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Innovation Its ovation in ELT

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Innovation Its Ovation in ELT Classroom Abstract: Monotony will lead to boredom. The routine lecture method can be a real torture for students. As change is the only constant, the need of the day in ELT classroom is innovation. Innovation is making changes in something already existiing, as by introducing new methods and ideas. An ELT class should be unscripted and unpreditable for the students. Apart from regular syllabus an English teacher should incorporate creative methodology to make the classroom thrive with activity. Content based on Event Management, role plays, correction of funny letters, incorporation of literature and the main subject, interpreting cartoons and optical illusions, solving mystery, problems through lateral thinking, proposing futuristic products, telling stories from different perspectives,translation, finding adjectives from classifieds will make the ELT teacher the most awaited teacher. Thus, the fruit of teachers innovation is learners ovation.

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An English Language classroom should provide room for learners to take risks and use English. Confidence is the essential ingredient required for any person to try something new. Constant motivation and appreciation are some of the tools to impart confidence among learners. If the teacher wants to create any positive impact on the students he/she should be liked first. As soon as the students like the teacher, they will start trusting the teacher and will make efforts to follow the guidelines. The methodology followed by the teacher directly or indirectly influences the students in making opinion about the subject. The two diverse opinions which can be formed regarding English are, it is a difficult language and a second language - learner cannot reach the teacher and the other audience through it; or the learner can communicate through English and the teacher will understand and accept it even if it is, broken English. Once the learner starts employing the language he/she will master it one day or the other. Humour and creativity are the two weapons which will aid the teacher to be successful in a English Language classroom.

Kristmanson (2000) emphasizes the need to create a welcoming classroom for language learning;

In order to take risks, you need a learning environment in which you do not feel threatened or intimidated. In order

to speak, you need to feel you will be heard and that what you're saying is worth hearing. In order to continue your language learning, you need to feel motivated. In order to succeed, you need an atmosphere in which anxiety levels are low and comfort levels are high. Issues of motivation and language anxiety are key to this topic of affect in the second language classroom.

A class will become boring and monotonous if the teacher goes on professing loads of information, instead it could be made interesting by making the students involve in the course of the class. Every learner should be given an opportunity to raise out his/her opinion about a particular topic and it should be carefully listened to by the teacher. The topic should be comprehensible and relevant to the learners. Media plays a pivotal role in the present day learner. The teacher should be flexible enough to incorporate topics related to the media. Here are few examples.

Favourite T.V Channel;

Favourite T.V Programme;

The anchor you like the most; Favourite male actor; Favourite film director; Favourite movie; Favourite musician; Favourite Favourite female actor;

song; Favourite Sports; singer. As all these topics are familiar to the learners they will participate with more enthusiasm. They can be asked to share it with their partners, and then, with the class and finally they can be made to write. Similarly, they can be asked to share their personal experiences from their life. For example, the students can be made to share a funny incident from their life. First, the teacher should share a funny incident from his/her life. This would shorten the distance between the teacher and student and will motivate the learners to come out of their shell. When teachers share their personal experiences and their own perspective on the varied topics, they send forth a message that theage,my belong to the group of learners. This paves way for a relaxed atmosphere in class. Event Management: Seminars can be based on event management. Students can be divided into groups and each group can be different topics like sports day, farewell party, convocation, republic day, etc. This provides scope for each member of the group to prepare different speeches like welcome address, felicitation, vote of thanks etc. This kind of activity enhances the organisational skills of the students, promotes their building, speaking skills and self confidence. It is really fun. Favourite sports personality; Favourite

Role Plays: Situation based on day to day life can be given to students to be enacted as role plays. Situations which are related to the students like persuading the principal: to declare holiday on a particular day; to allow usage of mobile in college; to allow liberal dress code; to permit, to invite a popular personality for cultural programme etc. Other imaginative topics like encounter with their most liked celebrities in different fields, introducing their future spouse to their parents can be given. In case if the students cannot be divided evenly in different groups the teacher can also play a role in one of the groups. In this way the teacher will motivate the students to come out from the inhibitions. Students showed more involvement on role plays based on the above situations than on book based topics like at the railway station at the market. Correction of funny letters: Students may get hurt if corrections are given based on their mistakes. Instead indirect corrections can be given by citing the errors made by a third person. Here are a few samples of letters written by unknown people with mistakes An employee applied for leave as follows: "Since I have to go to my village to sell my land along with my wife, please sanction me one-week leave." A leave letter to the headmaster: "As I am studying in this school I am suffering from headache. I request

