This refers to the news item "Gandhi College lecturer arrested ". In fact any language is a means of communication. We express our feelings, joys, sorrows, sufferings and pleasures through a language that we feel comfortable in. Learning a language involves learning of communication skills. When it comes to learning a second language, we need a multi-dimensional approach including situational and structural approach. Artificial situations created in the classroom are supposed to be used in real-life situations. Moreover, students learn more quickly through such situations which they are familiar with. If our students are familiar with happenings around, there is nothing wrong to use such a situation to teach a language or to evaluate the performance of the learners in the exam. There is nothing controversial in the question paper under debate. Paragraph writing and translations are some of the ways to make English a functional subject. The more  these items are related to our day-to-day events and issues, the better it is. Unfortunately we are used to create fuss out of nothing. How ironical that we can discuss things like "kani jung" but not its English eqviualent "stone pelting". I don't understand if a student is asked to translate a familiar phenomenon like "Eid in curfew" to evaluate his command over the target language, what is wrong in it.
Mubarak Ahmad Shah
Lecturer English

Lastupdate on : Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 15 Dec 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:00:00 IST