METHODS AND APPROACHES OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN INDIA: AN ECLECTIC OVERVIEW

 Abstract 

Language plays an important role in human life. English is considered as the global language which links people everywhere around the world. English as a language came into India with the establishment of East Indian Company in 1612 and the arrival of British rules in India. English becomes a medium of communication and later becomes a medium of instructions even in education. Teaching the English language in India is a challenge for teachers as well as students and any study on English language trace back its roots to the studies underwent on English Language Teaching up until now. This paper titled “Methods and Approaches of Teaching English Language in India: An Eclectic Overview” is a review on various effective approaches and methods used for language teaching in India from Grammar Translation Method to Skill Based Learning/Teaching. 

Keywords: 

Audio Lingual Method, Communicative Language Teaching, Community Language Learning, Direct Method, English Language Teaching, Grammar Translation Method, Natural Method, Reading Method, Skill Based Learning/Teaching, Structural Approach, Structural Oral Situational Approach.

INTRODUCTION 

M. E. S. Elizabeth in her Methods of Teaching English (2010) quotes Prof. Gurrey who said: 

In teaching, it is highly desirable to know exactly what one is hoping to achieve as it is in all great undertakings. If this can be clearly seen then the best way of getting to work usually becomes evidence. We ought, therefore, to consider carefully what we are trying to do, when we are teaching a language. (311) 

English is a fine-tuned, broadly studied language around the world. The English language has become an official language and second language in many of the countries around the world. English as a language came into India with the establishment of East Indian Company in 1612 and the arrival of British rules in India. English becomes a medium of communication and later becomes a medium of instructions even in education. Even though Hindi is the official language in India, English is the most widely used, read and write in India. Teaching English language in India is a challenge for teachers as well as students. Teachers play an important role in creating and developing new and existing methods of teaching with the use of their ideas and experience. India is a country that have a unique culture of teaching compared to the westerners. We considered teachers as equal to parents and god, “Matha Pitha Guru Deivam”. Even though we are rich with traditional teaching values and norms, we don’t have any unique method or approach for teaching English, we follow the methods prevalent in modern times. Before going in detail to the methods and approaches of teaching English Languages, let’s embark on the difference between ‘methods’ and ‘approaches.’ Methods are a modus derived from the theories of language teaching and learning which analyse how a teacher teaches and a student learns a language. Approach is a loom on the practice of teaching a language using the theories and methods of ELT.

Methods and approaches in teaching English language can be classified into: 

 (a) Grammar Translation Method 

(b) Direct Method 

(c) Structural Approach 

(d) Structural Oral Situational Approach 

(e) Audio Lingual Method 

(f) Bi-Lingual Method 

(g) Communicative Language Teaching 

(h) Community Language Learning 

(i) Reading Method 

(j) The Silent Way 

(k) Natural Method 

(l) Suggestopedia 

(m) Skill Based Learning and Teaching

Grammar Translation Method: 

The Grammar Translation Method is one of the oldest methods of teaching since it was used to teach Greek and Latin in European countries. It is also known as Classical method. GT Method came into the forefront in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to teach modern languages such as English, French, German. It is the method of teaching grammar by translating it into the mother tongue. i.e., a text in source language gets translated to a target language. Two principle ideas should be followed in the Grammar Translation Method: First and foremost, It depends highly on teacher and literary language. Other is the need to develop good reading and writing skills with more focus on accuracy, morphology and syntax. 

According to Richard and Rodgers, “Though it may be true to say that the Grammar-Translation Method is still widely practiced, it has no advocates. It is a method for which there is no theory. There is no literature that offers a rationale or justification for it or that attempts to relate it to issues in linguistics, psychology, or educational theory.” (1) 

With the advent of new theories and methods in English language teaching, the Grammar-Translation method becomes imperfect but in India, grammar-translation method plays an important role in teaching English languages despite new innovations in teaching which sustains the vast syllabus and a large number of students with average, below average and intellectual academics. 

 Direct Method: 

The Direct Method is the method widely used in India which emphasis speaking, listening, and thinking without the help of the mother tongue. Direct method is also known as Natural Method or Reaction Method as the title suggests is a reaction against the grammar-translation method in France in 1901. If the Grammar-Translation method is a deductive approach of teaching Direct Method is a method with an inductive approach where students generate the rules and generalization of the topic from the pieces of information provided by the teacher. Unlike GT, Direct method focuses on the vocabulary. An apt example for Direct Method in the Indian curriculum is the teaching in primary schools where the teacher made activities is very helpful to learn the target language. Direct method cannot be used in Indian high schools since the numbers of students in a classroom is high and lack of experienced teachers to teach English in this method and it may fail to bring meaning and experience together in learning. 

