English Language Policy in Indian School Education PDF

## 2.3. Language Policy in School Education ### 2.3.1 The Three-Language Formula Language planning for school education in India can be seen more as a question of status planning rather than acquisition planning. The language debate in education in the formative years of India's independence not o...

## 2.3. Language Policy in School Education ### 2.3.1 The Three-Language Formula Language planning for school education in India can be seen more as a question of status planning rather than acquisition planning. The language debate in education in the formative years of India's independence not only brought in awareness among the stakeholders of education, it also enabled the policy makers to fully attempt to realize the constitutional vision of equality of opportunity, linguistic rights of every linguistic and ethnic community and moving towards the goal of achieving universal access to education. The Three-Language formula which emerged as a political consensus on languages in school education was a strategy to accommodate at least three languages within the ten years of schooling. The Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE), the oldest statutory body on education in India, initiated the discussion on languages in school education in 1940's and this continued to be a major concern in their discussions until 1960. CABE identified five major issues which required attention: * The number of languages to be taught at various levels of school education. * The introduction of second and third languages. * The place and role of English. * The place and role of Hindi. * The teaching of Sanskrit and minor language(s) in school. The CABE devised the three-language formula in its 23rd meeting held in 1956 with a view to removing inequalities among the languages of India. It recommended that three languages should be taught in the Hindi as well as non-Hindi speaking areas of the country at the middle and High school stages and suggested the following two possible formulae: 1. (a) (i) mother-tongue or (ii) regional language or (iii) a composite course of mother-tongue and a regional language or (iv) a composite course of mother-tongue and a classical language or (v) a composite course of regional language or a classical language. (b) Hindi or English (c) A modern Indian language or a modern European language provided it has not already been taken under (a) and (b) above. 2. (a) as above (b) English or a modern European language (c) Hindi (for non-Hindi speaking areas) or another modern Indian language (for Hindi speaking areas). The three-language formula was simplified and approved by the Conference of Chief Ministers held in 1961 as follows: * The regional language or the mother-tongue when the latter is different from the regional language. * Hindi or any other Indian language in Hindi speaking areas, and * English or any other modern European language. Education at the university stage, and the language of administration at the central government and in many of the states. Even after the regional languages become media of higher education in the universities, a working knowledge of English will be a valuable asset for all students and a reasonable proficiency in the language will be necessary for those who proceed to the university. Thus, this brief historical scan of the evolution of the language policy in India tells us how the apprehension about the dominance of English (as a colonial language which signifies the master's language) has been naturally alleviated by the role which the language has attained. This, inspite of the efforts to contain its spread. Today every child and parent wants the English language. ### 2.3.2 Medium of Instruction The three-language formula envisaged that language teaching needs to be multilingual not only in terms of the number of languages offered to children but also in terms of evolving strategies that would use the multilingual classroom as a resource. Home language or mother-tongue of children should be the medium of instruction in primary schools and that this would lead to harmonious personal development and contribute to a pedagogically sound high quality education. This vision was proposed by the Education Commission in 1964-66 and was reflected again in the National Curricular Frameworks from 1975, the National Education Policy (GOI 1986), and the Programme of Action (GOI 1992). Following Table No. 2.236 summarizes the proportion of primary and upper-primary schools which taught using the mother-tongue in 2002 in comparison with the situation ten years earlier, in 1993. | Policies | Primary (Percentage) | Upper Primary (Percentage) | |---|---|---| | Rural school | 91.70, 92.39 | 89.49, 92.71 | | Urban Schools | 91.32, 90.39 | 86.07, 87.37 | | All School | 91.65, 92.07 | 88.64, 91.34 | Source: NCERT- 2007 cited in Hywel Coleman (2011), P. 75 From the table above, it is found that in 2002 just over 92 percent of primary schools were teaching through the mother-tongue; ten years earlier the figure was almost identical, just below 92 percent. Rural schools showed an increase of less than one percent in their tendency to use the mother-tongue while urban schools showed a decline of less than one percent over the ten-year period. Moreover, it also shows that as far as the upper primary stage is concerned, more