MINOR RESEARCH PROJECT IN HUMANITIES
POOR COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS IN ENGLISH IN THE COASTAL SCHOOLS OF
ALAPPUZHA-REASONS, CONSEQUENCES AND REMEDIES
Principal Investigator: Dr.Mathew. V
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Alappuzha is one of the 14 districts of the state of Kerala. It was formed on 17th August
1957 and is now a widely known tourist destination dotted with coir factories and fishing
villages. Of the six taluks, namely Karthikappally, Chengannur, Mavelikkara, Ambalappuzha,
Kuttanad and Cherthala, the last three form the coastal belt of Alappuzha district. The census of
2011 has enumerated the population of the district as 21,21,943 giving it a ranking of 216th in
India out of 640. It has the highest population density among all the districts of the state and yet
is the smallest district of Kerala with an area of 1414 sq.km. Alappuzha has a sex ratio of 1100
females for every 1000 males and a literacy rate of 96.26%.
Taking into account all the demographic, socio-economic and psychological peculiarities of
this area, a comprehensive study has been carried out to decipher the reasons, consequences and
remedies of the poor communicative skills in English prevalent in the coastal schools of
Alappuzha. Except for the flourishing political movements, no substantial development has
taken place to ensure the financial security of the area. The acute problem of unemployment
increasing day by day, has been attributed to the deteriorating communicative skills of the target
population. The UGC sponsored study entitled ‘Poor Communicative Skills in English in the
Coastal Schools of Alappuzha – Reasons, Consequences and Remedies’ assessed the extent of
educational backwardness existing in the area owing to poor communicative skills in English and
the quality of teaching at the disposal of the people.
‘Quotas can’t lift locals, only English can’ said a columnist in the New Indian Express on 26
September 2005. The regional language is important emotionally. But the consequences of the
emotional immaturity that keeps the most useful communication medium away in the name of
patriotism or regionalism is pure parochialism and does not augur well with the state that claims
to be in the path of progress. Finding a remedy to the problem after delving deep into it has
become imperative when it has been proved without an iota of doubt that lack of communication
skills virtually marginalizes areas where proper English education has not reached.
The research undertaken was qualitative in approach and encompassed the target population
which consisted mainly of students and teachers of the coastal schools numbering about 50 and
extending over a distance of 75 kilometres. After collecting the socio-demographic data,
questionnaires were prepared and distributed among students of various schools. Selective
-2sampling was adopted to study attitudes towards English in the locality. The differences in
communicative skills were studies analyzing variables like age, sex, English medium,
Malayalam medium, government schools, private schools, aided schools, fisher folk etc. The
findings of the study vividly indicate that the backwardness of the area and the rampant
unemployment in the coastal belt are related to the highly deficient communicative skills
prevailing in the area.
After describing the socio-demographic aspects of the district and enumerating the various
players in the field of education and employment in the area in the introductory chapter, the
second chapter plunges deep into the problem of inadequate communication skills depriving the
otherwise skilled and able-bodied youth of the area of all the joys of living and leaving them to
wallow in abject poverty, dependency, despair and self-pity. Compelled by circumstances, they
take refuge in unholy rackets, drug addiction and filthy politics. The lackadaisical attitude of the
government is certainly gnawing at the very vitals of English education. Though tourism has
caught up in the district, English is lagging behind, proving highly detrimental to the future of
tourism. With very few speakers of English compared to the other areas of the state, the
prospects of improvement are bleak as the diaspora to other countries is comparatively dull.
Moving out of the state and the country has not become a part of the job-seeking process of the
coastal area yet. The teaching standards in the language are extremely poor with even
postgraduates lacking fluency and mastery. What quacks are to the pharmacopoeia, unqualified
teachers are to the learners of the coastal belt. The pronunciation of English has touched the rock
bottom with the regional language making inroads increasing the degree of MTI (Mother Tongue
Interference).
Though many schools pride themselves as English Medium schools, the fact remains that
these claims do not go beyond the nomenclature. Even the English teachers struggle to speak
English and write English and fail miserably. The government’s half-heartedness is reflected in
the failure to appoint permanent teachers to handle the language both in schools and colleges.
