August 20, 2006

THE key priority of any school, college or university in general is to provide children and young people with the foundations of life-long learning so that they become productive citizens who make positive contributions to society. Along the same lines, these centres of learning should maintain a curriculum that fits students’ expectations and is revised on the basis of their needs.

Though English has been in use in Pakistan for years, it was only a few decades back that people here felt the need to be well versed in it, if only to fill what might be called an international requirement. In this regard, consider the mushrooming of various English language teaching centres equipped with specialised programmes and courses all over the country. Not surprisingly, Lahore has also been quick to jump on the bandwagon that boasts proficiency in English.

One such centre is the Australian Cultural Centre in Defence directed by Sonia Jenkins Ahmad. Commencing its operation in April 2005, the centre was established to foster cooperation and understanding between Pakistan and Australia. Because of the fear generated by international terrorism, many existing avenues of educational, cultural and business exchanges were shut down. The closing of the British Council’s teaching centre and library denied the public access to quality learning programmes. Thus, a niche was created for a centre of excellence in English language teaching. “The reputation of Australia in terms of education benchmarking has been acclaimed internationally and we saw a need in Lahore with the increasing importance of English as a career skill.” Supported by the Australian government through its Austrade representative located at its mission in Islamabad, the centre’s main focus is on educational services.

According to Jenkins, “opportunism is driving the growth of English language teaching centres in Lahore. It is a bandwagon that most institutes see as leading to wealth on the backs of young graduates seeking the elusive opportunity with a multinational.”

The quality of the teaching staff has impressed many people and the centre has been inundated with requests to recruit staff for other institutes and schools as well. While recruitment was an area Jenkins had not foreseen in her initial business plan, now it has developed to become an integral part of the centre’s activities. But not all has been smooth sailing for Jenkins and her team as there were a number of obstacles that they had to face. Take, for example, the fact that students had become used to being spoon-fed in their spoken English classes. “We work along the principle of lesson, then teacher correction, then self correction and then fluency. Without a sense of responsibility and an awareness of one’s mistakes upon hearing them, students cannot become fluent. Many students have to slow down and sometimes abandon their initial sentences in favour of correct ones.”

There are many such centres which have sprung up all over Lahore because people want to learn English. The reasons for doing so vary — some are on the look-out for better job opportunities while others want to go abroad and so wish to be fluent in the language. Asim, manager of the English language department at the British Education and Training System Centre explains this phenomenon: “Each year the number of students who enrol here increases especially for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) classes as they want to go abroad for further studies and jobs.” Asim says that around 80 per cent of the people who come to the centre do not how to speak English properly. He also feels that the booming call centre industry and the lucrative job opportunities that it provides has further increased the need to speaking proper English.

Of course, most people who come to this centre, or any other English language teaching centre for that matter, hope to become fluent in the language in a few months, which clearly isn’t enough for those who do not know the basics. “These courses are designed to aid students who are already aware of the basics of the language and want to polish their pronunciation skills,” explains Asim.

Interestingly enough, many of these institutes are hardly faced with competition given the fact that there are English language centres all over Lahore now. If anything, the desire to learn English among the uninitiated is so strong that they will go to just about any centre without verifying whether the centre holds any credibility in the market. Many such centres do not have trained teachers who are qualified to teach the language. However, Asim says that his centre does not employ foreign staff to teach the language: “This is because we think that teachers who have learnt English as a second language are better equipped to know and understand the problems faced by students in Pakistan and, therefore, can teach them better too.” Then there is the problem of learning the language at a later stage in life. Research has proved that one can learn a new language much better early in life. Thus, according to Asim, students who come to learn English after they have graduated will find it much harder to grasp the intricacies of the language than those who are still in their teens or early ’20s. So learning English isn’t as easy as it is made out to be.

At the other end of the spectrum are private tutors, many of whom now focus on English language training for professionals and executives. While many teaching centres appear in middle-class environments, according to one tutor, there are only about five or seven centres that have reached a quality standard of teaching. The others are money-making machines, as per one tutor.

As more and more people speak English in order to be a part of the “in” crowd, one cannot learn from books and movies alone, say experts. “One has to be in the right environment by speaking and practicing English over and over again and focusing on pronunciation and accent”, says another tutor. Also, one should try and focus on either British English or American/Canadian/Australian English. Mixing them together only makes things worse.

In this context, a student of English language teaching as well as a teacher in Beaconhouse, Sana Arshad, says: “English has become more of a fashion statement for the younger generation today. Previously, people learned it for learning’s sake. Now it has grown to become a power tool.” In fact, her class conducted a survey to find out which language was used in what sort of situation. The results showed that despite the fact that many people read English books, still several others prefer watching and listening to either Urdu or Indian songs and/or movies. For conversations with family, in social gatherings, with friends or when talking to servants, many Lahoris stick to Punjabi. Many respondents said they also use English as a means for social demarcation, in derogatory terms or when they do not want someone to hear and understand what they are saying, especially if the concerned party does not appear to be well versed in the language.

Similarly, Aisha Khwaja, a student of Kinnaird College, feels English is a “gateway to all types of knowledge and consequently to all kinds of opportunities in life.” Talking in English, according to Khwaja, is more about being “cool”. She also feels it is a means of impressing people so that one can get things done the way one wants to. Her colleague, Samna Mansur, says she had to learn the language because it was a part of the academic system.

Regardless of what one’s reasons are for learning the language, the fact of the matter is that people want to learn English and the mushrooming of English language teaching centres in Lahore is testament to the fact that people are willing to go the distance to acquire the necessary skills in this regard.

The writer works for Dawn, Lahore

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