than 91 percent of schools were using the mother-tongue in 2002, an increase of just over 02 percent points compared to 1993. In 1993 rural upper primary schools were about 03 percent more likely to use mother-tongue compared to urban schools. In fact, by the year 1857, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras had opened their respective universities. The growth of English was so exponential that it became the first language of the government, the social elite and the national press. ### 2.4 1835 English Education Act The nativization of the English language in India had much to do with Thomas Babington Macaulay. The British politician was responsible for introducing the western ideas in the Asian country. In order to illustrate this point, A Minute on Indian Education (1835) should be considered as the starting point on the nativization of the English language in India. This essay was written as a defence against the council members who understood that Indian students had to learn in Sanskrit and Arabic as well as English. In an attempt to turn India into a 100% British colony, starting from eliminating its local languages and imposing English as the only one, Macaulay did not realize that an "Anglicist" education would also mean that Indians would become familiar with Western ideas and ideals like democracy, enlightenment and self-determination, which would later fuel the struggle for independence. ### 2.5 Nativization #### 2.5.1 Nativization Pre-Independence The English language played a massive role in originating a pan-Indian freedom movement. The more than 600 local languages rose up against the imposition of English as the first language in the country. A group of Indian intellectuals that belonged to every political identity joined against the British rules. 'The English language contributed substantially in achieving national integration'. Yet, from the perspective of the British people in India, the subcontinent was looking more Anglophone, so that they felt similarly than in England. Over the 19th century, the nativization process of the English language in India was entering in its final stages, especially with two major political events happening: the Great Revolt of 1857/1858 and the proclamation of Queen Victoria as Empress of India in 1877, with an untouchable governor commanding the British crown in India. In a sociolinguistic perspective, the mentioned events were the confirmation of the standing of English as the one and only dominant language in India. Consequently, the migration of the British to India was booming, making the British Empire part of the Indian identity. As the British population in the country was growing and the influence of English was getting bigger and bigger, the only way for the native Indians to access higher education like university was to learn English. Furthermore, the English language in India started to be used by well-educated IDG users, who began to change slowly but gradually towards an Indian variety in its own right, marked not only by heavy lexical borrowing but also by phraseological and grammatical innovations (i.e. forms not found in the British English input variety, e.g. England-returned, blessings-message) and phonological changes (e.g. monophthongization of diphthongs): thus, the late nineteenth century marks the beginning of the emergence of 'educated' Indian English, i.e. a standardizing form of Indian English. #### 2.5.2 Nativization Post-Independence The nativization of the English language in India did not end once the country was independent. The Constitution of the Republic of India is written in English; and it was written in 1950, three years after India became independent. Moreover, with the aim of replacing English with Hindi (first language for one third of the population) the logical procedure would be to enter a process of 'fossilization', as it has happened in many more countries like Uganda or Ghana. On the contrary, English has been modified into an 'endonormatively stabilized' variety of English in the post-independence period. According to the well-known sociolinguist and language variation expert Edgar Schneider's dynamic model, in order to get into the phase of endonormative stabilization, it is essential to have an inner agreement in a speech community on the status and usefulness of the English language. However, such stage can only be acquired since the moment a country is decolonized. In 1947, the government, with the leadership of Sri Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, decided to eliminate English as the first language in favour of Hindi. The aim of this decision was to impose basic Hindi, with approximately 500 words, with borrowings from Urdu, English and other languages. This idea was to make it easy for people from the south to learn Hindi, as it was mostly spoken by the northern population. Nehru was also confident that Hindi could be used as a link language in India, with also a psychological effect owing to the fact that for the first time a language from India was official. The government decided that the learning of English had to be as a second language or as a link language - it was the second language for the vast majority. In the case of India, it is hard to determine the exact beginning of the endonormative stabilization stage. The political events that happened