AD's English Literature

Dr. West conducted an extensive research and experiments on the problems of teaching English as a foreign language in India. Read More Teaching EnglishThe new method is the outcome of his research. It stood as a reaction against the Direct Method.
                Dr. West approached the problem of teaching English not from the standpoint of pedagogy, but from the standpoint of social needs of the Indian people. 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 EnglishMoreover, 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 ‘Prologue’ to She Stoops to conquer was written not by Oliver Goldsmith, but by David Garrik, a member of Dr. Johnson’s literary circle, and a friend of both Johnson and Goldsmith. The prologue was meant to be read by a popular contemporary actor, Woodward, who was also supposed to have played the key part of Tony Lumpkin. However, although Woodward withdrew from the play, the ‘prologue’ was actually read by him. Unlike many other prologues of contemporary dramas, the ‘prologue’ to She Stoops to conquer is not a declamation but it is in the nature of a dramatic scene. Woodward enters the stage dressed in black, the colour of mourning, holding a handkerchief to his eyes, and the very first thing he says is that the reason why he is crying is that the Muse of Comedy (Thalia), who had been ailing for a long time, is now on the verge of death. If she really dies, his tears will not stop flooding, for it would mean the end of his carrier as an actor, well versed in the art of comic cha…