METHODS OF TEACHING PROSE

Present Position of Teaching Prose

1. English as a Skill Subject:
English should be taught as a skill subject. Prose is the most important medium through which teachers can create a language-acquiring environment. However, the actual classroom practice is often faulty.

2. Overdependence on Mother Tongue:
Most teachers concentrate on giving mother-tongue equivalents of the prose lesson. They feel satisfied when students understand the content alone, which is a wrong notion.

3. Examination-Oriented Teaching:
Prose is taught mainly from the examination point of view. Teachers rarely focus on developing listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.

4. Neglect of Functional Grammar:
Functional grammar is not taught simultaneously with prose lessons. It is often given as homework, forcing students to depend on substandard market guides, which is harmful.

5. Limited Skill-Based Teaching:
Only a few teachers use prose as a tool to develop language abilities in learners.

Methods of Teaching Reading

i) Alphabet Method

This is the oldest method of teaching reading. Pupils are made to memorize the names of the letters of the alphabet in sequence.
Example: ee – ei – tee → eat

ii) Phonic or Syllabic Method

This is an improved version of the alphabet method. The emphasis is on the sounds of letters rather than their names. It is suitable for beginners but has limitations because English is not a purely phonetic language.

iii) Whole-Word Method

The word is considered the minimum meaningful unit. Learners read words as word-pictures. Photographic memory is encouraged. The popular Look-and-Say method is based on this approach.

iv) Sentence Method

The sentence is taken as the minimum teaching unit instead of the word. This method is based on the psycholinguistic principle that the sentence is the minimum unit of thought. It relies heavily on situational teaching.

v) Story Method

The teacher presents reading material through stories to create a meaningful context. The entire story is considered the unit of thought, promoting natural and enjoyable learning.

vi) Eclectic Method

No single method is sufficient for effective teaching of prose. The teacher should judiciously combine all methods depending on the situation.

📌 Note: All methods lie on a continuum ranging from single letters to the entire story. Effective prose teaching requires flexibility and thoughtful integration.

📘 Modern prose teaching should be skill-oriented, learner-centered, and methodologically flexible.