From being atheoretical linguist to an applied educational linguist, Agniva Pal shares hisstory.
From sitting in aclass trying to understand Shakespeare to understanding the meaning of Saussurian signs and symbols to eventually standing in aclass teaching how astudent may capitalise on the knowledge offered by linguistics, Ithink Ihave come along way.
As Icrossed the billionth second in my life (Wade, 2018) and as the freckles on my forehead increased, Irealised that Ihave started to treat my life experiences from acertain educational viewpoint. My life experiences were suddenly stories that could be narrated to groups of students while discussing something from the course document. There is acertain, subtle pedagogical advantage that Istarted getting when Istarted looking at things, especially experiences of life, facts and wisdom, conversations, stories and random WhatsApp messages claiming ‘research claims’, through the eyes of aresearcher. It adds to my role as ateacher.
I had previously taught design features by Charles FHockett, which talks about universal features of language on planet Earth (Hockett’s Design Features, 2023). Afew features are shared by all living organisms which can communicate and achosen few belong to human beings, the evolved primate beings. Iwas not sure why these were being taught to studentspreviously.
My parents were unpleasantly surprised when Ichose to pursue humanities in my 10+2 and then went ahead and pursued aBachelor’s degree in English Honours. The word which best describes the way Iwas educated in the literary arts is ‘sheepish’. Little did Iknow that after 15years, Iwould be teaching students how to capitalise on literature while teaching young kids and thereafter the role of literature in the lives of children (Eagleton,1985).
Back when Iwas astudent, we were mostly handed out notes and the only ‘correct’ interpretation of aprose or poem would be the one which teachers would hand out to us, through theirnotes!
Only afew teachers inspired us to read literature the way it is supposed to be read and yet their roles were dissolved in the‘aquaregia’ (Aqua Regia, 2024) of acidic note-makers quickly.Isuppose this aversed me and manyothers.
Luckily, when we were introduced to an extremely rudimentary and old form of linguistics in our third and final year, it caught my attention. Irealised the beauty of being able to interpret on my own, understanding the phonetic symbols and the way words form. In the end, my observable universe was affected by the principles of universal grammar (Chomsky’s Universal Grammar, 2024) and Idecided to pursue linguistics in myMaster’s.
Fast forward ten years and Ihad completedmaster’s, MPhil and PhD in Linguistics. Iworked with right-hemisphere brain-damaged (RHD)individuals. Aperson with RHD might manifest changes like problems of adherence to theme conversations, lack of facial expressions, either very quick or very slow speech, changes in the pitch of their voice or absence of pitch variations, frequent digressions and so on.They are also characterised by neglect of the left side of the body, hemiplegia or hemiparesis(Pal, 2018, Pal,2019).
This was my first exposure to how linguistics can be used beyond just theory. This was where Ilearnt that phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and every other field of linguistics may be used to understand the human brain. The language of an individual studied through phonetics also reveals their pitch variations and therefore messages encoded beyond just words inconversations.
For example, one may say, “Please come in”, to astudent in awelcoming way and someone else may say the same with adisgusted face. In spite of the words being the same, the message can be drastically different.
After the PhD, Ineeded ajob, and Irealised that Iwould either need to be associated with English departments where Icould teach abit of linguistics or be associated with research concerns but not get to teach at all. Unfortunately, there was very little scope for continuing my research and hence, Igravitated towards teaching at some places in Englishdepartments.
Since my first job in teaching, Ihave given it my all and students loved the fact that the International Phonetic Alphabet could be understood and not memorised; thatmorphemes or the smallest units of grammar (for example, sing+ing makes singing. ‘Sing’ is the free morpheme and ‘ing’ is abound morpheme since it cannot be used freely in asentence) in aword may be broken down into free and bound versions and none of them needed to memorise examples for it. They would even be able to guess theetymology (Etymology, 2024) of aword to some extent. But somehow, Iknew all of this was to pass an exam! Ihad the urge to use linguistics to make adifference.
Skip to February of 2023, and Ihad just joined the School of Education at Azim Premji University. There was so much to learn, and the excitement was real. Yet, Iknew there was alot to catch up. It was not before Isat in the classes that Irealised how, the subject that Iloved so much, linguistics, was playing apivotal role.
