puurv/ Elsewhere ghar gharoN
sambodhan/ Vocative ghar! gharo!

What is Language?
laRkaa ‘boy’
Function Singular Plural
Notes
karta/ Nominative case laRkaa laRke
bibhakti purba/ Elsewhere laRke laRkoN
sambodhan/Vocative laRke! laRko!
In Hindi, every noun can have six forms in principle if we consider form and
function together. Many forms may look the same but have different functions
in different contexts. So, /laRke/ ‘boys’ can be both singular and plural. This is
the reason why the word ‘laRke’ is plural in the nominative subject position,
singular before ‘ne’ etc. and in the vocative case. If you look at the forms, you
will notice that the word ‘ghar’ for example has three forms such as – ‘ghar’,
‘gharoN’, and ‘gharo’. The word ‘laRkaa’ too has four forms such as – ‘laRkaa’,
‘laRke’, laRkoN’ and ‘laRko’. But at the level of usage they have six forms or
case based positions. In those six case positions the word ‘laRkaa’ looks like the
following:
5. laRkaa khel rahaa hai
6. laRke khel rahe haiN
7. laRke ne khaanaa khaaya
8. laRkon ne khaanaa khaayaa
9. O laRke, idhar aa
10. O laRko , idhar aao !
In sentence 5, ‘laRkaa’ is singular, in sentence 6 ‘laRke’ is plural and they act as
subjects of the sentence. But in sentence 7, ‘laRke’ is singular because it is
followed by the postposition ‘ne’. In sentence 8 ‘laRkoN’ is plural; it is in fact
the plural of sentence 7. In sentence 9 ‘laRke’ is singular in vocative and in
sentence 10 the ‘laRko’ is plural in vocative.
Let us take another example from the world of word formation rules. There are
several rules in Hindi and English that converts a noun into an adjective. For
example, ‘rain’, ‘fun’, ‘sun’, ‘fish’, ‘cloud’ etc. These nouns can be converted to
adjectives by adding ‘y’ in English. So the adjectives of those words are- ‘funny’,
‘sunny’, ‘fishy’, ‘cloudy’ etc. Hindi has a group of nominal words that change
their grammatical category and become adjective by addition of ‘i’ vowel sound.
For example, ‘sarkar’, ‘baazaar’, ‘baigan’, ‘apraadh’ etc become ‘sarkarii’,
‘baazaarii’, ‘baiganii’, ‘apraadhii’ etc.
1.3.3 SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION

Compare sentence 5 to 10 with the following sentences:
11. laRkii khel rahii thii

What is Language?
12. laRkiyaaN khel rahiiN thiiN
Notes 13. laRki ne khaanaa khaayaa

14. laRkiyoN ne khaanaaa khaayaa
15. laRke ne laRkii ko maaraa
16. laRkii ne laRke ko maaraa
17. laRke ne roTii khaayii
18. laRkii ne roTii khaayii
A careful look at sentences 5 to 18 suggests that language is highly rule-governed
at the level of sentences as well. You cannot arrange words in any random order
to form a sentence. In fact, as compared to the level of words, language is more
tightly organised at the level of sentences. Sentences 5,6,9,10,11 and 12 make it
clear that the relationship between subject and verb is very significant in Hindi.
It’s important to note that the verb agrees with the subject as per the gender,
person and number of the subject noun. The following sentences make it clearer:
• raam khaanaa khaataa hai

• siitaa khaanaa khaatii hai
• tuu khaanaa khaataa hai
• tum khaanaa khaate ho
• tum khaanaa khaati ho
• aap khaanaa khaate haiN
• aap khaanaa khaatii haiN
• maiN khaanaa khaata huuN
• maiN khaanaa khaatii huuN
• ham khaanaa khaate haiN
• ham khaanaa khaatii haiN
These sentences can give you a glimpse of the complex relationship that exists
between subject and verb in Hindi.
Let us return to sentence 5 to 18. Let us see whether we see the same similarity
between subject and verb in the case of sentences 7,8,13,14,15,16,17 and 18
compared to sentence 5,6,9,10,11and 12. In sentence 7 and 8 the verb changes as
per the object and not as per the subject. The same is the case with 17 and 18. In
7 and 8, object is masculine and the verb is also masculine in form. In 17 and 18,
object is feminine and the verb is also feminine. It doesn’t matter whether the

What is Language?
verb is masculine or feminine. The rule is- if the subject takes a case such as an
ergative case then the verb agrees with the object. In 13 and 14 the object is
feminine. Let us see what happens in case of sentence 15 and 16 and see how the Notes
verb is governed there. In these two sentences subject and object both are followed
by postpositions such as ‘ne’ and ‘ko’. In such cases, the verb is always in the
neutral past i.e. what we would use with the third person like ‘he’ in the simple
past as in ‘vah bhaagaa’.
1.3.4 DISCOURSE STRUCTURE

The way sound system, word formation and sentence structure are totally rule
bound, in the same way, the social communication is rule bound and we cannot
cross the norms of communicative rules. For example, there is a basic rule that
you should never speak in between a conversation as a third person. Sometimes,
we make blunders in communication because we do not simply listen to the
other person carefully. Sometime, the listener gets very upset in the middle of a
talk and by the time the talk ends, he gets to know that what he thought he was
hearing was not what was being talked about. Language is crucially related to
understanding it in the right dimension. For example, words in Hindi like ‘isliye,
usne, par, aur, kyonki etc’ are so important that you cannot really understand the
meaning of the communication unless you give importance to these words. For
example, if a man says, “mujhe isliye der ho gayii kyonki raste main trafik bahut
thaa” meaning “ I got delayed because there was heavy traffic on the road.” If we
will remove the words ‘isliye’ meaning ‘which is why or because’ then the sentence
becomes meaningless. At the level of effective understanding, a sentence becomes
meaningful when effective words are used in an effective sequence. When the
order of those words will be scrambled the meaning of the sentence will also
change.

1. How many forms a noun can have in Hindi?
(i) Five (ii) Three
(iii) Two (iv) Six
2. If a word will start with three consonants then,
- The first consonant can only be /s/
- The second consonants can only be /p/, /t/ , or /k/
- The third consonants can only be /y/, /r/ , /l/ or /v/
Give examples to support your answers
3. raam khaanaa khaataa hai
siitaa khaanaa khaati hai

What is Language?
Explain the relationship between subject and verb taking these two
Notes sentences as example sentences.
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1.4 STANDARD LANGUAGE

Language standardization follows certain steps. As a first step, the language that
is called standard language is the language that had been chosen to be called the
standard language from the many other existing languages of that linguistic area
or society. This language has certain status in that society. In the Brahmanic
society, Sanskrit used to be the standard language. When the Arabs ruled, Arabic
became the standard language and if the Iranians will rule, Persian will be the
standard language. When British rule came, English became the standard language
ignoring all the hundreds of languages that existed in India at that time. Now
Hindi and English both are official language or standard language. Now when
we speak about English, that English is standard that is found in Oxford dictionary
or spoken in and around Oxford or Cambridge. When we speak about Hindi,
Khadi boli would be talked about and Braj variety or Avadhi variety will only be
considered dialects of Hindi. In the third step, the chosen variety will have a
grammar written on its rules and various kinds of dictionaries will be made.
There would be many discussions and structural and analytical books written on
that variety of language too which is called Standard language. That standard
language becomes the language of media, administration, judiciary and formal
education. This variety gets taught in text books and it spreads this way. That’s
Hindi in this context. The fourth or last stage of standardization is that the language
gets the opportunity to be developed in every other way such as cinema, literature,
music and so on and so forth.
Standardization process is very highly related to the process of social exploitation.
The language that gets chosen as the standard language of the many other
languages spoken in that area is the language that has political power, corporate
power and other necessary powers.

1. The standardized language often belongs to a social class which possesses
————
2. How is the process of standardization related to social exploitation?

What is Language?
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Notes
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3. Language by character keeps changing. So how far is it viable to standardize
a language? Give your reasons on this account.
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1.5 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF

LANGUAGE
It is definite that language is very deeply seated in human brain/mind. It’s been
noticed that when a certain part of head is hit, the language imbalance results.
Sometimes, the affected person loses the ability to understand whereas other
time he loses the ability to speak. Sometimes the word formation gets distorted
and sometimes the sentence construction.
The second point to note is, probably every child is born with a universal grammar.
Language is pictured in that mind the we talk, walk, sit , sleep etc. Every child
knows in his mind that every language has nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs,
punctuations, subject, object etc. By this capacity, a child learns the languages
spoken in his community by the time he is three or four. We have discussed in
1.4 that the language formation is done at a rule bound manner in every stage. If
would have not conceived the notion of universal grammar then we could not
have found it so easy to explain how come a child of the age 3 / 4 acquires his
language so scientifically and correctly so untutored. You have noticed that no
one makes any basic grammatical mistake or word level mistakes in his language
and if by chance he does, then he immediately corrects them. Kids of that age
will always pronounce ‘scooter’ as ‘kooter’ and ‘garm’ as ‘garam’. Even at the
level of sentence construction, children find it difficult to acquire complex
grammar so easily and they use words that they can easily speak and not complex
or difficult words. So a Hindi speaking kid would say,’ kul jana’ in stead of
saying the full sentence , ‘ aaj mujhe school jana hai.’.
In short, children are born with a universal grammar, they have a psychological
readiness about language acquisition and this readiness gets completed with the
environmental exposure, which are all natural and untutored. And the journey of
language acquisition continues with a tutored set up as he goes to school.

What is Language?
Check your Progess-4

Notes
1. (a) Children have the —————— ability about language acquisition.
(b) Every child is born with a ——————— ability of language
acquisition.
2. What kind of language disorder can emerge if a part of brain gets damaged?
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3. Children are born with the ability to speak. But does that mean that if we
would leave a child in a forest, he would still be able to speak? If not, then
what else is important for language learning apart from the inborn quality
of language learning.
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4. What is the difference between tutored language learning and natural
language acquisition?
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1.6 THE SOCIAL ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE

We have talked about language and society before. When children learn language
they not only learn the language in its correct form, they also learn the way a
given language is used in the society. Children learn it very quickly how to behave
themselves linguistically vis a vis people, places and occasion. This is how they
learn the various structures and various styles of language usage.
In spite of having a universal grammar, the child learns that language that he
hears from his environment. Actually, our choice of words, our selection of
sentences are always dependent on the factors such as, the context, the person
who speak to, the place where we speak and the theme. You don’t speak to your
father about your school work the same way as you speak to your mom about
your food etc. You cannot use the same language with your teachers the language
you use with your friends.

What is Language?
Social differences and stratifications are prominently observed the way we use
language. Sometimes the people of different castes use different styles of the
same language. Language changes in every 15 to 20 kilometres. It is often Notes
dependent on the way sentences are constructed and words are formed and even
the way how words are pronounced. The moment you open your mouth you
disclose your identity. Where you come from, what kind of family you belong to
and what sort of people form your friend circle gets know the moment you say
even a small word such as ‘hello’.
In Delhi, some people say ‘majja’ and others say ‘mazza’; some say ‘zafar’ and
some say ‘jafar’. The way of talking can tell whether the speaker is educated or
uneducated, poor or rich or old Delhi or new Delhi and the like. Whether you are
calling your school ‘skul’ or ‘sakul’ that too makes a lot of difference. This way
linguistic identity is directly related to social identity.
In the next unit we will discuss the multilingual character of India. The same
person speaks the same language in various ways or various languages in different
social and professional circles. It’s very common feature of Indian society that a
college going girl speaks Marwari at home, Hindi with her friends and English at
college. And it is also possible that she prays in Sanskrit at home and temple.
This type of linguistic behaviour is generally noticed in multilingual nations. In
all multilingual nations people decide which language to use and how to use that
language based on the place where they are communicating. For example, in
America the English that is spoken in roadside areas is different from the English
that is spoken in academic fields and universities.

