A CONTEXT CALLED KERALA

It is not very difficult to convince the people of Kerala about the need to learn English in this age. People here, are rather ambitious and they value education much. They are also brilliantly adaptable.

But something is hindering the path, there is a slowdown.. I think the reasons are perhaps, the outdated political ideologies, unwanted prejudices, focus on short term results than long term ones and slow technological progress.

I think the teachers need not wait for the system to sort out things for them. The need of the hour is to be a system of your own and work out for the learners to help them achieve the skills they need.

THEM....

I think, there are two categories in which we can broadly divide our learners..

One, those who need extra time to work and

two, those who need extra work to time.

The slow learners and the ones who work after class hours to support their family belong to the first category. There is a need to pace down for them as they need more time to grab their learning. And in the course, if they could achieve only 3 objectives in 10, it is worth. Definitely, they would reach the 10 in their own pace. (But we are too impatient, aren’t we?)

The next group is those from the higher end, who can take up better challenges... They need to be given some tough tasks to meet with. Or else classrooms would be the most boring places for them. I remember one of my students once said that the school was a dull place for him, as it offered nothing challenging.

Unfortunately we all work for an average. We pull some of them up from below or pull some others down from above to maintain a mediocre standard. Trying to create uniformity may lead either to monotony or to frustration.

That means to have a better standard we need to face the needs of different learners in different ways.