Concern expressed over falling standards of English language’s use and education

The 32nd Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers (SPELT) Conference ended on Sunday evening with speakers and panelists expressing concerns over the way standards in written and spoken English were going down.

Noted Barrister Shahida Jamil, instructor in legal English at the SM Law College, in a panel discussion titled ‘English as an interdisciplinary medium’, narrated how students in her class were shy of asking questions or making comments for fear that they would be laughed at.

She said that in the matter of teaching English, cognitive abilities were not given a chance, adding that English had been corrupted in Pakistan even by teachers, especially in the matter of pronunciation.

She blamed that on the falling standards of education where people just passed examinations by memorising notes. In this context, she narrated an instance of her college days when, she said, their teacher fell sick and a substitute came over from the Karachi University to teach history.

She said that when it came to Egyptian civilisation, the teacher told them, “Cleopatra bit the snake and died”. When corrected by the students, he insisted that he was right and took the correction as an affront.

Dr Phyllis Chew from Singapore most forcefully advocated the importance of English in the present-day world and said that her tiny nation, with big countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia as neighbours, had people coming over from all these countries for medical treatment in Singapore because of the high standards of English in Singapore.

She said that in the modern world, English was the key to economic prosperity; a language which one could make money by.  “We export education,” she said.

Wali Zahid said that English today was the most influential language. No doubt it was the fourth most widely spoken language after Spanish and Arabic which was on account of the much larger populations of Spain and Saudi Arabia, yet it was spoken all across the globe while other languages were confined just to their home countries.

“English may be the fourth most widely spoken language but it certainly is the most influential language worldwide,” he said.

Dr Tauseef described how the lack of proficiency in English was a drawback in the field of medical education.

Dr Christine Ludwig from Australia also spoke and explained the linguistic aspects of English teaching.

A one-minute silence was observed to honour the memory of the late journalist Naushaba Burney who died in February 2016. A video was screened showing the late journalist on various occasions. Burney was a moving spirit behind SPELT too.

Professor Zakia Sarwar, Honorary Executive Director of SPELT, in her tribute to Burney, said that Naushaba was an ardent supporter of SPELT and that she would be really missed.

Ameena Saiyid, Managing Director, Oxford University Press (OUP), Pakistan, congratulating SPELT on the success of the conference, in her tribute to the organisation said, “SPELT, by its meritorious services spanning 32 years, has proved to be a role model. It has brought people together across a wide spectrum, motivating a cross-fertilisation of ideas.”

Talking about the importance of English, she said that there were 400 million native English speakers, with another 400 million using it as their second language.

Talking about the state of education, she said that out of a populaton of 65 million school-going age children, 25 million were not going to school. There was, she said, a shift towards private schools which, according to her, was an indictment of the government schools.

“We do not stand to strike competition with government schools but, rather, we want to partner with them to improve the standard of schooling in the country,” said Saiyid.

Conference coordinator, Lubna Mohyuddin, and Mrs Zakia Sarwar congratulated and thanked all the members of SPELT and the OUP, who had worked hammer and tongs to make the conference a success.

Mrs Khalida Saadat distributed shields and mementos to the workers of SPELT and the OUP.

Earlier, Adrian Tennant, a free lance teacher trainer and consultant from the UK, in his talk, titled, “21st Century learning: looking beyond horizons”, interspersed with lots of humour and witticisms with frequent references to Persian folklore character, Mullah Nasruddin,  said that grammar was moving too fast and changes were occurring in it.

“Most classrooms don’t motivate the students to think,” he lamented. Advocating collaborative learning, he screened videos of classrooms in Saudi Arabia where, he said, students instead of sitting in rows, were made to sit on tables with each other and learnt not only from the teacher, but also by consulting each other.

Lubna Mohyuddin announced that the theme for next year’s conference would be, ‘Think Global, Act Local’.