An Intensive Course in Telugu (An Old and Rare Book)

The central Institute of Indian Languages was established at Mysoere on 17th July 1968 with a primary objective of fulfilling the Government of India's resolution that envisaged a set of concrete measures for the development of the major languages of India. As an important step in this direction, the institute offers – through its seven Regional language Centers (RLCs) located in different parts of the country an intensive teaching programme in second language instruction for most languages in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution. The regional Language Centres were set up in order to help and meet the demand for trained teachers and implement the Institute's goal of developing the major Indian Languages at the school lever teaching. This was also planned as a part of the three language formula and the assurances given to linguistic minorities. It is needless to say that instruction in four Dravidian languages at the Southern Regional Language Centre at Mysore occupies a pride of place in this scheme. It has always had an excellent faculty and leadership in this matter. This Southern centre naturally attracts a large number of teachers who spend 10 months every year to take the course. Besides the RLC activities, Institute is also charged with the responsibility of conducting research on all the minor and lesser known as well as endangered languages of India to bring out grammars, dictionaries, style manuals, standardized writing and spelling patterns, language pedagogy materials and language technology tools for such languages.

The RLCs are also charged with the responsibilities of developing need based materials and methods of teaching Indian language as second/foreign languages, train secondary school teachers in languages other than their mother tongues with a view to Providing more language choice to young students in Secondary schools and thus heighten the awareness of the diversity which goes into the building of the mosaic of Indian Culture through their activities such as inter translations, original writing in an another language etc.

The Principals and Lecturers of all the Regional Language centres of the Institute had prepared a conducive and scientific format which became the point of reference for producing language teaching materials. In this series, the present book entitled 'An Intensive Course in Telugu' was prepared by Prof. P Ramanarasimham when he was working in the SRLC, Mysore. The material has been in use in different parts/versions in the Centre since long. Subsequently the copies of the first impression were sold out and on the basis of the feedback, Prof. P. Ramanarasimha revised this material by incorporating new materials and techniques. We appreciate the effort and academic input of Dr.K.V.V.L.N.Rao, Dr.K.VIswanatham, Shri. G. Vijayasarathi and Dr. G. Prabhakar and all concerned and also commend Dr. V.S.Nair, the current Principal, for his advice in syllabus design and help in revising the book. I hope it will be a welcome addition to Telugu teaching material already available in some universities.

From time immemorial individuals have been learning other's languages as well, in addition to their own. Some learn language of others without a teacher or a textbook. In this case the community is the classroom, and the social needs of the learner provide him/her with a curriculum. On the other hand, some learn with the help of teacher and a textbook, in which case the curriculum is organized and planned. In the first context the learning is generally felt to be easy and more or less unconscious, natural and automatic. Competence acquired in such a learning may or may not be similar to competence acquired in such a learning may not be similar to competence of language acquisition in mother tongue. It may also be of a time consuming process in some cases. In most cases such a learning may be partial in the sense that the learners may be competent in using that particular language for some specific purposes only. Also the learner is invariably required to live in the particular area in which that language is spoken or he/she must have regular physical contact with the speakers of the language. In the second context, the learning is generally seen to be difficult, formal, conscious at every step and organized. Because of these formal conditions there can be a variety of exposure within the shortest span, thus raising the theoretical possibility of a more rapid thus raising the theoretical possibility of a more rapid learning of the particular language. Also the learner need not live in the particular language area. However motivation is important in both the contexts. Learning a language in the second context is a complex activity. The term second language learning is generally restricted to this type of learning only.

The success of learning a second language depends upon the method, material and the motivation of the learner. Use of systematically organized and planned material ensures the attainment of educational goals with ease and rapidity. The present intensive Course is an attempt in this direction. The three principles of materials production, namely, selection, gradation and presentation are followed with care in the preparation of this book. The teachable items are carefully graded based on the pedagogical principles, namely, a progression of items from simple to complex and from known to unknown, and the relevance of the given linguistic situation.

