Innovation in Language Learning

A meaningful way of English language teaching in India is not simply a ‘difficult task’ but is riddled with multiple layers of meaning and issues. This paper makes an attempt to explore some of the ways in which English teaching could be made relevant to students in technical institutions. In order to gain a different entry point into language instruction in this specific context one needs an understanding of different teaching materials for technical students both at graduate and research level.  The dominant perception and practice of language instruction in India is through English literature and poetry interspersed with dimensions of grammar.  The present enterprise seeks to examine - in the new scheme of things- if the production of discipline specific materials for teaching English language is beneficial.  Therefore the idea here is to engage with materials from engineering and science disciplines.  The paper explores an experience of teaching writing the essay through Science articles written by various scientists to  a group of Engineering students at an Institute of Technology.

This aim is achieved by studying features of essay at one level and at another, the concept of Science itself.  Some features of the development of the essay like the introduction, stating an argument and pitching of ideas at different stages of the essay and finally to make a coherently argued essay.  The next idea that is discussed is does Science essay require a specific progression of ideas?  Indeed it seems so: statement of a hypothesis, propelling an idea and skilfully elaborating it into an article with scientific proof and illustration.  What kind of material is used to achieve this end  is something that this paper probes into while also discussing the stated aim with examples in the following paper.  I answer these points with the help of the essays of David Quammen, Michael Spectre and Jessica Fujimori and with student responses. The paper is experience based and comes under the theme Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP).