Remedial English

Remedial English or Remedial Teaching

Introduction: 

          Remedial Teaching means improvement in the standard of teaching the language. So Remedial English means improvement in the standard of English. Students who learn English as a foreign language are considerably poor in that subject. There are many students in high schools or junior colleges who cannot write even a few correct sentences in English. A number of reasons are behind this fact. First, students are not interested in English. They are careless. Thirdly, the teachers of English themselves do not have sufficient knowledge of English. Their own English is not perfect. So a training programme should be undergone by them. In fact, errors will arise even in the best of teaching situation. So the remedial teaching has got much importance.

Remediation is different form Revision: 

           It should be noted that Remediation is not Revision. Revision is a part of regular teaching, while Remediation follows almost immediately after regular teaching, while-remediation comes only after gaps and errors in learning have become evident. Therefore, the objectives of Remedial teaching are: (i) to teach what has not been learned completely, '' and (ii) to help to learn correctly whatever has been learnt wrongly. Thus, Remedial work has a positive and negative aspect.

Need of Remedial Teaching: 

          Remedial Teaching seeks to complete what has remained incomplete and to eliminate errors. Of these the latter tends to be stubborn. An item which is forgotten can be releamed without great difficulty. But a distorted form which has become rooted in the minds of the learner is difficult to eradicate. Regular teaching is unable to check these areas. So the Remedial Teaching is urgently needed.

          Similarly, a remedial course has to be based necessarily on error analysis. Errors vary depending on the mother-tongue of the learner. These are the most serious errors. So a graded course is needed. It is also true that the need for remedial teaching may become all the greater in times of transition like the one we are passing though today,. During such periods objectives and methods do not get quickly and correctly defined.

Scope of Remedial Teaching : 

            According to Prof. V .V. Yardi, the selection of unwanted forms (errors) for remediation will have to be based on certain criteria. Since a remedial course is not a re-teaching course, only those 'unwanted forms' which seriously tramper communication need to be remedied. For instance, some phonemes (like/ph/) in Marathi are as substitutes to Phonemes in English (like /f/). They should be so left. Secondly, in grammar, varieties of question tag like 'is it' should be deleted. So remedial Teaching should be on the faults that are most serious and widespread.

Methods of Remedial Teaching :

1. Drills of sentence patterns may be given. The teacher may take up sentence pattern at a time and give a simple repetition drill to the class. After teaching, written practice should be given.

2. The incorrect sentences and the corrected sentences may be written on a chart. The students should be asked to consult the chart again and again. So they will get rid of incorrect English.

3. There should be frequent tests to see improvement.

            Thus, regular guidance and careful supervision can help the students in the improvement of English.

Practical Suggestions for improving English :

1. Student should know basic patterns of sentences.
2. Verb patterns should be studied.
3. Knowledge of tenses.
4. Exercise in spellings.
5. Writing a small paragraph.
6. Copying from books.
7. Preparation of substitute table.
8. Listening to Radio especially BBC.

 

Conclusion: 

             Thus, Remedial Teaching has a prominent place in teaching learning situation of English in India. It is therefore greatly needed.