An Intermediate Course in Kashmiri (Urdu)

The Central Institute of Indian Languages is concerned with the development of Indian languages. The development of Indian languages can take place by their use in new domains, which requires development of materials and methods and manpower for work in the areas of codification, standardisation and modernisation. The work of the Institute encompasses basic research, material production and in service training. The Institute is also entrusted with the responsibility of assisting and improving the teaching of Indian languages at various levels by developing new methods, models and materials and by making use of modern technology. The six Regional Language Centres are engaged in regular language teaching programmes. The Institute is also a clearing house of information relating to Indian languages.

The major area of activity of the Institute and its Regional Language Centres is training second language teachers and production of second language teaching materials in Indian languages. Most of the available materials are meant for speakers of foreign languages learning Indian languages. The materials prepared by the Institute are for Indian learners. These materials are methodologically different because of shared linguistic features between Indian languages at all levels. The training programmes and teaching materials exploit these commonness between Indian languages. These materials are prepared in different media like print, film, audio cassettes, video cassettes and computer software.

The present volume is the second of the 3 levels of teaching materials used for graduate teachers trained in the Regional Language Centres in a 10 month training programme to teach a modern Indian language as a third language under the Three Language Formula. These teachers do not speak natively the language they learn. The intensive course is for instruction in the first level consisting of 3 months of intensive learning supplemented by language laboratory sessions. The materials are organised and graded on the basis of structures and reinforcement is through structural drills and exercises. The medium is the target language itself and English.

This material has been developed after many years of try out in the classrooms of the Regional Language Centres and after many discussions among the faculty of various languages through workshops. Though this material cannot be set to incorporate the current preferences in second language teaching, it has been found useful in our classrooms.

Kashmiri, being a Dardic language, has some structural features different from other major Indian languages. Care has been taken for the learners to be aware of these special features in learning Kashmiri.

A major objective of the Institute is to preserve and promote multilingualism in the country. We hope that language teaching materials like this will help people learn other Indian languages and thus become proficient bilinguals with better understanding of other languages and cultures.

**Contents and Sample Pages**