Very recently I had an interaction with a correspondent of a national newspaper, who had come to British Lingua for enrolling his wife in the institute. Before the admission formalities he wanted to know whether the methodology of teaching English followed here was the one he cherished in his mind. He put a volley of questions to the counsellor. His main concern was whether English was taught here through the Direct Method. He wanted a method where the learner is directly exposed to an English speaking environment, and one where grammar, etc is taught. He wanted that his wife should get an opportunity to hear people speak only English. That, he thought, was the best, nay, the only way one could learn good spoken English.

So far so good. True, very true; the best method to learn a language is the direct one. But then I suggested that in that case he would better send his wife to an English-speaking country, preferably England itself. Alternatively, such an English-speaking environment should be created at home where she lives.

But is it possible for each Indian learner to go to England to learn English? He, then, admitted the fact that he would not be able to send his wife there. Also, it was neither possible to create a complete English environment at his home for this purpose.

I have my personal experience and feelings that we need an exposure to an English environment when we want to speak that language. But in trying to to learn a language you need to understand the methodology of learning a second language or L-2.

As a matter of fact, many of the adult learners feel bored and inconvenienced when directly put into the direct method. Although it is okay for the children. The adults get discouraged and retreat from such experience. Finally they drop the very idea of learning the language.

What the adults need is an easy-going situation. Once they learn the basics they are quick enough to pick up the words and speak the language. Even personally, I have been quite opposed to teaching the rules of grammar in a textbookish fashion. The learners should not be made to parrot the definitions of grammatical terms which are of no use in communication. But, of course, you need to learn the basic rules of the grammar of a language you wish to learn and use. For example, you take the word 'watch'. It is okay to explain that watch can be used both as a noun and as a verb. For example, we can say - He is watching television, or, He has a wrist watch, or, He keeps a watch on everything happening around him. The actual usage gives you an idea how grammar functions here. In fact, once you have understood how a noun or a verb functions, you may easily understand how a noun or a verb behaves. Hence, the best way to teach a learner is how the sentences are framed, or how the sounds are produced and so on.

Moreover, every language has its own idioms and collocations. Take an example, - we can say, I have a bath daily, I take a bath daily, but never, I do a bath daily. The noun 'bath' collocates with the verbs 'have' or 'take' but not with 'do' or 'make'. This should be explained to the learners so that they may speak the language in tune with the native idiom of the language.

We need to understand the basics of language learning process and its niceties, subtleties and intricacies. We must not be impractical in our approach. Many of the Indians have proved that their English is better than those of many of the native speakers. Hence, you too can learn good English provided you follow practical methods of learning.

Birbal Jha, born at Sijaul in Madhubani, Bihar, 1972; Ph D, M A, M Com, PGD in journalism, Patna University; Founder, British Lingua, the leading language training institute of India; Editor, Lingua Bulletin, a widely circulated English language teaching monthly published from Delhi; Author, a host of books on the English language as well as subjects of general interest; quoted in the New York Times and the People's Chronology Encyclopaedia.