According to Frederick Bodmer, When sensible people began to see the absurdity of this system, still preserved in many grammar-books, there was a swing of the pendulum from the perfectionist to the nudist (or DIRECT) method of teaching a language by conversation and pictures, without any rules. The alleged justification for this is that children first learn to speak without any rules, and acquire grammar rules governing the home language, if at all, when they are word-perfect. This argument is based on several misconceptions… The most apparent reason for its vogue is that it exempts the teacher from having any intelligent understanding of the language which he or she is teaching. (38) 

Structural Approach: 

Structural Approach was developed from the Institute of Education at the University of London during research on English language teaching as a foreign language. It takes its root in the Direct Method of teaching where form or structure is given more importance than the meaning of the language. A structure is selected in according to these four principles: teachability, productivity, simplicity, and its usefulness. In India, the structural approach came into limelight in the 1950s in the colleges under the Madras university following the patterns established by the University of London. This approach has been widely used around three decades in which the State Institution of Education Research and Training (SIERT) is still organising short term courses for teaching English as a second language in India. Even then language teaching doesn’t reach to the level expected by the organisers due to the lack of efficient and trained teachers to teach the future educators. 

Structural Oral Situational Approach: 

The S-O-S Approach takes its origin in the 1920s and 30s. it is an alternative to the direct method of ELT. According to this approach, language is made and used according to the situation. In this method, the teacher makes the students learn, practice and present the target language in the correct and effective situations with the correct usage of grammar and structure of the sentences as well as the language. S-O-S approach has been existed in the young educators and is ineffective in Indian schools since they have a vast syllabus to cover. 

Audio Lingual Method: 

The Audio-Lingual method resembles the direct method of ELT where teachers teach students a new language without focusing on the native language of the students to explain the new language. This enhances the knowledge of students and helps to develop the new language in them. It focuses on grammar rather than vocabulary. Repetition, Inflection, Replacement, and Restatement are the four elements used to teach audio-lingual method in ELT. It drills students with a new language where at first, they hear a language then learn, speak, read and write it. 

Audio Lingual method as an approach for teaching English takes its origin in 1942 in America during the second world war, when Americans realized the need for trained speakers for interpreting different languages. Hence it is also known as the Army Method. They had organized an Army Specialized training Programme through which they recruit a group of people with good reading, writing and verbal communication skills. Army method can’t be used in many of the Indian schools with a large strength but is possible in Indian private schools with an ‘n’ number of students to teach the English language. Memorization, Repetition, and Transformation are the activities generally used in this method.

Bilingual Method: 

Bi-Lingual Method as the name suggests is the symbiosis of two languages i.e., the mother tongue and target language, developed by Dr C. J. Dodson Wales. It is an association of grammar-translation method and direct method. It focuses on four principles of language teaching such as Selection, Gradation, Presentation and Repetition. It is a method where the teacher uses his/her mother tongue to explain or teach a new language and its functions. The Bi-lingual method is the common method used by Indian teachers in schools to teach the student a new subject. According to Dodson, its objective is to make the students accurate and fluent in speaking the language first, then writing it. Bi-lingual applies only to those people who know two languages i.e., mother tongue and a second language. Prof. H. N. Sasthri of EFLU Hyderabad had undergone research and made it clear that Bi-lingual is one of the effective methods of teaching in India more like a translation method. 

Communicative Language Teaching: 

CLT is a broad approach of teaching English language in India. It helps the students to use the target language and learn the functions of languages. It is also known as the Communicative Approach where the teacher establishes a situation to practice communication. Here language is meant for communication and learners to become an active participant. Communicative approach hassles fluency and accuracy and dominates the meaning of the language. Communication Approach originates in India in the late 1960s which rather than focusing on the grammar rules assumed that language teaching must focus on the situation in which a sentence is used rather than the grammar rules. Grammar is useless if it is not applied in the correct situation which demands it. It is said that grammar should not be focused on some situations but it is given importance in the application of communication. 

Michael Canale and Merrill Swain in their essay in Applied Linguistics titled “Theoretical Bases of Communicative Approaches” (1980) wrote: 

Communicative competence is composed minimally of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, and communicative strategies, or what we will refer to as strategic competence. There is no strong theoretical or empirical motivation for the view that grammar competence is any more or less crucial to successful communication than is sociolinguistic competence or strategic competence. The primary goal of a communicative approach must be to facilitate the integration of these types of knowledge for the learner, an outcome that is not likely to result from overemphasis on one form of competence over the others throughout a second language programme. (27) 

Here language act as a medium of expression, interaction, semiotics, learning, and communication.

Community Language Learning: 

Community Language Learning is an approach developed by Charles A. Curran where the learners work together to learn a new language. It is a method in which the teacher becomes the mentor and a passive participant. Community language learning takes its origin from The Cognition Theory and Stephen Krashen’s Monitor Theory. Community Language Teaching is one such method where the learning should be initiated by the learners themselves. Rather than competitive approach in learning, it becomes a co-operative learning where the teacher, student and the modulator of the subject is the learner himself/herself. The School of Joy like institutions are examples of Community Language Learning centres in India. 

