As Vice Chancellor of The English and Foreign Languages University – used by students across Asia for English language training – Sunaina Singh sheds light on the development of English learning in India, the emergence of Indian English, and how the university is helping the national drive to train 500,000 people by 2020.
The PIE: What is the English and Foreign Languages University?
SS: We were established in 1958 as the Central Institute of English as the brainchild of the first prime minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who believed that English was going to be the language of progress. We started off as an institute of training of teachers from across India so they could go back to their districts and teach.
After time we developed a reputation not just in India but in East Asia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Turkey. Teachers started coming from outside of India to get their diplomas in the teaching of English from our institute.
“We developed a reputation not just in India but in East Asia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Turkey”
In 1972 we introduced three foreign languages – French, German and Spanish and today we teach about 11 foreign languages. That year we also started our own publishing unit which we still continue today. In 2000 we started offering Masters programmes in English Literature, English Language Teaching, Cultural Studies, Linguistics and Phonetics, and Media and Communication. We officially became a university in 2006 by an act of government.
The PIE: How big is the university?
SS: Right now, we have three campuses one in Hyderabad, one in Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, and another Shillong in the Northeast. By the end of this year we’ll have four campuses after we open another in Kerala in the Southwest. We’re a national university so we are not restricted by one area; we are all over India.
We have about 2,000 students taught by 230 faculty members. About 10% of our students are from outside India. We also have the International Training Programme where we train ministers, bureaucrats, senior government officials, people from all sectors from places like Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, China and Malaysia. They all come to us for a four-month programme that we hold about three times a year.
The PIE: How has English learning changed in India over the years?
“In the early 80’s there was this perception that English was no longer a foreign language but a second language”
SS: In the early 80’s there was this perception that English was no longer a foreign language but a second language, because English was by then a language of the government and parliament. Although Hindi was the national language the second language that all the material was translated into was English.
When we started teaching English as a second language in India the whole idea was that we needed to accept English as our own language; just as we would teach Marathi for example as a first language, English would be the second language. That was the time it was felt in universities too that it must be taught as a second language.
The PIE: What is your approach to the discussion of Indian English developing as a dialect? [More>>]
SS: When we started teaching English as a second language we wondered how we would make it into a university language and there was a huge research project that happened in our institute. We found that grammar changes in the context of time.
When I came in as Vice Chancellor I asked why we weren’t looking at Indian English as an alternate language. You see English has been internalised by a lot of upper middle class people and the rich which may just be 30% of the nation, yet as Indian writer Kamala Das asked, ‘It’s my language so don’t tell me how I must write it. Why must I write it in British English?’
The PIE: Do you see Indian English becoming useful outside of India?
SS: Hugely. It already is because there are plenty of expressions and words with Indian origins. If you look at the latest edition of the dictionary I think about 20% of the words that have come into English have Indian origins.
For me, how you use language and how you communicate is an extension of your own culture. I wish to give that to my students. With knowledge comes a lot of arrogance, especially in higher education, and I want to curtail that because the more education we acquire the more humble we must become.
“With knowledge comes a lot of arrogance, especially in higher education and I want to curtail that”
The PIE: How are you meeting the huge demand for English in India?
SS: The government has given us funding for a 24-hour channel for multimedia English. It’ll be open for anyone who wants to learn English language and literature. I plan to put up classes from our faculty members and practice teaching sessions with our trainee teachers. We’ve also invited teachers from all over the world to do guest spots.
It’s just being started but I would want to see more of this thing to give back to society without paying anything. For a serious learner it’s all out there in the public domain. TV is in all of the districts and villages.
And we will continue with our district centre scheme where we go out at the request of the state governments to “adopt” some of the districts and train the teachers. We get them to Hydrabad or we train them there.
The PIE: Other than scale, what challenges does India face to train 500,000 people by 2020?
“We’re about to be the youngest nation in the world and with that comes demands to give youth the kinds of jobs they’ll require”
SS: We’re about to be the youngest nation in the world and with that comes demands to give youth the kinds of jobs they’ll require but also to give them the kind of culture India would want to provide while still making them global citizens.
That’s a huge challenge and I think every university will have to take another look and review its growth and progress. We need to tweak our courses and to take another look at the globalised scenario in order to give students what they require. If we don’t collaborate and come together I don’t think the challenges will be met. If you really want to do well you have to learn to come together rather than being islands of excellence.
