John Osborne's Jimmy Porter is a Modern Hamlet ( Look Back In Anger)- A Comparative Analysis


John Osborne (1929-1994), British playwright and motion picture screenwriter, is known for his sharp criticism of modern British life. His play Look Back in Anger (1956), about rebellion against traditional mores, is regarded as a landmark in post-World War II British drama and made its author famous as the first of “the angry young men”.

"The Lucy" poems by William Wordsworth: Few Important Short Questions


The Lucy poems by William Wordsworth: Quick Facts

        The Lucy poems are a series of five poems composed  by the English Romantic Poet William Wordsworth (1770–1850) between 1798 and 1801. In the series, Wordsworth sought to write unaffected English verse infused with abstract ideals of beauty, nature, love, longing and death.
      Common traits in "Lucy poems": In all of the"Lucy poems” Lucy is given the embodiment of lady nature with all her spiritual powers and blessings. She is also depicted heavenly and beyond earthly. Again her memory is a fountain of poet’s joy. In the subjective world of Wordsworth, she is indeed the princess.

Analysis of Robert Burns' "A Red Red Rose": Adaptations of Traditional Scottish Ballads and Folk Songs


Introduction: Burns's literary output consisted almost entirely of songs, both original compositions and adaptations of traditional Scottish ballads and folk songs. He had used the Scottish lowland vernacular to rhyme in about then neighbors and their scandals, their loves and their church. Himself at the confluence of the two streams, the national and the local, he has such favorites as “Auld Lang Syne,””Comin' Thro' the Rye, “Scots Wha Hae,””A Red, Red Rosé, “The Banks o' Doon,” and “John Anderson, My Jo.” His “Red Red Rose" ,first published in 1794 in A Selection of Scots Songs, edited by Peter Urbani , is a love poem also written to be sung. Ballad in form it is an adaptation of old Scottish folk song.

Rhyme Scheme: Written in four ballad stanzas (quatrains) with iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter alternatively "A Red, Red Rose" has a sweet metrical rhythm. In each stanza 1st and 4th lines rhyme together while only in two occasions in 3rd and 4th stanza, 2nd and 4th line rhymes together.

O my /Luve's like/ a red,/ red rose
That's new/ly sprung/ in June;
O my/ Luve's like/ the me/lo-die
That's sweet/ly played/ in tune.

As fair/ art thou,/ my bo/nnie lass,
So deep/ in luve/ am I;
And I/ will luve/ thee still,/ my dear,
Till a'/ the seas/ gang dry:

Till a' /the seas/ gang dry,/ my dear,
And the/ rocks melt wi' /the sun;
I will/ lu-ve /thee still, /my dear,
While the /sands o' life/ shall run.

And fare/ thee weel,/ my on/ly Luve,
And fare/ thee weel/ a-while!
And I/ will come /again,/ my Luve,
Tho' it ware/ ten thou/sand mile.

Analysis of the Poem: With the music in heart the poet- speaker composes his sweet words of love in the following verses. The speaker loves the young lady beyond measure. Through vivid similes and hyperbolic comparisons he has drawn his love to the spring time rosy hues or to the sweet melodious tunes.  His ladylove is as fresh as the newly sprung rose or as sweetly as those of melodious tune:
“O my Luve's like a red, red rose
That's newly sprung in June;
O my Luve's like the melodie
That's sweetly played in tune.”

Next the speaker addresses directly his lady as bonnie or pretty and asserts his love in hyperbolic terms that he would continue his love still all the seas go dry. The infinite urge of love and its permanency can be copied from these statements. Here one cannot miss the use of two words: Bonnie and gang. Bonnie is an Adjective used in Northern England and Scotland means attractive while gang originates from Old Norse gang "journey":
“As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry”

The speaker continues his exaggerating mood linked to the previous stanza and states that he will continue to love his lady till the rocks melts way or life leads to desert of death. “Sands o’ life” probably means the passage of time which is compared to the vast desert land:
“Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.”

