Abstract
This paper examines the problematics of English studies in India. The institutionalised practices of equating English studies solely with the notion of a literary canon constitute the core of the issues. Considering the demands of two different categories of takers—literary/academic and functional/communicative—necessitates multiple standards and channels of delivery. It is here that the authors bring in the idea of open and distance learning (ODL) and the role it can play. Bringing their own experiences with ODL into play, the authors argue for a pragmatic approach to English studies within the phenomena of open and distance learning as a viable means of addressing the various issues.
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Notes
- 1.
The range of adages used at different historical points of time go on to suggest the evolutionary trends that have characterised the rise and growth not just of Indian English literature but also of English studies in India at large. This is because of the uneven spread of education on the one hand, and the resultant differences of class vis-à-vis East-West relations on the other, the transition of English as the master’s language to lingua franca not having been uniformly achieved.
- 2.
The word has been popularised by Salman Rushdie in Midnight’s Children (1981). Pramod K. Nayar in the The Postcolonial Studies Dictionary (2015, p. 29) defines chutneyfication as a term ‘describing the indigenization and transformation of the English language and history’. The term has a ‘culinary root’ and takes its origin from the word chutney, ‘a common Indian side dish, tangy, and essential to the flavour of the main meal. Rushdie’s appropriation of the dish to describe the postcolonial speaker’s use of English adds a degree of complexity to the question of language use itself. Rushdie suggests that it is the indigenisation that adds the tangy, acerbic taste to the former colonial language’.
- 3.
The Honours course in Indian universities is a 3-year programme divided into semesters or year-end examinations where students graduate with eight or ten papers totaling 800/1000 marks in their major subject, with a combination of two other subjects which are generally of 300 marks each. It is presumed that the choice of the major subject will be governed by a student’s proficiency in it that is proven at high school examinations. But in many cases, the choice of taking up the Honours in English is governed by employability factors. The authors are of the opinion that the course structure of English as a subject for graduation needs radical reorientation, keeping in mind the need of functional-communicative proficiencies in the global market. They problematise the fact that the present system does not differentiate between a learner’s proficiency in literature and/or in non-literature based study of English as a language.
- 4.
In a multilingual country like India, literature in vernaculars or bhasha literatures is a seminal aspect, much more than in English which at any rate has a select readership within the country. Hence the need to ensure standard translation activities as means of transaction between vernacular languages and English is of immense importance.
- 5.
Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is the total enrolment in a specific level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the eligible official school-age population corresponding to the same level of education in a given school-year, school-age population here referring to the population of the age group which officially corresponds to the relevant level of education. The data used here is from the OPEN Government Data (OGD) Platform. https://data.gov.in/keywords/gross-enrolment-ratio (Accessed on 8 August 2016).
- 6.
It is necessary to distinguish between Open Universities that are necessarily dedicated solely to imparting education to a wide segment of society through the primary mode of distance learning augmented by several channels of technology-enabled modes of dissemination, all within the open praxis, from dual-mode universities. The latter are basically Directorates of Distance Education run by universities in the conventional mode, which more often than not are confined only to printed study materials and tend to cater to those learners who have not qualified for admission within the criteria laid down by these very universities in their regular programmes. Besides, most dual-mode universities do not cater to the largest learner segment—those studying for a graduation degree. Their clientele is thus confined mostly to postgraduate programmes.
- 7.
All of these are different media for community learning that can be accessed by people belonging to all sections of society. In fact, not all of these require even Internet connectivity, for there still are pockets in rural hinterlands where web access is limited.
- 8.
The ‘Objectives of the Syllabus Revision’ referred to here are an excerpt from minutes of the meeting dated 21 July 2014 and are sourced from the records file of the Faculty of English, School of Humanities, NSOU, Kolkata.
- 9.
The data has been compiled by authors based on admission records for BDP–EEG July 2015 batch made available from the office of the Registrar, NSOU, Kolkata.
- 10.
The questionnaire for the need assessment survey for MA in Folklore and Culture Studies (MFC) was prepared by the present author from School of Humanities, IGNOU, New Delhi. The objective at the rear of the above programme was to integrate folklore and culture studies and human resource building, folklore being the repository of a culture. A complete MA in Folklore and Culture Studies of 2-year duration is tentatively envisaged through which the basic concept of folklore studies imparted through the existing programme, PGDFCS (PG Diploma in Folklore and Culture Studies) could be closely integrated, monitored and merged with a full-fledged MA programme. The expected outcome of the programme would be to generate skilled human resource which can concretely contribute to expanding quality and capacity building in education and knowledge in the country, apart from creating a pool of specialised students/experts in the area of folklore studies. This programme is also expected to fill the gap of the expectation of the prospective employers in the fields like musicology, universities departments offering folklore programmes, NGOs and so on. It is a matter of encouragement for the students of folklore studies that UGC NET examination has introduced folklore as an independent paper. This questionnaire aims to find out the interest of the prospective students in a complete master’s degree in the area of folklore and culture studies. The questionnaire was as follows:
(Time required for filling the questionnaire: 10 min)
-
1.
Name (optional) and educational qualification:
-
2.
Have you accomplished the PGDFCS from IGNOU?
-
3.
Reason for interest in the area of folklore and culture studies:
-
4.
What should be the nature of the programme? (Please tick)
-
(a)
Diploma in Folklore and Culture Studies
-
(b)
MA in Folklore and Culture Studies
-
(a)
-
5.
Which areas would you prefer being covered in the programme from the following? (You can tick more than one, if required)
-
(a)
Folk theory and practice
-
(b)
Folk in Indian Literature (text-based course)
-
(c)
Project paper at the end of the programme
-
(d)
Folklore studies in other parts of the world
-
(e)
Dying languages
-
(a)
-
6.
The medium of instruction of the programme should be
-
(a)
Only English
-
(b)
Both English and Hindi
-
(a)
-
7.
If you prefer an MA in Folklore and Culture Studies to a PG Diploma in Folklore and Culture Studies, please give reasons.
-
1.
- 11.
The data has been compiled by authors from the prospectuses of IGNOU and NSOU.
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Sahu, N., Mukherjee, S. (2019). English Studies in the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Mode: Possibilities and Challenges of Pedagogy. In: Mahanta, B., Sharma, R. (eds) English Studies in India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1525-1_16
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