Constructivist Approach for Teaching English: Making Sense of Paradigm Shift from the Traditional Approach

Constructivist Approach for Teaching English Making Sense of Paradigm Shift from the Traditional Approach *Prof. Hemant Lata Sharma **Poonam English is considered as a language of opportunity which provides access to knowledge, power and material possessions. In most of the communication, at international level, English language is being used for exchanging ideas and concepts. Therefore, command over the English language is considered to be the most important determinant of access to employment possibilities and higher education especially in a multilingual country like India where, in general, most of the times, during teaching-learning process, conventional teaching approach is used in classrooms that provides students fewer opportunities to master various language skills. In order to deal with this situation, new innovative strategies are being used, among these strategies Constructivist approach is one such strategy which may prove helpful in developing the basic communication skills i. e. Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing which are required to communicate in the English language. The purpose of this paper is to develop an insight into the paradigm shift from traditional to new strategy i. e. constructivism and also highlight the utility of its five elements (5E) ? Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate. To achieve this purpose, in this paper an attempt has been made to discuss in detail the strategy of constructivism, its historical itinerary and theoretical underpinnings and how it helps in nurturing basic communication skills of the English language. Constructivism, Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development, Vygotsky's Theory of Social Development. *Former Head & Dean, Faculty of Education, MDU, Rohtak. (piscean hemant@yahoo. com) **Research Scholar, Department of Education, MDU, Rohtak. (poonamgarg53@gmail. com)