in 1960 - the Jawaharlai Nehru administration and posterior death on 27 May 1964 and States reorganisation - were massively relevant. English was no longer the official first language of India. It was going to be replaced by Hindi, which was not spoken by half of the country but was the mother tongue of 35% of the population. The government, aware that these changes would take a while to be accepted, decided to maintain English as an official language until 1965. After suffering an independence period and a great number of cultural conflicts, it was clear that a linguistic transition would require patience. Likewise, Nehru believed that by that year, Hindi would be secured as a successful first language. Nevertheless, the decision of eliminating English in such a short period of time became a failure. Even though in the army the English vocabulary was replaced by Hindi, in most of the public services the English language stood its ground. Hence, in 1959 Nehru stated that there would not be any imposition of any language and that English would remain as a co-official language for an indefinite period. As a consequence, the early 60s were marked by a conflict between the north and the south part of the country. On the one hand, Hindi was spread as the only national language in the northern part of India whereas the southern parts declined the idea owing to the fact that it was a non-native language for them. The Indian government came to the conclusion that the English language had to be present in essential areas such as education or health service, so that the Official Languages Act, which was passed in 1963 and amended in 1967, laid down that English would continue to be used for official purposes alongside Hindi. In 1976, the government created the three-language formula, according to which both languages and the regional language were to be taught in every state. The three-language formula should benefit the diversification of the regional languages. For instance, if the mother tongue was Hindi, a south Indian regional language would be taught. There have been major problems and shortcomings with this initiative; the fact that Hindi was a traditional language in the northern part of the country created a disadvantage for the people from the south. Nevertheless, this formula has been at the heart of language policy in India in the education system over the past four decades. ### 2.6 Status of the English language in India During the years that the British Empire had ruled India, as a result of the contact between English and the local languages, the English language suffered constant changes. New Englishes are distinct forms of English which have emerged in postcolonial settings and countries around the globe. There are plentiful New Englishes in the global context and researches on them give rise to new theoretical comprehensions. Fundamentally, the English varieties can be categorized into ESL and EFL. Adding the two categories to English as a national language (ENL), we come to a conclusion that there is a trinalism view of the world role of English. At first sight, it is clear that English in India could be considered as either a foreign language or a second language. However, we face a clear ambiguity of these concepts. In agreement with some linguists, the second language is a language taught to immigrants in a country where it is the first language of its natives. Briefly explained, L2 learners acquire the language because of the necessity to communicate with the people who speak the language as a native tongue; and in this case, there is not a clearer example than India. Nevertheless, as it has been stated in this study before, India contains countless aboriginal languages that had been spoken in the country for ages, and their impact on the English language may be enough for many to not classify English as a second language, as is defined differently by some other scholars. Yardi (1997) defines English as a "second language" where English is intentionally used for purposes of administration, education and a common link language. According to him, we can only consider English as a foreign language when it is taught for particular objectives like scientific works or translation. Crystal (2012) classified English in India as a second language as well. On the whole, there are four language models that explain both the spread and use of English in foreign countries: Strevens, 1992; Kachru, 1992; Gorlach, 1987; McArthur, 1987. Each of them has its own way of representation. For instance, Strevens is the only one that portrayed his model in an upside-down tree diagram, whereas the others opted for circle models. Because of time issues and owing to the fact that it is the most popular one, I am going to focus on Kachru's (1992) "Three Concentric Model" or "The Circles of English". Nevertheless, I will provide a brief explanation of the other three models as it is needed to understand the next section. Strevens A map-and-branch model (1980) uses a map with a superimposed tree-diagram resembling the branching models of Indo-European languages. Strevens objective is to make a difference between the British English Branch and the American English Branch regarding the English language division. McArthur opts for the use of a wheel with a hub, spokes and rim. The hub is used for World Englishes and is