English Language Teaching in its Social Context

216 A. SURESH CANAGARAJAHtranscended the specific cultures and ideologies of different nations. So Gnani stated,“Although it is the language of a particular nation, it is a common language for all peopleand nations.”Although the relatively more spontaneous impressions of the students in the free recallprocedure largely confirm their positive attitudes toward English, they are also tinged withfears and inhibitions. Hence, though a majority of the students associated English withdevelopment, progress, learning, civilintion, literacy, culture, social respect, andpersonality, one can also detect other comments which suggest that students are not unawareof the sociopsychological damage anti politics of the language. Shanthi wrote:British mother tongue. We were forced to study it because of colonialism. If we havea knowledge of this language we can live in whichever country we want. Brings tomind the developed life of the white people. A language that everybody should know.Though conflicting impressions are mixed in Shanthi’s stream of consciousness, whatis remarkable is that she remains detached from the negative features and fails to take aperspective on them. The fact that students are probably consciously rationalizing their fearsor suppressing their inhibitions is evident from Ratnam’s comments. He argued, “Since thedominance of English is uncontestable, the best strategy is to exploit its resources to developour own language and culture.”Midcourse resistanceThe inhibitions towards English which lay partly suppressed during the initial period of thecourse in the conscious responses of the students, came into relief in their largelyunconscious lived culture as the course proceeded. It is evident from the record of dailyattendance that students faced problems in the course. Although students recordcd animpressive 94% daily turn out for most of the first 2 months, at the end of the second month,attendance fell to 50%. Students began to miss classes for the slightest reason: to writetutorials for another subject, to prepare for a test, to attend funerals of friends’ relatives.At times intense fighting in the district or the imposition of curfew also affected attendance.Rut none of this deterred 90% of the students from attending from the eighth month as thefinal examination was approaching, demanding that past test papers be done and revisionundertaken.The comments, drawings, and paintings students had penned in the textbook are moresubtle evidence of the flagging interest of students. Because students had written theseduring class time, this activity suggested that topics other than English grammar hadpreoccupied them while teaching was going on. Although students had appeared to bepassively observing or listening to the teacher, as required by the instrumental pedagogy inthe class, the glosses in the text suggest a very active underlife. Unknown to the teacher,students were communicating with each other or sometimes with themselves through theseglosses. The glosses suggest the discourses and themes that seem to have interested thestudents more than those in the textbook. In one sense, these are the discourses whichmediate for the students the situations, grammar, and language taught by the textbook. Inanother sense, these are students’ countertiiscourses that challenge the textual language,values, and ideology. Hence, they deserve close examination.Many of the glosses arc inspired by the ongoing nationalist struggle for a separateTamilstate. For this reason, in Unit IC, the picture of Fletcher (the protagonist in the detectivestory) as he is seated in a prison cell is modified in a couple of textbooks. He has been painted