In the last stanza the speaker bids adieu but vows to return even if he has to travel back ten thousand miles. The speaker tries to imply a deep underlying statement that through the desert of death he will have to travel miles towards uncanny, unknown transitional worlds; he will return for his love:
“And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' it ware ten thousand mile.”

Conclusion: Burns touched with his own genius the traditional folk songs of Scotland, transmuting them into great poetry, and he immortalized its countryside and humble farm life. He was a keen and discerning bard. His love songs, perfectly fitted to the tunes for which he wrote them, are, at their best, unsurpassed. Judging by comparative popularity of "A Red, Red Rose", I should say that the sentiment most deeply implanted in the human heart is love. This sentiment goes more attractive when sung. It may be objected that in "A Red, Red Rose" there is only one word, and but two or three forms of words that are not English. But the accent, the rhythm, the air of it are all Scots, and it was a Burns thinking in his native tongue who wrote it. It is easy to see that though Burns admired unaffectedly the "classic" writers, his native realism and his melody made him a potent agent in the cause of naturalism and romance. In his ideas, even more than in his style, he belongs to the oncoming school of romanticism.

The Place of English in the School Curriculum at the Present Set up in India


Place of English in School Curriculum in India  is  an important issue in modern day utilitarian principles. English in India in 21st century is no more a colonial burden, but a real wings of hope and prosperity. Now let's bullet the points of importance.

  •  A Bridge to Higher Studies: English should continue to occupy an important place in the curriculum of secondary schools so that at the end of the secondary stage the pupils will attain good working knowledge of English. The pupil learn English efficiency at secondary level it will not be difficult to catch higher studies. 

Teaching English in the Secondary level : Aims and Principles


ENGLISH is the subject in which teachers and parents are most vitally interested, for it is not only the groundwork of all the other studies but the foundation of career. This article aims to give teachers of elementary and high school English as well as mothers and all others interested in child training knowledge of the English language, types of literature and the most representative classics. It is intended to show definitely how to present the various skills of English language so that classes will appreciate the type, and will acquire a liking for the language.  By means of concrete teaching suggestions the application of practical methods to the various secondary classics is made clear.

Critical Appreciation of H.W. Longfellow's "Nature"



 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) is one of the most popular and celebrated American poets .Longfellow's poetic work is characterized by familiar themes, easily grasped ideas, and clear, simple, melodious stylish language. His beautiful sonnet Nature is a popular example of his simple yet melodious lyricism. It is not hard, then, to show in the poem Nature the general structure: the rhyme-scheme; the sustained simile expressed by the two great waves of thought, one in the octave and the other in the sestet; and the complete impression in few words.


Critical Appreciation of P. B. Shelley's "THE MOON"



P. B. Shelley is considered by many to be among the greatest, and one of the most influential leaders of the Romantic Movement. Of no poet in English, or perhaps in any other tongue, could it be said with more surety, that the pursuit of the spirit of beauty dominates all his work. For Shelley it inter-fused all nature and to possess it was the goal of all endeavour. The visible world and the world of thought mingle themselves inextricably in his contemplation of it. For him there is no boundary line between the two, the one is as real and actual as the other. It is in The Moon P. B. Shelley addresses the basic question of romanticism: what is beauty? How is it enjoyed? The Moon is a superb example that shows that everything depends on the eye of the beholder. What strikes most is the contrasting feature that the poem offers.

Tips for UGC- NET English Examination


  Approaches to UGC- NET English Examination

Some of the most widely administered tests for Teaching Job in India include the UGC- NET, SET, State level teachers’ recruitment programmers like SSC etc. UGC- NET use standardized tests to assess literature achievement, to determine lecturer placement, and to reach specific skill- oriented men. PG students wishing to prefer lectureship continue their efforts after PG generally take these tests, since most INDIAN colleges and universities require test results in applications for lectureship. The most common of these tests include the general aptitude and knowledge of a specific subject.


Sir Philip Sidney’s "Loving In Truth" in Sonnet Series "Astrophil and Stella" as a Typical Love Poem


  Sir Philip Sidney’s Loving In Truth taken from his sonnet series Astrophil and Stella, is a typical Elizabethan sonnet based on Petrarchan figurative devices. In fact, it is characteristic piece of Sidney’ well known sonnet series and adequately represents his theme of love and impressive technique. 

