Shravasti Chakravarty
About
Dr. Shravasti Chakravarty is an Assistant Professor of Managerial Communication at XLRI Delhi-NCR. She is from India and has a PhD in English Language Education from The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. She teaches ESL/EFL/ESP, across age groups. Her areas of interest include language learning strategies, communication skills, bilingualism, anthrogogicity, and using creativity in the classroom.Sessions
All Levels Extensive Reading in India Today more
Using Extensive Reading (ER) for language teaching to ESL/EFL was propounded by Michael West in Bengal (undivided India) in the 1920s. He opined that reading vocabulary-controlled interesting texts was more effective than the existing methods to teach English to Bengali children who could access English only inside the school. In spite of its well-established benefits for developing proficiency, ER practices have steadily changed in the Indian context. This ongoing study reports on the current trends prevalent in India. Secondary data has been collected from research carried out in the Indian contexts over the years. Primary data has been collected by interviewing teachers and students about trends observed and problems faced. The information so far shows that ER continues to be used in India, and exists in the form of graded readers. However, the transition into online ER practices has not been reached, books are the preferred mode.