surrounded by regional languages which include standard and other forms such as Irish English and Canadian English among others. Finally, Görlach, as Kachru, gives a circle model that shows the status of varieties of English and related languages in the world, using the hub as International languages within an encircled brand of regional languages like African Englishes and United States Englishes. ### 2.7 Todd Kachru's "Three Circles of English" According to Kachru, English speaking countries are separated into three groups, called "Inner Circle", "Outer Circle" and "Expanding Circle". * **The Inner Circle:** the Inner Circle is formed by principles of English, and the speakers in it are the individuals putting up the norms. These countries are the places where the norms are born and from which they spread to other countries (other circles). The countries forming the Inner Circle are UK, USA, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. * **The Outer Circle:** this circle portrays the countries where non-native varieties of English are spoken due to their colonial history. The language is developed by the speakers of these countries, who are the ones that challenge its original norms. These speakers learn English as a second language. The countries of The Outer Circle are India, Pakistan, Egypt, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Jamaica and Philippines. * **The Expanding Circle:** this circle is formed by the countries that learn English as a foreign language (EFL), and where it is not one of the most spoken languages in the nation. The main reason why English is learnt is because of academic qualification, and the speakers of the Expanding Circle have to follow the rules imposed by the countries of the Inner Circle. Countries like Japan, Russia, Israel, and the whole of Western Europe form the Expanding Circle. According to Kachru's "Three Circle Model", English in India is learnt as a second language rather than a foreign language due to the fact that it is norm developing rather than norm dependent. Hence, the language has suffered a few changes, both grammatically and lexically because of constant contact with numerous regional languages. The continuous changes suffered by the English language in India have given way to a new variety of English in the Pacific country. ### 3. English in India today #### 3.1 Language diversity in India One of the main problems of Indian society is the difficulties to communicate among its population. The existence of hundreds of regional languages makes it impossible to have a central language for everyone. To begin with, the most spoken language in India is Hindi. According to "Hindi: the language of songs", Hindi is the mother tongue for more than the 43% of the population and it is mainly spoken in the northern part of the country. Hindi is a direct descendant of Sanskrit through Prakrit and Apabhramsha. It started to emerge as Apabhramsha in the seventh century and did not become stable until the 10th century. Hindi is spoken in these regions: Himachal, Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajsthan, Madhya, Bihar, Bombay and Hyderabad. Hindi is highly represented outside the country as well, with speakers in the USA, South Africa, Yemen or Uganda. Secondly, we are going to focus on Bengali, the language with the greatest number of native speakers in India, though at a great distance from Hindi. "Languages of Bangladesh: Bengali" asserts that Bengali played a significant role in the independence conflict and the subsequent liberation from Pakistani power. It also drew inspiration from the fight by Bengalis to stop Urdu being declared the state language of Pakistan. As regards India, it is considered as one of the 23 official languages, and it is spoken by more than 10% of the Indian population. With more than 80 million speakers, Marathi is considered as the most powerful language in the western state of Maharashtra and the surrounding states. It is another language which has its origins in Sanskrit and that is not only spoken in India but in Israel and Mauritius. The first signs of the language did not come until the 11th century in stones. There have been two different alphabets in their history: the Modi alphabet - 13th century until 20th century - and the Devanagarī alphabet, which has been used since 1950. Approximately 78 million of the population speak Telugu in India. "Omniglot: Marathi" reports that it is mainly spoken in south-eastern India, and it is considered as the official language of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Created relatively early, the first written materials are from 575 BC. Telugu literature has its start in the 11th century, with a version of the Hindu epic Mahabharata written by Nannaya Bhatta. Being a Dravidian language, Telugu contains a series of retroflex consonants (/d/, /n/, and /t/) pronounced with the tip of the tongue curled back against the roof of the mouth. The repetition of words/syllables to create a new meaning is a typical feature. For instance, pakapaka 'suddenly bursting out laughing', garagara 'clean, neat, nice'. Going on with Dravidian languages, the Tamil language is also one of the official languages in India. Spoken by almost 70 million of the population, the states where Tamil is spoken are Tamil Nadu and Puducherry – this one is a Union