What is the difference between ESL - EFL - ESOL?

What the difference between ESL, EFL and ESOL?
A common question is what is the difference between ESL and EFL?
ESL - English as a Second Language - it is a term used when English is taught in a country where English is not the country's first language. ESL is usually taught by teachers whose native language is English.
EFL - English as a Foreign Language - Is a term used when English is taught in a country where English is not the country's first language. EFL is usually taught by teachers whose native language is not English.

THEORY OF LEARNING

Cognivitism Theory
By Jaishree

pune

Because of all the limitations of behaivouristic theory, a new theory of Cognitivism came into existence. Obviously it is reaction to behaivouristic theory. Cognitivism is a theory of language learning emerged after 1960’s.

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The Behaviourist said that if there is a stimulus, there should be response. But according to cognitivist, something must mediate between the stimulus and response i.e cognitive function.

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Cognitive FunctionCognitive means thinking ability. It is connected with mental process of understanding.Cognitive theory assigns central role to mind. So mind is a cognitive map. When the learns mind react to the teaching then learning takes place. Though there is stimulus, the learners think about that for sometime, the learners give response to that. So Cognitivism theory doesn’t have mechanical approach towards learning. That’s why it modifies behaivouristic theory and give crucial importance to persons mind.Experiment:-There are monkey in the cage. They all are very hungry. Bananas are suspended to ceilings, but at very high point. The monkeys don’t know how to reach to bananas.There is a popular phrase “set back thought” same like that one of the monkeys go back, think about that and solve the problem.Only monkeys mind wants to solve the problem, only thy put the pieces of woods together and reach towards the bananas. From this experiment psychologist conclude that if animals can think to solve their problems, then human being also can do. So they conclude that human minds play very important role in solving the problem i.e learning.If you observe the cat, before jumping from a wall, or from high positions, they do first observe spot carefully and think and then jump.Dictionary of Applied Linguistic gives definition of Cognitivism as,“Branch of psychology which deals with study of nature and learning of system of knowledge, particularly those involved in the thought, perception, comprehension, memory and learning.Perception- attitude, comprehension, understanding.For Cognitivism only stimulus is not important but all other factors i.e thought, perception, comprehension, memory and learning are very important. So other name for Cognitivism theory are mentalist or rationalistic approach.Noam Chomsky made this theory very popular. He is interested in studying the relationships between language and human mind. According to Chomsky whenever there is a problem, a lot of transaction takes place into the mind.In a very short span of time human brain is very active. So several thoughts, ideas come to human mind, into very short time i.e. very important.

Input-------------------------- ------------------Output(utterances that the child produces)(Utterances that a child hears)

See in this diagram, with limited amount of input, a child can produce unlimited utterances . So his mind plays a very important role.

Implications of Cognitivism theory to the Teachers and Learners:

1) In Cognitivism theory there is a great appeal to the learners intelligence. There is a lot of scope for creativity. In this theory learners are motivate to do experiments with language. They have given the opportunity to discover meaning everything was not told by the teacher.

2) Cognitivism theory believes that learning is a matter of perception and insight formation. The learner is motivated to discover new rules, do experiments so the learners’ role/there contribution is very important. In this theory teachers have to follow the inductive method, no deductive method. In inductive method of teaching, students are encouraged to find rules from given examples, but in deductive method teachers proved ready made information. But teachers always think that students are very weak to analyze the rule. Cognitivism theory gives a lot of scope to enrich the learner’s intelligence, thinking ability. In modern education system teachers are givers of and students are takers. So there is need to modify this method. Behaviourist believes that teaching is a stimulus but Cognitivism think it as creative process, so human mind has to be considered and motivated.

3) Errors are welcomed in Cognitivism theory. Mistake is stepping towards success. So everything you learn by committing mistake, they are considered to be inevitable. If you want to master something then you have to make mistake. By using trial and error method, learners can learn. So get multiple interpretations. There is no punishment to the students. The student also can use problem-solving method. If they have problems, then they can reach to the solutions.