Reading Method: 

The Reading method as the title suggests gives importance to reading for teaching English language. It was developed by Michael West, an educator in Bengal, who asserted that reading should be given more importance than speaking. He aims at understanding the language rather than facsimile it. Reading method is not successful in India since it is appropriate to provide correct and accurate comprehension to develop the vocabulary of the reader or student. 

H. H. Stern, Elaine E. Tarone, Hans Heinrich Stern, George Yule and Hilde Stern in their Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching: Historical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Applied Linguistic Research (1983) wrote: 

The reading method grew out of practical educational considerations, not from a shift in a linguistic and psychological theory. It was in keeping with American educational theory of the twenties. It introduced into language teaching some important elements: 

(a) the possibility of devising techniques of language learning geared to specific purposes, in this case the reading objective; 

(b) the application of vocabulary control to second language texts, as a means of better grading of texts

(c) the creation of graded ‘readers’; and 

(d) thanks to vocabulary control, the introduction of techniques of rapid learning to the foreign learning classroom. (462) 

The Silent Way: 

The Silent Way is a method of teaching English language created by Caleb Gattegno. It enables the students to become independent in learning the language. As the title suggests, it is a silent way of teaching in which the teacher remains silent, a passive role in teaching where the students or learners have an active role in it. They engage in creative learning with the assessments like problem-solving, finding activities to be done etc. here the teacher is the one like a guide who correct the error of the learners by not indulging in giving any new form or ideas to be used in learning. Rather than a simple listener, the learner is an active participant in this method. Students learn English language using Sound-Color chart, Word-Fidal Chart etc. The Sound-color chart helps the teachers to teach and learners to learn words, grammar, pronunciation, where the blocks in the chart represent vowels and consonants. Fidal chart is a chart in which each block represents different sounds in English makes learning and teaching language easier. Even though the teacher remains silent, he/she makes awareness among students and makes student-student interaction on the right face and establish learning skills like reading, speaking, writing etc. among students. 

Natural Method: 

Tracy Terrell with the espousal of Stephen Krashen developed the natural method which aims at the reproduction of the language naturally to the native language. It resembles the Translation Method, Direct Method and Reading Method in Language teaching. The Natural method focuses on the use of language and the vocabulary of the language. It is a compulsion of a variety of approaches and methods in English language teaching. 

Suggestopedia: 

Suggestopedia is an approach developed in the 1970s by Georgi Lozanov. According to Lozanov, one of the issues in learning a subject or a language is memorization and integration of words and ideas. Suggestopedia makes learning easy with the application of positive suggestion in teaching. The term ‘suggestopedia’ is a portmanteau of ‘suggestion’ and ‘pedagogy’ which means emphasizing student’s choice. It is also known as ‘Desuggestopedia’ or ‘Desuggestive Learning.’ Lozanov claims that the method is 25 times accurate than any other method of teaching English language. Music has a vital role in this method. Lozanov had introduced four stages of suggestopedia such as presentation, concert session, elaboration and practice. Methods of Suggestopedia includes creating an environment to learn, limited homework, general discussions, music and art in learning etc. emancipates teaching and learning English as a tough, foreign language to an easily assessable one in India. 

 Skill Based Learning and Teaching: 

Skills can be classified into Language skills, Cognitive skills, Study skills etc. There are generally four skills in language acquisition such as reading, writing, speaking and listening, which again have sub-skills such as skimming, scanning, vocabulary, mechanics, pronunciation, specific, gist etc. Cognitive skills are mental skills to acquire knowledge and study skills are the approaches to learning or study the subject. Skill-based learning or teaching involves the specialization in learning a subject which is imperfect in India but occurs in many private schools with an international syllabus. 

CONCLUSION 

V. Saraswathi in her English Language Teaching: Principles and Practice (2004) said: 

The history of language teaching presents a fascinating variety of methods. If there is such a variety of methods, which one are we to choose? There is no definite answer to this question, what works with one learner may not work with another. One may be a wizard in grammar but another may just hate it. Others might enjoy memorizing sentences. (63) 

English as a foreign language and second language has a wide reach in India as well as Indian schools. We cannot assume that all these methods and approaches are used and practised in all Indian schools, this may be limited to private schools with an extravagant syllabus. Like Indian culture, Indian academic syllabus is also vast. It is not possible to select one single method or approach suitable for Indian curriculum since the number of students in a classroom is high, trained teachers in schools are low. There are institutes like EFLU in Hyderabad which focuses on the development of language teaching in India. With the advent of digital technologies teaching had also changed. What should be focused on the modern Indian society is the apt way of teaching and setting a clear base for language teaching with quality. Language teachers should dissolve these methods and approaches into the Indian context and create new modus which provides good education system equipped with knowledge.

WORKS CITED 

[1] Bodmer, Frederick and Lancelot Thomas Hogben. The Loom of Language. W W Norton and Co Inc, 1985. 