you to leave me today" "As my mother-in-law has expired and I am only one responsible for it, please grant me 10 days leave." Leave-letter from an employee who was performing his daughter's wedding: "as I am marrying my daughter, please grant a week's leave..." "I am suffering from fever, please declare one-day holiday." These letters will invoke laughter in class initially. The learners can be asked to correct the mistakes and then the teacher can give clarifications. Incorporating literature and the main subject: The territories of literature are so vast and students from any discipline can draw references from literature. Here is an extract from Anita Nairs Ladies Coupe There was Premilla, Madhav, the Senior School economic teacher. The chemical element bromine. Heavy, with hair tinted a reddish brown. Volatile and giving off a strong and disagreeable body odour. Not very active by herself, but united readily with others. But she needed to be watched. For she was capable of capable of causing much injury; inflicting wounds that almost never healed. And so maximum precaution had to be

taken when handling her. Next in line was Daphne, the English teacher. Light and silvery like the element lithium, she dazzled every one with her charm and smile. When she was excited crimson red stained her adding to her allure. (119) In this passage Anita Nair has associated the human characters with the chemical elements. This extract can be given to the students and they can be asked to make similar comparison. Likewise the learners can be asked to describe characters based on the jargons related to their discipline. Different perspectives: Students can be asked to narrate well known stories on different perspectives. For example the story of the crow and the fox can be asked to narrated in the version of the fox. Short Stories can be given to the students and they can be made to convert them into dialogues. Optical Illusion: Different optical illusions can be shown to the students and they can be asked to make interpretation. As each student will interpret in one angle, a moral message can be driven home that what they see is not the only truth. Enactment of plays: As this involves all the four skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening, this can be given as seminar. Even the students from regional medium enjoy and excel in it.

Translation: Interesting facts in regional language can be given to the students and they can be made to translate first in writing and then spell out in class. Lateral Thinking: Problems, which require lateral thinking solutions, can be declared to the students especially in the last 5 minutes of the class and they can be encouraged to come out with a solution, the next day. This will make the students to think and it will trigger their curiosity for English classes. Take this sentence, The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. The specialty of this sentence is, it includes the entire English alphabet. The learners can be challenged to frame another sentence with all alphabets within one minute. It is very simple they have to just shift the noun and say, The quick brown dog jumps over a lazy fox. Cartoons : The learners can be motivated to collect cartoons, which appear in the editorials of the different newspapers every day, and compare and interpret them in class. This will promote their awareness on current affairs and foster their creativity and soft skills as they will learn how to tell serious things in a jest manner. Futuristic Invention: The learners can be encouraged to imagine a product which might be invented in future and write advertisements for it and promote them in class. The class room will be booming with creative innovations and the learners will get a feel of a scientist.

Language Games: Many language games can be introduced in class to make a class buzz with activity. Here is an example. Mario Rinvolucri and Paul Davis have suggested I challenge game (Rinvolucri, 31). The aim of the game is to make the students extend a word as much as possible. The initiator of the game should call out a letter. The next student should call out the next letter and so on. A student could call out I challenge when there is no possible addition of a letter to the formed word. If a letter can be added to the sequence the student who challenged will be out. Dictionary can be used by the audience. This game will promote the students in learning lengthy words. Classifieds: Students can asked to pick the adjectives given in the matrimonial columns and make comparisons, frame sentences and match the bride and bridegroom. Thus, there are numerous ways in making an English language teaching class active. An English language teacher should be ready to shift the role from teacher to a learner, from a speaker to listener, from an organiser to participant. A teacher can reach the learner by giving choice to their voice. It is in the hands of the teacher to make the classroom the most desired one. Thus, the fruits of teachers innovation is the learners ovation. Works Cited

Kristmanson, P. (2000). Affect*: in the Second Language Classroom: How to create an emotional climate. Reflexions , 19 , (2).Print Nair,Anita. Ladies Coupe. New Delhi: Penguin Books ,2001. Print Rinvolucri, Mario and Paul Davis. More Grammar Games. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1995.Print

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