Towards a Pedagogical Model for Teaching English in an Indian Context

This book encapsulates the various discourses that try to theorise the evolution of English as a global language from the perspectives of history, geography and individual proficiency. It discusses the status of English in post-colonial India, where it has coexisted with native languages in a multilingual scenario for almost three hundred years and has developed into a form with its own distinct lexical, phonological, morpho-syntactical and discourse features. This indigenized form of English has come to be recognized as Indian English. While many linguists argue that Indian English is a distinct variety with its own standardized form, others do not quite agree. While the advocates of Standard Indian English have argued in favour of recognition of Standard Indian English in Indian pedagogy, others regard Indian English as suitable only for informal usage. Through a survey conducted among those who are closely related to the English language in India, this book examines the acceptability of Standard Indian English usage, and, using an attitudinal survey, gauges their opinion vis-a-vis the idea of forming a pedagogical model for teaching English in the Indian context.