[2] Canale, Michael and Merrill Swain. “Theoretical Bases of Communicative Approaches”, Applied Linguistics. Volume 1, Issue 1, Toronto University Press, 1980. 

[3] Elizabeth, M. E. S. Methods of Teaching English. Discovery Publishing House, 2010. 

[4] Rodgers, Richards, Jack C… Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2001. 

[5] Saraswathi, V. English Language Teaching: Principles and Practice. Orient Longman, 2004. 

[6] Stern, H. H., Elaine E. Tarone… Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching: Historical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Applied Linguistic Research. Oxford University Press, 1983

ENGLISH : A LANGUAGE THAT RULES THE WORLD

 

It has been a long time since the sun began to set in the British empire. After world war II, Britain had lost its position as one of the world’s major ruling powers in the scientific, economic, technological, industrial, and military spheres. The reins of the world have slipped out of Britain’s hands. Although the world is not ruled by Britain, the language that still rules is English, a language developed by Britain. The English language has played a significant role in uniting and strengthening the scattered people with a single language. No one can deny the role of English in turning scattered India into a single nation. This paper titled “English: A language that rules the world” aims to provide insight into the basics of the history of English. 

What is History? Oxford Dictionary refers history as “a relation of incidents”, “a written narrative constituting a continuous methodical record, in order of time, of important or public events, especially those connected with a particular country, people, individual etc.”, “The formal record of the past, especially of human affairs or actions.” (Oxford Dictionary). Language is the discourse of people and society. History of a language is the history of people and society. English as a language was introduced by Britain long before English began to grow. Daniel Defoe gave the language a strange adjective i.e., Roman – Saxon – Danish – Norman English. According to him, Modern English is a mixture of all these cultures. Linguists point to the English language as a cocktail made from a variety of liquors. English became the culture of most languages in the world. This is because the words and expressions of the English language were adapted from many languages. The story of the birth and development of English is the story of three submissions and one revolution. English has had a hybrid character since the beginning of life. Its growth is a mixture of war and peace. The language was first developed about a thousand years before the time of the fathers of English literature. When St. Augustine and his followers converted England to the land of Christianity, Latin and Greek came to influence the language spoken there. Later, the Dutch made some additions to the vocabulary.

               Finally, when it becomes the time of the French language speaking Normans, English language attains a pure form as we see today. By the time of Chaucer, many dramatic events had taken place. And old form modern English had emerged. The official study on the origins of the English language began in the eighteenth century. Sir William Jones, a British man serving in India began to learn Sanskrit to understand the early laws of India reached to a great goal in language learning where he found a striking resemblance of Sanskrit with Latin and Greek. The English word ‘brother’ resembles the Greek ‘phrater’ and Sanskrit ‘bhratar’. The word ‘pita’ in Sanskrit is synonymous with ‘pitar’ in Greek and ‘pater’ in Latin. The Latin word ‘mater’ is similar to the Sanskrit word ‘mata’ and the English word ‘mother’.

In this way, Sir Jones discovered many words with almost identical pronunciation and the same meaning. Even though many such similarities have been made before him, Jones is the one who made a systematic study on it.  He presented his findings in the Asiatic Society Meeting conducted on February 2, 1786. He states that Sanskrit, Latin and Greek have a spiritual connection; but it is not a coincidence. Probably there is an unknown factor behind this resemblance and subsequent studies confirmed his discovery as of right. Thus, the idea of an Indo-European common origin was put forward that the history of a population can be traced back to the language. These studies have revealed the way of life of the early Indo-European society. They used the words that refer to winter and horse. From this, it can be seen that these group of people led a nomadic and semi-settled lifestyle. They have pets, used dried animal skins, wool clothes to wear, had ploughed land and had a social life and family structure. It has not been possible to determine exactly who they were and whom they lived with. They are thought to have lived in some of the colder climates of the northern climate. Because in their language there were words that meant snow, beach, tree, bee, wolf etc. they then established the Indo-Iranian languages spoken in the Colosseum, India, and Pakistan. Another group of Indo-Europeans travelled to the western part of the country with a calm climate. Their successors formed Greece, Italy, Germany, and the Baltic region.

The history of the English language begins with the arrival of the three German tribes into England: Angles, Saxons and Jutes. The history of English can be divided into three periods:

1.      Old English or Anglo-Saxon (AD 500 to 1100 AD),

2.      Middle English or Medieval English (1100 AD to 1500 AD) and

3.      Modern English (AD 1500 to Today)

The Old English:

The first people in England are Celts, the early inhabitants of Britain. The Celts are an Indo-European group of people who migrated to the west. They have settled in the highlands of Scotland, Cornwall, Ireland, Wales, and the United Kingdom. They were the first immigrants to England. The people of Wales still use the word ‘Cynny’ to describe themselves believing that they, the Irish, the Scotlandians, and the people of Cornwall are the real British. Wales is a Celtic language which has not changed over time. Since the Cambrian mountains isolated the country from a Celtic village, it has no influence of other languages for four centuries. Despite many socio-economic changes, the Welsh did not abandon their language. Although educational and industrial progress paved the way for the introduction to the English language, the Welsh language survived. From the beginning of the 20^th century, the majority of Wales began to use English among their mother tongue. But even today 20% of the Welsh language can be seen in the English language in Wales. This variant of English is more rhythmic. They contributed much to English literature as poets. Since they lived in a fertile and mineral-rich region, they had to face a lot of attacks for lands.

