English language teaching has undergone tremendous changes over the years, especially the last ten years. During the last decade, various crucial factors have combined to affect the current ideologies of teaching of English such as the ineffective methodologies, unsuitable materials, and integration of contextualized teaching, over emphasis on multi language skills.
Teachers who practiced Grammar Translation method during the previous decade relied on black board as the apt tool to impart communication skills and the nuances of English language. Later on, over head projectors, acted as another medium for the teacher dominated class room. Such teachers believed in the dictum of drill and practice. Researchers had given more emphasis on authentic and meaningful contextualized discourse. Then, they focused on a successful adult second language learning as a parallel process to a child’s first language acquisition. With the advent of e-communication, it has been made possible for the English language teachers to enrich their profession. Basically, the teacher controls the instructional process, the content is delivered to the entire class and the teacher tends to emphasize factual knowledge.
The process of English communication learning will be more student-centered but less time consuming. Therefore, it promises that the teaching quality will be improved and students’ applied English communication can be effectively cultivated, meaning that students’ communicative competence will be further developed. Language in education would ideally and ordinarily build on such naturally acquired language ability, enriching it through the development of literacy into an instrument for abstract thought and the acquisition of academic knowledge. Teachers use a range of local texts or English translation of literature in the classroom. The use of language as well as the use of a variety of accents in listening activities or tests is encouraged in the English language classroom. With the proliferation of tablets and smart phones, it is believed that textbooks will disappear in a few years. Furthermore, the access to knowledge in terms of flexibility and mobility has changed drastically. Teaching in English language classes focuses on fostering the students thinking as well as language content, outcomes and learning activities. There are significant and complex student-teacher interactions inside and outside the classroom.
New trends in English language teaching like interactive approach of teaching English is develop as a result of sustain research by the central board of secondary education. To interact means to communicate which each other during interaction. Its means give the information, thoughts unknown to receiver.
Web based learning is one of the fastest developing areas. There are thousands of English web based classes that offer trainings for a variety of basic language skills such as Learning, Speaking, Reading and Writing and are made interactive in a variety of ways. Some of the common technologies a available for promotion of education are as follows: The students can correspond with native speakers of the target language using a email by creating a personal email account (g-mail, yahoo, hotmail, etc) which is free.
The students can mail their home work to the teachers concerned and get it corrected in turn. The teacher can also provide revisions, feedback, suggestions for the betterment of every work and send them back. A blog is a personal or professional journal frequently updated for public consumption. The blogs enable uploading and linking the files which is very much suited to serve as on line personal journals for students. Blogging becomes communicative and interactive when participants assume multiple roles in the writing process, as readers/reviewers who respond to other writer’s posts, and as writers-readers who, returning to their own posts, react to criticism of their own posts. The readers in turn can comment on what they read, although blogs can be placed in secured environments as well.
Every internet service has audio functions, and technological instruments like laptops with cameras. The students could communicate with their teachers and friends who are far away. Likewise, they could very well communicate with the speakers of native language and get their pronunciation checked so as to improve their speaking. Learners can search for new words using dictionary option in the mobile phones and enrich their vocabulary. They may verify the spelling pronunciations and usage of the specific word they searched for. Moreover, they can use Short Message Service (SMS) to send queries to their instructors and get their doubts cleared. IPods’, one of the multimedia devices, enhance to users to generate, deliver, exchange texts, image, audio and video scripts as per the requirement. The teachers send text messages and the students can read and answer to them.
Technology is also changing the classroom experience. In addition, tablet PCs, compact computer that allow you to write notes directly onto the screen with a special pen, replace the archaic projector. With the tablet technology allow professor to make notes on charts and spreadsheets and send them directly to their student’s PCs.
The traditional method lays more emphasis on a teacher himself and is teacher centered. Repetitive practice, mechanical drills and memorization are the hallmarks of the traditional methods. Role of the teacher is to pertain to the long cherished traditional notion that pedagogic principles depend on how articulately a teacher teaches. It is imperative to understand the current trends and evaluative methods of the ELT.
The researchers believe that the ore objective of teaching is passing on the information or knowledge to the minds of the students. Any method using computers or modifying the existing conventional chalk-talk method are innovative if they ultimately serve the attainment of core objective of teaching.
Bibliography:
1. Elley, Warwick: „What have we Learned?”, International Journal of Educational Research 2001
2. Krashen, Stephen.” We acquire vocabulary and spelling by reading”, Additional evidence for the input hypothesis, Cambridge University Press,1989
3. Nagaraj, Geetha. English Language Teaching Approaches, Methods, Techniques II edition. Orient Black Swan Hyderabad, 1996.