Assignment: Paper no. 12

Assignment: 12 Role of English in India from Sociological perspective

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Name: Rudrika Gohel

Course: M.A. English

Sem: 3

Batch: 2017-2019

Roll No: 32

Enrollment No: 2069108420180015

Submitted to: Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English MKBU

Email Id: rudrikagohel97@gmail.com

Paper No: 11

Topic:  Role of English in India from Sociological perspective

#Introduction:-

"Language is intimately tied to man's feeling and activity. It is bound up with nationality, religion and the feelings of self. It is used for work, worship and play bye

veryone, he be beggar or banker, savage or civilised".

There are multiple reasons for the overpowering of English language in India.

Our country is Multilingual, Multicultural,

pluralistic milieu. An individual can function best through the language which he acquires natively  English has deep impect in India. English language becomes overpower, because it is a global language. Today this language becomes social language. It becomes the part of education, business, global market, etc. The language was spreading through the Britishers, they make the world language that's why nation’s prosperity is completely dependent on learning English as the first language drawing a line between the elite, the middle class and the poor. 

#Language in the development of society:-

English is as remains but however our language was mixed but, often unnoticed. The words that have become part of everyday English. Loot, nirvana, pyjamas, shampoo and shawl; bungalow, jungle, pundit and thug. English may be a necessary, concomitant factor in modernisation, it should not be 

viewed as a sufficient one. The area of language and society – sociolinguistics – is intended to show how our use of language is governed by such factors as class, gender,

race, etc. A subsection of this area is anthropological linguistics which is

concerned with form and use of language in different cultures and to what extent

the development of language has been influenced by cultural environment. We can say English language socially connected with the many sectors. When India was about to get the independence, and when it gets, English language remains as part of the country. Many scholars like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Rabindranath Tagore, who studied English language for the development of the society. 

#Sociological perspective:-

The current status of English, has turned a significant percentage of the worlds population into part-time users or learners of English. The wide spread need for learning puts a considerable pressure on the educational resources involving 

curriculum development, methodology of teaching and evaluation procedures. The uses and the functions of English around the world can be discussed in the following way. English is socially constructed in our society, it deals with not only one sector, but constructed in all the way, education, economic, globalisation, business. In this modern era English known as global language. If we wants to connect with the world it becomes very necessary part of society. 

English is today leading language, in the world, Of all the languages of the world, English deserves to be regarded as a world language. It is the common means of
communication both nationally and internationally. It is the language of international politics, trade, commerce and industry. The present world of science and technology needs the knowledge of English.

"No language, ancient or modern, can be
compared with English in the number of geographical distribution of the homes, shops, factories, and offices in which the language is spoken, written and read".
Link language because it is understood by the educated people all over the country. English is needed not for operational purposes but also for identifying oneself with those who use the language in India and abroad. According to Dr. S. RadhaKrishnan Commission on Education "English is the only means of preventing our isolation from the world and we will act unwisely, if we allow ourselves to be
enveloped in the folds of a dark curtain of ignorance".

Expressing the view regarding the teaching of English, former Education Minister, Maulana Azad said
"In addition, English has today become one of the major languages of the world, and Indians can neglect its study at the risk of loss to themselves. I am convinced that in the future as well the standard of teaching English should be maintained at as high a
level as possible".

#The Relationship Between Language, Society:-

Sociolinguists study the relationship between language and society. They are interested in explaining why we speak differently in different social contexts, and they are concerned with identifying the social functions of language and the ways it is used to convey social meaning. In today's world the people become very social. And they connected with the language of globalisation. People live in societies that have a strong influence on their lives, opinions and beliefs. Wardaugh defines a ‘society’ as ‘any group of people who are drawn together for a certain purpose or purposes’. He stresses that, in this definition, ‘society’ is necessarily brief in order to be comprehensive, as ‘society’ is a broad concept, given the many different societies that exist. Language is enough place to stay connected with not only natives but also with foreign people, whom we are not connected with natively. Socially Language creates the path of connecting with society.  

Attempting an equally comprehensive definition of ‘language’, Wardaugh says that it ‘is what the members of a particular society speak’, but notes that ‘speech in almost any society can take many very different forms’ and hence ‘…our definitions of language and society are not independent: the definition of language includes in it a reference to society’. Language is identification of our culture, as it is English language is not only a language but an institution. Through, which we not only able to know their culture but also literature. Culture is mainly about social identity, and communication, and, as Podur notes, is an important part of that select identity. Sociologically culture is main aspects of society. Society and culture shape the roles of people in the economy, which are inherently unequal, separating the interests of the elite with excessive, mainly economic power, from the workers and unemployed, and minority groups, who are with limited power. This does not appear as a situation that comes about by chance, but one that is consciously institutionalized. 

This, in turn, suggests that social institutions, such as education, exist as components of society with English teaching extending beyond a means of providing the skills of communication, in serving as a way of reflecting the ideological values of society.

#English Language: situation and status

To assess the overall language question of India, the Government has taken various steps like appointing study committees and commissions. The official language 

commission was appointed in June 1955 under the chairmanship of B.G Khertomake to make recommendations about the progressive use of Hindi for all official purposes. English should be one of the three compulsory languages for students at the secondary stage, the other two being Hindi and the mother tongue or the regional language. This three language 

formula should form the basis of a National Policy and all state Governments should be invited to fall in line with it as early as 

possiblen.

The study aims at comparing the present English language teaching programme and principles at PU and Inter levels of
Rarnataka and Andhra Pradesh states with reference to the materials, methods and modes of evaluation. Merits and demerits
of both the systems are studied and recommendations for further improvement of the courses are suggested. This study is of great pedagogical significance in view of the fact that these two states exemplify varying degrees of bilingualism, viz, Telugu, English / Kannada, English. To reformulate our objectives in the Indian context today we have to take into consideration the motivation of the learner, the availability of resources for teaching English and the 
national needs that English may have to serve. For majority of students English is a highly useful language to be taught for 
practical purposes. A clear statement of objectives is essential. Teaching and 
testing become arbitrary and wayward if there are no objectives to guide. The teaching situation as far as English is concerned is fairly stable for several decades. The syllabi, teaching methods and testing procedures had remained fairly stable. 

#Conclusion:-

According to recent surveys, approximately 4% of the Indian population use English. That figure might seem insignificant, but out of the total population this represents 35 million speakers — the largest English-speaking community outside the USA and the UK. In addition there are speakers of English in other parts of South Asia, such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, where English plays a similar role. English is virtually a mother tongue for many educated South Asians, but for the vast majority it remains a second language. This means there are speakers whose spoken English is heavily influenced by speech patterns of their ethnic language, alongside those whose speech reveals nothing of their racial background and some who are ranged somewhere in between.