1. In which of the following areas does language change in every 15 to 20
kilometres
(a) At the level of sentence structure
(b) At the level of word formation
(c) At the level of sound structure
(d) At the level of communicative styles
1.7 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Language is perfect in all its styles. Understanding someone else’s speech by
hearing it, understanding one’s own speech having said it and even reading
something. But the style of language that comes to us through literature is really
fascinating. It’s always a challenge for a linguist to be able to analyse a specific
style of language used in a poem, story, drama or novels etc. Effective analysis

What is Language?
of language at the level of sound, word formation, sentence structure as it is used

stylistically in literature in its various forms can help us to know how is the
Notes language of ordinary usage different from the language of literature. Try and
transform the following into simple prose:
‘karat karat abhyaas ke jaDmati hot sujaan’
You will notice that the arrangement of words is crucially different.
Crucially significant differences between language of ordinary usage and language
of literature can be found in the areas of simile, appreciation, synonyms, parody
etc also.

1. Take a poem you like. Render it into simple prose. What kind of differences
do you notice?
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2. What is the difference between metaphor and simile?
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3. In Hindi you can say ‘ghar-ghar’ and also ‘ghar-var’, something you
can’t do in English. What’s the difference between ‘ghar-ghar’ and ‘ghar-
var’ like expressions?
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
1.8 LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

When can we say that a person is fully proficient in her language? There are two
aspects to this question. One, as we have already shown a 4 year old child is fully
proficient in her language in that she knows the basic grammar and vocabulary
and all the rules to put sounds into words and words into sentences. On the other

What is Language?
hand, you never become fully proficient in any language because there is always
more to learn, new words, new expressions etc. In this context, it is important to
understand the nature of the context in which a given language is being learnt. Notes
Broadly speaking, there can be two contexts: informal or formal. The informal
context is he natural context of the family, friends and the neighbourhood in
which all children normally learn their languages. In these contexts there is rarely
any formal intervention by the parents and relatives. Parents generally treat the
‘errors’ of their children with a sense of joy and affection. The strange thing is
that children still learn language in all its richness and complexity. In the formal
context, we obtain all kinds of support systems including schools, teachers,
materials, new methods of teaching, radio, TV, CD player and a language lab.
The striking thing is that in spite of all this children still fail to learn language.
This of course is true if children are exposed to several languages at a young age
in a natural environment, they easily learn all those without any support systems.
We will return to these issues in greater detail in Unit 3.
So far the issue of measuring language proficiency is concerned; we have all
been for a long time obsessed with measuring separately LSRW skills. We are
fully aware that language proficiency can only be captured in their working as a
whole rather than as discrete skills. For example, if you call a doctor with some
problem and need some medical advice urgently, you speak and explain your
problem, you understand his response and then you write down the names of the
medicines counterchecking with him the names reading them again. So all the
skills and language processing with comprehension are often used simultaneously.
We talk about this in greater detail in Unit 10.
Here we conclude that all children are competent in their OWN languages before
they come to school and it is of utmost importance that teachers and education
system as a whole recognise this enormous potential of children.

1. What is missing in the formal environment of school:
(a) teachers (b) books (c) language lab (d) caring home environment
2. How does a child acquire proficiency in her home languages?
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
3. How should we measure language proficiency?
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................

What is Language?
1.9 LET US SUM UP

Notes
• Language is not just a pairing of a grammar and a dictionary or simply a
means of communication. It is much more.
• Language is constitutive of being human. It is a marker of a speaker’s identity.
• Language defines the relationship among the members of a society and
encodes the social hierarchies.
• A normal child in any society in any part of the world becomes a linguistic
adult by the age of 4. She acquires the basic vocabulary and structure of her
languages and uses them accurately.
• Every language has a grammar of its own and is rule-governed at the levels
of sounds, words, sentences and dialogue.
• Language is constantly changing; the language of grandparents is different
from the language of grandchildren.
• Every language has its own grammatical structure but languages will have
vowels and consonants and nouns, verbs and adjectives. Sounds cannot be
put together at random; there are rules that define their combinations.
Similarly words cannot be put together at random.
• The processes of language standardisation are closely associated with
processes of exploitation; those that have the power make all the decisions.
• All children are born with and an innate endowment for language acquisition
consisting of a Universal Grammar. They learn languages around them
without any formal instruction. They only need a caring environment and
some language input.
• A child not only acquires linguistic competence but also communicative
competence to be able to use language appropriately in different contexts.
• Language of literature differs from the language of day today conversation.
• Assessment should be holistic rather than discrete in terms of just LSRW.
1.10 SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES

Agnihotri, R. K. (2007). Hindi: An Essential Grammar. London: Routledge.
Aitchison, J. (1979). The Articulate Mammal: An Introduction to
Psycholinguistics. London: Hutchinson & Co.
Aitchison, J. (2003). Teach Yourself Linguistics. London: Hodder & Stoughton
Ltd.

What is Language?
Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct. London: Allen Lane.

Srivastava, R.N. (1983). Bhashaashaashtra ke suutradhaar. Delhi: National
Publishing House. Notes
Vandyopadhyay, P. and Agnihotri, R.K. (2000). Bhaashaa: bahubhaashitaa aur

hindii. Delhi: Shilalekh.
Yule, G. (2006). The Sudy of Langauge. Delhi: Cambridge University Press.
1.11 UNIT-END EXERCISES

1. Do language and society influence each other? Illustrate your answer.
2. What do you understand by multilinguality? Are you a bi-/multilingual?
3. Show how language is rule governed at the levels sounds, words and
sentences.
4. In Hindi, if you add ‘ii’ to some nouns, they become adjectives such as:
sarkaar-sarkaarii; apraadh-apraadhii etc. Identify some other way ways of
making adjectives from nouns.
5. Elaborate the stages in the process of language standardisation.
6. How does language change in terms of person, place and topic? Illustrate
with suitable examples.
7. What are some of the differences between the language of literature and
day today language?
8. What role does environment play in language acquisition?
ACTIVITY
• Children often face difficulties in school because the language of education
s different from the languages of home. Observe some classes and make a
list of such problems.
• Do you think children who are taught through the languages off their
neighbourhood face similar problems? Make observations in a suitable
school.
• Record some of your conversations with a four year old child. Show how
she knows the grammar of her language.

Indian Languages
UNIT 2 INDIAN LANGUAGES

Notes
STRUCTURE
2.0 Introduction
2.2 Linguistic Diversity in India
2.2.1 A picture of India’s linguistic diversity
2.2.2 Language Families of India and India as a Linguistic Area
2.3 What does the Indian Constitution say about Languages?
2.4 Categories of Languages in India
2.4.1 Scheduled Languages
2.4.2 Regional Languages and Mother Tongues
2.4.3 Classical Languages
2.4.4 Is there a Difference between Language and Dialect?
2.5 Status of Hindi in India
2.6 Status of English in India
2.7 The Language Education Policy in India
Provisions of Various Committees and Commissions
Three Language Formula
National Curriculum Framework-2005
2.8 Let Us Sum Up
2.0 INTRODUCTION
You must have heard this song:
agrezi mein kehte hein- I love you
gujrati mein bole- tane prem karu chhuun

Indian Languages
bangali mein kehte he- amii tumaake bhaalo baastiu
aur punjabi me kehte he- tere bin mar jaavaan, me tenuu pyar karna, tere jaiyo naiyo Notes
labnaa
Songs of this kind is only one manifestation of the diversity and fluidity of languages in
India. We are sure you can think of many more instances where you notice a multiplicity
of languages being used at the same place at the same time. Imagine a wedding in Delhi
in a Telugu family where Hindi, Urdu, Dakkhini, Telugu, English and Sanskrit may all
be used in the same event.
How many languages, do you think are spoken in India? At least 15-20 names must
have come to your mind. However, this is a very small number. The list is very long and
also contains within it many smaller lists. In fact, it is believed that of about 5000
languages spoken in the world, about one-third are spoken in India. Thus, about 1600
languages are spoken in India. We will learn more about our multilingual heritage in
this unit.
Till about the 20th century linguistic diversity was considered to be a problem and
various efforts were made to deal with this problem. However, for the past few years
this linguistic diversity is being considered a heritage and efforts are being made to use
this heritage for the development of society and language itself. We will also discuss
this issue in greater detail. Along with this we will also talk about the language education
policy of India and about the various constitutional provisions about language.
India is a multilingual country. However, two languages - Hindi and English occupy a
prominent position in this region. Thus, it is important to understand the position of
these languages from a historical and current perspective.

After reading this unit, you will be able to:
• Understand the linguistic diversity and richness in India.
• Be able to analyse India’s linguistic diversity
• Look at India as a linguistic area.
• Familiarize with various categories of languages like - scheduled languages, mother

tongues, classical languages, dialects etc.
• Understand the stands taken by various educational policies on language.
• Understand English and Hindi’s historical and present status.

Indian Languages
2.2 LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY

Notes
2.2.1 A PICTURE OF INDIA’S LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY
You must have heard the phrase ‘unity in diversity’ many a times. This sentiment is
very true for India. We see various types of diversity in India, for example those in
eating habits, dresses and costumes, religion, customs etc. Such types of diversity are
also commonly seen in many parts of the world. However, the linguistic diversity as
seen in India is not seen anywhere else in the world.
More than 1600 languages are spoken in India and these languages belong to four
different language families. India is called a multilingual country because of this linguistic
diversity. In fact, multilinguality is an integral part of the Indian temperament. We get a
composite picture of India’s multilinguality from the 1961 Language Census of India.
1652 mother tongues were identified during this census and they were in turn classified
into 193 languages. Multilinguality in India also has many dimensions. One dimension
of this multilinguality is that the 8th schedule of our constitution names 22 languages;
these are indeed some of the major languages of India. At the time of our independence
this schedule contained 14 languages only; going from 14 to 22 is an evidence of our
multilinguality and of the importance people attach to their languages. Another evidence
of our multilinguality is that our newspapers, movies, books, TV, radio, schools, offices,
courts etc, function using various languages. Similarly, there are many other dimensions
of Indian multilinguality.
Monolingualism is a kind of artifact some people believe in and regard multilingualism

as a problem and a marker of being backward. However, multilinguality is not a problem
in India, both at an individual and a societal level. In fact, it is a resource for us and an
expression of our cultural richness. Multilinguality is also a resource because people
who know more than one language are not just proficient users of the languages but
their views on society are also more sensitive and tolerant. “Multilinguality has very
close relationship with language proficiency, scholastic achievement, cognitive flexibility
and social tolerance.” (Agnihotri, 2007, p. 4)
Multilinguality is not a problem but a source of strength for India. “It is natural for the
Indian person and community to accept many languages and also allow for a free give
and take policy with various national and international languages. It would not be
surprising if you find a boy speaking to his parents in Bhojpuri, his old friends in
Bhojpuri or Hindi, his college friends in Hindi or English and doing all his office work
in English. In fact, in many situations we also find two or more languages mixing with
each other. Languages become richer due to such processes.” (Agnihotri, 2000, p. 36)
On this issue Subbarao says, “Even though Indian languages seem to prima face differ
from each other, they share various similarities. Western countries are predominantly
monolingual. Various western linguists feel that when so many languages are spoken in

