Analysis of Thinking & Imagining
ROLL NUMBER :-2
TOPIC NAME :- Thinking and Imagining in ELT 1
PAPER NAME :- English Language Teaching -1
SUBMITTED TO :- DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
Enrollment no :-2069108420190037
Introduction:
English Language Teaching (ELT) is based on the idea that the goal of
language acquisition is communicative competence. It adopts concepts,
techniques and methods in classroom for recognizing and managing the
communicative needs of the language learners. English language teaching may refer
to either
English Language Teaching in India The introduction of English
language in India dates back to the beginning of the seventeenth century.
English language in India was introduced by the Missionaries "their effort
started in 1614 and became marked after 1659, when they were allowed to use the
ships of the East India Company for propagating their religious and cultural
ideas''.^ At that time English was just an alien language in India.
While earlier in the century students who had specialized in
English joined either teaching or the civil services, now a whole new spectrum
of job opportunities has opened up. There are now call centers that need
trainers to equip their employees with communication skills, there are
multinationals who have been recruiting marketing staff that need to be taught
spoken English, there are medical transcription centers which need efficient
translators and reporters. Those desirous of immigration to the West need
professional help for qualifying tests like the IELTS, TOEFL etc. Hence, the
avenues where English Language Teaching (ELT) has come to be required in India
are unlimited today.
Thinking and Imagining In previous chapters we have
considered several aspects of the process of learning-attending, imaging,
habit-forming and remembering. We have noted that learning is generally a
complex process with several facets. It is, however, a unitary process for the
human mind works as a whole and not in separate faculty compartments. For
example, the more we learn about a subject the more easily we attend to new
aspects of that subject and the more readily we remember new facts connected
with it.
In this chapter we shall concentrate on another aspect
of learning, the process in which we use results of past experiences to meet a
new situation, to solve a problem. This kind of mental activity is usually
called thinking.
When teaching knowledge but also with training pupils
to think for themselves, that is, to use the knowledge they have, in order to
gain further knowledge. As we saw in Chapter 4 their ability to think depends
to some extent on inborn intellectual, and perhaps temperamental, qualities.
Some children are by nature more we are concerned not only with imparting
likely to be good thinkers than others, but all children can by wise training
be helped to develop their thinking powers fully, and to use their thinking for
worthy ends.
Let us first analyze the process of thinking. A very
simple way of doing this is to watch you solving a clue in a cross-word puzzle.
You may, or you may not, reach a successful conclusion, but while you are
trying to reach one you are thinking. You probably begin by repeating the clue
to yourself one or twice, perhaps aloud, certainly rather deliberately. Then
you dwell on each item, noticing what ideas each one brings to mind. You look
for relations of likeness, difference and cause among the different sets of
ideas. Perhaps you perceive a relation, but you are not necessarily satisfied
with the solution it suggests. The word you have found may not fit the given
space or may not contain a required letter. If you are a cross-word expert you
will sometimes reject solutions that are otherwise satisfactory because they do
not show that particular neatness that you expect in these puzzles; the
solution fits but it does not fit "with a click" and so you reject
it. You continue to search. You repeat the given clue and examine it carefully
to see if there is any point you have overlooked; you dwell on each item again;
you examine the ideas that come to mind and eventually there is a
"flash" of insight and you see the solution.
The Art of Thinking
After the above exercise in introspection you will be
ready to identify the following stages in the thinking process:
(a) Appreciation of a problem to be solved.
(b) Collection of adequate relevant data.
(C) Arriving at a conclusion.
(d) Testing the conclusion.
It will be convenient to consider each step separately
to see how help pupils to think. Appreciation of a Problem to be Solved-The
problems that we can we appreciate best are the ones that occur directly to us,
not the ones that are propounded to us by other people. Our own problems arise
out of our own experience and activity, and they seem worthwhile. So it is with
children. As we have seen in Chapter 3, the first problems that they solve are
practical ones, concerned with concrete material; they are not affairs of words
and abstract ideas. For example, imagine a child playing with taps in the
bathroom, watching the water flow and stop. After a time comes the question,
"How does the water come?" This is a real problem; it arouses his
curiosity. He may need some help before he solves it, but he has certainly
appreciated it and begun to think about it. When children do not think about
the problems we set are unable to think them, we must not hastily infer that
they Failure may be due, not to their inability, but to our unwise choice of
problem. Our problem may make no it may not seem worthwhile to them. We have
already pointed out in Chapter 8 how important practical activity is for
development of images and ideas. We now see that it is also important as a source
of problems that children really appreciate as a means of stimulating children
to think
A problem that is appreciated in one setting may not
be appreciated in another. For example, the writers recorded some of the
problems about taps and pipes, propounded spontaneously and followed up eagerly
by a young boy during his active play. One day, when he was sitting quietly by
the fire in a room where there were no taps, his own questions were put to him
again. In this setting the problems aroused no interest. With a little urging
some half-hearted but incorrect replies were obtained. The next day in the
bathroom the same questions were again put to him. This time they turned, pipes
examined, and eventually correct answers were given. In the presence of the actual
object the question meant something, and started him thinking.
As children grow older they are less dependent on the
presence of concrete objects. Words become more situations can be imagined. If,
however, we ask pupils questions in words that are unfamiliar, and if we
suggest problems that deal with data outside their experience, we must not be
surprised if they are unable to solve the problems. Most teachers have had
experience of the importance of choosing words and subject- appeal to their interests;
were welcomed and activity followed. Taps were meaningful and matter wisely.
Collection
of Relevant Data
Having appreciated and grasped the problem we begin to collect facts that may
eventually help produce a solution. We may first collect those facts that we
already know. If we have no definite line of investigation 01 follow we may
just wait and see what ideas are suggested by the problem. As we have seen, the
suggestions will not be quite free and random. They will be controlled by our
purpose. The more completely we appreciate the purpose the more effective will
it be it giving minds that mental set that pre-disposes us to remember only
relevant facts.
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