Changing Trends in ELT with Special Reference to India

With the introduction of e-learning, there was a widespread belief that it would replace teachers. It is true that Massive Open Online Courses has made learning more flexible and open but the role of the teachers has not changed. In fact, it has added into the value of the teacher, and teachers could no longer turn away from the technological changes. They have to attain knowledge on how to manipulate technology for more effective teaching. Earlier, the use of audio-visual aids in the classroom was revolutionary in that age and assisted teachers in imparting knowledge making it much easier, and for learners it was a blessing. The current major shift is from physical classrooms to virtual classrooms; the role of the instructor and the learner remains as How can this shift affect English language teaching? Precisely, English is the most affected subject and the leaners of English have got a wide variety of choices to learn the language. With the introduction of the virtual classrooms, any competent instructor, who can teach language effectively can run a MOOC and attract students all around the world. It has given rise to more specific learning practices – English for special purposes. Since it is the global language, and it is used for different purposes, or in different contexts, varieties of training methods are evolving to satisfy the needs of the learners. Courses are designed based on the special purposes of English – from basic to advanced levels. The concept of an English teacher transcends the borders, and many professionals are becoming instructors and offer specialised training designed according to the need of the professionals. To be competent and to survive in this ever changing field of English language teaching, the English teachers have to reach the open and flexible platform of e-learning, and remain up-to-date. If you are a teacher in an institution, you can bring together learners via internet and track their academic activities. There are many methods that can make work paperless and you may conserve trees for the coming generation. Teachers can maintain a blog to share learning materials, and write reviews and articles. Blog hosting services like Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr etc. offer free blog hosting. Moreover, there are subscription based teaching portal services like Teachable through which teachers can offer course materials. Teachable help teachers to design their own course and market them, thereby reach the global audience.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) can be offered via several platforms and it offers the teacher the opportunity to become an icon of his/her special area. The term MOOC was coined to refer to a course developed by Stephen Downes and George Siemens entitled Connectivism and Connectivity Knowledge in 2008. Their intention was to exploit the possibility for interactions between wide varieties of participants made possible by online tools so as to provide a richer learning environment than traditional tools would allow. In 2007, Eren Bali, a Turkish engineer and entrepreneur, built software for a live virtual classroom and saw its potential to democratize educations by allowing anybody to teach and learn online. He launched his company named Udemy – ―The Academy of You‖ – in May 2010 with Oktay

hundreds of courses are offered in the field of ELT. Sebastien Thrun founded a company called Udacity in February 2012 to cater to the development of technical skills among engineers to propel career forward. In April 2012, Andrew Ng, a Chinese-American computer scientist and statistician, and Daphne Koller and two other Stanford CS professors, started the company called Coursera which partnered with universities in preparing and offering MOOCs. Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed the MITx platform for offering MOOCs. Later it was renamed edX in association with Harvard University. Now edX consortium has over 30 university partners. In addition to these services, platforms like Chegg offers online tutoring jobs to competent teachers. MOOCs have opened a wider platform for English language learning, especially in the case of English for special purposes. Several interdisciplinary streams have been evolved. In a developing country like India, MOOCs from the part of the private entrepreneurs are nil. Since the field of education is directly controlled by the government of India, the initiative should come from the part of the policy makers. Even though the government runs educational programmes through radio and television, internet based education is not popular among the mass. National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) is a platform through which IITs and IISc offer online courses. The upcoming SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) platform is an ambitious project from the part of the Indian government where students across all universities in India will be able to earn credits. It is the centralized platform that would bind Indian higher education, both online and offline. English language teachers could enroll as instructors and run their courses.

English language teachers can use a number of services to engage their students in the learning process. Google Classroom is a collaborative platform for teachers to simplify creating, distributing, and grading assignments in a paperless way. The primary purpose of Google Classroom is to streamline the process of sharing files between teachers and students. It combines Google Drive for assignment creation and distribution, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides for writing, Gmail for communication, and Google Calendar for scheduling. Teachers can monitor the progress of each student, grade the assignments, and return work along with comments. LinkedIn SlideShare is a hosting service for professional content including PowerPoint privately or publicly in PowerPoint, PDF, or OpenDocument formats. For teachers, it is a platform to share knowledge; they can contribute resources to the learners and could support each other. SlidePlayer is also a similar platform for presentation sharing. Podcasting is another medium that English teachers can use especially to address ESL learners and improve their listening skill. English language teachers can use podcast hosting services to create and share podcasts. There are a number of free and subscription based podcast hosting platforms. Anchor.fm is a free podcast creating site started a few months back. From Anchor, users can share podcast to other platforms. SoundCloud is another audio distribution platform and music sharing website. There are several other subscription based services like PodBean, Transistor.fm, Libsyn, Speaker, Simplecast etc. Most of all, giving an audio-visual experience to the students could inspire them to learn and frequently follow a teacher online. Hence giving video lectures using video hosting web sites like YouTube is a great option for teachers of English language. Today, YouTube is the most popular and widely used medium to reach online audience. Using YouTube can help teachers to reach out to their students as well as followers around the globe. YouTube can easily make you an icon in your subject if you frequently add content to your channel. Mobile learning (m-learning) is an emerging area in education. It is education using personal mobile devices, such as tablet computers and smartphones to obtain learning materials through online education mobile apps, and social interactions. It is flexible and allows students to access learning materials anywhere, anytime. Smartphones are changing the way we communicate. Messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram can be used for academic discussions. It is a promising area, and along with the introduction of 4G technology, it will reach new heights. The introduction of technology in education is changing the very way we approach teaching and learning. Technology is rewriting the definition of teacher and learner, and the skills they need to have. The future of educational practices is almost defined and the teachers should adopt new ways and means to meet the changing demands of time. Regarding English language teaching, the opportunities that the learners of English are getting today are entirely different from the traditional concepts on second language acquisition. The Web 2.0, MOOCs , and the gadgets and apps assisted

MAUT. ―A Brief History of MOOCs‖. Retrieved 12 December 2016. https://www.mcgill.ca/maut/current-issues/moocs/history Redecker, Christine et. al. (2009). ‗Learning 2.0: The Impact of Web 2.0 Innovations on Education and Training in Europe‘. JRC Scientific and Technical Reports by Institute for Prospective Technological Studies. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Richardson, Will (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Corwin Press: California, 2010.

Assistant Professor, Department of English, St. George College, Vazhakulam, Ernakulam, Kerala jmjintomichael@gmail.com