Indian Languages
the same region, it leads to problems of intelligibility (i.e. people find it difficult to
understand each other). However, in reality, no such problem arises. Every educated
person in India knows at least one or two languages other than his/her mother tongue. Notes
He/she is able to easily carry on his/her day-to-day work using all these languages. You
will not find such linguistic barriers even in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta. Be
it a labourer, businessman, clerk or an officer, nobody’s work stops because of language.”
(Subbarao, 2000, p. 41)
It is clear from both these quotes that our linguistic diversity is not a problem for us;
neither is it a marker of our backwardness; in fact it is evidence of our linguistic richness.
Culture and attitudes towards diversity in languages have an important role to play in
any nation being multilingual or monolingual. America essentially came into being
when people from various continents settled there, however it still considers itself a
monolingual notion. The Constitution of America states that only a person who knows
English is eligible to become an American citizen. There is also a lack of facilities for
children who speak languages other than English in the country. It is because of such
reasons that the third generation of American citizens does not know their mother tongues.
However, the situation in India is very different from that in America. After the Indian
partition, the Sindhi speaking population settled in India and as per the 2001 census
there are 2,535,485 Sindhi speakers in India even today. Similarly, 77,305 Indian citizens
speak the Tibetan language; 10504 Indians speak Farsi, 1106 speak Pashto and 51,728
speak Arabic. Two thousand five hundred and ninety three Indians living in Pondicherry
speak French and there are also people who speak Burmese, Hebrew, Laotian etc. It is
also important to note that most of these people speak at least 2 languages. (Sinha,
2000, p. 64)
At the same time, we should not forget that many languages in India are on the verge of
becoming instinct and people speaking tribal languages are becoming fewer in number.
For example, the number of people speaking a particular tribal language of Pondicherry
is less than 100. Speakers of various languages have also gone down in number between
the 2001 and 2010 census.
We have seen that our attitude towards diversity in languages influences the existence
of linguistic diversity or multiline quality. If we have a positive attitude to linguistic
diversity, we help in the existence and growth of all the languages spoken in the
environment. On the contrary, intolerance and narrow thinking towards languages other
than one’s own may result in discord and disagreement.
Examples of both positive and negative attitudes towards linguistic diversity can be
found in India, from its different parts and from different points of time. For example,
there are 21 sub-castes in the Naga community and about the same numbers of languages
are spoken in the community. People of a particular sub-group speak to the other members
of their sub-group in their mother tongue. When people of one sub-group need to talk to

Indian Languages
people of the other sub-group they use Nagameez language and when they have to
speak to people outside their community (i.e. people outside Nagaland and Manipur)
Notes they use Hindi and English. This is an example of the positive attitude that Naga people
have towards linguistic diversity and this is what makes them multilingual. On the
other hand, residents of Goa keep fighting over the existence of Marathi and Konkani.
Similarly, residents of Belgaon in Karnataka are arguing over the existence of Kannada
and Marathi (Sinha, 2000, p. 65-66).
To conclude, India is a country with much linguistic diversity and this diversity is not a
problem but an important resource for us. An open attitude towards linguistic diversity
helps us in maintaining this resource while narrow thinking causes damage. Thus, we
must have a healthy and positive attitude towards all languages.
2.2.2 LANGUAGE FAMILIES OF INDIA AND INDIA AS A

LINGUISTIC AREA
We have seen that there are a variety of languages in India. Some of these languages
have common features and common identities while some do not. Generally, languages
which share common features belong to a particular language family.
India is not only unique from the point of view of linguistic diversity but also because
of the variety of language families that exist in India. There are four language families
in India:
1. Indo Aryan.
2. Dravidian
3. Tibeto-Burman.
4. Austro-Asian/ Munda
Some prominent languages in each of these language families are given below:
Indo Aryan: Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Assamese, Sanskrit, Punjabi, Gujrati, Marathi,
Konkani, Nepali, Oriya, Kashmiri etc.
Dravidian: Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Kurukh etc.
Tibeto-Burman: Manipuri, Angami, Bodo, Garo, Tripuri, Tangsa, Mizo
Munda: Munda, Mundari, Ho, Santhali, Savara etc.
It would be important to note that despite the linguistic diversity and variety of language
families available in India, India is one linguistic area. For understanding this it is
important to appreciate that people speaking languages of all four families have been
living together here for thousands of years and thus languages have borrowed greatly

Indian Languages
from each other. As a result, various types of structural similarities have developed in
these languages over time. While taking about Indian languages K. V. Subbarao has
said, “When speakers of different language families have been living together for Notes
thousands of years, they affect each others languages and languages borrow from each
other. This exchange gives rise to new linguistic characteristics.” Some examples are
given below:
1. Echo words: Such words can be found in all Indian languages. The second word is
an ‘extra’ word and has no meaning if used on its own and sound similar to the
first one. For example, the Hindi word caay-vaay ¼dk;&ok;½ The second word vaay
¼ok;½ has no meaning on its own in Hindi but in this context refers to any other
things like eatables that may accompany tea.
Hindi Oriya Telugu

khaanaa - vaanaa baagho-faago duulii - gilli
paanii-vaanii cobulai-faabulai baagh-vaagh
caay-vaay caaval-vaaval any - giny
2. Reduplicated words: Nouns, adjectives, adverbs etc. can be repeated to create new
words in all Indian languages. When nouns are repeated then ‘every’ is added to
the meaning of the word. For example, the word ghar-ghar in Hindi means ‘every
house’.
Nouns
Hindi Telugu Oriya
ghar-ghar dhaure-dhaure ishTi-ishTi
pannaa-pannaa prishThaa-prishThaa peji-peji
Adjectives
dhiire -dhiire dhiire-dhire nemdi-nemdi ga
aahiste-aahiste aaste-aaste mella-mellaga
Pronouns
apnaa-apnaa nijau-nijau tanaa-tanaa
3. All Indian languages have post positions i.e. the prepositional words are placed
after the noun. Thus instead of saying ‘on the table’ where ‘on’ comes before the
‘table’, in Hindi one says ‘mez par’. More examples follow:
Hindi: raam kaa,

ghar meN
Tamil: raamod (raam kaa)
raamkku (raam ko)
Mundari: HoRaa re (ghar me)

Indian Languages
4. At the level of sounds: Most Indian languages have retroflex sounds such as those
of the T-varg i.e. T, Th, D, Dh etc. Again a word would never begin with a velar
Notes nasal like the one we notice at the end of ‘king’.
In the list of languages we gave above, although Hindi and Urdu are mentioned
separately and are of course regarded as two separately languages. They are written
in different scripts; Hindi in the Devanagari and Urdu in the Perso-Arabic script.
However, they have the same structure and both were subsumed under the name
of Hindustani before the partition of India.
1. How many language families are there in India?

(a) three (b) four
(c) five (d) six
2. Give examples of some linguistic characteristics that arose in Indian languages
due to the exchange between languages of different language families.
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
3. Some time back, the workers of a political party beat up non-Marathi speakers
in Maharashtra. What kind of attitude towards linguistic diversity does this
incident signify? Is such an attitude a threat to our linguistic wealth? Give your
views.
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
4. What are your views on Hindustani, Hindi and Urdu?
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
2.3 WHAT DOES THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION

SAY ABOUT LANGUAGES?
Considering, ‘language’ an important area of concern for the country, the constitution

Indian Languages
makers of India laid down the following provisions for language in Part 17 of the
constitution after due discussion and deliberation.
Notes
Keeping in mind the multilingual picture of India, the constitution makers did not give
place to only one or two languages but many languages of India. According to Article
343 of the constitution, Hindi written in Devnagari script is the official language of
India and English is the associate official language. Initially, English was given this
status for 15 years but in 1963 it was permanently made the associate official language
under the Official Language Act. Article 345 asked each state to legally adopt one or
more languages spoken in their state along with Hindi as their official languages. Hindi
was declared to be the official language of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar,
Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. Punjabi was declared the official
language in Punjab, Marathi in Maharashtra and Gujarati and Hindi in Gujarat. Tamil,
Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Assamese and Bengali were declared official
languages in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, Assam and West
Bengal respectively. Sikkim declared Nepali, Lepcha, and Bhutia as their official
languages. Nagaland declared English as their official language. Arunachal Pradesh,
Mizoram and Meghalaya did not adopt any official language and for purposes of
government work, English is used here. The official languages of the centre are used in
the union territories - Chandigarh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Daman and Diu
and in Pondicherry the official language is Tamil.
Another important issue is that of national language. Many of us think that Hindi is the
national language of India. However, it is important to remember that the Constitution
of India says nothing about the existence of a national language. At the same time,
Article 351 does state that the union must promote the spread of Hindi and develop
Hindi as the medium of expression.

1. Which Part of the constitution contains provisions related to language?
(a) 17 (b) 18
(c) 19 (d) 20
2. Under which act did English get the status of associate official language?
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................

Indian Languages
2.4 CATEGORIES OF LANGUAGES IN INDIA.

Notes
2.4.1 SCHEDULED LANGUAGES
Languages mentioned in the 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution are called Scheduled
Languages. 14 languages were named in this schedule in 1950. These languages were -
Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya,
Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Sindhi was included in this list through the
21st amendment to the constitution (1967). Similarly, Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali
were included through the 71st constitutional amendment (1992) and Boro, Santhali,
Maithili and Dogri were included through the 92nd amendment (2003). Thus, at present
a total of 22 languages are listed in the constitution as scheduled languages. Furthermore,
many states are making an effort to get their languages listed in the schedule. “Once a
language gets listed in the schedule, its name and status changes and it is identified as a
modern Indian language or a scheduled language.” (Malikarjun, 2004)
2.4.2 REGIONAL LANGUAGES AND MOTHER TONGUES

Indian languages can also be categorized as regional languages and mother tongues. A
total of 100 regional languages were listed by the 2001 Census and most of these
languages contain within themselves many mother tongues and dialects. Thus, a regional
language contains within itself many mother tongues. The 1961 Language Census
identified 1652 mother tongues. The word ‘mother tongue’ commonly refers to the
language spoken at home. The census department defined ‘mother tongue’ in the
following manner for the 2001 Census-
“Mother tongue refers to the language in which a person’s mother speaks to him or her
in their childhood. If the mother is not present then the language spoken at home will be
the mother tongue. If there is still doubt then the language mostly spoken at home is the
mother tongue.”(Malikarujun, p. 8)
Two people living in the same family can also have different mother tongues, for example
when the husband and wife belong to different communities and regions. One more
point of importance is that a child can have more than one mother tongue, if more than
one language is spoken equally at home.
2.4.3 CLASSICAL LANGUAGES

Languages which have a long history, whose grammar has been the subject of much
study and in which much literature has been written are referred to as classical languages.
The Indian government has laid down the following criteria for declaring a language to
be a classical language:
1. The language has a history/ written literature which is1500 to 2000 years old.