4) According to Cognitivism theory learns should be active, or they should not be passive or only recipient student mind should be involved in the process. If the students involved in the process of teaching and learn then they can easily understand the text. If the discussions are on the students’ problem, then they should be involved in the discussions.

5) Motivate to form hypothesis: According to Cognitivism theory, students/learns have to play the role of monitor means they have to do self-corrections and generalizations, which is very important. This theory believes that mere drilling is mechanical or unproductive; students can’t learn everything by drilling/repetition/repeated exercise. So it will be mechanical/unproductive. In this theory teachers have to play the role of a coordinator and students have to understand errors and correct them. According to Cognitivism theory students have to understand or be satisfied with teaching and if he/she feel, they should be allowed to make self-corrections.

6) According to Cognitivism theory teachers have to play multiple roles i.e co-coordinator, facilitator (to help), motivator, counselor, friend and guide etc. In modern days teachers are only lecturers but Cognitivism expands the role of a teacher.

7) In behaivouristic framework learners are expected to learn language item by item. But Cognitivism believes that, human mind is very sensitive, so lots of thinking is going on in the mind so they don’t move from item to item. IN this theory teachers try to establish links and connections among topics so Cognitivism helps to make teaching more flexible. According to Cognitivism human mind can go at one point and again return back old point. So while teaching new topics teacher can return or revisit old topics

Limitations of Cognitivism theory:

1) Time consuming method. It gives lots of importance to students, their thinking ability, students are motivated to do experiment with language. So a lot of time is needed for this.

2) Cognitivism theory is not useful in larger classes. If there are large numbers of student, then it is not possible to think about every individual student to do experiment.3) Adopting Cognitivism theory is very difficult, because this theory expects a lot from teachers. For this theory teachers have to creative. Unfortunately our teachers are not more creative and well equipped. Cognitivism theory is ideal but the problem is with our teachers it demands more from teachers. But as a teacher we have to follow the right approach and combine both theories.