Objectives

This Intensive Course in meant primarily for the teacher trainees of the Southern Regional Language Centre of the Central Institute of Indian Languages , who do not know Telugu earlier. This is the prescribed textbook for the Basic course of the three phase ten month course of 1100 hours of instruction. The other two phases are Intermediate Course and Advance Course. The Basic Course extends over a period are able to achieve the following objectives:

1. To perceive and reproduce the sounds and their meaningful sequences, which means identification of the sounds in their meaningful sequence, discrimination of the sounds in their meaningful sequence, and oral reproduction of the sounds in their meaningful sequence.

2. To form orally sentences from given patterns and lexical items.

3. To converse with the teacher and with fellow trainees on specified topics under controlled situations.

4. To narrate specified events and topics orally

5. To read simple and graded passages with comprehension, which includes the recognition of the letters of the alphabet in isolation and in sequence, and the comprehension of passages containing simple sentences.

6. To write simple sentences and guided compositions on specified topics, which means the writing of the letters of the alphabet in the initial stage followed by words and sentences and writing of guided composition on the basis of the cues provided.

Of the above objectives, this Intensive Course in meant mainly to achieve objectives from 2 to 4. To realise the other objectives, the other CIIL publications such as Telugu Phonetic Reader (1961), CIIL – K. V.S Mother Tongue Series MANA BHASHA LEVEL I (1973) consisting a Textbook, a Scriptbook, a Copybook and a teacher's Manual. Though the books in CIIL-K.V.S. Mother Tongue Series are prepared for Children learning Telugu as a mother tongue, they could be effectively used by adult second language learner for the script learning purpose as the Telugu script is presented in the Scriptbook and Copybook on the basis of similarity of shape of the letters and the hand movements in writing them. The learner would do well to learn Telugu script before they commence using this book or learn it simultaneously while using this book.

Design of the Book

This Intensive Course of 100 Lessons in 24 Units. Each Unit consists of two or more lessons covering a group of related grammatical patterns of a major grammatical structure. This is further divided into various teachable items. Each lesson deals with a few teachable items covering at least one of the structural patterns of the Grammatical structure focused in the Unit. Teachable item may be defined as a single minimum point that the teacher has to concentrate upon while teaching. This may also be a single minimum point that the teacher has to concentrate upon while teaching. This may also be a single minimum point that the teacher has to concentrate upon while constructing a test. First 40 lessons cover a comparatively has number of teachable items than the later lessons. This is to accommodate the initial problems involved in learning the mechanics of writing and developing reading skill. There are two types of lessons in this Intensive Course: unit lessons and review lessons, unit lessons, Each Unit consists of 5 components, namely, (i) Text, (ii) Drills, (iii) Exercises, (iv) Vocabulary and (v) Grammar Notes.

The text is mostly in the form of conversation. A few narrations, news items and a story are also there. In this component, new teachable items with a judicious mixture of old ones for reinforcement are presented in a meaningful situation. Each sentence in the Text is provided with a free English translation to give a general comprehension of the sentence in particular and the total text in general. However, the translation does not maintain one to one correspondence with the structural elements of the Telugu sentence.

The drills are designed to train the learner to speak through a mastery of the basic structural patterns of the language. the drills include repetition drill, build up drill, substitution drill both simple and manipulative, interlocked substitution drill, expansion drill, response drill, combination drill, transformation drill and conversation drill. Each drill is designed to bring out automatic accuracy and speed of performance.the drills are graded considering the complexity of manipulation involved in each drill. The drills, other than repetition and build up drills, have a model set of stimulus and response.

The drills are followed by different kinds of exercises. Both these components are confined only to the new teachable items covered in the lesson. No new vocabulary items are used in drills and exercises. Drills are for oral administration in the class whereas the exercises are for home practice. Clear and adequate instructions are provided at the beginning of every exercise. The exercises involve a higher degree of manipulative activity than the drills, helping a specialized practice and consolidation of the grammatical rules. The new vocabulary items of each lesson are listed separately in the order of their first occurrence in the Text. The English equivalent is given against each item. This meaning is confined to the context to the context of reference in the text. The teacher has the liberty of bringing out the various shades of meanings and uses of a vocabulary item by way of proper explanation, wherever felt necessary.