English medium school and my observations.

 English medium school and my observations. 

Recently, my observations have led me to a dilemma among English-medium students. As I saw, many of them don’t understand what they learn on a daily basis. They either cram words and sentences or rewrite them most of the time and get them checked by a teacher. On the other hand, the teacher who comes from a second-language learning background may need to explain in translation or simply read the meanings of those words and sentences.  The classroom atmosphere doesn’t look like an ideal where the teacher and students are engaged in meaningful discussion. Further, almost all students are habituated to memorising or cramming the questions and answers. They spend a number of hours in doing it. They don’t take trouble in comprehension. Simultaneously, they are unable to share their learning with others when they are asked to do so. 

Even students don’t connect their learning practically. They just keep mugging up things and try to reproduce them in the exam or answer sheets. They don’t express their true feelings in the English language. Sometimes they use translation methods. As a result, the meaning differs on the translation methods. They don’t read anything out of textbooks. They are not interested in reading, such as magazines, story books, poetry or biographies. They keep engaging in writing given homework as well as attending private coaching. They don’t have a suitable time to develop their thinking skills, observation and inquiries skills. Sometimes, they escape their doubts, or if they ask it, the teacher either answers it in their mother tongue or in an assumptive way.

Over time, the students just use sentences like instructions or imperatives that they heard in the classroom or coaching. And they think that they are good at English. That misunderstanding leads them into serious problems when they study higher classes. Either they repeat the same class or fail in some subjects. Later on, they get promoted.

They are even confused about English spellings. They use ‘Google’ instead of a good English dictionary. They blend English and American English in writing work. They don’t even try to clarify these differences. 

Most of the time, both teachers and students run after the completion of the syllabus and notebook checking. An academic year just gets finished in that way.

In the end, they pass and get promoted to the next class. But their comprehension level somewhat falls.