As a Petrarchan form of sonnet, Loving In Truth has love as its central theme. Sidney, the celebrated ideal courtly poet of the Elizabethan Age, reportedly had a love relationship with Penelope Devereux, a lady in waiting to Queen Elizabeth I. His Astrophel and Stella tells the story of the poet Astrophel’s unrequited love for Stella, a high-born and virtuous woman. Loving In Truth, The first sonnet from the cycle conveys the changing emotions of Astrophel, in whose voice the poem is written toward Stella.


Critical Analyses of Henry Vaughan's poem " THE RETREAT"


 Introduction: The poems by which Vaughan is remembered are contained in Silex Scintillans, which appeared in two parts in 1650 and 1655 respectively. This is largely religious inspiration and its title is significant for the emblem on the title page that reveals its meaning to be a heart of flint burning and bleeding under the stroke of a thunder bolt and so throwing off sparks. It is of course the light of divinity.

Vaughan is at his best when he deals with the themes of childhood and of communion with nature and with eternity. The poem in discussion The Retreat influenced Wordsworth in the composition of The Ode on the Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early childhood. Vaughan’s Retreat is a religious lyric, a spiritual optimism. It is also a characteristic poem of the metaphysical school. Vanghan’s expression and imagery bear the marks of the metaphysical religious poem of Donne and Herbert.

Heaven
A deep religious poem: Vaughan’s first love in his poem The Retreat is God. When he was still a child and had hardly made any progress into worldly existence, he could have a glimpse of God’s bright face whenever he looked back. But as the burden of worldly existence grew upon him, he lost the glimpse of the divine visage. Indeed, adulthood taken away that divine vision of childhood. This is the loss, the poet laments. In this critical situation Vaughan pleads to move backward because forward because forward movement in time leads to sin. The backward movement leads to innocence:

           “Some men a forward motion love
            But I by backward steps would move”.
Rhetorically, a paradox is a statement which apparently seems self-contradictory or absurd, but in reality carries a sound sense. Here, too, the poet makes a paradoxical statement that backward motion would be better for him. This is because forward motion is morally backward as it leads on to sin, on the other hand backward motion in time leads to innocence and so morally forward. ‘Retreat’ to the innocent days of childhood, when God was an ever-present reality to him, is his welcome note. The title word thus strikes the essence of the poem. The poet dislikes human or earthly existence i.e. ‘this place’ and ‘second race’ because on earth the soul is far removed from God. He wishes to retreat to heaven, the abode of God.

Glorification of the Childhood: We find the child as an ever idealized picture in The Retreat. As a defense of the poet we can say that the poem is a passionate lyric and no philosophical thesis and here is the account of the  poet’s personal experiences and longing for the innocence and purity of childhood. The soul of in the human child which can perceive a faint heavenly glory in the natural beauty of the world, if stays too long in this world would forget their heavenly memory and the soul would be intoxicated into worldly affairs. Thus the child in his journey to innocence to experience corrupts himself. A grown up like poet wishes to retreat into the childhood innocence and it is possible when he would die and liberates his soul from the odds of worldly affairs:
            ‘And when this dust falls to the urn,
            In that state I came, return’.
 A metaphysical poem: The Retreat is full with short and suggestive conceits, homely images and compressed sentences essentially belong to metaphysical poetry. Even the poet expresses his devotional thought through extraordinary and straight forward imageries –
            “But ah! My soul with too much stay
            Is drunk and staggers in the way”.
Further the mystical ideas, childhood, God, innocence and the journey of soul – everything is so sincere and personal. Taken from homely affairs of life, they are well visualized. We can compare his compressions to an eminent Victorian artist Hopkins. For example, ‘angel infancy’, shoots of everlastingness’, ‘ancient track’, ‘glorious train’ etc adds the linguistic glamour in the poem.

Conclusion: Through the metaphysical network and religious conscience Vaughan’s The Retreat is thematically superb. As far as the syntax and rhyme-pattern is concerned, it finds a place of perfection in English verse. It is a gift of music, no doubt restrained, but full of melody and grace.