INDIANNESS OF INDIAN ENGLISH POETRY

INIDIANNESS OF INDIAN ENGLISH POETRY,

By Litton Prosad Mowalie,Pune

Indian English PoetryIndian English Literature is an endeavour of showcasing the rare gems of Indian writing in English. From native explosion, Indian English has become a new from of Indian culture, and voice in which Indian speaks out to the outside world. Poets, novelists, essayists, dramatists have been making significant contributions to world literature. In the post Independence era, and the past few years have seen a massive flourishing of Indian English writing in the form of poetry and prose.The British who came to India in the 17th Century brought their culture and religion. These two social forces are so influential that their impacts are still found in Indian literature. We still come across many pinches of foreign test in our Indian Literature. As a result, most of our earlier writers tried their hands in the manipulation of English as a medium of expressions and many were successful and have got good reputation till today.One of the prominent personality Vilas Sarang comments that the Pre-Independence writings were very limited in production because the Indian English poets were too derivative and tried to be “English” poets instead of letting the Englishness or the Indianness to take care of it. The problem faced by Indian English poet in the early stage was the process of publication of their work. His works published by different publishers; hardly one poet can publish one or two volume consecutively.Since Independence, the poets freed themselves from the clutches of Englishness and started writing in a very Indian manner, which gives high impetus on Indian Literature. Indian English poetry has marked a very promising bright future in the field of literature.Indianness of Indian English PoetryIntroduction:Indian English poetry is very different from its western counter part in the theme, language, style of writing, imagery etc. Every writer has source of inspiration of influence. It is this source that makes Indian English Poetry ‘Indian’. Indian writers are very much influenced by the Indian culture and customs, traditions etc. The writer also writes for Indian audience, so it has to have an Indian appeal, which is likable to all people. The writers also write for non-Indian audiences, and to them the feature of Indianness makes it exotic and gives a deep feeling and experience of real India.Indian poetry in English is said to have begun with Henry Louis Vivian Derzio who was not only poet but also a teacher of poetry. He was an Indian in the sense because his mother was an Indian, his father was a Portuguese. He inherited a great love for India from his mother, and from his father a strong prejudice against Hindus and Hinduism. His writings were criticized for being too western and Christian in outlook to think and write as an Indian, yet his writing has stirred many English-educated to write poetry. His poem such as the ‘harp of India’ shows his interests for India.Indianness is an element of the poem, which shows India through its language, imagery, sensibility or anything, which makes the Indian as ‘Indian’. Indianness in a poem is something that is not really definable yet remains a very remarkable character in Indian poems. Indianness can be defined in terms of what and how Indians are and what makes them what they are.Definition:It is easy to say that being Indian poets, our poets create Indianness in their poetry. However, it is not easy to define Indianness clearly. Yet, the simple meaning can be sated as follows.Simply speaking, Indianness is the quality, which must be present in the great works of all Indian writers. Prof. David McCutchion defines “Indianness” as “life-attitudes” and “modes of perception”. Prof. V.K. Gokak Defines Indianness as “ a composite awareness in the matter of race, milieu, language and religion”. Similarly, according to Paul Vergese, “ Indianness is nothing but depiction of Indian culture. Thus, Indianness is the sum total of cultural patterns of India, deep rooted in ideas and ideas which form the minds of India”Qualities of Indianness in Indian English PoetryIndian Poets writing in English around fifties have produced a fairly voluminous body of verse that is often deeply rooted in the traditional Indian sensibility and is yet strikingly modern in expression. The question of Indianness is not merely a question of the material of poetry, or even sensibility, it is tied up with the factor called the audience. Indian English poets write for Indian audience, but they also write quite inevitably, for non-Indian, western audience. Thus, consciously or unconsciously they cannot help using their Indianness at least some of the time, in some way, to a greater or lesser extent. This had become a way of identifying oneself for the early Indian English poets, even the best modern Indian English poets continue to exploit ‘Indianness’, but in a more subtle and sophisticated manner.Every human being is influenced by the environment, culture and tradition of his time and place. Just as western poets show their culture Indian English poets also show the same characteristic. Indian English poets such as A.K Ramanujan depict the Hindu tradition of Cremation and the process of throwing the ashes in the river in ‘ The Obituary’“Being the burning type,he burned properlyat the cremation”.It is easier for a writer to write about what he sees and hears. Like William Wordsworth who wrote about the ‘daffodils’ after