The Romans were the first invaders of Celts. Britain was invaded by Roman troops led by Julius Caesar in the 55 BC. Celts resisted bravely but could not hold out much longer. The Romans conquered Britain and the people in Britain embraced the roman culture. As part of this, some Roman words get translated to English. The place names Cher, Manchester and Winchester are derived from the Roman word ‘Castra’ which mean a camp or habitat. After the fall of Constantinople, the Roman army withdraws from Britain in 410 AD. With the collapse of the Roman empire, Roman influence in Britain also waned. After Roman rule, a new occupation team arrived. They are a Germanic group of Indo-European immigrants who migrated to the Baltic, Northern Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands. From these people came two linguistic branches in English: the Norse language of Scandinavian in the Northern region and the West Germanic language in the Western region. The West Germanic language is classified as ‘High German’ and ‘Low German’.

One of the early historians of the Germanic tribes was the Roman writer Tacitus. He recorded the history of people who claimed to be the first English men. According to Tacitus, the Germanic tribes had many advantages over Romans. The Germans were independent. They had no extravagant celebrations or festivals which marks their culture. They lived in seven tribes who worshipped the earth as a goddess. Angles are a group of these tribes. Tacitus says that there were many primitive customs among them like human sacrifices to please the goddess of the earth. They lived in an area known as Schell’s-Wig-Holstein. The language used was Germanic. Freesia is a Germanic group that lives near the coastal slums of the Netherlands. Their descendants are people living in the area of Freesia or Freeman. They lived by raising sheep and cattle. They used words like ‘kko’, ‘lam’, ‘goss’, ‘dong’, ‘rein’ etc. which are similar to ‘cow’, ‘lamb’, ‘goose’, ‘boat’, ‘dog’, and ‘rain’. Germanic roots point to the similarity of English with the Persian language.

The Danish language has a similar resemblance to English. Had it not been for the Norwegian occupation of 1066, English would have born a striking resemblance to modern Danish. In 449, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes arrived in Britain from Denmark and off the coast of Germany. To this day, the area is known as the Lower Saxony. The English form was a disorganised people who loved to kill and be killed. Arriving here, they drove the locals to the western parts. The legendary King Arthur fought against the invaders and Anglo-Saxons established seven kingdoms on the land – Northamptonshire, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Wessex. They called the British who had to flee away from the Anglo- Saxon territories “Whales” which means foreigners and derived the word, Welsh. The Anglo-Saxons and the people of Britain lived close together for centuries.

Old English, the language of Anglo-Saxons, has barely crossed a dozen words. Few of these words have become part of modern English. For example, the words like ‘brock’ (badger), ‘combe’ (a type of valley) etc. some places, rivers are named after the Celtic language. Some cities had the Roman-British names. The name London was derived from the Roman name ‘Londinium’. They did not own the language of the territory conquered by Anglo-Saxons. Even today there is no unity between the English, the Welsh, Scots, and Irish. But the language of the Celtic community made many contributions to English literature and language. Many prominent English writers like Swift, Robert Burns, Burke, Wild etc were of Celtic descent. Not only that, the people from Scotland, Ireland, and Wales have greatly contributed to the spread of the English language through their travels to many parts of the world. The Celtics called all German invaders Saxons. But gradually referred to the invaders as a whole.

The word English was used in the Latin work “The English Church and People” by the 8^th century Priest Venerable Bede. According to Bede, the people of Britain are ‘Angelcynn’, relatives of angels and their language is ‘Englisc’ i.e., English. By the turn of the millennium AD, the country came to be known as England, the land of English. Gradually, the Anglo-Saxon settlers began to make a living by farming. Many words in their language were associated with agriculture. For example, sheep, shepherd, ox, ‘ng donos’ for the earth, ‘cwo’ for a dog, ‘anlod’ for the field, work, laughter, mirth etc. it became difficult to write in English without a single word in old English, the language of Anglo-Saxons. Many of the most commonly used words in English are contributions of old English. Ancient English had many regional variations. The Anglo-Saxon language was of a very high standard. But since most people do not know how to read and write, they prefer to use words that are mostly spoken. Though they are not developed like Romans, Anglo-Saxons acquired many innovations through Roman invitations.