Now try to answer these questions:
  •  How does Vaughan idealize his childhood days in The Retreat? Does the poem strike a lyrical note?
  • Critically appreciate the poem The Retreat as metaphysical religious poem.
  • How does Vaughan draw a contrast in his poem The Retreat between his childhood days and later years?

Critical Appreciation of Spenser's "Sonnet No. 75" in "Amoretti" (One day I wrote her name upon the strand)


"So let us love, dear Love, like as we ought,
Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught."

Edmund Spenser (1552? - 1599)

 Introduction:

Spenser’s Amoretti, a finest specimen of Elizabethan sonnets, is addressed to Elizabeth Boyle whom Spenser marries later. Thus his is the Amoretti a saga of love, without sin or remorse, its changing fortune, and the sighs of the lover until lies accomplishment and final joy. Though we do not find in Spenser’s sonnets Sidney’s unquietness or Shakespeare’s complaint against his mistress, his Sonnet No. 75 (One day I wrote her name upon the strand) highlights a traditional question of transience and permanence.

The problem of time & a dramatic situation:

Sonnet No. 75 carries out a discussion on the problem of time and transient world and the permanency of love, en route writing poetry of magnum opus. The sonnet is also noted for its dramatic texture. Read More Poetry Though the lyrical and dramatic are two contradictory terms, Spenser brings about a magnificent harmony between them. Here Spenser speaks of his own subjective approach regarding writing poetry. But his sonnet is devised through a dramatic situation and a dialogue between him and his beloved.

Mutiny against time & a poetic win:

The sonnet begins in a perfect romantic setting where the poet-lover and his beloved are sited on the sea shore in amorous mood. In the meantime the poet writes his beloved’s name on the sandy beach, the sea waves comes and washes it away. As the lover repeats the task, the waves do the same. Read More Poetry The ladylove watches this tug of war inquisitively and relishes the merry situation. The lady at last raises the voice of protest by saying that hers is ordinary, trail, fragile and transitory creature and neither the name nor her personae can claim to do beyond death. Thus; 
            “Vayne man”, sayd she,“that doest in vaine assay,
            A mortall thing so to unmortalize,
           For I my selve shall lyke to this decay,
            And eek my name bee wiped out likewise”.
Though the ladylove is doubtful and even disdainful, the poet with firm conviction declares that his love shall triumph over death and live ever through. Being romantic and idealist, the poet asserts that the gross, insignificant and sordid things might be the part of transient world, but his beloved is a fulsome personality, a subject of immortality-
            “Not so”, quod I, “Let baser things devize
            To dy in dust, but you shall live by fame”

There is no fallacy, no hogwash in the poet’s contention. In fact, here is a poetic devize. Read More Poetry Mortality might be cul-de-sac of human world bringing inevitable catastrophe, but the world of human art has the way to permanence. Thus the poet wishes to articulate the love to his dear in his poetry of artistic excellence. The poetry, he thinks, will renew their love beyond their physical years –
            “My verse your virtues rare shall eternize”.
            And in the heavens wryte your glorious name.
            Where when as death shall all the world subdew,
            Our love shall live, and later life renew”.

Thus, the sonnet's final couplet reaffirms the poet's faith in the power of love and poetry to defy death. He envisions that when death eventually claims the world, their love will persist and be rejuvenated in the afterlife. This notion of transcending death through love and art is a recurring theme in Renaissance poetry, and Spenser eloquently captures this idea in "Sonnet No. 75."

Conclusion and Critical Comment:

In conclusion, Spenser's "Sonnet No. 75" is a masterful exploration of love's ability to conquer mortality. Through the metaphor of writing the beloved's name on the strand, the poem evokes a sense of transience and the inevitability of passing time. Yet, the poet's unwavering belief in the power of his verse to immortalize her virtues adds a profound depth to the sonnet. The poem serves as a testament to the enduring nature of love and the enduring power of art to transcend the limitations of the human condition, offering solace and hope in the face of mortality.