Indian Languages
2. Some ancient literature/ epic has been written in the language and the speakers of
the language consider this literature/ epic a valuable resource.
Notes
3. The language has an original literacy tradition and not one which is borrowed
from other language communities.
Tamil was declared a classical language in June, 2004, Sanskrit in 2005 and Kannada
and Telugu were given the status in 2008.
2.4.4 IS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LANGUAGE

AND DIALECT?
People generally consider ‘languages’ and ‘dialects’ to be different. They give various
reasons for this- languages are spoken by more people, dialects are spoken by lesser
numbers; languages have a literature, dialects do not; languages have a script, dialects
do not etc.
However, in reality all these reasons are incorrect. From a linguistic point of view, there
is no difference between a language and a dialect. Both languages and dialects have a
grammar i.e. they are rule governed. Awadhi, Braj, Bhojpuri have their own grammar
just like Hindi, English, Sanskrit and other language. Similar is the case of literature.
Much literature has been written in so called languages like Hindi, English and Sanskrit
and also in so called ‘dialects’ like Awandhi, Mathili and Braj. The matter of script’ is
also not correct as any language of the world can be written in any script.
For example- ‘;ke [kkrk gSA (Devnagari script)

Shyam khaataa hai (Roman script)
Thus, it is clear that we cannot make a distinction between language and dialect based
on script, literature and grammar. What is called a language and what is called a dialect
is a social and political question. As Rama Kant Agnihotri notes, “What is spoken by
powerful and rich people often comes to be known as ‘language’. Grammars and
dictionaries are written for this ‘language’. Literature also comes to be written in this
language. The ‘language’ also becomes the medium in which school teaching takes
place and thus gets identified as standard language. Languages which are similar to this
standard language come to be known as its dialects. The status of a language also changes
with change in the centre of power. When the political centre for power was Kanoj,
then the language of literature was ‘Aprabhramsh’; Khadi Boli, Braj and Awadhi became
its dialects. Similarly, when the centre for political power was Braj, then, the language
of literature was Braj and the Khadi Boli spoken in Delhi and Meerut become its dialects.
And when the centre for power was Delhi and Meerut, Braj, Awadhi etc became dialects
of Hindi.”
Thus, the main issue is that of understanding the relationship between language and
power as that is what defines what will be called language and what will be called
dialect.
Indian Languages

Notes 1. How many languages are mentioned in 8th schedule of the constitution now?
(a) 14 (b) 18
(c) 20 (d) 22
2. What is the meaning of ‘mother tongue’?
.................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................
3. What are the necessary conditions for categorizing a language as a classical
language?
.................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................
4. Is there a difference between ‘language’ and ‘dialect’?
.................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................
2.5 THE STATUS OF HINDI IN INDIA

Hindi is the language which is spoken in ‘Hind’ or India. Its ancient names ‘hinduii’ and
‘hindvii’ carry the same significance.
The Hindi: This form of Hindi is not influenced by other dialects of Hindi. It also does
not contain any words of Sanskrit, Arabic and Farsi.
Khari Boli: This form of Hindi is considered to be standard Hindi, today. Different
from Braj and Rekhta, this was the language of the common people, the language of
day-to-day use and it was also possible to write literature in this language.
Nagri Hindi: The form of Hindi which was used to write literature.
Hindustani : Both, Hindi and Urdu are a part of this form of Hindi. It uses both Hindi
and Urdu words and is a mixture of these two ‘languages’.

Indian Languages
Standard language: When, out of the many spoken dialects, one comes to be spoken by
the educated and elite sections of society, it acquires the status of a standard language.
“The standard language is not purer than the other languages. At the level of language, Notes
all languages are equally organized. But yes, they are not equal at a societal level.”
(Agnihotri, 2007, p. 3). The Standard form of Hindi is based on the varieties of three
main centres - Meerut, Delhi and Agra.
A categorization of Hindi dialects
Eastern Region Eastern Hindi Awadhi

Badheli
Chattisgarhi
Bihari Hindi Bhojpuri
Maghi
Maithili
Western Hindi Aakar bahula Kaurbi
Hariyanvi
Dakhini
Okar bahula Braj
Bundeli
Kanauji
Rajasthani Hindi Marvari
Jaipuri
Mevati
Malvi
Pahari Kumayuni
Garvali
Along with the afforesaid Pahari, Nimari, Haroti, Dhudhari, Ahirati are also dialects of
Hindi. Here we seem to be talking about the Hindi language and its dialects: Awadhii,
Braj, Maithili, Raajasthani, Bhojpuri etc. But it needs to be remembered that these
‘dialects’ are languages and at one time enjoyed the status of a language.
When Khadi Boli acquired prominence, due to political and economic reasons, then
these languages lost their independent identities and were forced to become dialects of
Hindi. Dr. Ravindranath Srivastav writes, “During processes of social re-organisation a
particular dialect gets more importance than other dialects due to economic, political or
cultural reasons. As a result, this ‘dialect’ starts being used as the medium of
communication between speakers of the other dialects, also. In time the speakers of
these other dialects attach their social identity to this dialect which has become the
standard medium of communication. In present times, Khadi Boli is a synonym for

Indian Languages
standard Hindi and enjoys the status of a language while Braj, Awadhi, Bhojpuri etc.
are mere dialects.” From now on whenever we talk about Hindi, Braj, Awadhi, Bhojpuri,
Notes Rajasthani etc. will be depicted as dialects, however it is important to keep in mind the
language-dialect distinction that we have talked about above.
Hindi as the language of literature
Braj, Maithili and Awadhi are the prominent languages that have very rich literature
and it is in many ways considered a part of the Hindi heritage. A lot of literature was
written in Braj till the beginning of the 20th century and it is the language spoken in
quite a big geographical area, even today. Poets like Soordas, Mirabai, Keshavda, Rahim,
Raskhan, Bihari, Dev, Dhanand, Senapati, Bhushan, Padmakar, Ratnakar among others
have enriched the literature in the language in the medieval period.
Jaysi and Tulsidas are the prolific poets of Awadhi. Jayasi’s ‘Padmawat’ is a literary
epic in Awadhi. Tulsidas has written a total of 12 prominent pieces - Ramcharitramanas,
Kavitavali, Gitawali, Vinaypatrika etc. Gitavali, Vinaypatrika and Kavitavali are in
Braj. Tulsidas wrote with equal control in both Braj and Awadhi.
Various sufi poets like Kabir, Dadu, Redas and Guru Nanak enriched Sufi literature.
In modern times, Bharatendu, Mahaveer Prasad Dwivedi, Bal Krishna Bhatt, Prasad,
Pant, Nirala, Mahadevi, Agyay, Raghuveer Sahay and many other writers have given
new shape to Hindi literature, have provided it with energy. Poems, stories, plays,
historical accounts, critiques, biographies, travelogues, essays, diary accounts, reports
written by these authors have contributed significantly to the growth of Hindi.
The publication of newspapers and magazines in Hindi has also contributed to giving
Hindi stability. It is relevant to mention over here the contribution of the first Hindi
newspaper ‘Udant Maatrand’ released from Calcutta in 1826 as well as that of the
second newspaper ‘Bangdoot’. Calcutta and non-hindi speaking Bengali’s have had a
significant role in the growth of Hindi newspapers and magazines.
The growth of Hindi as the language of administration
The Constituent Assembly adopted Hindi as the official language of the Indian union
on 14 September 1949. This does not mean that Hindi did not have an identity in the
form of a regional language before this development. The administrative work in various
princely states (riyasat) like Gwalior, Jaipur etc was carried out completely in Hindi.
Furthermore, even though English was the official language of the Indian government,
it was necessary for the British to learn Hindi and this had started as early as the 1800s
with the establishment of Fort William College. In 1878-79 it was necessary for every
official coming from England to India to know Hindi and Hindustani. In 1925 the
Congress decided that it would carry on its day-to-day work in Hindustani, due to
Gandhi’s efforts.

Indian Languages
Present status: Hindi is not only the official language of the central government but also
the official language of various state governments. It is common knowledge today that
in states where the official language is Hindi, most of the administrative work is done in Notes
Hindi. The High courts of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan give
their decision in Hindi and documents can also be submitted in the language. In many
states, Hindi is the alternate medium of education for graduate courses in Science,
Humanities, Law etc. Various centers have also been established to teach computer
sciences in Hindi. In fact, in government offices a variety of work on the computer is
being done in Hindi.
Hindi is also being used as the alternate medium in recruitment examinations of various
important offices, institutions and banks of the central government, even through these
examinations have a necessary paper for English language. Lastly, Hindi continues to
be the medium of communication among common people, to a large extent.

1. In which language Jaysi’s Padmawat is written?
(a) Braj (b) Awadhi
(c) Maithili (d) Hindi
2. The name ‘Hindustani’ was used to denote which two languages?
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3. Hindi is not only the official language of the central government but also the
official language of various state governments. Name these states.
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4. Describe briefly, the development of Hindi as a language of literature.
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Indian Languages
2.6 STATUS OF ENGLISH IN INDIA

Notes
Christian missionaries from Britain came to India in 1813 and established various primary
schools which used the local language as the medium of education. Later on, they
established various English medium high schools. British administrators established
their universities after 1857 and English became the first language for Indian education.
Indians who were proficient in English became the new class of elites. Many English
medium schools were opened. English became the medium of education at the university
level also and aspiring Indians were partial to schools which emphasized English. English
continued to be a language of prominence even after independence. At a government
level it got the status of an associate official language. Even today, schools which
emphasize English are considered to be better schools. The situation is not different at
the university level as well.
One-third of the Indian schools were English medium between 1970 and 1980. English
continues to play an important role in India, even today. The reasons for this are as
follows:
Important books and most of resource material is written in English.
English is the language for commerce.
Proficiency in English is the marker of a dignified and distinct personality.
English is used as a medium of education.
World-over development in science, technology agriculture and business use English

as the medium of communication.
At an international level, English has an important status. It is also spoken and understood
in most countries of the world.
English occupies an important position at a governmental level. States use their regional
languages for purposes of official work, but English aids them in communicating with
each other.
The place of English in the school curriculum
The Secondary Education commission (1952-53) emphasized the importance of English.

The Education commission (1964-66) also agreed to it. It proposed the Three-language
Formula till class 10. The Three-language Formula states that the first, second and third
languages in school will be:
First language
The first language which should be taught in school should be the mother tongue or
regional language.

Indian Languages
Second language
Any modern language or English, in Hindi speaking states. Notes

Hindi or English in non-Hindi speaking states.
Third language
English or any modern Indian language that is not being taught as the second language,
in Hindi speaking states.
English or any modern Indian language that is not being taught as the second language,
in non Hindi speaking states.
According to the National Curriculum Framework, 2005, “English in India is a global

language in a multilingual country…The aim of English teaching is the creation of
multilinguals who can enrich all our languages... English needs to find its place along
with other Indian languages in different states, where children’s other languages
strengthen English teaching and learning; and in ‘English medium’ schools, where other
Indian languages need to be valorized to reduce the perceived hegemony of English…All
teachers who teach English should have basic proficiency in English…English (is) a
principal reason for failure at the class X level. A student may be allowed to ‘pass
without English’ if an alternative route for English quantification (and therefore
instruction) can be provided outside the regular school curriculum.”

1. When the British came to India in 1813, the medium of education used in primary
schools started by them was -
(a) English (b) Hindi
(c) Hindustani (d) Regional language
2. Knowing English is a marker of better education, richer culture and higher IQ.
Do you agree with this statement? Give reasons for your answer?
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...................................................................................................................
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3. English continues to play an important role in independent India even through
it is a colonial language. Why?
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Indian Languages
2.7 THE LANGUAGE EDUCATION POLICY IN

Notes INDIA
Since independence, the Central and State Governments in India have continued to
give careful consideration to education, as a matter of national development and security.
It is important to understand the recommendations made by various commissions and
committees for education, for understanding the Language Education Policy of India.
The National Policy of Education 1968 accepted that the development of Indian
languages and literature is a necessary condition for educational and cultural progress
and until this is done, people’s creative energies will not be utilized, there will be no
improvement in the status of education and the gap between the academic and common
people will not be bridged.
The use of regional languages as the medium of education in primary and secondary
classes has been encouraged for many years now. It has also been said that State
Governments should enforce the three-language formula for the secondary classes. Thus,
children should learn three languages at the secondary level.
While talking about the development of languages, the National Policy of Education,
1986 has accepted that the National Policy of Education, 1968 should be implemented
meaningfully and with speed. In this context, the Ramamurthy committee, 1990 reviewed
the National Policy of Education 1986 and significantly commented that an important
reason for why rural children are not able to access higher education is the continued
dominance of the English language. Thus, it is the need of the times that regional
languages may be encouraged as the medium of education at all levels.
According to NCF-2005 children have an innate (by birth) potential to acquire language.
Most children have internalized various complexities and rules of language even before
they enter school and when they start school can understand and speak two or three
languages.
This curricular framework has asked for the effective implementation of the three
language formula. There is also an emphasis on gaining acceptability for using children’s
mother tongues including tribal languages as the medium of education. The multilingual
character of Indian society should be looked upon as a resource for developing
multilingual proficiency in each child and proficiency in English is a part of this package.
This is only possible if the pedagogy of language teaching is based on the use of the
mother tongue.
Bilingualism or multilingualism definitely has cognitive benefits. The three-language

formula is an attempt to deal with our linguistic challenges and opportunities. It is a
strategy which lays down the path for learning various languages.

