Advanced Course Reader in Tamil (For the Non-Tamils Learning Tamil as Second Language)

Book Specification

Book Description

Foreword

The Central Institute of Indian Languages was established on 17th July 1969 with a primary objective of fulfilling the Government of Indias resolution that envisaged a set of concrete measure for the development of the major Indian languages. As an important step in this direction, the Institute opened seven Regional Language Centres (RLCs) in different parts of the country for implementing the 3 language formula of the Govt. of India.

As part of this mission, the RLCs are offering a ten month intensive teaching-cum-training programme in most of the scheduled Indian languages to the secondary school teachers. The admission for this programme is given to the teachers who are deputed from various States/UTs of the country to learn the languages which are other than their mother tongues. This intensive programme is divided into 3 levels: Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. The materials and methodologies required for this purpose were assigned to various members of RLC faculty. Accordingly, Advanced Course Reader in Tamil, the main text meant for the advanced level, was prepared by Pon Subbiah when he was working in the Southern Regional Language Centre, and later in the Centre for Testing & Evaluation of the CIIL.

The material has been used by several batches of Non-Tamil Teachers who were learning Tamil as L2. Based on the feedback obtained from them, it has now been improved and revised by Dr. Subbiah himself. The harllmark of this work is its pedagogical approach with a number of lesson components, thus making it distinct from many other readers. The inclusion of the General Format used for preparing this material, is another useful step for the benefit of the future generation. I hope this edition will help the learners to enhance their skill of using the language in wider contexts, and also to heighten the awareness of the diversity of Indian culture. No doubt, it will be an impetus to the Institutes wealth of L2 resources enriching the area of language pedagogy.

Introduction

The Southern Regional Language Centre (SRLC) Mysore, one of the seven RLCs of the CIIL, has been involved in the teaching of Tamil as second language (L2) to the non-Tamil graduate teachers of different disciplines. These teachers are mainly drawn from the schools rub by the Central, State, and Union Territory governments of the Indian Union. The purpose of this programme is to create a band of trained teachers to teach Tamil as second of third language (L2 or L3) in various schools under the Govt. of India policy of three language formula.

The programme of teaching Tamil as L2 is a 3 level (basic, intermediate, and advanced) comprehensive course with about 1100 clock hours of intensive teaching spread over a span of 10 moths duration. The quantum of language being learnt in this programme, is expected to be equivalent to the 10 years of learning in the native language (L1). The basic level of this programme is meant to introduce the structural patterns of the language; intermediate level is to provide cultural aspect through controlled structures; and the advanced level is designed to highlight the free usage of language in different styles (by different authors) through a variety of samples from archaic to modern.

The learners of the advanced level are given reinforcement of the skills of language (already acquired at the basic and intermediate levels) through environment study tours to various geographical areas inhabited by the native speakers. Thus, the main focus at this level is to train the learners overcome the difficulties arising out of acculturation and inter-language; the other focus is the help them (i) make use of the target language (TL) acquired in unpredictable situations (ii) exploit the thematic content and language of the material available and (iii) develop and interest in appreciating the literary works of the TL besides kindling an urge to know the origin and development of that language.

Mudunilait tamilp paadanuul (Advanced Course Reader in Tamil) prepared for fulfilling the above requirements, is meant to serve as a main teaching material at the advanced level of this comprehensive programme. It consists of 3 parts, with 12 samples of prose pieces under Part I, 18 samples of poetry pieces under Part IT, and 7 sample-sets of current usages under Part III.

The first lesson under part I ‘prose’ is cattiya cootanai [experiment with t