Learning English
I read with interest the letter written by Mr. Kamaluddin Ahmed under the heading "Teaching English", published in your issue of 25 June 2008. My observation on the subject is as follows:
I personally believe that it is very difficult for a student when he is taught something and language is not something that can be taught. It has to be learnt just the way one learns one's mother tongue. By the time a child is three years old he is able to converse in his mother tongue and at that time he has a vocabulary of just 300 words. In the first year of his life the child has not spoken a word and that first year has been spent on listening only.
Now if one wants to learn a foreign language then the best way is to learn the language exactly the way one learnt his mother tongue. Nothing can be done at the tertiary stage, it has to be done in the primary stage. It is said that you cannot teach a new technique to an old horse.
If we cannot find competent language teachers then we can take the help of video learning. We could make cartoon films based on short popular stories using the most widely used three hundred words. In the movies the characters must speak slowly so that the children can grasp the words. This way the children will be able to start talking in English in a year's time.
Once the child learns to speak the language, then learning to read and write is a simple matter. I am sure if this system is followed, the children will never have any problem with English language.
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