From mindlessly teaching Chomsky (Noam Chomsky, 2024) to teaching Chomsky along with Krashen (Stephen Krashen, 2024), Piaget (Kendra Cherry, 2023) and Vygotsky (Kendra Cherry, 2023), to teach language acquisition and henceforth variations of language in aclassroom, Ihave come along way. Ihave come from being atheoretical linguist limited to teaching concepts of linguistics for simply answering an exam to being an educator who’s able to blend linguistics into the domain ofeducation.
I didn’t realise that language plays apivotal role in education. Ihave been teaching language planning and harping on the importance of planning and implementation and yet Idid not realise tangible changes can be attained if language planning may be done properly, through proper discussions with experts who understand atarget language and with policy experts. Idid not realise policy plays ahuge role in the way languages are looked at in acountry or that in the absence of proper policy that supports aparticular language, it might eventually fade into oblivion (Dewey,1974).
It took me time to understand that the scheduled languages in the VIII schedule of the Indian constitution were the languages that gained political momentum. These were the languages with either rich people’s support or people strong enough to fend for themselves. At the end of the day, indigenous Adivasi minority languages aren’t there on the list because they don’t have enough social power and capital like Kannada or Tamil speakersdo.
And hence Ialso realise that some languages will never gain aspot on the schedule. They will use their languages under the pressure and power of another language that has gained aspot on the schedule and die eventually never gaining aspot on the schedule. Their children will never be educated in their mother tongues. Their stories will not be told by their future generations and their languages will always be called a ‘boli’, not a ‘bhasha’ (Mesthrie, 2009). Recently, Ialso completed writing apaper narrating the same. Iwould never have looked at language and linguistic politics from this point of view, had it not been for the educators at the university or the kind of questions we want the students to ask and answer through the course of the 2‑yearMA in Education.
I had previously taught design features by Charles FHockett, which talks about universal features of language on planet Earth (Hockett’s Design Features, 2023). Afew features are shared by all living organisms which can communicate and achosen few belong to human beings, the evolved primate beings. Iwas not sure why these were being taught to studentspreviously.
Here, Iconnected the design features with the way languages have evolved throughout time and how acquisition of languages may take place in various humanoid groups, based on geographical location, association of sounds with symbols through mass recognition and the evolution of modern languages. Acertain degree of scientific temper is slowly being ingrained into me, atype which urges me to question what acertain topic might add to the life of astudent to make their life easier and where they may be able to use that sort ofknowledge.
I realise now that it is also important for future teachers to be able to have alot of capacity to deal with deviations from what they think is their linguistic normalcy. One might be speaking aphonologically different variety of the language that ateacher speaks and that does not mean it has lesser amounts of prestige (Agnihotri, 2009).
A student might also use words that might be loan words from their home language because they are desperately trying to grasp the new language through which they are being educated and as ateacher, one should be able to sustain all kinds of students in aclassroom. Aclassroom needs to be an inclusive space where every student should feel equal. In the long run, this is what will bring sustenance to the education system. Ipractice it and want my students to aswell.
Teaching research has also been apart of my teaching regimen throughout my stay at various organisations, but it was only when Istarted to teach field research that Iunderstood what students might gain out of an engagement at the grassroots levels in thefield.
It has been arewarding process teaching them to understand the connection fromontology to epistemology, in turn guiding them to understand how to choose ideal methods to elicit empirical data. It was equally rewarding to see them elicit good data, work on it and then come up with full-fledged master’s research dissertations of their own. The fact that Iwas aresearcher, researching not along time back in the field, working with right hemisphere-damaged participants at ahospital for my PhD only helped me train these studentsbetter.
In short, my experience only helped me teach better. These were students who once questioned the importance of literature review. By the time theField Research Iand II course ended, these students knew the value of citation, the cons associated with plagiarising and the importance of questioning things, even commonplace in everyday life. They are the graduating batch and it was satisfying to see them develop an outlook of life that was quite different than what most of them had before thecourses.