Spenserian devise of triumph of poetry over time and by the process the glorification of love is a traditional way of thinking. Read More Poetry Shakespeare dares the verse
            “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see
            So long lives this and this gives love to thee”.
                                                                                    (Sonnet No. 18)
 Keats too by the 'viewless wings of poesy' wishes to defeat the transitory world. None the less Spenser is here original for its perfect blend of dramatic mood and indomitable passion of love.


Now Try to Answer These Questions:
1. Do you think the introduction of dialogue in Sonnet No. 75 makes the poem more dramatic than lyrical? 

Hints: The introduction of dialogue adds drama by presenting contrasting viewpoints, but lyrical elements persist in the poet's passionate declaration of love.
2. Spenser provides a beautiful dramatic setting in his Sonnet No. 75 (Amoretti). Do you agree?
    Hints: The poet promises that his verse will immortalize the beloved's exceptional virtues, preserving her legacy for eternity through his poetry.
      3. My verse your virtue rare shall eternize – Bring out the essence of the above statement.
        Hints: Yes, Spenser's vivid portrayal of the shore, waves, and the beloved's response creates a beautiful and dramatic setting.

        4. How does Spenser connect the theme of love with the theme of immortality? Do you think the argument of the poem convincing?

        Hints: Spenser connects love's enduring power to defy mortality, asserting that his poetry will grant immortality to the beloved's virtues. Convincing argument.

        References: 

        Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti and Epithalamion : a critical edition : Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/edmundspensersam00spenuoft

        UGC NET Solved Paper II ; Subject -- English ;December : 2009


        Paper – II

        Note: This paper contains fifty (50) objective type questions, each question carrying two (2) marks. Attempt all the questions.

        (ALL THE ANSWERS ARE COLOURED. I HAVE TRIED TO GIVE LOGIC BEHIND ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS. WITHOUT SYLLOGISTIC FORMAT YOU NEED AN ELFIN TOWER TALL HEAD.)


        1. A classical influence on Ben Jonson’s Volpone is
        (A) Juvenal (B) Aristophanes (C) Plautus (D) Terence

         Ben Jonson (1572-1637), English dramatist and poet, whose classical learning, gift for satire, and brilliant style is exhibited in his brilliant comedy, Volpone (1606) is modeled upon classical writer Aristophanes

        2. Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden” is addressed to
        (A) The American imperial mission in the Philippines.
        (B) The Belgian colonial expansion in the Congo.
        (C) The British Imperial presence in Nigeria.
        (D) The British colonial entry into Afghanistan.

        At the conclusion of the Spanish-American War of 1898, the United States annexed the Philippines, which had been a Spanish colony since the 16th century. Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden” is addressed to the subject of American colonization of the Philippines.

        Dr. West’s New Method of Teaching English :Its Merits and Demerits


                        Dr. Michael Philip West (1888–1973) conducted an extensive research and experiments on the problems of teaching English as a foreign language in India at the time of British rule. Read More Teaching English The new method is the outcome of his research. It stood as a reaction against the Direct Method.

        Going into more details, when Dr. West came to visit rural Bengal students (1913- 19) en route teaching job at Teachers’ Training College at Dhaka, West's conclusions about English learning issues in Bengal, India were as follows:

        👉Students spent about 10 hours a week on English study with extremely poor results.
        👉Only a minority reached the Matriculation class due to health or financial reasons.Read More Teaching English
        👉Even in the Matriculation class, students lacked real reading ability, speaking fluency, and writing proficiency in English.
        👉A 1919 Calcutta University Commission survey revealed similar concerns, with most respondents favoring more Bengali-medium instruction.
        👉West disagreed with the idea of concentrating solely on English, advocating for it as a second language mainly for reading, foreseeing its eventual disappearance as a colloquial language.
        👉West believed in improving English instruction but was critical of the "English-only" attitudes of some peers.
        👉He argued for cost-effective language training for Englishmen and highlighted the importance of reading skills.

