M a education paper-v methods of teaching english

1.2 Historical background of English in India. 
Indians came in contact with the English language since the establishment of East India 
Company in the year 1612. But the spread of the language took place when the British became 
the rules of this country. In 1813, English language was introduced as a medium of instruction 
at all the levels of education. Reformers like Rajaram Mohan Roy realized the importance of 
English and saw in it the promise of modernization and liberation. He Favored it. This opened 

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the door for English in India. Lord Macaulay (1835) desired to produce through English 
education ‘’ a class of persons Indian in blood and colour but English in taste, in opinion, in 
morals and in intellect’’. 
Hence the English language teaching situation during pre-independence period can be summed 
up as follows: 
a. English was dominating the school stage and even at the collegiate level. 
b. The teaching of English was largely pedantic, dull and largely wasteful. 
c. There was an emphatic on the formal grammar of written English. 
d. Pupil’s needs of English were severely limited. English was needed either for government jobs 
which had a premium on formal written English or for going to a university where the teaching 
of literature was at the top. English for wider use like communication at the international level 
or in the fields of commerce, engineering, technical, etc was non-existent those days. 
e. Consequently, the literary English was supreme in the teaching of English. The written English 
had more prestige than the spoken form. 
f. There was an excessive dependence on the British model. There was a slavish imitation of the 
methods and techniques of teaching English in British schools.
1.3  English in post- Independent period.  
Indian independence changed the status of English, but it did not affect the place of English in 
Indian life or education. English was no longer the language of rulers. But it continued to be the 
language of elite. 
The constitution of India, adopted in 1950, had envisaged Hindi as the only official language of 
the union of India, while English was to continue for 15years. The was vehemently opposed by 
the states in the south. As a result , English was adopted as the Associate Official language by an 
Act of parliament in 1963 and assurances have been given that it will continue to be lingua-
franca as long as the non-Hindi speaking people want it .