When Ireceived acall from the People Function informing me that they thought my candidature would fit arole in the school of education, Iwas puzzled. At that time, Ithought it would be another interview where Iwould not be able to understand the questions asked to me. Iwas taken aback when questions regarding linguistics were asked to me, well within my subject area and grasp. From aphase where Iwas questioning my possible worth in aschool teaching education to teaching at the School of Education, Azim Premji University, where Ihave successfully inflicted students with perilous knowledge that Iknow will someday, be used by them on the field, Ihave come along way.
From mindlessly teaching Chomsky (Noam Chomsky, 2024) to teaching Chomsky along with Krashen (Stephen Krashen, 2024), Piaget (Kendra Cherry, 2023) and Vygotsky (Kendra Cherry, 2023), to teach language acquisition and henceforth variations of language in aclassroom, Ihave come along way. Ihave come from being atheoretical linguist limited to teaching concepts of linguistics for simply answering an exam to being an educator who’s able to blend linguistics into the domain ofeducation.
I have been able to use linguistics to support pedagogical practices in class and student betterment. Along-term goal would be to find discernable societal viewpoints and general traditions and practices but that will take time. I’ve also become amore tolerant version of myself! Frankly, Iam glad that Icame across this new linguistic perspective, in the firstplace.
I am glad that Iget to have ahand in creating future educators, mentors, philosophers, social workers and thinkers who would value linguistic diversity, and cultural and traditional diversity, who can freely question practices that are commonly accepted in society, who can pinpoint problems through their research-oriented thinking and who will bring change to thesociety.
A classroom needs to be an inclusive space where every student should feel equal. In the long run, this is what will bring sustenance to the education system. Ipractice it and want my students to aswell.
I am also happy that this allows me to bring changes to my life directly. They say that if you have an infinite number of monkeys (Infinite Monkey Theorem, 2024) typing random keys on an infinite number of typewriters, they will end up typing out all the works of Shakespeare, Tagore and every other great because one day they will randomly type out every right combination of keys exactly in the right order. Ihope Iam one of those monkeys, who ends up contributing tosociety!
Image credit: AgnivaPal
References
- Aqua regia. (2024). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aqua_regia&oldid=1223044339
- Chomsky’s Universal Grammar: An Introduction. (2024). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chomsky%27s_Universal_Grammar:_An_Introduction&oldid=1200502960
- Dewey, J. (1974).John Dewey on Education: Selected Writings.
- Eagleton, T. (1985). The Subject of Literature.Cultural Critique,2, 95 – 104. https://doi.org/10.2307/1354202
- Etymology. (2024). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Etymology&oldid=1224440804
- Hockett’s design features. (2023). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hockett%27s_design_features&oldid=1179088973
- Infinite monkey theorem. (2024). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Infinite_monkey_theorem&oldid=1224377278
- Kendra Cherry. (2023a, February 22).Lev Vygotsky’s Life and Theories. https://www.verywellmind.com/lev-vygotsky-biography-2795533
- Kendra Cherry. (2023b, November 13).Jean Piaget’s Life and Contributions to Psychology. https://www.verywellmind.com/jean-piaget-biography-1896 – 1980-2795549
- Mesthrie, R. (2009).Introducing Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh UniversityPress.
- Noam Chomsky. (2024). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Noam_Chomsky&oldid=1223628442
- Pal, A. (2018).Pitch variations in Bangla-speaking cases of RHD. Unpublished.
- Agniva Pal. (2019). Astudy of the duration of controlled speech in the right hemisphere of the brain-damaged male participants.Indian Journal of Language and Linguistics,2(2). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.34256/ijll2121
- Stephen Krashen. (2024). InWikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stephen_Krashen&oldid=1217842101
- Wade, C. (2018, October 18). Happy Billionth Second.Reimagine Time. https://medium.com/reimagine-time/happy-billionth-second-ae8bfb6eb7b6
About theAuthor
Agniva Pal is afaculty member at Azim Premji University. He has an ardent love for his subject, linguistics, and he has been teaching linguistics ever since he completed his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in2018.
Attribution
Agniva Pal