        Now Dr. Michael Philip West went through a witch hunt. So, the causes for the weakness in English among matriculate students in Bengali schools, as outlined by West, can be summarized as follows:

        Teaching Method: The conventional teaching method involves preparing passages from English readers by translating them into Bengali, with minimal emphasis on English synonyms. This leads to a lack of proficiency in English.Read More Teaching English

        Limited English Writing Practice: Boys have minimal practice in writing English. Translation from Bengali to English is infrequent and done laboriously with dictionaries or assistance from others.

        Weak Translation Skills: While students can translate English into Bengali, they struggle with the reverse, hindering their ability to understand spoken English and write fluently in the language.Read More Teaching English

        Ineffectiveness of Direct Method: The direct method, which emphasizes oral communication, is deemed a failure in Bengali schools due to its demands on teachers and its inability to address complex ideas or abstract words.

         West suggests that teaching English from Bengali into English, rather than the current approach of translating from English into Bengali, could lead to significant improvement in English proficiency among matriculate students in a shorter period. In fact, the traditional teaching approach in Bengali schools focuses more on translation and lacks sufficient English writing and comprehension practice, resulting in limited English proficiency among students. West advocates for a shift in the teaching method to enhance English skills effectively.

                       Thus, Dr. West approached the problem of teaching English not from the standpoint of pedagogy, but from the standpoint of social needs of the Indian (Bengali more precisely ) pupil. He holds that, “Indian boys need most of all to be able to read English, than to write it, and lastly to speak it and understood it when spoken”. Read More Teaching English Moreover, he maintains that “learning to read a language is by far the shortest road to learning to speak and write it. “According to him it is easier to acquire a reading knowledge of a language than to acquire a speaking. So the teacher’s chief concern should be to develop the habit of purposeful silent reading in the children and not the habit of oral reading.

                       The results of the experiments are extensively documented in Dr. West’s work "Bilingualism" (1926) and served as the foundation for the development of the New Method series of textbooks, first published in 1926. West's educational philosophy centered around a learner-focused approach, yet he held a degree of skepticism regarding the effectiveness of teacher-led instruction. Consequently, he placed significant emphasis on the creation of high-quality textbook materials that could, to some extent, circumvent the need for constant teacher intervention. Basically, The West’s Method puts emphasis on three important elements. First, reading, Secondly, Readers with selected vocabulary and thirdly, judicious use of the mother tongue.


        According to Dr. West, Indian children should first be taught how to read English. The teacher should engage them in purposeful silent reading. This would increase the students power of comprehension. In order to develop the habit of purposeful silent reading in the children he provides us with a new type of reading book containing interesting reading matter and a specially selected vocabulary. Read More Teaching English The minimum number as selected  by Dr. West for his readers is 2,280 which has been classified under the following four heads:

        (i)                   Essential words – This, it, is, a, shall etc.
        (ii)                 Common environmental words – chair, table, glass, bus etc.
        (iii)                General Words – good, bad, nice etc.
        (iv)               Specific environmental words – tree, garden, river, mountain etc.

        The new words have been evenly distributed in the lesson and they are frequently repeated to make students familiar with them. a good number of pictures have also been provided. Dr. West has permitted the use of the mother tongue in his method according to necessity. Read More Teaching English Moreover, there are companion Books with vernacular meaning of the new words. Pupil’s comprehension in reading is measured with the help of comprehension tests. But in preparing his readers Dr. West has not followed any well defined grammatical plan.

        Dr. West holds that Supplementary Readers should be used along with the New method readers in order to arose interest in other reading and to give more practice in silent extensive reading but new words should not be occurred in the Supplementary Readers. Read More Teaching English In this method the teacher has to give necessary help when called for.
        Dr. West, while stressing silent reading, has made provision for some oral work mainly in the form of reading aloud before silent reading begins. An alternative short primer has been provided for ‘speech training on a sentence method’. He admits that, speaking gives reality to the subsequent reading of the language. The primer is meant for only those teachers who intend to start with a small amount of speech training. Dr. West has taken oral work as a preliminary subsidiary to the art of reading.

