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plenary talk “Home and Away”, chaired by Professor Simi Malhotra, interrogated
the representation and ethos of a migrant. She also deliberated about the constant
intermingling of populations, languages and cultures.
The special session “Writers Speak” had three writers Professor Sukrita Paul
Kumar, Professor T. N. Dhar and Mr Tenzin Tsundue, who talked about creativity,
exile, and belonging. Tenzin Tsundue narrated his experience of being a Tibetan
refugee in India and about the movement “Free Tibet”. He also recited some of his
poems on related themes. Professor T. N. Dhar, in his talk titled “I am a Migrant”
spoke of his experience as an ousted Kashmiri pandit, and also of the predicament
of the community in general. Professor Sukrita Paul Kumar read out some poems
in which migration was explored as a metaphor for modern predicament. Dr. Punita
G. Singh and Dr. Nidhi Trehan explored the notions of identity and persecution
with regard to the travails of the historically dispossessed Roma people in the
session “The Roma Question”. Dr. Mujibur Rehman, in his presentation, talked of
the implications of the majoritarian politics of the diaspora.
Day 2 of the conference began with Professor Harish Trivedi’s keynote address
on “Reading Beyond English: Migration, Translation, and Languages”. Professor
Chandra Mohan chaired the session. Professor Trivedi questioned the much ado
about the relatively small subsections of communities that migrate, stressing that
“migration” per se is not a crucial factor within the subcontinent. He then focused
on the often ignored creative output by diasporic writers, who write in their own
languages instead of the language of the adopted country. Professor Rana Nayar in
his plenary talk titled “Post-colonial Katha: Continuities and Ruptures in Videshi
Punjabi fiction” highlighted the pre and post-colonial flux in Punjab, and the
specificities of the Punjabi short story by writers of the diaspora. This session was
chaired by Professor H. C. Narang. Brati Biswas in her presentation focused on the
plight of the Bangla Dalit refugee and the ministrations of the state. Indira Prasad
talked about the Bidesia tradition of performance in Bhojpuri folk theatre with
special reference to the work of Bhikhari Thakur. Madhuri Chawla spoke of the
construction of the diasporic self in Punjabi diaspora literature. Gitanjali Chawla
presented her views on “Bhangra Rap” as a hybrid form of music evolved by South
Asian immigrants. Monica Zutshi in her presentation focused on the distress of
Afghan refugees as played out in Khaled Hosseini’s And the Mountain Echoed.
Aishwarya Babu looked at the representation of Afghan diaspora in Hosseini’s
The Kite Runner. Abhinaba Chatterjee talked about re-evaluating the idea of the
diaspora in the context of contemporary migration literature. Giraj M. Sharma
spoke of the shifting dynamics of the city as a space to be claimed and reclaimed.
Charu Arya’s presentation dealt with the migration from Libya to Italy. Indrani
Das Gupta pitched the idea of science as “diaspora-ization” in Amitav Ghosh’s The
Calcutta Chromosome. Debosmita Paul deliberated on the Bengali identity in the
wake of the Partition of Bengal and subsequent migrations.
The final session, chaired by Dr. Tapan Basu, had an interactive performative
FORTELL Issue No.35, July 2017
Reports 151
presentation by social activist and theatre person Jaya Iyer and the world
renowned magician from Kathputli colony, Ishamuddin Khan. Jaya dealt with
issues of stereotyping and social construction, while Ishamuddin threw light on
the desperate plight of the traditional performing communities in India. Professor
Vijaya Ramaswamy delivered the valedictory address titled “Mobility, Migration,
Memories: Some Reflections”. Dr. Diamond Oberoi chaired the session. She
explored the relationship between migration and oral traditions, and the syncretic,
shared spaces inhabited by people/communities.
Anupama Jaidev is Assistant professor of English at Maharaja Agrasen College. She holds a Ph.D.
in English Literature from University of Delhi. Her areas of interest are Romani studies, narratives of
the emergency, tribal narratives and migration studies.
anu_jaidev@yahoo.co.in
Guntasha Tulsi has done her doctoral studies from the Centre of English Studies, JNU. She has
also completed a Post Graduate Certificate in ELT from EFLU, Hyderabad. She is currently an
Assistant Professor at Maharaja Agrasen College with several research papers, books and national
and international conferences to her credit.
guntashatulsi86@gmail.com
Report on the National Conference on English
Language Teaching-Learning in Rural Areas and
English as Medium of Instruction at NCERT
Zareena J M and Vikas Kadam
The four-day national conference (20 to 23 March 2017) that was organised by
the Department of Education in Languages, NCERT, New Delhi, focused on two
major themes: “Teaching English in Rural Areas” and “English as a Medium of
Instruction”. It was attended by a wide range of delegates, from schoolteachers,
to administrators, curriculum planners, materials designers, educationists and
research scholars from across the country. For us as budding researchers, the four-
day period was an amazing learning and awareness raising experience. We got
a chance to discuss, understand and internalize the practical problems related to
English language education not only through the discussions during the conference,
but also from our long chats over lunch, at the dinner table and our post dinner late
night walks.
