The Mobile English Classroom

Abstract

An aspirational India wants to learn English primarily for achieving literacy in English, for acquiring basic proficiency in English, and for improving the language skills that will help them move up the ladder of social success. English is not the language of transaction in rural areas and teachers labour hard to master the language which they do not use regularly outside their classes. The English language skills of the teachers in rural India are woefully inadequate and when such teachers teach English, the students’ learning of the language suffers. How can we upgrade the language skills of these teachers so that ultimately the students would be able to gain proficiency in English? Can technology be effectively leveraged to help rural school teachers attain a reasonable degree of proficiency in English? Can we tap the huge potential of educated Indians who are willing to help in the mission to upgrade the language skills of rural teachers? This article tries to explore these issues