Mind your language, The Hindu, Hyderabad 9Jul06

Clinton Rae from Trinity College London feels that English should be taught from a young age

"The beauty of the English language is its adaptability," feels Clinton Rae, director of language examinations, Trinity College, London, while talking to the media about the recent trends in testing of English language skill and benefits of international language certification for Indian students. And to think, how true is this statement. Every country, including ours, has moulded that language the way it wants.

"Language should be taught well from a very young age. That's the reason we aim our courses at school children irrespective of which school or place they belong to," emphasis Rae who was in town to promote ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) examinations conducted by Trinity College since 2004. "Here you have this concept of `by hearting' lessons. This habit doesn't exist in the UK. Language is about ability and not about mere knowledge," he adds.

How different does he find the Indian English compared to the one spoken in the UK? "I don't think there's much gap."

Joe Tun Sein, consultant, examinations division, Orient Longman, which is the National Manager for ESOL, explains, "The quality of English has gone down considerably in India, both spoken as well as written. May be because regionalism and regional languages are strong here."

Shallow learning

But with the advent of the BPO and ITES culture, English language has taken a different meaning altogether. Three months to six months of training and the employees are expected to perfect the language irrespective of which background they come from. And Clinton is not very appreciative of this trend. "This is a very shallow way of learning. It doesn't allow one to delve into the details. To speak a language the right way, one needs to understand and know its grammar. It doesn't matter which accent you speak in, if you can't speak it correctly," he points out.

He feels that unlike many countries, India has a lot of advantages when it comes to English. "The language is quite widely used in the country and is part of the syllabus of most schools. We just need to take it from there and make it better," says Clinton, who is on his second visit to India.

MANGALA RAMAMOORTHY