he saw thousands of daffodils in a valley, he is inspired to write a poem by what he saw. Likewise Kamala Das saw wrote ‘the dance of the eunuchs’ when she saw them dancing on the streets of Calcutta. Wordsworth had stated, “ Poetry is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, recollected in tranquility”. For an Indian English poet living in India what else would touch the emotion other than India and the things happening in and around it? Therefore, Indianness can be found in their poems by default.The best that a poet can hope to do is try to be as natural and honest as possible, and to concentrate upon the poetical enrichment of material, and not to be content with the decorative use of Indian imagery. More important than the level of material, the imagery, the detail, is the level of sensibility. An Indian English poet expressing an Indian sensibility will speak more authentically and achieve greater depth and possibly greatness, than by assuming cosmopolitan stance.Now that the Indian English poet is writing in a foreign language, which was adopted and used by Indians in a very small percentage, mostly for formal, official or professional purpose, and it is not really a language of the streets. It has been observed that Indians tends to use English that are outdated and wooden. Due to this the poets also have to write in a language, which the reader will understand and will feel to be real. This makes it interesting for the non-Indian reader because it gives the Indian experience more vividly and makes it exotic. Poems such as “ The Railway Clerk’ by Nissim Ezekiel makes intensive use of English as it is used by Indians. The suffix,’-ing’ is used in a wrong manner unnecessarily; this is very typical for Indian users of English. And the sentence constructions are not up to the standard use of language but the way Indians use. It is not that the poet is not able to write in good English but to show how Indians use English and the poet used it as a vehicle for humor and satire. Yet through the language we can find the Indianness of the poem. Indians writing their poems in such a language maybe attributed to the fact that most ‘educated Indians’ are ‘Bilingual’ or ‘Multilingual’ and they hear a lot of language, other than English around them, as there are many different other languages in India. There are many prominent Indian English writer who also write in their own language. A.K Ramanujan has published two collections of verse in Kanada and translated some from Kanada to ancient Tamil. Kamala Das has written prose in Malayalam. In any case the poet’s other language will surely affect to the greater or lesser extent the way he or she writes. And the use of Indian words in their poems is also prominent due to ‘Bilingualism’. And all this attributes contribute towards the Indianness of English.Indian poet cannot help but to exploit Indianness in their poems. Indian English poets increasingly feel the need to evolve an Indian Idiom, and not stick to British rule of correctness. The poet may like to write about the superstitions of crows or those details about the cow but in the readers mind he may do it for exotic appeal to non-Indian readers, even though the poet may be able to justify his Indian material for poetic reason. The validity of Indian English poetry depends on the creation of a new idiom- Indian English Idiom which is distinct from the idioms of the writers all over the world who write in English. There is a demand as it were in the past for the creation of an Indian English idiom to give authenticity and identity to post nineteen-sixty Indian poetry in English. It is a fact that recent poets like Nissim Ezekiel, Kamala Das, Shiv K. Kumar Daruwalla and a few others have succeeded to some extent in creating a new Idiom for Indian English. For example, Ezekiel uses a number of Indian words like “guru, goonda, burkha, chapatti, pan” etc. These obviously make it more Indian in sensibility.Somehow a reader is always able to find what the Indian poet writes as ‘Indian’ because the Indian poets are tuned to be Indian consciously or unconsciously. Any other Indian poets in their own language are free from this entrapment. This is due to the fact that an Indian poet writing in English will be compared to its western counterpart and therefore its differences are noted. An Indian writer cannot escape being Indian in His writing because he is an Indian.Indianness can also have positive effect for a writer. An Indian reader would prefer to read a poem that they can relate to, while at the same time, the same poem will be read by a western reader, will have the Indian effect and exoticness of the eastern world. A reader will be able to identify the poem as a work of an Indian.Indianness can also have a negative effect. Readers from the west maybe confused with the Indian usage of English. It is to be noted that Indian English have not achieve a status of its own yet. C.B Cox notes that “ We now accept that American English has a character of its own,’ and that is the result of “ a tradition of great American literature. Indian English has yet to achieve this status…this creation of living language, a truly Indian English, is the task of the novelist and the poet”.Indian poets have a certain disadvantages when writing in English, but poets always have ways of coping with handicaps, and sometime talents performs brilliantly with one hand tied at the back. And Indian poets are still able to perform brilliantly in spite of many handicaps.