Many words have come to English as part of Christianity. Most of these were Latin words. Young men were taken from Britain to Rome for slavery. Pope Gregory sent St. Augustine to England to Christianise society. St. Augustine with fifty companions arrived at Kent and was accommodated at Canterbury. To help them, in 635 AD, an evangelist named Aidan arrived from Ireland to preach in the northern part of the country. With the advent of Christianity, Churches monasteries were established in the country. Thus, educational progress became possible in England. Not only theology, but many other subjects including poetry and astrology were taught in these monasteries. Christianity contributed about 400 words to the ancient English language, most of which are still in use today.

Until then, the old English language had the words to describe things that were part of ordinary life. Greek and Latin words like angel, litany, disciple, martyr, mass, shrift, shrine, psalm etc became part of the English language. Words related to churches, words and ideas from India and China were the impetus for the Anglo-Saxon people are borrowed from Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The words like priest (preost), bishop (biscop), nun (nonne), munk (munuc) are all Latin words. The Greek words include apostle, pope, psalter etc whereas the word sabbath is a contribution of the Hebrew language. Many words from the east like camel, lion, cedar, orange etc migrated to England as part of the bible. The word ginger is derived from Sanskrit. With the advent of Latin, English words began to take on new meanings. Words like god, heaven, and hell were already part of the ancient English language, but with the advent of Christianity, these words gained their current meaning. In the 8^th century, as a result of the influence of Christianity, Anglo-Saxon developed a rich culture in England. It was during this period that words came to perfection. But at the same time, the country faced another threat. It was the arrival of the Vikings who had the second greatest influence on the formation of the language.

The Vikings arrived in England in 793 AD to plunder churches and monasteries. By the middle of the 9^th century, half of the country was under their control. They then attacked Wessex; the stronghold of England ruled by King Alfred the Great. They signed the treaty of Vedmore according to which the Danes retreated to the North. Alfred and the English-speaking Saxons conquered the south. Alfred established his authority over nations like Mercia, Worcestershire and Warwickshire outside the Commonwealth by using English as a common language. Thus, king Alfred who united England came to be known as Alfred the Great. He rebuilds churches and schools destroyed by the Vikings. He who studied Latin translated many books to English. The poem Beowulf is the best example of Saxon-Vikings relationship or connection in language. No one knows about the origin of the poem as well as the author. The poem written in old English refers to life at that time.

Middle English:

The language in use from 1150 to 1500 AD was given a name in the 19th century as Medieval English or Middle English. The most important change of this period was the use of auxiliary verbs. The English used in Northern, West Midland, East Midland, Southern and Kentish regions in England, is very similar to modern English. Another important event in the history of the English language and England was the Norman invasion and the coming of William of Normandy as the ruler of England. He later becomes William the Conqueror. William bestowed honours on those willing to stand with him and ordained Norwegian bishops and priests in monasteries and cathedrals of England. Although he tried to learn English, his efforts were unsuccessful into the midst of the hustle and bustle of religion, judiciary, science and literature and French began to be used in all areas. By 1154, Anglo-Saxon writers who were writing contemporary events as a chronicle had given up their writing. French became the vernacular and Latin became the official language. Except Henry I, who married an Englishwoman, learned to speak English, whereas the Norman kings did not know English. Latin was used for religious purpose but English became the language of the common man.

With the advent of the French, English words came to have many synonyms. For example, the word kingly had synonyms like royal, regal, sovereign etc. were the two languages combined to form a new language. There are many reasons why English survived the French invasion. English was spoken before the arrival of the Normans. The spoken language and written language were perfect. With the influence of the Scandinavian languages, English became a clear language. French was regarded as the language of foreigners. Moreover, the people who lived in England were not willing to give up their language, but they started learning English, which became a prestigious issue among them. Thus, the French aristocracy living in the countryside of England needed to learn English. In 1204, the Anglo-Normans lost control of the French territory beyond the English Channel due to king John’s valiant military campaign. By 1244, the king of franc had asked his people to abandon trade with other nations.

The use of the English language began to be widespread again from the beginning of the 13^th century, beginning with the use of English for speaking and writing. English began to be used to compose gospels, prayers and carols. During the reign of Henry III, English appeared alongside Latin in the court documents. Later the official documents began to be written in English. At the same time, an anti-French attitude was taken by an Englishman in England. They began to complain that London was full of foreigners. Henry III was a French descent. Many of his admirers were French. The angry English lords prepared for a riot. The priests in England were against Henry. At the end of the 13^th century, Edward I came into power. He placed great emphasis on the English language, not only among the common people but also on the highly educated and English becomes the third most popular language in England. Later, English became a part of the French curriculum. It was at this time that an English poem, The Cursor Mundi was written with many biblical stories and Christian histories. In the meantime, the church and its students in the French and the Latin American universities stood forward to maintain the French language. Students in the universities of Oxford were requested to make French or Latin as their communication language with a choice. But they often refuse to obey.

Although the century-long war i.e., the hundred years of war between the England and France and the terrible plague known as the ‘Black Death’ paralysed England, it can be said that it greatly contributed to the growth of England. Many priests died of the plague. Thereafter, the responsibility for the monasteries and churches fell into the hands of English-speaking people in England. In 1362, an English-speaking parliament was established. Records of Richard II’s resignation following the Labour Revolution of 1581 were prepared in English. Records of the reign of Henry IV were also in English. Thus, the dictatorship of English became complete.