Guest teachers who are here today and gone tomorrow are deployed to teach these poor and the
marginalized. Students who pass out from mediocre schools shun English at the college level.
Group discussions and interviews for employment have become nightmares that haunt the
jobseekers. To live in a society that speaks highly of English and appreciates those who speak
English well leaves embarrassing situations that the youth cannot escape from. The social,
psychological and financial implications of learning this language are realized too late for
rectification and improvement. Backwardness in English would also definitely mean shutting
themselves out of the wide world of computers and information technology. The psychological
fear and gender issues aggravate the problem further. Owing to the lack of perseverance, there is
no continuity, but only periodic spurts of English learning. The standard of English in the area
can easily be deciphered from the handwriting, spelling and grammatical errors.
-3The third chapter delves deep into the reason behind this linguistic setback. The gamut of
problems faced by the present generation are rooted in the social, political, economic and
educational past of the coast which deterred the older generation from looking beyond the
benefits from the sea and the coconut tree. The anti-English policies followed by the
government in the 1970s and 80s which paved the way for the deterioration of English
communicative skills coupled with the parochialism that grew at the expense of English plunged
the area in gross narrow-mindedness. Unqualified English teachers who are graduates in
subjects other than English deployed to teach English in schools spell doom for English at the
school level. Teaching English in Malayalam has become the order of the day. The
infrastructure available with the schools to teach English is extremely inadequate. The politics
that thrive in the region is also anti-English to the core. The English channels are blocked and
the readership of English newspapers is also markedly low. Gender differences in the
acquisition of English skills and the geographical conditions worsen the scenario. The women
who learn the language better than men in the beginning do not stay on in the area to the benefit
of the community. Though English is considered to be a status symbol, the people who speak it
are distanced labeling their attempt as snobbery.
Academic degradation leading to educated unemployment is palpable. The poor teaching of
English in schools affects the prospects of higher education. These dire consequences added to
the shutting off from the wide world of computers and information technology pull the people
away from modernization. The educational backwardness of the area is largely due to poor
communicative skills in English. It has adversely affected teaching as well as learning. The
manner in which it affects the prospects of higher education is to be looked into. It has seriously
affected academic activity both at the school and college levels. Many students passing out with
high marks are not able to speak or write English to suit the needs of higher education. Study
skills in English like reading, taking notes, preparing for seminars, doing assignments, research
techniques, organizing and presenting essays and preparing for examinations are at an ebb. The
survey has revealed that this coastal area is turning out to be a place where computer usage is the
lowest compared to those places where English stands in a better position. Lack of English
proficiency has become a major setback in the growth story of our political consciousness.
When politics comes under the control of National powers, the local politicians get thrown out.
Their political knowledge depends very much on interpretations by other politicians.
Illiteracy and linguistic deprivation can muffle the political voice of the underdog and thus
contribute to the insecurity of the coastal people. The reach of people’s democratic voice can be
much greater when political opportunities are combined with social empowerment through
English. The people of this area who are politically alert would have been more politically
effective in the Indian democratic set up if they had good English communicative skills. The
people of the coastal area are linguistically disabled without English.
-4There are also empirical connections between poverty and lack of English communicative
skills. Low communication skills hurt the job prospects of the people. The deprivation of
opportunities and facilities to learn English which has several advantages is a manifest injustice
to the coastal population. Poverty, starvation and inequity arising out of such disadvantages are
brewing hatred and jealousy which might lead to social violence. Justice cannot be divorced
from providing the right of empowerment through language. Justice is not to be conceptualized
in terms of reservations alone. Their empowerment involves learning to speak in an articulate
way in a powerful language about ideas that are inescapably precise. A tough competition is in
the offing for the educated unemployed of the coastal belt. It is the competition between the
elites who know English and the subalterns who do not know English. The affluent ‘neo-English
punditry’ will take advantage of the job market when the coastal belt gets more and more
marginalized.
This project has made a substantial contribution to the society by pinpointing one of the major
shortcomings of the coastal population which has become a stumbling block in its path of
progress. The objective of the report to throw light on the root causes of the acute educated
unemployment has been achieved. Social justice can be achieved only through linguistic
empowerment. The clandestine motives of those who impose linguistic disability on the coastal
population have been effectively exposed.