Indian Languages

1. In which years were the National Policies of Education released? Notes
(a) 1968 (b) 1986
(c) 1990 (d) 1992
2. What does the Three-language Formula state?
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3. What advantages did the National Policy of Education, 1968 think would come
out from the development of Indian languages and literature?
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2.8 LET US SUM UP

Multilinguality is an integral part of the Indian linguistic heritage.
Being multilingual is not a problem for India, both at an individual and societal level. It
is in fact a resource and an expression of our cultural richness.
Multilinguality is a resource because people who know more than one language are not
just proficient users of languages but their views on society are also sensitive.
The culture and attitude towards language has a prominent role to play in a country
being monolingual or multilingual.
If, we have an open attitude to diversity in languages than we help in the existence and
growth of all languages spoken in the environment. On the contrary intolerance and
narrow thinking about languages other than our own become reasons for discord and
disagreement.
Languages belonging to four different language families are spoken in India, but we are
still one linguistic area.
From the point of view of the science of language there is no difference between
‘language’ and ‘dialect’.
Stories, poems, plays, historical accounts, critiques, biographies, travelogues, essays,

diary accounts, reports etc. have all contributed to the growth of Hindi.
Indian Languages
Hindi was declared to be the official language of the Indian union and English was
declared the associate official language in the Constituent Assembly on 14th September,
Notes 1949.
English in India is a global language in a multilingual country.
The Three-language Formula is the strategy which lays down the path for learning
many languages.

Agnihotri, R. K. 2007. Hindi: An Essential Grammar. London: Routledge
Agnihotri, R. K. 2007. Towards a Pedagogical Paradigm Rooted in Multilinguality.
International Multilingual Research Journal, Vol.(2), 1-10
Agnihotri, R. K. and Vandyopadhyay, P. K. 2000 (ed.) Bha:sha: Bahubha:shita:
aur Hindi. New Delhi: Shilalekh
Agnihotri, R. K. and Kumar, Sanjay. 2001. Bha:sha, Boli aur Samaaj : Ek Antah
Samvaad. New Delhi: Deshkaal
Agrawal, J.C. 2006. Rashtriiya Shikshaa Niiti. New Delhi: Prabhat
Bhatia, Kailash Chandra. 1989. Bhartiiya Bhashayen. New Delhi: Prabhat
National Curriculum Framework (NCF). 2005. New Delhi: NCERT
www.languageinindia.com/april2004/katmandupaper1.html accessed on November
2011.

1. Describe the linguistic diversity of India in your own words.
2. Multilinguality is not a problem but a resource for India. Explain.
3. Which language families are found in India?
4. India is one linguistic area. Explain how?
5. What are the parameters for declaring a language to be a classical language?
6. Braj, Maithili and Awadhi have contributed immensely to the development of Hindi
literature. Give arguments in favour of and against the aforesaid statement.
7. Critiques, biographies, autobiographies, character sketches, reports, diary accounts,

travelogues, plays, essays, have all contributed to the development of Hindi
literature.

Indian Languages
Express your views on the aforesaid statement.
8. What does NCF-2005 say about multilinguality? What is your opinion on its stand? Notes
9. How many languages are there in the 8th schedule of the Indian constitution, at
present? Name them.
10. The positive attitude that the Naga community has towards diversity in languages
makes them multilingual. What is it that the Naga community does, that provides
evidence of their positive attitude towards variety in languages?
ACTIVITY
1. Do a survey of one or two villages around you and find out if the people in the
village are multilingual? Also name the languages they know?
2. Which activities will you organize on Hindi Day in school in order to generate
interest among children for Hindi?
3. Find out which languages are taught under the Three-language Formula in schools
around you.

Language Learning and Teaching
UNIT 3 LANGUAGE LEARNING AND

Notes TEACHING
STRUCTURE
3.0 Introduction
3.2 First Language Acquisition
3.2.1 The Biological Adaptation of the Human Body for Language.
3.2.2 The Role of Environment.
3.2.3 Stages of Language Acquisition
3.3 Second Language Acquisition/Learning
3.3.1 Can Second Language be ‘acquired’ like the First Language?
3.3.2 How can we Help Children to ‘acquire’ their Second Language?
3.3.3 What is the role of ‘learning’ in developing competence in the Second
language?
3.3.4 Does our First Language interfere with the Learning of our Second
Language?
3.4 Methods of Language-Teaching
3.4.1 Grammar Translation Method
3.4.2 Direct Method
3.4.3 Audio Lingual Method
3.4.4 Communicative Method
3.4.5 Natural Approach
3.5 Let Us Sum Up
3.0 INTRODUCTION
A lot can be learnt about how to teach language in the classroom if we carefully
study the processes of how we acquire language in our home environments. This
unit will discuss the relationship between language learning and language teaching,
in detail.

This unit begins by asking the basic question: How do children acquire a language?
It will ask this question for languages that children acquire at home i.e. their first
languages. It will then discuss how processes of developing competence in second Notes
languages must be similar to ‘acquisition’ processes. It will also provide evidence
to counter the claim that most mistakes in second language are due to first language
interference. This unit will end with the various approaches and methods of
teaching of second languages that have been used over time as well as the need
to adopt a method which approximates a child’s natural processes of language
acquisition.

How do children acquire their first language(s)?
1. What is the relationship between first language acquisition and second
language learning?
2. How should language be taught in a classroom?
3.2 FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

A girl called Genie was admitted to the children’s hospital in the state of California
in 1970. She was 13 at that time and had been confined to a small room, since
she was 20 months old. During her confinement, she had been either tied to her
potty chair or kept in a home-made sleeping bag, in a crib covered with wire
mesh. She had no access to TV or radio and her only human contact was her
mother, who used to get her food. The reason for this situation was her father,
who was intolerant to sound and would beat her up every time if she made any.
When Genie was found, she was without speech and even years after being
exposed to language in a normal home environment has not been able to produce
fully grammatical sentences.
Sandhya was 20 years old when she had a car accident. She suffered a head
injury in which the left side of her brain was damaged. As a result, Sandhya’s
speech got severely affected. When asked about what she had for breakfast she
said- mein poha khaa aur pii doodh.
Homna is my friend’s four and a half year old grand daughter. She was born in
Delhi and the languages spoken at her home include Hindi, English, Panjabi and
Mandyali (a language spoken in Himachal Pradesh). She is comfortable in
listening to all these languages at the same time and also interacts with their
speakers in the way she can. She was two and a half year old when she shifted to
South India, more precisely Bangalore, Karnataka. As a result she also started

listening to a lot of Kannada and Tamil. Today, she talks to her maid exclusively
and fluently in Tamil, while nobody at home understands any bit of their dialogue.
Notes She sings bits of Tamil and Kannada songs flawlessly and often uses these
languages with her friends. She is at the same time a fluent speaker of Hindi and
English.
What do the above true-life situations tell us about how we acquire language?
Do we simply pick up a language because we hear it all around us or does our
biology have any role to play in this acquisition? Sandhya, Genie and Homna
provide evidence for a bit of both. Sandhya’s ability to speak gets affected when
she suffers a brain injury and Genie picks up no speech when she is exposed to
none. Homna, on the other hand, learns more than one language, which she is
exposed to in her caregiving home environment. Like Homna, most children
pick up more than one language, spoken in their home environment with no
explicit teaching and with what seems like effortless ease. Our biology provides
us with immense potential for acquiring language(s) as long as our environment
provides us with the required exposure to them. It is thus, meaningless to ask
whether language is inborn or learnt. Both nature and nurture have a role to play
in its acquisition.
In the first unit, we have discussed how difficult and complex the structure of
language is. Still, by the time a child is 3-4 years old, she is able to comprehend
the grammar of not only one but 2-3 languages. This clearly shows that human
beings are born with an innate ability to acquire language and all children come
to school with this innate ability. It is very important for every person working
with education, to appreciate this. It is also very important to understand that this
ability will not blossom if it does not get a language-rich and affection-filled
environment.

1. Why does the child say “ mein poha khaa aur pii doodh”?
a) as the left side of her head has been injured
b) as she did not get a language rich environment.
c) as she was not given practice in speaking
d) as she had not been able to acquire the language
2. How many languages did you learn from your home environment in your
childhood?
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3. How many languages do the children in your school speak in their home Notes
environments?
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4. What are the two things that we must keep in mind while providing a
learning environment for language?
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5. Talk to a four-year old child. Write down 20 sentences spoken by her. Can
she tell you what she wants? Can she tell you what she does not want?
Can she tell you what she likes or dislikes? Can she ask you questions?
Can she ask you for something?
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3.2.1 THE BIOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF THE HUMAN

BODY FOR LANGUAGE
Human beings are biologically adapted for language. This essentially means that
human beings can produce sounds and hear and build meaning out of these sounds
as various parts of their body have been adapted to help in this process.
Talking
To speak, we let the air move from our lungs, through the windpipe and then let
it pass through different parts of the vocal tract to finally reach the mouth to
produce all kinds of sounds; sometimes air passes through our nose as well.
While each one of the organs mentioned above is involved in speech production
they also perform other essential functions. The tongue is specialized for taste,
teeth for eating, lips for sucking and the lungs, wind pipe, mouth and nose are
involved in breathing. However, unlike primates like monkeys, chimpanzees,
gorillas etc., who are our closest biological relatives, in humans each of these
parts has been adapted for speech.

While speaking, our lungs help in regulating our breathing rhythm and it gets
adapted to allow us to speak for long periods, without being out of breath; the
Notes
number of breaths per minute is reduced: ‘breathing in’ is considerably accelerated
while ‘breathing out’ is slowed down. Our lips have muscles which are
considerably more developed and can be moved towards each other, firmly closed,
moved apart, forward, backward or in a round shape. The human tongue is thick,
muscular and mobile and opposed to the long, thin tongues of monkeys and the
lower jaw is mobile. All this helps in producing various sounds.
Comprehension
Like many other animals, the human brain is divided into a lower section- the
brain stem, and a higher section- the cerebrum. The brainstem which is connected
to the spinal cord and keeps the body alive by controlling breathing, heart beats
etc. The cerebrum, though not essential for life, helps in integrating the organism
with her environment. The cerebrum is in turn divided into two halves or two
cerebral hemispheres, namely the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere. The
hemispheres are linked to one another through a series of bridges.
Many studies have established that anything that is experienced on the right-
hand side of the body is processed in the left hemisphere, and anything on the
left side is processed in the right hemisphere. Research also tells us that the
ability to comprehend and produce speech for many of us (about 90% right-
handed and about 70% left-handed) is present in the left hemisphere of the brain.
The simplest and most recently developed test which helps in discovering which
hemisphere controls speech is the Dichotic Listening Test. In this test, the subject
wears a head phone. Two different words, one into each ear, are played
simultaneously for example ‘eight’ in one ear and ‘four’ in the other. Most people
are found to repeat the word played in the right ear, as this side of our body is
controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain, which is the language centre. The
sound heard by the left ear takes longer to process as it is first sent to the right
hemisphere and then to the left hemisphere(language centre). This non-direct
route takes longer to comprehend and produce the word.
Various studies have also proven that two areas of the left hemisphere of the
brain are concerned with language: the Broca’s area (in front of and just above
the left ear) and Wernicke’s area (region around and under the left ear). Damage
to the Broca’s area causes problems in speech production and Wernicke’s area
damage causes problems in speech comprehension. However, there have been
instances where patients had no language disorder even after damage to these
areas. According to research, this may be due to variations in the size of the brain
areas specialized for these functions from person to person.

