Linguistic skills lost in translation students go speechless

I visit schools across Tamil Nadu regularly. These include government schools including Chennai Corporation run schools, government-aided schools and private self financed schools. Across all these schools, one common feature is that the students are incapable of holding a lively conversation with me, either in Tamil or in English. 

This may sound surprising. One may understand their discomfort in communicating in English; after all, it is an alien language. But Tamil? It is sad, but true that they cannot communicate effectively in Tamil as well. 

How about writing in these languages? It is even worse. They can at least manage a conversation with broken sentences and gestures, but when it comes to writing, they are unable to gather their thoughts together and present them in a coherent and cogent manner. They lack basic vocabulary and as far as their grammar is concerned, less said the better. And yes, this is the case even in Tamil. 

In many cases, despite a marginally better vocabulary, their Tamil writing has more grammatical errors than English. That is because our Tamil teaching has not been up to standard over the last couple of decades. 

There is yet another problem. After I give a lecture for two to three hours on a topic which I think and hope is interesting, when it comes to interacting with them to get their feedback, all I come across is total silence. Students do not articulateb because they fear that it would just be a display of their ignorance, of the language and the subject. Once the lecture is over, a few linger around and are happy to talk to you. It is just that they do not want to be judged by their peers and hence they do not speak out loud in a class room or a lecture hall. 

I perceive a number of problems in this regard. For instance, languages are not given much importance compared to subjects like Maths and Science in school. The quality of language teachers has also gone down drastically over the last few decades. Schools have stopped organising debates and competitions. Above all, children are not encouraged to take part in extra-curricular activities. 

Before we can address these problems, we have to ask two fundamental questions. (a) Why is it important to focus on languages in the school curriculum? (b) Should a child’s medium of study be its the mother tongue or English? 

In the knowledge-driven society we have become, comprehensive and accurate communication takes precedence over everything else. Most of the jobs are now dependent on reading through volumes of data and interpreting them correctly to perform appropriate tasks. We depend on verbal and written communication today. Moreover, cross cultural understanding is also an absolute necessity today. If a child is not good in communication skills, his or her ability to find gainful employment will come down drastically. When experts talk about a high percentage of our graduates being unemployable, the main culprit is their lack of communication abilities. Colleges have introduced soft skills courses but it is too late. What you have not learnt over 12-14 years of education, cannot be picked up with ease in just 3-4 years, through some bridge courses. 

Medium of education is a more complex problem. Most of our students should be taught subjects in their mother tongue because that is the only language they are good at. But over a period of time, a wrong idea had set in. They thought  that the best way to become proficient in English is to force the students to study in English medium. But this alone cannot make a student proficient in English language. It is possible for someone to study in Tamil medium and still be fairly proficient in speaking and writing in English. Till around 1980s, this was the norm in our education system. But it is simply impossible to convince the parents today that their children will be better off studying in Tamil medium. 

So how can we address the problems? I can suggest some tentative solutions. 

Firstly, we should recognise that languages play an important role in enhancing our thinking and understanding. Thus, in the formative years of schooling, that is, in the primary school, nearly 40% of time should be spent in teaching both the languages. The syllabus for the two languages, Tamil and English, should be closely related. They should be focused on functional aspect and not on literary aspects. The style should be contemporary and not archaic. Appreciation of poetry or literature can always be done much later, after we have taught the fundamentals of a language. 

Second, we should encourage more students to take up Tamil medium, but simultaneously develop their English skills as well. This will reduce the pressure on them in learning various subjects in an alien tongue. We should change the mind-set that equates English medium to a higher quality of education. Thirdly, we should encourage students to talk in the class, ask the teacher questions and allow them to debate with their peers and the teachers. Creative writing should be encouraged. Students should be given higher marks for writing in their own words than reproducing what is given in the book verbatim. 

Fourthly, reading newspapers and books in Tamil and English should be brought into the curriculum. This will make the classes lively as well. Students should be taught to read age-appropriate fiction and non-fiction and analyse them in the class and write detailed reviews. They should be encouraged to write their own stories and essays. We have always been reacting to the job markets. If IT is the flavour of the day, everyone wants to study Computer science or IT Engineering. If it is banking, everyone wants to study B.Com. The moment employers demand high quality communication skills from the job seekers, our school and college system will adapt itself to the demands of the day.

— The writer is a Tamil publisher based in Chennai