November 2, 2002	Saturday	Sha’aban 26,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: Pakistan is facing a dearth of quality English teachers due to the non-availability of required educational institutions in the country.

This was stated by the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) vice-chancellor, Prof (Dr) Altaf Hussain, while speaking at the 18th annual international conference of the Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers (SPELT), Islamabad chapter.

The conference was organized by the society in collaboration with the department of English language and applied linguistics, AIOU.

Prof Hussain said: “Pakistan is facing shortage of quality institutions from where prospective students can further their qualification.”

He maintained that those teaching English faced a dilemma as they were not being promoted due to under-qualification in the subject or had no chance to improve their qualification.

Referring to the findings of the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) that the standard of English was sharply declining in the country over the years, Prof Hussain said, the quarters concerned needed to sit together and work out a comprehensive plan aiming at improvement of teaching standards in the subject.

“Every language borrows from other languages, this is how a language advances, therefore, a continues process of fabrication shall not be stopped between and English and Urdu languages,” the AIOU vice-chancellor said.

Maya Khemlani David, associate professor of languages and linguistics at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia presented a paper on vital language and teaching tools, at the conference.

She said communication between a teacher and his/her students was important for the improvement of teaching levels and both parties should actively interact with each other.

She maintained that in the developing countries, teachers didn’t pay much attention to the feed back from their students. “It is equally important for teachers to become good listeners,” she added.

She said the teachers should evaluate their progress at regular intervals. “This is possible when both the teachers and students point out each others’s fault lines on regular basis,” she added.

A representative of the British Council informed the participants that the council would start a summer school programme from 2003 in Islamabad, to “help people learn more about the language”.