The human body, thus, does have a role in our ability to produce and comprehend
speech.
Notes
1. In how many hemispheres is the human brain divided?
(a) one (b) two
(c) three (d) four
2. Which hemisphere of the brain is meant for language?
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3. Describe the Dichotic Listening Test? What does it show?
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3.2.2 THE ROLE OF THE ENVIRONMENT

By the time a child is 4, she is a fluent speaker of her home languages. She
acquires these languages when she is exposed to them in plenty of natural, day-
to-day situations.
Both Genie and Homna’s examples reveal the importance of exposure to a
language for a child to start speaking it. Genie was without speech because she
did not hear any language and Homna on the other hand picked up more than one
language from her surroundings. Thus, a language rich environment where the
child can hear care givers/adults talk to each other, or to her, read books to her,
sing songs to her, interact with other children, listen to music, watch TV etc is
imperative in triggering the natural human predisposition to acquire language.
This is also clear from Isabells’s example. Isabella, the child of a deaf-mute had
no speech, when she was found at the age of six and half in Ohio in the 1930s as
she had spent most of her time in a darkened room alone with her mother.
However, once she was exposed to language in a normal environment, she picked
it up at a very quickly. She covered in 2 years, the learning that ordinarily takes 6
years and it was not possible to distinguish her from other children by the time
she was eight and half.

Besides the need for a linguistically rich environment, what is also clear is that
there is a critical period for the acquisition of language- a time set aside by nature
Notes for acquisition of language; this essentially varies between 2 to 14 years and
during this time acquiring languages almost seems like an effortless task for
children. This becomes clearer when we contrast Genie’s experience of language
acquisition with that of Isabella. Genie was only exposed to language at the age
of 13 and was not able to speak grammatically correct sentences, even years
after, while Isabella was able to catch on and within two years of being exposed
to language was no different from any other child of her age.
Children bought up in linguistically impoverished surroundings like orphanages

and institutions, where caregivers do not have adequate time to interact with
each child, start speaking at the same time as other children but there speech
eventually lags behind and has lesser varieties of construction. The extreme
manifestation of this is the case of deaf children, who begin to babble at the same
time as the rest of the children but do not hear any language and eventually do
not learn to speak if they are not provided hearing aid. However, they all evolve
Sign Language. Sign Language is NOT just a set of gestures; it is a language
which is systematic as oral language. So, in order to speak a language, a child
must be able to hear that language. However, hearing language is also not enough.
In one real-life case, a normal hearing son of deaf parents was provided ample
exposure to TV and radio programs but did not acquire the ability to speak or
understand what was being spoken. What he did learn very effectively, by the
age of three, was the use of Sign Language- the language he used to interact with
his parents. Thus, the crucial requirement to acquire a language also appears
to be an opportunity to interact with others using the language.
Children who migrate with their parents from their home countries seem to acquire
the language spoken in that country with effortless ease while the adults who
have gone with them find this a much more difficult task.
Another question that is pertinent when studying the role of the environment is:
Do children learn their home language by imitating their adults? Many studies
and observations provide evidence that this is not the case. We will discuss these
henceforth.
If children were learning how to speak by imitating adults i.e. hearing their parents
speak and repeating after them then they would be responsive to direct corrections
and repeated practice provided by parents and other adults. However, it has been
found that such corrections and practice have relatively little effect in children
acquiring a language.
Let us also see what came out of some efforts of direct correction and repeated

practice made by parents and researchers. In this example a father is trying to

teach her child to say ‘papa’
Notes
Father : papa
Child : haappa
Father : papa
Child : haappa
(Repeated at least two times)
Father : papa
Child : aappa
In the example given below a father is trying to teach her child to say ‘papa
aayaa’.
Child : papa aaii
Father : nahiin ‘papa aayaa’
Child : papa aaii
Father : bolo ‘papa aayaa’
Child : papa aaii
Father : nahiin ‘papa aayaa’
Father : bolo ‘papa aayaa’
Child looks away and does not respond.
(Examples of two different children living with their parents in Udaipur.)
We can see in the above examples that forcing children to repeat and imitate
does not lead to any success in teaching a child how to speak. Research has also
proven that parents try correcting only a small portion of the errors that children
make while learning how to speak. Also, more often than not, they end up
correcting the truthfulness of the statement rather than whether it is grammatically
correct, for example a father will not correct his child when she says mammii so
raha hai but will correct her if she says kal somvaar hai i.e. ‘It’s Monday
tomorrow.’ when it is in fact mangalvaar ‘Tuesday’.
It has also been seen that the very frequent use of ‘expansions’ by parents is also
unsuccessful. When an adult is talking to a child, he very often ‘expands’ the
child’s utterances. However, what does seem to help language learning is talking

to the child about new things. It also seems useless to repeatedly ‘correct’ children.
They learn only when they are cognitively ready to do so.
Notes

1. What kinds of mistakes are corrected by parents?
(a) grammatical errors (b) sentence related errors
(c) fact related errors (d) imitation related errors
2. Read the following situation carefully:
Child: Want other one spoon, Daddy.
Father: You mean, you want the other spoon.
Child: Yes, I want other one spoon, please Daddy.
Father: Can you say “the other spoon”.
Child: Other ... one ... spoon.
Father: Say “other’.
Child: Other.
Father: ‘spoon’.
Child: Spoon.
Father: “Other spoon”.
Child: Other ... spoon. Now give me other one spoon?
(Braine, 1971)
a) What is the father trying to teach the child?
b) Was he successful?
c) What does this example tell you about how children learn language?
4. Which of the following things help children acquire language?
a) A home environment where the child is not allowed to speak
b) Playing with other children
c) Hearing adults talk
d) Asking children to repeat correct sentences
e) Repeating what the child says
Further evidence to show that children do not really learn language by

imitating adults can also be gathered from the more or less fixed stages

children pass through as they acquire language and also in the pattern of
errors they make in this process.
Notes
3.2.3 STAGES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Children seem to pass through a series of more or less fixed ‘stages’, as they
acquire language. The age at which different children reach each stage can vary
considerably, however, the order of ‘stages’ remains the same.
Cooing/Gooing
At around 6 weeks, a child starts cooing and gooing. Initially these sounds seem
mostly like a string of vowels – ‘uuuu, iiiii’. At around four months, these include
consonantal beginnings; the most commonly heard ones are- ‘cuuu, guuu’.
Babbling
At about 6 months, when a child is generally sitting up, they progress to babbling.
Here they start producing a wider variety of vowels and consonants which are
mostly in the form of single consonant - vowel clusters like ‘gi-gi-gi’, ‘ka-ka-
ka’, ‘ma-ma-ma’, ‘pa-pa-pa’, ‘mi-mi-mi’ etc. At around nine to ten months there
is a variation in the combinations such as ‘ba-ba-ga-ga’ which become more
complex like ‘mim-mim-mai-yaaaaa’ over the next few months; these express
emotions and emphasis and include attempted imitations. To parents it seems
like children are talking to them and they often react to it. This provides children
with some experience of the interactive role of language.
One-word stage
At around the age of one, children produce their first recognizable words. Many
of these words are names of people and things that they see around them like
mamaa(mother), paapaa(father), baiyaa(brother), diidii(sister), ciriyaa(bird),
guriyaa(doll). Also common at this stage are words like na (negation), khatam
(something finishes) and dedo (asking for something). This stage is often referred
to as the holophrastic (meaning a single word functioning as a phrase or sentence)
stage. For example, instead of saying ‘I want water’ the child could simply say
‘mam mam’ (water). In fact, they may use just ‘mam mam’ for a variety of
expressions and it is only from the context that parents figure out the approximate
meaning of such utterances.
This is also the stage where children’s ‘mistakes’ are caused by both an over-
generalization and under-generalization of the meaning of words in comparison
to adult meaning. For example, a child will over-generalize the word ‘doggie’
and call all four legged animals ‘doggie’. On the other hand a child who uses the
word ‘duck’ for only her ‘toy duck’ is under-generalising.

Two-word stage
Notes By about one and a half years, a child generally has an active vocabulary of some
50 words and starts putting together words in two-word utterances. The first
two-word utterances also express the same kind of meaning as those of the one
word stage like duudh nahii, khaanaa nahii (negation), duudh katam (something
finishes) and ball dedo (asking for something). New kinds of meanings begin to
appear later in this stage– mummii khaanaa(mummy I want roti), jiijii maaraa(jiji
hit me), ghuumii jaana(I want to go out), paapaa fona(papa’s phone), duduu
piinaa(I want milk).
At this stage children’s utterances begin to resemble the structures of sentences
in the languages used around them. This speech is also referred to as telegraphic
speech as it very closely resembles telegraph messages which only have content
words i.e. words like doodh, mummii, khaanaa, paapaa, maaraa, fone etc that
carry meaning and does not use little words like ne, ko, hai, par, se etc as well as
word endings like yaan, on, iiyan for plural or rahe for continuous tense.
In this stage children also start imitating, taking sentences said by adults and
uttering them. For example, the child will say papa jaa for papa jaa rahe hai and
ghuumii jaa for hum ghuumne jaa rahe hai.
Longer utterances
With time, the word length of children’s sentences increase and between the
ages of 2 and 4 they acquire various grammatical forms. What is interesting is
that most children acquire these forms in roughly the same order. In research
studies undertaken by Brown (1973) and de Villiers and de Villiers(1973) with
children whose home language is English it was found that children acquire
some grammatical forms early and others later; the continuous ‘ing’ form as in-
‘I am singing’, and the plural ‘s’ as in- ‘blue shoes, bad dogs’ is acquired much
before the possessive ‘s’ as in- ‘daddy’s car’ and the third person, singular ‘s’ as
in- ‘he wants an apple’. They also acquire irregular past tense verbs like ‘came’,
‘went’, ‘saw’ before they acquire regular past tense verbs ‘loved’, ‘played’ and
‘worked’. If we study the acquisition of the past tense more carefully we will
find that the acquisition of the regular past tense form involves acquisition of the
correct irregular forms being replaced with the over generalised forms such as
‘comed’, ‘ goed etc and these eventually get replaced with the correct forms
‘came’ and ‘went’.
The significance of this apparent regression and the similarity in stages that
children undergo to acquire language is immense. It means that language
acquisition is not a straightforward case of practice brings perfection or of simple
imitation. If it were, all children would not be following similar stages while

acquiring language and would never replace common forms such as ‘came’ and
‘went’ , which they hear all the time with odd forms like ‘comed’ and ‘goed’,
that they are unlikely to have come across. Notes
To conclude, from the moment children begin to talk, they seem to be aware that
a language (s) they speak have rules. The mistakes that children make while
learning to speak correctly are evidence of the fact that children are trying to
acquire these rules. Their language at any point of time is not a jumbled collection
of words but is also rule bound even though they differ from an adult’s. it would
also be important to mention over here that a child who is exposed to several
languages right from day one will produce comparable forms of complex
structures in each of them; even when languages are mixed, they are rule governed.
Review Questions
1. At which stage do children over-generalize?
(a) cooing (b) babbling
(c) one-word stage (d) two-word stage
2. What is telegraphic speech?
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...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
3. From your experience, think of words that children speak in the one word
stage.
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...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
4. From your experience, think of an example of an over-generalization a 3
year old child can make while learning words.
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...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
5. While acquiring plurals a child whose home language is English goes
through the following stages –
• First, acquires irregular plurals like foot-feet, man-men etc.