Territory. Furthermore, it is an official language as well in Sri Lanka and Singapore, and spoken in Malaysia, Fiji, Mauritius and South Africa despite not being considered as an official language. Due to the fact that Tamil is a Dravidian language, its phonological characteristics are the same as those of Telugu, and it is a verb-final language that permits adaptability as regards the order of the subject and the object in a sentence. There are numerous of variations of Tamil both in and outside India. Regional varieties of the language come together with varieties based on social class. Tamil is a great example of the importance of social class when it comes to language acquisition in India. Gujarati is the official language of Gujarat state. Situated on the west coast of India, it is bordered by three states - Rajasthan, Madhyapradesh and Maharashtra - and also by Pakistan. However, it is not the only language spoken in the state of Gujarat, as its inhabitants also speak Hindi, Marwari and Marathi. With over 55 million speakers in India, which is 5% of the country, it has a notable population out of the Republic of India since Gujarati speakers also reside in Pakistan, Singapore, Fiji, South Africa, UK, USA and Canada. Gujarati was the mother tongue of Mahatma Ghandi. Last but not least, the Urdu language is a member of the Indo-Aryan group. Even though it is spoken as a mother tongue by more than 70 million people in the world and by more than 100 as a second language, in India only 5.2% of the population speaks it. It is the official language of the Republic of India as well as Pakistan. Urdu is related to Hindi owing to the fact that it was originated and developed in India. Their phonology and grammar are nearly the same, at times causing ambiguity whether it is the same language or not. The main difference comes in the lexicon, as Urdu borrowings come from Arabic and Persian whereas Hindi borrowed from Sanskrit. Moreover, both languages have the same sounds with the exception of short vowel allophones. Lastly, regarding the Republic of India, Urdu is spoken in the north of the country, with a higher presence in the northwest. | Language | First Language Speakers (mill) | First language Speakers per cent of total pop. | Second Language Speakers (mill) | Third Language Speakers (mill) | Total Speakers (mill) | Total speakers per cent of total pop. | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Hindi | 528,347,193 | 43.63 | 139 | 24 | 692 | 57.10 | | English | 259,678 | 0.02 | 83 | 46 | 129 | 10.60 | | Bengali | 97,237,669 | 8.30 | 9 | 1 | 107 | 8.90 | | Marathi | 83,026,680 | 7.09 | 13 | 3 | 99 | 8.20 | | Telugu | 81,127,740 | 6.93 | 12 | 1 | 95 | 7.80 | | Tamil | 69,026,881 | 5.89 | 7 | 1 | 77 | 6.30 | | Gujarati | 55,492,554 | 4.74 | 4 | 1 | 60 | 5.00 | | Urdu | 50,772,631 | 4.34 | 11 | 1 | 63 | 5.20 | | Kannada | 43,706,512 | 3.73 | 14 | 1 | 59 | 4.94 | | Odia | 37,521,324 | 3.20 | 5 | 0.03 | 43 | 3.56 | | Malayalam | 34,838,819 | 2.97 | 0.05 | 0.02 | 36.0 | 3.28 | | Punjabi | 33,124,726 | 2.83 | 0.03 | 0.003 | 36.6 | 3.56 | | Sanskrit | 24,821 | <0.000001 | 0.01 | 0.003 | 0.025 | 0.01 | Source: Wikipedia 'Languages of India'. #### 3.2 Current features of Indian English In this section, the main focus will be on Standard Indian English. We will later describe the changes in the grammatical areas that are worth to mentioning. According to Nihalani et al.'s dictionary Indian and British English: A Handbook of Usage and Pronunciation, there are some lexical items which are peculiar to Indian English. For instance, there is a notable presence of borrowings from the regional languages of India, e.g. crore (BrE 10 million), mela (BrE crowd) or swadeshi (BrE of one's own country). In addition, there are lexical items relating to the lexicon shared by Indian English and other varieties of English that can be used in different forms in Indian English, both grammatically and semantically. There is also a difference from native varieties regarding morphology, such as extending the use of the suffix -ee (e.g. affectee, awardee, recruitee), the prefix de- (e.g. de-confirm, de-friend, de-recognize) and the zero-derivation of new verbs (e.g. airline, public, slogan). According to Joybrato Mukherjee, it has been demonstrated that the differences between British English and Indian English when it comes to the lexis and grammar are often quantitative; in fact, we could only explore the differences by analysing large amounts of natural data embraced in large machine-readable text corpora. Likewise, despite the fact that there is not much deviation in syntax, there are still changes in Indian English if we compare it with British English. The use of the indefinite article with uncountable nouns, invariant tag questions (e.g. He has left, hasn't he?... Inde also He has left, isn't it?