RESEARCH PROPOSAL

TOPIC: DIFFICULTIES FACED BY HINDI AND URDU-MEDIUM

LEARNERS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AT GRADUATION LEVEL
(ANALYSIS AND REMEDY)

SUBMITTED BY: QURRA TUL AIN

DEPARTMENT: SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SHRI MATA VAISHNO DEVI UNIVERSITY (SMVDU)
KATRA, J&K – 182320, INDIA
 INTRODUCTION
At school level the education system of India is divided into three major categories on the basis of medium of instruction:
 The government vernacular-medium schools which use Urdu, Hindi and other regional languages as medium of instruction for teaching
of almost all the subjects.
 English medium schools teach all subjects in English except for languages like Urdu, Hindi etc. and students even conversate among
themselves in English.
 Religious seminaries (Madarssas of the two major sects of Islam Sunni and Shia) which mostly use vernaculars for teaching.

However at higher education level (colleges and universities) there is only one medium of teaching that is English.
Thus there are two streams of students entering from schools into our higher education institutions.
a. Students from Hindi, Urdu and other regional vernacular medium background
b. Students from English medium background.
As for as English medium students are concerned, they do not face any difficulty in coping with the environment as well as the advance
study; whereas the vernacular medium face a lot of problems in competing with them:
 These students cannot comprehend the lectures and books which are mostly in English.
 They feel it hard to explain their point of view due to lack of efficiency in English communication skill.
 Their academic results suffer a lot and hence they secure low grades.
 They suffer financial and economic problems as they cannot get reasonable jobs due to low grades in academics.
 They face various psychological pressures and anxiety.
 Such learners start believing that those fluent in English are far superior than them and start undermining their potential.

In almost all the institutions English is compulsory subject till the graduation level. However it has been noted that usually grammar-Translation Method
(GMT) is adopted to teach it. By utilizing the mother tongue, national and regional languages as well as the grammatical rules and English translations it
is believed that the students already acquired language will support in learning the target language and by comparing the two the students will have a
better understanding.

But many researchers and linguist blames GMT approach as flawed pedagogy along with the faulty material design responsible for the problems faced by
learners. They argue that in beginning it proves to be beneficial as students find it to learn by relating to some previous knowledge. But this alone should
not be the medium as learners always appear preoccupied in comparing the two languages to form english sentences which usually results in blunders.
Moreover social factors also cause shyness and hesitation among the learners. English is still regarded
as symbol of western culture at some places in India and people fear of being alienated in their own
society.

As India is a multilingual country where hundreds of vernaculars are spoken, it would be very difficult
to analyse the effects of each and every vernacular. Therefore for the sake of convenience I am going to
consider only the students belonging to government schools of J&K where regional languages like
Gojari, Dogri and Kashmiri are used as mediu of instruction.
 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
• The English language learners using Gojari, Kashmiri and Dogri as medium of instruction
face hurdles in way of efficient and proficient linguistic written and verbal communication
after reaching a higher level of education as Graduation
 RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
• What are the difficulties faced by an English language learner belonging to Kashmiri, gpjari
and dogri medium of instruction?
• What specially designed pedagogical strategies can be applied?
 OBJECTIVES
The researcher wants to:
1. To analyse various social, psychological and pedagogical factors responsible for the
difficulties in efficient English language communication
2. Make the language teachers aware of the important role they have to perform in dealing
with it.
3. To suggest some effective remedial strategies to meet the needs of such students
 SIGNIFICANCE:
In J&K only a small no. of institutions are using complete English as medium of instructions,
most of the learners belong to Dogri, Gojari and Kashmiri regional language as medium of
instruction. This research will provide an overview of problems faced by them. The result may
help teachers to be aware of the problems and adopt new techniques and strategies. This can be
applied to learners even above graduation level and in field other than arts
 METHODOLOGY
• Experimental methodology is used to find out practical solution to the problem.
 RESEARCG DESIGN
• A combination of qualitative and quantitative research technique will be used to carry this
research.
 RESEARCH TOOLS
• A. survey tools: Questionnaire to get statistical data from students.
• B. field study tools
 CONCLUSION
By pointing out and analysing the major difficulties of learners taught through regional
languages as medium of instruction.
Hopefully the research will come up with useful techniques and strategies for English
language teachers. This will contribute to fluency and proficiency in acquiring and use of
English language will help students academically, socially, economically, professionally
 REFERENCES
• A P R Howat : A history of English Language teaching ( Oxford University Press,1984)
• Stevan Mcdonough: Psychology in foreign language teaching( George Allen and Unwin,
London, 1986
• Cheryl Boyd Zimmerman: Historical trends in school language vocabulary acquisition