• Then acquires regular plural forms like cats and bags.
Notes • She over generalizes the above rule to make plurals of foot and man as
feets and mens.
• Eventually the over generalized plurals are corrected and the child goes
back to pluralizing foot and man as feet and men respectively.
What does this tell you about how children learn language?
3.3 SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION LEARNING

By the time children come to school they are fluent speakers of their home
languages. The medium of instruction in school for some is the language being
spoken at home but for most others the medium of instruction is new to them.
For example, a child in Bihar may be speaking Bhojpuri or Maithili at home but
goes to school where the medium of instruction is Hindi or a child in Bengal
who speaks Santhali or Nepali at home may encounter Bengali in school. In
both the above situations a child may also be required to learn English at school
in the primary classes. Hindi, Bengali and English are all second languages for
these children.
Acquiring second languages in all the above situations is challenging as children
either do not encounter the language at all in their home environment or do so to
a limited extent. Children also get only few hours of exposure to the second
language during school time and more often than not for languages like English
this exposure may not be possible at all as the teacher herself may not know the
language. In this section we will discuss whether children can ‘acquire’ their
second languages like their first. In doing so, we will discuss the various factors
that affect the acquisition of second languages in the classroom. We will also
discuss the role of ‘learning’ in second languages. We will conclude by critically
examining the generally held belief that languages already learnt by the child
interfere with her learning second languages.
3.3.1 CAN SECOND LANGUAGES BE ‘ACQUIRED’ LIKE

FIRST LANGUAGES?
Before answering this question, let us discuss the difference between the terms
‘language acquisition’ and ‘language learning’.
Language Acquisition refers to developing competence in a language by using it
in natural, communicative situations as available while learning languages we
hear in our homes and the neighbourhood. Language Learning on the other hand
refers to developing competence in a language by learning its rules and vocabulary
through explicit teaching in a classroom setting.

Krashen talks about these two as ways of developing competence in second

languages and states that, ‘…language acquisition, (is) a process similar, if not
identical, to the way children develop ability in their first language. Language Notes
acquisition is a subconscious process; language acquirers are not usually aware
of the fact that they are acquiring language, but are only aware of the fact that
they are using the language for communication….(in this process) we are
generally not consciously aware of the rules of the languages we have acquired.
Instead, we have a “feel” for correctness. Grammatical sentences “sound” right,
or “feel” right, and errors feel wrong, even if we do not consciously know what
rule was violated. Other ways of describing acquisition include implicit learning,
informal learning, and natural learning. In non-technical language, acquisition
is “picking-up” a language.
The second way to develop competence in a second language is by language
learning. We will use the term “learning” henceforth to refer to conscious
knowledge of a second language, knowing the rules, being aware of them, and
being able to talk about them. In non-technical terms, learning is “knowing
about” a language, known to most people as “grammar”, or “rules”. Some
synonyms include formal knowledge of a language, or explicit learning.’ (Krashen,
1982:10)
We have seen in the first section that children have immense potential for acquiring
language. Most children learn at least two languages in their childhood from
their home environments and like Homna, can pick up more languages, which
they are exposed to in their natural settings. If we take into account this immense
capacity that a child has for acquiring language, as long as normal, day-to-day
exposure to it is provided, then we will appreciate that a second language can
also be acquired in an environment which provides ample exposure to it.
We can see this clearly in the example of children who leave their home countries
with their families to settle in foreign countries. For example, Hindi speaking
children who leave India to settle in America, acquire English at school where
they hear and interact with their classmates and teachers in the language and also
in various other places like the market, TV etc. Thus, the richer the exposure to
the second language, the greater is the possibility that we will acquire it.
However, helping children acquire a second language holds considerable challenge
for teachers. The language rich environment that is available in the first language
is invariably not available in the second language. And in the case of a language
like English in India, where exposure at school is also restricted to 30 minutes or
less in the day and the teacher herself may not be a fluent speaker of that language,
the situation is even more demanding.

3.3.2 HOW CAN WE HELP CHILDREN TO ‘ACQUIRE’

THEIR SECOND LANGUAGE?
Notes
Though challenging, providing a language rich environment similar to the one
that is available to children when they are acquiring their home languages, remains
one important part of the answer. In Krashen’s words children require
‘comprehensible input’ in the second language. ‘Comprehensible input’ refers to
using language which children are capable of understanding, and at the same
time holds challenge for them. An important part of making this language
comprehensible is providing it in natural, communicative situations that are
meaningful to children and this will help children in meeting the challenge. For
example, if children in your class know some words in English then
‘comprehensible input’ might mean using these words in sentences that are
meaningful for them. A teacher may give instructions like - rub the black-board,
pick up the pencil, read from the chart etc., to children where the context and the
teacher’s actions/ demonstration will help the child in building meaning around
words like black-board, pencil and chart she already knows. Thus, here the teacher
provides ‘comprehensible input’ in the form of instructions which contain words
that a child is familiar with and at the same time the challenge of understanding
the instruction can be met because of the context in which it is being given.
Unlike traditional second language teaching approaches which require the child
to learn the structure/grammar rules first and then practice them as communication,
second language acquisition requires ‘going from meaning’ to ‘structure’.
Krashen clearly states that ‘speaking fluency cannot be taught directly. Rather it,
‘emerges’ over time, on it own. The best way, and perhaps the only way, to teach
speaking, according to this view, is simply to provide comprehensible input. Early
speech will come when the acquirer feels “ready”; this state of readiness arrives
at somewhat different times for different people, however. Early speech, moreover,
is typically not grammatically accurate. Accuracy develops over time as the
acquirer hears and understands more input (Krashen,1982:22).
Besides the need for ‘comprehensible input’ some other factors also affect
acquisition of the second language. Children’s motivation’s to learn the target
language, their self confidence, their curiosity/anxiety about learning in general,
and their attitude towards the language all affect language learning. These factors
can either impede or encourage second language acquisition.
Much research has shown that even though people may be provided
‘comprehensible input’ in the target language, they may be unsuccessful in
acquiring it if they have low motivation or low self confidence or low curiosity
levels. The process of language learning may also become slow if learners have
high anxiety levels About learning in general.

While a teacher does not have much control over student’s motivation, self
confidence and attitudes (s)he must provide ‘comprehensible input’ in the
classroom and also create such an environment where children can learn without Notes
any fear or hesitation. According to Krashen, ‘The effective language teacher is
someone who can provide input and help make it comprehensible in a low anxiety
situation. (Krashen, 1982:32)
3.3.3 WHAT IS THE ROLE THAT ‘LEARNING’ HAS IN

DEVELOPING COMPETENCE IN THE SECOND
LANGUAGE?
Learning the rules of a language, is not a replacement of the process of language
acquisition which helps children become fluent speakers in that language, however
it can help children in monitoring their progress to see whether they have written
or spoken correctly or not. According to Krashen, ‘Normally, acquisition
“initiates” our utterances in a second language and is responsible for our fluency.
Learning has only one function, and that is as a Monitor, or editor. Learning
comes into play only to make changes in the form of our utterance, after it has
been “produced” by the acquired system. This can happen before we speak or
write, or after (self-correction).’ (Krashen, 1982:15)
Needless to say that conscious learning of the rules of grammar can act as a
monitor only when a person has enough time to think about and use these rules
to correct her and must also be continuously focused on the accuracy of what she
is saying. Generally when two individuals are in a conversation, fluency is more
important than accuracy. In fact, if a person was to use the monitor in his speech
it would be unnaturally hesitant and inattentive. However, the monitor is useful
when we are writing and have time to think about the accuracy of what we have
written.

1. Generally speaking second language acquisition starts from:
(a) expression (b) comprehension
(c) self-analysis (d) analyzing right/wrong
2. Which language do you consider your second language(s)?
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...................................................................................................................

3. Which are second languages to children who come to your school?

Notes ...................................................................................................................
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4. What factors are important for children to acquire their second languages?
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3.3.4 DOES OUR FIRST LANGUAGE INTERFERE WITH

OUR LEARNING OF THE SECOND LANGUAGE?
For some time now it was thought that many errors that children make while
acquiring the second language are due to their first language-its grammar,
vocabulary and phonology (sounds). We shall discus this in the context of Hindi
as the first language and English as the second language.
Grammar
Perhaps the most obvious difference between Hindi and English sentences is
that in Hindi the verb is placed at the end of sentences and in English it is in the
middle of the sentence. For example:
meiN seb khaa rahaa huuN
I am eating an apple.
However, this never seems to cause a problem to native Hindi speakers learning
English. We never heard a native speaker of Hindi saying ‘I an apple am eating’
where like Hindi the verb is placed at the end of the sentence.
Much research has proven that many ‘mistakes’ made by children while learning
the second language are not caused by an interference of their first language.
Children and even adults follow a ‘natural order’ of acquiring the rules of the
second language regardless of what their first language is. This order is also
similar to the order in which they would acquire the language if it was their first.
Thus, when English is being acquired by native speakers of different first
languages then the continuous ‘ing’ form and the plural ‘s’ is acquired much
before the third person, singular ‘s’ and the possessive ‘s’. Prominent among
them is the study done by Dulay and Burt (1974) with children of Chinese and
Spanish origin.

A ‘natural order’ can also be seen in the errors that children make while acquiring
a structure. For example, in acquiring ‘negation’ many students put the negative
marker in front of the sentence: Notes
Not like it now. Ravem (1974)

At a later stage, they put the negative marker in front of the verb:
I no like this one Cancino et al. (1975)
This uniformity of stages that children of different native languages undergo

while acquiring a common second language and the fact that these stages are
similar when the language is acquired as a first language suggests that we all
undergo a natural process of language acquisition and these errors are not a case
of first language interference.
Vocabulary
The vocabulary of any language is affected by the socio-cultural environment it
is being spoken in, for example, Indian users of English have to use English to
communicate with other Indian users in contexts which are essentially Indian.
For example:
• On Diwali a person goes to the temple and he is given prasad by the pujari.
He buys a new kurta pajama for himself and new sari for his wife. They
light diiyaas around their house and eat various sweets like jalebi, ras gullas
etc.
• The newspaper was full of reports of dharnaas and bandhs being organized
all over India.
• The shamiiaanaa was beautifully decorated for the marriage.
• The feraa and the kanyaa daan took place after one at night.
(Diwali- A Hindu festival of lights, Prasad- holy sweets given in the place of
worship of Hindus(temple) Pujari- A Hindu priest, kurta-pajama- an Indian
dress, sari- an Indian dress worn by women, diiyaas- small lamps made of mud,
jalebi and rasgulla- Indian sweets, dharnas and bandhs- strikes, shamiiaanaa-
a larget tent generally used to house a big gathering of people, feraa- a ritual at
a hindu marriage in which the bride and the groom walk around a lit fire, kanyaa
daan- a ritual at a Hindu marriage in which the bride’s father gives away the
bride )
The itialised words are Hindi words and are used in English sentences without
any change. They are an effect of Indian society and culture on the English spoken
by the Indian user. Such words express an Indian style of living and are not

included in other varieties of English such as British, American, Australian,

Singaporean, South African etc. Some part of the vocabulary of every variety of
Notes English would thus inevitably be culture bound.
At the same time, when English is spoken in India some words will be used
differently. In the so-called native varieties of English(such as British, American
etc.) the words ‘uncle’ and ‘aunt’ are used only to refer to familial relationships
like – mama, masi, bua, fuufaa etc but when Indians use these words they also
use them to refer to elders, neighbors, shopkeepers, friends of parents, bus drivers
etc. We also shorten groups of words like ‘address of welcome’, ‘members of the
family’, ‘bunch of keys’, ‘box of matches’ as ‘welcome address’, ‘family
member’, ‘key bunch’, and ‘match box’. Similarly, while native English varieties
contain the word ‘postpone’, the word ‘prepone’ is only a part of Indian English,
although it is now widely understood and often appreciated. Indian English also
contains various phrases which are not found in any native variety of English
like ‘pin-drop silence’, ‘change of heart’, ‘each and every’, ‘do the needful’ etc.
The importance given to people higher in rank is also expressed in a variety of

address forms, signing off forms and phrases used in formal communications
used in Indian English which are not a part of varieties of some other varieties:
Respected sir
Draw your kind attention to
To bring to your kind notice
Thus, using words from the languages already known for various concepts/ objects
etc., which do not have any equivalents in the second language, using words of
the second language differently and coining new words and phrases based on the
environment in which the language is being spoken are natural processes when
two different languages and cultures come in contact with each other. They cannot
be termed as interference which connotes a negative transfer from the first
language to the second language.

