1. Progress Through Influence Processes of Oral Communication
Animism is not a religion, they say, it is only a generic name for thousands of religions, cults and beliefs. Most humans become a part of this one way or another. That indeed makes most humans products of environment that had exerted its influence on the humans from time to time through different types of civilisations down several centuries. The cognitive revolution and the agriculture revolution are landmarks (1) in the history of human progress as Yuval Noah Harari explains them in the first part of his book Sapiens: A History of Human Kind. Professor of History at the University of Jerusalem, his major studies and products like Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, refer, several times, to the systems of resource development that the humans have achieved at every point of significantly different signs of progress at intervals. (2) It is important for everyone to note that the history of the written language is not as old as the history of spoken language. (3) He refers to the excavations conducted at Sungir in Russia in 1955 where thirty thousand year old burial sites were discovered, in which there were several decorative pieces of art in the graves and nothing written on any of them. (4) Harari, several times, stresses the fact that the humans progressed by influencing each other and that the influence was through communication. (5) From his words, one can conclude that communication and its influence on each other are the most powerful areas of resource that humans processed by the time the cognitive revolution dawned on them, (6) but there are no signs of written language then.
2. Spoken Language Far Earlier To The Written Language
Similarly, the fact that the pictures in the network of Lascaux Caves in France have no written words point (7) a finger at the fact that the written language was not available even fifteen to seventeen thousand years ago which is supposed to be the time of the making of the paintings. None of the six hundred paintings and one thousand five hundred engravings have even a single word on them. (8) Almost similar is the case with the famous The Hands Cave in Argentina in which probably the hunter gatherers have marked paintings of multiples of their hands, supposed to have been done around seven thousand to nine thousand years ago with no inscriptions of words, (9) once again proving that the written language must have emerged later. (10) There are hundreds of examples of these types from the fossils in other archeological excavations in different countries which also show no written marks. (11) So, humans, the deadliest species in the annals of biology, would have started writing almost sixty to seventy thousand years after they started speaking. (12) One doesn’t understand the importance given in education about learning of languages by making children learn writing even when they are three or four years old. (13)
3. Spoken Words Express Power of Emotions
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April 1943 is noted for several things. Primarily, it is considered the biggest resistance against Nazi repression and killing of the Jews. The Warsaw Ghettos had more than five lakh Jews imprisoned through barricades of barbed wires in an area of eleven miles. Thousands of prisoners from the Ghettos were taken every day and killed or used in labour camps. Some of the Jews, in April 1943, joined together and fought the Nazi soldiers killing hundreds of them. The whole plan of the uprising was done by a few rebellious Jews and it is supposed that they had instructed each other and their following not to write a single word about the plans of the uprising. They very stealthily spoke to each other and passed messages on oral lines from one to another and never even send a note on a piece of paper to each other. The spoken words of the persecuted polish Jews carried the weight of resistance and they executed the entire plans only through the spoken words. No doubt, the rebellion was crushed and most of them were sent to the extermination camps after the failure of the uprising. However, interestingly and ironically, the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial erected in honour of the rebellious Jews and the Ghetto Uprising has many words written on it.
4. Influence of A Resource Group
There is an interesting story learnt about the importance of learning English as a spoken language from Armenia. The country, after it was liberated from the then USSR was very poor and people found it very difficult to survive once the Russians had withdrawn and they did not have enough people to manage even though the country was rich in its physical resources. It is then that the people realised that a large number of them could speak English and the wonderful places in Armenia could attract people from different countries, especially as it was liberated and was a free country. One of the important things that they did was to create enough people as guides for the visitors who would come from all over the world. Armenians spoke English next to Russian, and therefore, this resource group not only guided the visitors from other countries but also influenced the local people, so much so, that many of the shops and establishments could be approached by any foreigner by speaking English. So, building a resource group is essential for any language development.
5. Additional Benefits of Learning A New Language
Haruki Murakami, the Japanese writer and the author of several books, noted for the creation of several stories and characters with philosophical undertones once said, learning another language is becoming another person. (1) In fact, it can be said learning a new language is a roadmap of walking into a new culture. (2) Similarly, a new language learnt can be considered a social gift. (3) The greatest advantage of learning a new language is that one can carry it along wherever one goes without any additional baggage, especially as it expands the vision of the world view of an individual. (4) The statement of William Gibson, the American science fiction writer, that language is to the mind more than light is to the eye becomes relevant from the point of view of the additional benefits that a person gets because of the knowledge of a new language. (5) Undoubtedly, study of new languages enhances one’s possibilities in business, employment, travel or any other activity.
6. Karnataka Higher Education Intervention
At this stage, it will be worthwhile to refer to a resource group creation (1) by the Commissionerate of Collegiate Education in the early 2000. A few batches of professors from different colleges were trained to conduct learning and development intervention for students (2) and other teachers. They reached out to thirty thousand students in one year. (3) Similarly, around one thousand five hundred college teachers from fifteen districts (4) also were trained in effective classroom teaching. These resource developers, though the project of TQM and HRD were abandoned by the commissionerate, continue to offer learning and development interventions for students. (5)
7. Intervention Needed To Make Competent Resource Groups
It may not be out of place to mention here that a large number of UGC seminars, symposia and so called workshops, and even conferences conducted at different colleges did not result in skill or competence development. (1) The reasons are obvious. They did not aim at any particular skill or competence development. (2) The thought lines were on making congregations of college teachers listen to oral presentations. Some speeches delivered by even eminent speakers did not contribute to skill or competence development (3) to make the teachers who participated into a resource group for the benefit of students. (4) Similarly, the courses for school teachers also do not contribute to competence development. (5)
8. Competence Development for Effectiveness
Mere success on the platform of a classroom is not enough, there is a need to get a consequential effectiveness which is possible only when the deliverer or the doer or the maker is competent to perform. The performance of teachers in colleges is very highly dependent on their competence to manage large classes and also to deal with plenty of content material. The traditional view that all contents of the syllabi have to be lectured on allows only listening skills of students to be developed, if at all. There is no planned effort, even by the UGC, to enhance the desired competencies of the teachers of colleges or even those at schools by NCERT and other boards, so that they will concentrate on competence development of students. There is also a great need that the universities which form the syllabi will keep in mind the needs for developing the skills and competencies of teachers and consequentially those of students.
9. Making Resource Teams in Educational Institutions
In the case of developing spoken English skills and competencies, what is necessary would be to create a resource team. (1) There is a wrong belief that spoken English competencies can be developed only by teachers of English language. (2) Any teacher in a college or school (3) who is able to speak English well should be able to train students to develop their speaking competencies. Of course, there may be a need of teachers of English to intervene if or when usage slips are noticed. (4) Therefore, colleges and schools have to make a team of teachers (5) who work with students for helping them speak English as soon as the students register for their initial studies. Building a resource team is not a herculean task because the team members would be essentially teachers who have the basic competencies of teaching, (6) which may have to be converted into competencies of developing when it comes to competence development of spoken English.
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Prof. Sunney Tharappan, is Director of College for Leadership and HRD, Mangaluru. He trains and writes and lives in Mangaluru.
Next week – Strategies and Methods