CHALLENGING THE ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL APPROACH IN LANGUAGE LEARNING MATERIALS

The paper attempts to challenge the ‘one-size-fits-all' approach in curriculum-textbook formulation and to identify language learning materials for students in India. The paper focuses on the different languages scenario that exist in the teaching- learning environment with special reference to education in rural India. Though English has become a global language at the academic, social and political front, there is a wide disparity in the use of English language in India. As a multi-lingual country, India is also host to many languages (scheduled languages, regional languages and minority languages). Often in the quest for education in English, mother tongue gets neglected which in turn hampers the student's language proficiency in L1 and L2. The researcher points out the need to address these concerns to aid education development through document analysis and empirical data. Presently, the priority should be to modify the curriculum to a multilingual curriculum by including learning materials in mother tongue including minority languages and to provide instruction in the same. The question of how far the standardized curriculum that was implemented with the aim to increase parity across the educational system has worked is also addressed.