1. Where do we find phrases like ‘pin-drop silence’, ‘change of heart’, ‘each
and every’?
(a) Indigenous English (b) Indian English
(c) American English (d) Australian English

2. What is the main difference between the sentences of Hindi and English?
................................................................................................................... Notes
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...................................................................................................................
3. ‘India’s cultural and social aspects are clearly visible in Indian English.’
Give examples to prove the above statement.
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Phonology
English spoken in different parts of the world does not sound the same. A British
speaking English sounds very different from an American speaking English. An
Australian sounds different from both the American and the British and an Indian
sounds different from all three. The same is true for Hindi spoken in different
parts of the country, for example, it would not be very difficult to tell whether the
person speaking Hindi is from Bengal, Bihar or Tamil Nadu.
This is not because the vocabulary and grammar of the language being spoken
by people from the different regions is different but because they sound different
to our ears. There are several reasons for this. One is being discussed here-
The second language that we learn may have sounds that are not present in the
first language. For example, a native English speaker uses two different sounds
to pronounce the first letters of the words ‘van’ and ‘watch’ but a Hindi speaker
of English pronounces both words with the same ‘v’ sound. Similarly, Hindi
speakers will invariably pronounce the word ‘treasure’ or ‘measure’ as ‘treazure’
and ‘meazure’ as they do not have an equivalent sound for the ‘Z’ in the two
words.
Similar things would be true for native speakers of English when they are trying
to learn Hindi. They would find it extremely difficult to say words like khargosh,
ghar, chhatrii, jharnaa, thelaa, phuul, bhaaluu etc and might pronounce them as
kargosh, gar, chatrii, jarnaa, telaa, puul, baaluu, gar respectively. This is because
the sounds kh, gh, ch, jh, th, ph and bh are not available in English. The same
would be true for words starting with T, Th, D, Dh as these sounds are also not
available in English.

(khargosh- rabbit, ghar-house, chhatrii-umbrella, jharnaa- stream, thelaa-bag,

phuul-flower, bhaaluu- bear)
Notes
Thus, phonology is an area where we can actually see an interference of the first
language. One thing that affects the learner’s ability to grapple with the sounds
of a language is her age. With time our jaws get fixed and it becomes difficult for
us to produce certain sounds. Also the capacities of our brain to comprehend
new sounds diminish after a certain age. Children pick up sounds of the second
language up to the age of puberty i.e., by the time language gets specialized in
the left hemisphere of the brain. In fact, if you place an Indian child of about 3-
4 years in an English speaking nation like America or Britain and provide him
opportunity to interact with English speaking children, the child would sound
like an American or British child in a matter of a few months.

1. Why does a native English speaker find it difficult to say ‘khargosh’?
(a) this word is not found in English
(b) ‘kh’ sound is not present in English
(c) doesn’t want to speak Hindi
(d) does not try to learn.
2. Why do we find it difficult to speak out sounds that are not present in our
environment after a certain age?
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...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
3. Listen to any TV channel or radio station from Britan or America. Does

the English that you hear on these channels sound similar to the English
spoken on an Indian channel or station? Make a similar comparison of
the Hindi spoken on a regional channel say a Bengali channel or a Punjabi
channel with that of a channel which has country-wide viewership. Does
the Hindi spoken on all these channels sound the same?
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...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................

3.4 METHODS OF LANGUAGE-TEACHING

Notes
Methods of language-teaching have been influenced by a variety of extant social,
political and psychological factors. Prominent among these are the ‘needs of
society at a particular point of time’, ‘an understanding of what language is’ and
an ‘understanding of how children learn’.
3.4.1 GRAMMAR TRANSLATION METHOD

It is the oldest method that has been used for teaching language and is still
commonly used. The main objective of teaching language through this method
is developing proficiency to read literature in the target language and write in it.
Students are expected to memorise rules of grammar and vocabulary lists and
translate from the base language to the target language and vice versa with the
support of teachers. The biggest limitation of this method is that the children do
not acquire proficiency in listening and speaking the language.
The methods that came to be commonly used after this method gave more attention
to listening and speaking. These methods were- Direct Method and Audio Lingual
Method. These methods developed not only to give more attention to listening
and speaking skills and as a response to the grammar translation method but also
as an echo of the understanding that had developed in linguistics that the basic
form of language is speech and only few languages are found to have written
forms. This was also the time that the Second World War had given rise to the
need for many translators, spies, code room assistants etc., who were fluent in
many languages. Thus, these methods emphasise listening and speaking. In the
Audio-lingual method, dialogue became a primary unit of teaching.
The discovery of the tape-recorder and language laboratories helped in the use of
this method. Given below is the example of a dialogue used in the Audio-lingual
method.
Kamal: What is your name?
Geeta: My name is Geeta. What is yours?
Kamal: My name is Kamal. Geeta, where do you live?
Geeta: I live in Ashok Vihar. Where do you live?
Kamal: I live in Rajendra Nagar.
It is now important to talk about the modern methods of teaching language- the
Communicative Method and the Natural Approach.

3.4.4 COMMUNICATIVE METHOD

Notes Communicative Method is affected by the various researches that have been
undertaken in linguistics. Socio-linguistics made it clear that acquiring language
does not mean learning only the structure of language but also learning how to
use language appropriately according to context. It was natural that methods of
language teaching that were affected by these ideas made ‘communication in
context’ the basis of teaching language. If we teach using this method then chapters
look like this– ‘At the railway station’, ‘With the Doctor’, ‘In a Job’ etc.
3.4.5 NATURAL APPROACH

This method gives maximum attention to the fact that in language teaching the
focus should not be on the teacher or the teaching-learning material but on the
learner (student). This fact was also affected by researches done in linguistics.
From these researches it also became clear that making mistakes is an essential
step in the process of acquiring language. On analyzing these errors it was also
found that these errors are in fact indicators of a child’s knowledge and learning
process.
These researches also tried to prove that children have innate ability to acquire
language from birth. A 4-year old internalizes the rules of her language and does
not make mistakes in speaking even before entering school. That is why the
Natural Approach focuses on giving the child a tension free environment for
learning language as well as providing interesting and challenging teaching–
learning material of her level.

1. What is the focus of the Direct Method?
(a) translation (b) contextual use language
(c) children (d) accuracy in speaking
2. Which is the oldest method of teaching language? What are its limitations?
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
3. Today which language teaching method is used commonly and why?
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................
4. Create an interesting dialogue to teach language through the Audio
Notes
Lingual Method.
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
3.5 LET US SUM UP

• Children learn the first language from their environment without any explicit
teaching i.e., without going to schools or reading books.
• Children have an innate ability to acquire language. They acquire more
than one language proficiently if it is present in their environment. Therefore,
children do not learn language by just imitating adults.
• Children acquire language naturally between 2-14 years. This period is thus
referred to as the critical period for acquiring language. After this period it
is difficult to learn language so naturally and as a native speaker, particularly
if our focus is on pronunciation. Grammar and vocabulary may be learnt at
any age if adequate exposure is available.
• The Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area in the left hemisphere of the human
brain, are responsible for language related activities. These areas are
responsible for speech production and speech comprehension respectively.
Damage in these areas affects language acquisition.
• While learning language children go through various stages such as cooing,
babbling, one word stage, two word stage, etc.
• Explicit teaching may be important in learning a second language. However,
the second language can also be learnt as we learn the first language if the
child gets a language rich environment during her critical period.
• ‘Comprehensible input’ and a ‘natural and communication friendly
environment’ play an important role in acquiring second language.
• In the teaching of second languages, in addition to contexualised meaning,
a focus on grammar may also help a great deal.
• In second language learning accuracy and fluency increase with time.
• Children’s motivation, self confidence, curiosity and attitude towards
learning language play an important role in language acquisition.

• Our first language does not interfere in the learning of the second language.
Notes
Aitchison, J. (1979). The articulate mammal: An introduction to psycholinguistics.
London: Hutchinson & Co.
Aitchison, J. (2003). Teach yourself linguistics. United Kingdom: Hodder &
Stoughton Ltd
Agnihori, R.K. (2007). Towards a pedagogical paradigm rooted in multilinguality.
International Multilingual Research Journal 1.2: 1-10.
Agnihori, R.K & Khanna, A.L. (eds.)(1994).Second language acquisition. New
Delhi: Sage Publications.
Cook,V. (2008). Second language learning and language teaching. United
Kingdom: Hodder Education
Krashen,S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition.
Pergamon Press Inc.
McGregor, W. (2009). Linguistics: An introduction. London: Continuum
International Publishing Group.
Richards, J.C & Rodgers, T.S. (1995). Approaches and methods in language
teaching. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Yule,G. (2006). The study of langauge. India : Cambridge University Press.

1. What are the differences and similarities between language learning and
language acquisition?
2. Think of the role a rich language environment plays in first language
acquisition.
3. How does the biological adaptation of the human body help in learning
language?
4. Explain with an example (of a conversation) that children do not learn
language by imitation.
5. What is the importance of the ‘critical period’ in acquiring language?
6. What is the difference between telegraphic speech and holophrastic speech?

7. If children are provided with a language rich environment for the second
language can they also acquire the second language as they have acquired
the first language? If yes, explain how? Notes
8. Discuss the various methods and tools to learn second language.

9. Do you believe that our first language does not interfere in the learning of
second language? Explain with logical arguments.
10. Which part of the brain is responsible for language related activities? What
are the functions of Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area?
11. List the advantages and limitations of the different methods of teaching
language while discussing them in short.

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DIPLOMA IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OPEN SCHOOLING

Sr. No. Unit Name Page No.

1. Unit 1: What is Language? 1

2. Unit 2: Indian Languages 17

3. Unit 3: Language Learning and Teaching 35

UNIT 1 WHAT IS LANGUAGE?

1.1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1.2 IMPORTANCE AND SCOPE OF LANGUAGE

Check Your Progress-1

Block 1 : Understanding Language 3

1.3 LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR

1.3.1 STRUCTURE OF SOUND SYSTEM

4 Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed)

that language in certain sequence by the age of 4 or 5? Let us imagine a situation

Block 1 : Understanding Language 5

C3 can only be /y/, /r/, /l/ and / v/ sounds

1.3.2 WORD FORMATION

6 Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed)

1.3.3 SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION

Block 1 : Understanding Language 7

12. laRkiyaaN khel rahiiN thiiN

Notes 13. laRki ne khaanaa khaayaa

• raam khaanaa khaataa hai

8 Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed)

1.3.4 DISCOURSE STRUCTURE

Check Your Progress-2

Block 1 : Understanding Language 9

1.4 STANDARD LANGUAGE

Check Your Progress-3

10 Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed)

1.5 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF

Block 1 : Understanding Language 11

Check your Progess-4

1.6 THE SOCIAL ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE

12 Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed)

Check Your Progress-5

1.7 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Block 1 : Understanding Language 13

of language at the level of sound, word formation, sentence structure as it is used

Check Your Progress-6

1.8 LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

14 Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed)

Check Your Progress-7

Block 1 : Understanding Language 15

1.9 LET US SUM UP

1.10 SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES

16 Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed)

Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct. London: Allen Lane.

Vandyopadhyay, P. and Agnihotri, R.K. (2000). Bhaashaa: bahubhaashitaa aur

1.11 UNIT-END EXERCISES

Block 1 : Understanding Language 17

UNIT 2 INDIAN LANGUAGES

2.1 Learning Objectives

2.2 Linguistic Diversity in India

2.2.1 A picture of India’s linguistic diversity

2.2.2 Language Families of India and India as a Linguistic Area

2.3 What does the Indian Constitution say about Languages?

2.4 Categories of Languages in India