Chaucer, widely considered as the father of English literature, and the father of English poetry, founded London’s English literature through his literary works. He arrived in Italy, during the time of the great poets Petrarch and Boccaccio, who dominated the literary scene. It was during that time he wrote many of his best works among which the most famous or the one which is regarded as his magnum opus is The Canterbury Tales. It is an old English poem which tells the journey of a few pilgrims representing different sections of the society, to the tomb of St Thomas Beckett at Canterbury. He chose a language that the common man could understand from his poems. He embodied and applied the changes that had taken place in the English language three hundred years after his time in his works. He used words from ancient English and words derived from Greek and Latin and contributed around 12000 words to the English vocabulary.

The introduction of the printing press in 1476 by William Caxton had a great influence on the development of the English language. Caxton had edited, printed and published around hundred of books in east midland dialect. This had established the east midland dialect as the standard form in English. Caxton’s decision to print English in London and the south-east is an important milestone in the history of English spelling, grammar, syntax and vocabulary. London English was seen and highly acclaimed by his successors. The rise of the printing press has greatly benefited the education sector. It can be said that it became the cornerstone of the European renaissance. With the renaissance, there was a flood of Latin words in the English language. Some scholars have suggested that the literature of the 15^th century may have contained “half-chewed Latin words”. Bishop Reginald Picklock was the first to call for the liberation of the English language from the spread of Latin. In order to substitutes for many Latin words, he founded words which are similar to Latin. No one took his efforts seriously, until in the late 18^th century. The importance of the London language style can be seen in many plays written in drama was widespread in England. The number of actors in these plays, which were staged in the courtyards, was very small. It was easy for them to travel all over the country and perform plays. Mankind was a popular play of the time, and its language was mostly pure English and soon the era of ‘open-air theatre’ began in London.

Modern English:

The modern English period begins in 1500 AD. Two events in the history of England had influenced the growth of the language: Renaissance and Reformation. The renaissance was a revolution in the field of arts, science, literature, architecture etc. across Europe whereas reformation was a protest against the values of the renaissance. With the advent of the printing press, society began to see dramatic changes and without printing, reformation would have been nothing. By 1500, the number of books printed in Europe was about 35000, most of them were printed in Latin. However, between 1500 and 1640, around 20000 books were printed in England which includes pamphlets and the bible. With the advent of the printing press, education became easier for the common people. By 1600, it was estimated that about half of the country’s population had received a basic education. As book sales became more of a business venture, the spread of the language accelerated and people outside of universities became more interested in reading English works. At the same time, books for educational purposes were also printed in English. England could not stay away from the influence of classical works. The change in knowledge following renaissance and the study of epic works combined to create an array of scholarly writers from Thomas Moore to Francis Bacon.

Many of the writers of the time, including Bacon, borrowed many words from Latin and Greek and gave a classical touch to the language with the words like agile (Latin), capsule (Latin), habitual (Latin), catastrophe (Greek), lexicon (Greek), thermometer (Greek) etc. new words were added to describe the new inventions. For example, atmosphere, pneumonia, skelton etc were about the human body. The terms paradox, external, chronology was contributed to research in physics. All these words were contributions of Latin and Greek. Even in modern times, we seek the help of these languages to explain new inventions. For example, video, television, synthesizer etc. the words bigot and detail are derived from the French language. Contributions of Italian architecture are cupole, portico and stucco. The words like desperado, embargo is a testament to the Spanish strife. The words like smuggle, reef was coined by sea navigators. Thus, the revival contributed 10000 to 12000 new words to the English language.

The Tudor rule in England was marked by war and envy. Henry VIII questioned the authority of the Pope in England. Queen Elizabeth, on the other hand, was constantly threatened by the superpowers of the day, such as France and Spain. The only thing that helped England was the defeat of the great fleet of Spain known as  Spanish Armada, at battle. The conquests of that time increased the patriotism of the English. Many began to think that the borrowing of words from the Spanish Armada language into English should be stopped. This thought also prevailed in literature. Some opposed it at this time. There were many changes in the language during that time. It was a time of complete freedom of language. Shakespeare and others used adjectives as nouns, adverbs as verbs, and nouns and adjectives as verbs and adverbs. Most had the courage to come up with new words. The reign of Queen Elizabeth I was regarded as the golden age of England. It was a time of universal prosperity for the nation. The greatest progress was made in language and literature. William Shakespeare, the greatest writer the world has ever seen, lived during this time. It was also the beginning of the renaissance, the reformation, and the britishization of England.

