Who is the Indian Learner of English? A Study in Learner Profile

Abstract

English teachers will face existential peril if they fail to understand that their students are no longer students but learners and that they are the reason for teachers’ meaningful professional existence. The English classroom will be a site for successful enriching experience for both teachers as facilitators and students as learners only when the former understand the latter: who their learners are. Learner characteristics determine the materials and methods and classroom activities for use in class. They also determine the objectives of English language programme. Hence, it is imperative for English teachers to first understand learner characteristics of each English class as a pre-condition for meaningful interactive classroom. With the knowledge about their learners, teachers as facilitators can do much in negating the teacher-fronted classroom and bringing about a new learning-centred learning class. Learning-centric classroom is more significant and important than just learner-centred. After all, a classroom is not a collection of learners as if they are kept in a showcase. Much learning ought to take place with teachers acting as classroom managers and catalysts. The present study proposes to analyze the characteristics of Indian learners of English at the tertiary level through learner profiles personally collected over a period of time.