An Analysis of Preferred Methods of Teaching and Learning English Language in Bangalore, India

Volume 8 Issue 4 October - December 2018

Research Paper

An Analysis of Preferred Methods of Teaching and Learning English Language in Bangalore, India

Vivek Varghese* , Prakat Karki**

* M.Phil. Scholar, Department of English Language and Literature, Christ (Deemed to be) University, Karnataka, India.

** Research Associate, Cognition, Affect and Behavioral (CAB) Lab, Department of Psychology, Christ (Deemed to be) University, Karnataka, India.

Varghese, V., and Karki, P. (2018). An Analysis of Preferred Methods of Teaching and Learning English Language in Bangalore, India. i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, 8(4), 36-48. https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.8.4.14869

Abstract

The study investigated the preferred methods of teaching and learning English language among a sample of teachers and students from higher secondary schools in Bangalore, India. A total of 67 participants took part in this study which included 30 students (m=14, f=16) and 37 teachers (m=16, f=21). The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) method was found to be the most preferred method of teaching English language among the teachers, whereas the Situational Language Teaching (SLT) was the least preferred method of teaching English language. Similarly, using written content in terms of books, newspapers, journals, etc., was found to be the most preferred method of learning language for the students, followed by learning through informal interaction. The least preferred method of learning English according to the students was the use of audio resources. Gender variability in preferences was also tested using independent samples t-tests, which revealed that male teachers gave significantly higher preference ratings for the direct method and audio lingual method in teaching, whereas male students also gave significantly higher preference ratings for the audio resources method in learning than their respective female counterparts. Both male and female teachers preferred the CLT method of teaching the most, while the use of written content was selected as the most preferable by both male and female students in terms of learning English language.