William Shakespeare is the magician of the language who opened a new world to the English people. His contributions to language are as great as his contributions to literature. At least one of  Shakespeare’s expressions come across, even in ordinary English conversation. Even though he born in 1564 in Stratford, Avon, Warwickshire he had no university education, an innate genius can be seen in his writings. Shakespeare is considered as one of the richest English writers of the decade. Even today the average vocabulary of an educated person is 15000 words but Shakespeare used ad introduced about thirty thousand words. Those words include allurement, armada, antipathy, critical, demonstrate, dire, emphasis etc. he was second to none in creating unique sayings. Such expressions abound in his plays and poems. Shakespeare used many dialects of English in the dialogue of his characters.

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, James IV of Scotland take over the throne of England and becomes James I of England. The renaissance of the English language, which began in the time of Elizabeth the Great, reached its peak during the reign of James I. It was king James I who made English the world’s most widely accepted language and sought to elevate it as a global language. His greatest contribution was to produce an authoritative version of the bible. The authentic translation of the bible was written as a result of the combined efforts of many scholars during the time of James I in 1611. This clear and poetic book, written in just 8000 words is still read today.

This was a time in the language where the people who learn English finds it difficult to read and pronounce certain vowels which had different sounds with different words. For example, the ‘ea’ in the word ‘bread’ pronounced as same as the ‘e’ in ‘bred’, and differs in the ‘ea’ in the word ‘break’. English pronunciation attained a drastic change when it reaches the modern period and the scholars in English named it as “The Great Vowel Shift”. Some historians have pointed out that there are eight stages for vowel shift in English and its origin is remarked to the medieval period where the Black Death is regarded as the reason for the great shift in English when people from different regions emigrated to south-east England and when their accents were combined, it created new pronunciations in English.

English decide to seek new countries in the United States to increase their religious freedom. Their goal was to establish the kingdom of God in the new world, and some travelled for commercial interests. The group was back in Virginia. It was originally planned to sail on the ship Mayflower. They were received by American English, these immigrants came to America in 1620, settled in Plymouth Rock, Makkah. Some of the American Indians who lived there knew very little English. English ships were anchored on the east coast for trade and fishing. They got this ‘room’ of English from their acquaintance with their passengers, and the black slaves who arrived there before Mayflower landed on the American coast played their part in promoting English. Immigrants adopted into their language about fifty words thus owing to the English language. For example, moose, hickory, oak, sweet potato, squash etc. Many words have been changed with their daily usage.

Early American life was very different from that of England. There they found new plants, trees and animals. They need new words to refer them. Moreover, they gave new meanings to many old words. This is how words like bluff, divide, gap etc. got new meanings. American English still has dialects of the 16^th and 17^th centuries. For example, the word ‘gotten’ is still used by Americans instead of the word ‘got’. Mad is also used to mean angry. English and American English today differ in the pronunciation and manner of ‘a’ and ‘r’. Moreover, American English does not use the sophisticated spelling of the original English. Americans like to write as they are pronounced. Englishmen are very fast speaking. The United States pays more attention to pronunciation, on the other hand, the English people use different tones in pronunciation and rhythm. American English is influenced by the languages of Spain, Dutch and later French who arrived in the United States before the English.

Blacks are the people who came to the United States as slaves from Africa. Later, many of them rise socially and eventually, all became free. The language they used in those days was their language. They were able to know their heritage. The English language, pronunciation, and cultural characteristics of the blacks were considered as Lazy English. The Englishmen called it Ungrammatical English. Today no one sees any flaw in this language style. The upper classes in Europe contributed some words to the English language through the cruelty of slavery. Words like juke, tote, banana etc. are all part of the English language. Bad-mouth, a high five, yum yum etc. are borrowed from the African language.

The English who came to India entered into the daily life of the common people in India. With that, it became their need to learn the language of the natives. Many of these words became the property of the English language. Many Indian words were familiar to the English during the reign of Queen Elizabeth such as brahmin, tiffin, curry, rajah and at the end of the seventeenth-century words like coolie, juggernaut, bungalow, cheroot etc. entered to the world of English. The Englishmen were interested to adopt words like chutney, guru, kamar bhant, purdah into English by the end of the eighteenth century. Today, thousands of English words are part of the English language.  British colonies all over the world also had a great role in spreading the language.

                One of the most amazing facts about English is that it is still evolving and continues to change with new portmanteaus, findings and developments. Even though the had different phrases in its emergence, the old English is the best out of the three and will remain as the heart of language since it is the root from which English had become a giant tree of knowledge. This study is an attempt to bring forth the story of English, a language that ruled the world.

References:

(1)    Barber, Charles, Joan C. Beal and Philip A. Shaw. The English Language: A Historical Introduction, 2^nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2009.

(2)    “History”. Oxford Dictionary, 2018.

(3)    Mugglestone, Lynda. The Oxford History of English. Oxford University Press, 2006.

(4)    Short, Daniel M. The Indo-European Family of Languages. Web.cn.edu.in, 2002.

(5)    Varghese, Susan. The Shapers of Destiny. Thrissur: Current Books, 2014.