Teaching of EST in Indian Conditions - R.S.Sharma
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Teaching English for science and technology (EST) in India suffers from drawbacks such as unrelated courses/methods, poor teaching materials, and underqualified teachers. To address this, EST teaching needs a new orientation focusing on student needs analysis, understanding the structure of technical English and materials, and teacher expertise in applied linguistics. Properly analyzing student profiles and equipping teachers with relevant knowledge can help improve EST education in India.
Teaching of EST in Indian Conditions - R.S.Sharma
- 2. Teaching of EST in Indian Conditions – R.S.Sharma Prepared by Vaidehi Hariyani (Research Scholar) Department of English,MKBU #Semester3 #MA
- 3. Overview • Teaching EST (English for Science and Technology) in India suffers from certain drawbacks: courses and methods are unrelated to the specific needs of the students, teaching materials are not based on an analysis of the scientific sub-register and the teachers are ill- equipped. • How to overcome these drawbacks??????? • This approach involves a new kind of orientation of the teacher.
- 5. EST (English for Science and Technology) EAP (English for Academic Purpose) EGAP (English for General Academic Purpose) ESAP (English for Specific Academic Purpose)
- 6. Reasons for the drawbacks • EST has a direct bearing on India’s modernization and progress. • EST learners’ Communicative Competence in English is not achieved to a considerable extent. • Learner’s chief concern will be academic for three or four years, hence the basic needs are to acquire knowledge from text-books and scientific journals. • There’s a scarcity of resources in mother tongue and regional languages.
- 7. Three Important aspects to understand the problem Need analysis Structure of technical English and technical material Expertise
- 8. Need Analysis • The learner’s profile suggests that he has been admitted to First Year B.sc or B.tech through an admission test, possess intelligence and attainment above the average. • He knows some basic English that is why they could crack such exam, but now requires remedial work and improvement. • For next 4 to 5 years the learner’s chief concern will be academic. • His basic need is an ability to gather scientific knowledge found in the text-books and scientific journal, as the materials is not available in regional language.
- 9. • First year consists mainly of Applied Science – Physics, Chemistry and Mathematic. He is aware of this, but he has no knowledge of technical and Engineering subjects. • Now looking at this analysis, the learner’s need two abilities. • 1.) Reading and comprehension of technical texts written in English. • 2.) Writing of technical English.
- 10. Structure of Technical English and Teaching Materials • It should be in a systematized in manner. • Technical writing is essential. • • Technical English (T.E.) is based on technical vocabulary. • Technical language follows the principles of economy and conciseness; it therefore avoids peripherals and rhetorical expression, lying emphasis on directness rather than figurative communication. • Semantically, the language is referential and denotative without any emotive overtones. i.e. Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry
- 11. • A word is needed about material for practice, exercise, and testing. This will also naturally be based on the corpus. • • Careful analysis of Indian learner is essential. • He further explain this with some examples from his book Technical English. • There are four kinds of books of T.E which are called First Generation books suggested by experts.
- 12. Experts General English Course on grammar T.E by Foreign authors Have to be designed as per needs of the students Simplifi ed Science
- 13. Expertise and Training • Teachers of EST must have good command over English and • some acquaintance of science is also required or should be from Science background. • • T.E. is a situational variety of English. In order to handle it properly in the class, a teacher requires some knowledge of register and style. • Therefore, expertise in applied linguistics is the third requirement. Contrastive linguistics and error analysis, both of which form part of applied linguistics, will offer a great deal of advantage to the EST teacher.
- 14. • They will help him in turning the focus on the salient features and areas where error is mostly likely. • It is well-known that the knowledge of the mother-tongue interferes with the learning of a foreign or second language. • This applies to EST also and in this regard the Indian situation is quite complex because of a number of regional languages. L1 interface errors, errors made by English medium students.
- 15. Sum Up • The teacher of EST who can plan his work properly and shrewdly, make the right kind of remarks and ask the right kind of questions – never attempting to deliver a “lecture” will pick up a good deal of science in the course of teaching. • The students don’t mind that he does not know everything of science; they don’t mind even his occasional blunders and eagerly volunteer information, turning the classroom situations into a cooperative activity marked by lively give-and-take. • This is however cannot be used as an excuse for not acquiring the basic concepts and ideas of science.