        Dr. West has given some scope for training in speech to make his method complete. In order to give a scheme of speech training he has made a distinction between speech and vocabulary. According to him “The ideal speaking vocabulary is the most easily learnt and most easily used set of word which is capable of expressing correctly the largest number of ideas”. The size of the speaking vocabulary is much smaller than that of the reading vocabulary. Dr. West has selected a minimum speaking vocabulary of 1,158 words capable of expressing all our ordinary ideas. Read More Teaching English He has classified these words under two main heads, viz, ‘form’ words and ‘content’ words. Dr. West holds that specific practice in speaking and drill in vocabulary should be given in order to develop the speaking ability in children. In his new method composition books he has provided question, orders and other forms of exercises for this purpose. According to him, no attempt should be made to teach any two-language skills at the same time. He also holds that written work should be correlated with oral work. In the New Method, theoretical grammar is not taught separately, but is used for curative purposes when necessary. Dr. West holds that grammar should be regarded ‘not as a diet, but as a drug’.

                        Dr. West considered English as a skill subject and emphasized the principle of specific practice. For this purpose, he wanted teachers to work out different types of exercises and to conduct drills. His Teachers’ Hand Books serve as guidebooks for teachers.

        1.        Dr. West was one of those who first paid attention to the selection and grading of vocabulary and took the first step in its reform. Read More Teaching English
        2.        West’s New Method is very effective in the teaching of reading through it has some important pedagogical drawback.
        3.        In view of the limited time now available for teaching English and considering the fact that most of the Indian children will need only a passive knowledge of it in their future occupations, this method can profitably be employed in teaching the language in India. Read More Teaching English
        4.        The graded Readers, companions, composition books, supplementary Readers and Teachers’ Handbooks were all interesting and appeared to be helpful. The practice exercises are quite interesting.

        1.        Dr. West has over-estimated the value of reading by saying that it by far the shortest road to learning to speak and write it. Reading can assist speaking and writing to some extent by supplying some linguistic materials, but it can not be ‘the shortest road’ to learning then.
        2.        If the pupils have to start with reading in the initial stage, the language learning is sure to be dull and lifeless to him. Read More Teaching English So it is un-psychological.
        3.         Dr. West’s view that ‘a reading knowledge of a language is easier to acquire than a speaking’ is not supported by the modern educationists. They hold that a speaking knowledge is easier to acquire than a reading or writing. Moreover, ‘children should not begin reading till they have acquired facility in speech and a fairly large vocabulary.
        4.        Dr. West has over emphasized the importance of acquiring a vocabulary and has selected the commonest words. But he has neglected the graduated introduction of sentence patterns and also of the phrases and idioms that are essential elements in developing language sense. The frequent use of the same word may develop an artificial style.
        5.        This method attaches too much of importance to silent reading. No doubt, in learning of a language, silent reading has an important role. Also this method does not give due importance to the oral work. To neglect oral work in the lower classes is unscientific and un-psychological. Read More Teaching English Moreover, the distintion of speaking and reading can not be maintained in practice.
        6.        Dr. West’s new method of teaching English does not help Indian students to achieve the four-fold objectives of language learning as already specified. Among other limitations of the New method the want of the graduated introduction of sentence patterns, the total language, the isolated study of words, the total neglect of grammar and composition, can be mentioned.


         In spite of the above drawbacks, Dr. West’s method can be put to a thorough test. It has done a useful service in the teaching of English in India at early 20th century. Read More Teaching English This method may be effective modern approach even now.


        References:

        Michael West biography. (n.d.). https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collections/elt_archive/halloffame/west/life/

        Calcutta University Commission. 1919. Evidence and Documents. Classified Replies ot the Commissioners’ Questions 8–12 . Report of the Calcutta University Commission, 1917–1919, Volume 10. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, India.

        West, M. P. (1926, January 1). Learning to Read a Foreign Language.

        Learning To  Read A Foreign Language : West,Michael. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (2006, November 15). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/learningtoreadaf030789mbp

        Chowdhury, M. Soloman. 1969. ‘Reminiscences of the College’, in Teachers’ Training College, Dacca (eds.). 1969, [168]–[172].

        Buy My Books

        Buy My Books
        Objective Questions from English Literature

        Recent Posts