/..., no?), and the use of progressive forms with stative verbs (e.g. BrE I simply don't understand... Inde also I am simply not understanding). Vocabulary is a different strain. Due to the early colonization of the British Empire, Indian English contains a lot of loanwords from Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic. We should also mention the use of multiple items from foreign languages like Portuguese, with which English has been in contact both in India and in the entire South Asia since the 16th century. Nowadays, the ones that provide further lexical resources for Indian speakers of English are the indigenous languages of India. Additionally, a real debate has been created regarding the excessive use of the loanwords in Indian English. Shastri believes that borrowing has become "an important contributory factor in the process of Indianization" whereas other scholars like Dubey minimize the importance of it. According to him, other languages contain a lot of more loanwords than Indian English. This statement has the support of Görlach as he states that "the number of words from Indian languages contained in them is smaller than the number of English loanwords in German newspapers". Besides, in a selective conversation among Indians, they feel more comfortable when they use loanwords than when they speak with the Standard English vocabulary. Moreover, long words are more liked when Indians use English owing to the fact that they are disclosed much more to written English. Additionally, old-fashioned expressions like "do the needful" are still regularly used. The reason why this happens is because Indians put special emphasis on written English. | Indian English | British English | |---|---| | Lok Sabha | Lower House of the central parliament | | Rajya Sabha | Upper House of the central parliament | | Mandi | Wholesale vegetable market | | Bazaar | Marketplace | | Guru | Teacher. Traditional spiritual master | | Disvestment | Withdrawal of investment. Divestment | | Crore | Ten million | Nevertheless, India is not the only country where loanwords are relevant. This strategy has become a tendency in almost every country of Asia, so that it is hard for Asian countries to establish international communication in English. However, English has been operating as an official language in some countries in the continent, and that makes English virtually the most accepted language for inter-Asian communication. Finally, arguably the clearest structural development of Indian English can be found in pronunciation. These speakers are typically embedded in a syllable-timed rhythm with the full realization of all stressed and unstressed syllables. There is a strong tendency of Indian English speakers to monophthongize diphthongs such as /er/ and /əʊ/ (e.g. late, home) or to merge the consonants /3/ and /f/ into /f/ (e.g. casual, division). #### 3.3 English as an International Language English is today considered as a global or international language. In order to understand the meaning of this, we have to focus on more things than just the linguistic perspective. We can confirm that English today is a unique language, functionally and structurally quite different from other languages of the world. Functionally, English managed to spread among non-native speakers in Asia, especially in countries like Japan or India. Its success has been so big that nowadays it is a must for students to learn English, owing to the importance of this language at work. In view of the situation, students are learning English not only for job purposes, but also for wider communication. As a survey conducted by Japan's National Institute of Language in 1999 demonstrated, people around the world unanimously consider English as the most useful language when it comes to world-wide communication. Essentially, non-native English speakers are taking advantage of the fact that English is bound to reflect a diversity of disparate cultures. What is more, these speakers examine new dimensions of the language usage en every field such as phonetically or semantically. Actually, a great example could be the use of the English language in non-Anglo-American cultural contexts as are countries like India, Singapore or African countries like Kenya or Nigeria. This demonstrates that the English language is independent from the British or US culture. In fact, it is unthinkable to imagine a context where a Ghanaian had to represent the British ways of behaviour. CABE also deliberated in detail on the study of English as a compulsory subject as recommended by the Education Ministers Conference held in 1957: * English should be taught as a compulsory language both at the secondary and the university stages, students acquire adequate knowledge of English so as to be able to receive education through this language at the university level. * English should not be introduced earlier than class V. The precise point at which English should be started at the middle stage was left to each individual state to decide. A comprehensive view of the study of languages at school was undertaken and concrete recommendations were made by the Education Commission between 1964 and 1966. The commission having taken account of the diversity of the Indian context recommended a modified or graduated three-language formula: * The mother-tongue or the regional language. * The official language of the Union or the associate official language of the Union so long as it exists; and * A modern Indian or foreign language not covered under (i) and (ii) and other than that used as the medium of instruction. The commission's observation on the status and role of English is of importance from the point of view of language planning and the way the language was perceived by policy planners. The commission said: "English will continue to enjoy a high status so long as it remains the principal medium of instruction."