The conference began with an overview of the programme by the conference
coordinators, Dr. R. Meghanathan and Dr. Meenakshi Khar, followed by the
inaugural address by Professor Hrushikesh Senapaty, Director, NCERT. Professor
Senapaty spoke about the hegemony of English over Indian languages and hoped
that the deliberations of the conference would guide future policy making by
triggering a critical discourse on these issues. The key note address was delivered by
FORTELL Issue No.35, July 2017
152 Forthcoming Events 153
Professor Amritavalli, formerly Professor of Linguistics at the English and Foreign English has been perceived in India over the past 50 years, from a perspective of
Languages University, Hyderabad. Interestingly, she made her talk interactive and English as the primary language, to it now being one of the many languages that
responded to questions from the audience triggered by the data that she presented. we need to enable in a grassroots multilingual country.
She argued that a learner’s non-success in learning English that fulfils curricular The conference ended with the consensus that multilingual or mother tongue based
objectives may be because of systemic failures and not individual incapabilities or education is the only way to address the current reality of rural as well as urban
social demands, as English is still a second or even a foreign language for many students, in not just language but also subject classrooms. English may be taught
school children. The systemic failure was the inability to see language learning as as a subject, but introducing it as a medium of instruction even before the child’s
a process and mistakes as stepping stones. She further suggested that the English first/home language is developed would be suicidal.
performance of Grade X school children should not impact their final certificate.
She asserted that premature emphasis on accuracy led to examination oriented Zareena. J. M. is a doctoral research scholar at the English and Foreign Languages University
(EFL-U), Hyderabad. She is currently working on the pedagogical implications of consciousness-
practices, resulting in a complete absence of language learning experiences. The
raising (C-R) tasks in developing basic English tenses.
system therefore should create learning opportunities where English does not
zareena.jm786@gmail.com
function as a gatekeeper. Most importantly, she asserted that English as a subject is
as important as Mathematics or Science, and each child in India has a right to get Vikas Kadam is a Ph.D. research scholar. He is doing his doctoral research on “Dynamic Assessment
exposed to all the opportunities that English has to offer. of English Writing Skills” at The School of English Lang at The School of English Language
Education, The EFL University, Hyderabad.
There were two plenaries in the conference. In the first plenary session, the speaker
kadamvikas1986@gmail.com
Ms. Amy Lightfoot (Assistant Director-English Partnerships, Academic Quality
Assurance, British Council, India) spoke about the issues related to English
medium instruction in India and the problems associated with it. She argued that
English may be the language of opportunities, but Indian languages could not be
abandoned for that would affect the quality of education. In the second plenary,
Forthcoming Events
the speaker Professor Anju Seghal Gupta, Head, School of Foreign Languages, • AINET International Teacher • 40th Language Testing Research
IGNOU, New Delhi, spoke about the issues related to disadvantaged learners and Research Conference at Nagpur, from Colloquium (LTRC) at in Auckland,
English. She specifically spoke about the lack of opportunities in English language 14-15 September 2017 New Zealand from July 2-6, 2018
education, and said that these were not specific to any geographical location, caste For more details, see http://theainet. on ‘Language assessment in times of
or religion, although certain groups of people from rural areas remained noticeably net/ainet-international-teacher-research- movement, transition, and change’
underprivileged. Both sessions resulted in an interesting exchange of ideas. conference-14-15-sept-2017-nagpur/ For more details, see http://
• 4th AINET International Conference www.iltaonline.com/page/
The speakers presented papers on a range of topics, which carried a mix of LTRC2018SavetheDate
at Mumbai, from 12-13 January 2018
theoretical articulations and reflections based on their practical experiences from
For more details, see http://theainet.net • 20th International Conference on
across the country. The papers focused primarily on the problems of English/
English Language and Literature,
bilingual medium instruction, teaching English to rural and other underprivileged • 53rd RELC International Conference Dubai from September 24 - 25, 2018
learners and pedagogical and assessment practices. on 50 Years of English Language
Teaching and Assessment - Reflections, For more details, see https://www.
On day two and day three, the sessions were preceded by workshops. The first Insights and Possibilities, from 12– waset.org/conference/2018/09/dubai/
workshop run by Dr. R. Meganathan, was on “Classroom Research and Ethnography 14 March 2018, at SEAMEO RELC, ICELL
of Schooling”. Beginning with an orientation, Dr. Meganathan demonstrated how Singapore • 20th International Conference on
to select a topic and decide the appropriate research approach for it. The second For more details, see http://www.relc. English Literature and Linguistics,
workshop, was run by Dr. M. V. Srinivasan, who guided the teacher-researchers org.sg/Conference2018/ Dubai from November 26 - 27, 2018
on “Doing Ethnography in the School Context”. He shared his experiences as an For more details, see https://www.
• 52nd IATEFL Conference at Brighton,
ethnographer and talked about the problems he had faced during data collection. England from 10-13 April, 2018 waset.org/conference/2018/11/dubai/
His sharing of actual field notes was the highlight of this workshop. ICELL
For more details, see https://conference.
The valedictory address was delivered by Dr. Srinivas Rao from the Zakir Husain iatefl.org/
Centre for Education Studies, School of Social Sciences, JNU. He spoke about how

FORTELL Issue No.35, July 2017 FORTELL Issue No.35, July 2017