Indianness: Illustrations from the Prominent Poets:

1) Jayanta Mahapatra:All the prescribed poems of Jayanta Mahapatra deal with the Orian Landscape and possess Indian sensibility.

In “Dawn at Puri”, Mahapatra underlines the importance of Puri and what it means to the Hindus. Women wish to die at Puri to attain salvation.

Mahapatra writes:

“ her last wish to be cremated here

twisting uncertainly like lighton the shifting sands”

The other points like the worshipping of the widows and their rites, crow’s cawing and the skull indicating poverty of India etc.bear Indianness

The poem “Exile” also presents about an Indian man. The village near the sun burnt hills, dead bodies burning on pyres, the protagonist’s ailing parents, the long-haired priest, the logic of good and evil etc. depict Orian and Indian life. The key lines that reveal Indianness are the following:

“Where a country’s ghostPull my eyes towards birth

It is an obscure relative I’ve never seen”.

The Lines express the protagonist’s or the poet’s hope for renaissance or renewal of past glory of India.Thus Jayanta Mahapatra’s landscape theme includes all Indian spirit or sensibility and search for roots themes.

2) A.K. Ramanujan:Prominent poet A.K.Ramanujan’s poetry also bears the note of Indianness. Indian sensibility can be called one of the themes of his poetry. The Indian sensibility of Ramanujan is sharpened by his Western education and environment. Ramanujan portrays the Indian scene from across the Atlantic with complete artistic detachment and irony.In his Poem “ A River” – he talks about a river. A river is Indian in theme and location. The place is Madhurai and particularly Vaikai River. The description of the Vaikai reminds us any Indian river. The straw and women’s hair clogging the Watergates, the stones like buffaloes and crocodiles etc are Indian images. The names of the cows taken away by the flood, Gopi and Brinda are typically Indian. The Tamil poet belongs to India. And the Poet’s style bears Indian sensibility.“Obituary” another poem by Ramanujan is also entirely Indian in every sense. The very idea of legacy is Indian. The things left by dead father are essentially Indian. The English used by the poet is also typically Indian.

3) Nissim Ezekiel:The notable poet Nissim Ezekiel too brings out the quality of Indianness in many of his poems. In his poem “ The Railway Clerk”, the poet brings out the terms of relationships between the railway clerk and his wife. The poet writes the words of the clerk as follows. The clerk says,

“ My wife is always asking for more money.

Money, money, where to get money?”

This kind of expression and relationships are only possible in India, Thus it shows the Indian situation very clearly and bears the quality of Indianness.

Conclusion:

Indianness is as inherent and integral to the poet’s true core as the peels of onion. It finds an authentic expression on the levels of both experience and idiom. Beliefs attitudes, thought processes, perception of the past and the present colour, the poet’s experience while images, allusions, myths, ritualistic patterns and similar other devices forms the texture of the idiom. On both these levels reader is aware of a typical, identifiable Indianness, which affords certain joy of recognition to the native readers and opens the cave of Ali Baba to the foreign reader.It is not important for us to judge the work of an Indian English poet as ‘Indian’, but to find out if the poem is good or not. Indianness is just one of the characteristics of Indian English poems. If the poet is able to write in a good Indian sensibility, it is still a good poem. The language or the subject of Indian poem brings out the experience of Indian to non-Indian audience. As an Indian, the poet cannot hope to escape from Indianness, even though the Indianness in the poem maybe very subtle.Indianness by itself cannot become a criterion or guarantee of aesthetic value. But the poet by being himself, contribute to the definition of Indianness, for Indianness is what Indians are.

Bibliography

a) K.S. Ramamurti, TWENTY-FIVE INDIAN POETS, Macmillian, 1995.

b) Vilas Sarang, INDIAN ENGLISH POETRY since 1950: an anthology, 1995

c) Dr.Shirish Chindale, Dr. Ashok Thorat : Approved Voices

d) King, Bruce P (2001). Modern Indian Poetry in English (Revised Edition), Oxford University press, New Delhi

e) Adil Jussawalla, Indian English Poetry, Published by Orient Longman Limited.

f) Other Source: WWW. GOOGLE.COM

English Language

English Language has become so popular that its use has become so imperative for all of us.We cannot think anything of today without the usage of English Language. In the past, English used to be the library language or as the second language, few people only used it and so it didnot have much application to the general public. But Today we are living in a global village, we are able to access the whole world just by being wherever we are, to have this unlimited access to the world of information, English is the only medium. The most countries around the world have made English as the compulsary language in their schools as well as in their day to to day activities of the offices, business organisations etc. We can hardly imagine a life without proper knowledge of English. If someone is ignorant about the importance of knowing English then they are outdated and cannot have a effective communication to the world at large. Thus it my effort to put forwards few techniques of learning this useful language. I would love to put forward different ideas in which the learners will be able to understand how easy and effective way he or she can master this language. Not only learning English, but they will also be able to gather various knowledge about the things happening around the world, they will have the access to the present truth, and religious materials. I hope that this blog will be a great milestone to many who are willing to learn and grow. So let's start our journey, read, enrich and grow.