Dhar India Studies Center

While teaching English as a Second Language at undergraduate colleges of West Bengal, India, I have observed multiple reasons that break the homogeneity of students as ELT learners in an English Language Laboratory. It is awe-inspiring for an ELT instructor to witness improvement in a child's performance at the end of a semester, and vice versa. In some cases, there is no change at all. Such is the reality of demarcations among pupils in an English Language Laboratory. And so is every class a challenge for the teacher to keep stressing on the importance of English as a global language, for their career in the making and design the lesson plans alluring to the students, despite all inconveniences. The paper offers a critical discussion of the demarcations that keep sprouting up in almost every English Language Laboratory class of West Bengal, India and the respective ELT-related issues encountered by the faculty. This paper lays out the following, as causes of divisions among students: 1) English versus Vernacular medium of instruction in schools, 2) Issue of physical disparity, 3) Distinctions in behavioural patterns, 4) Issue of gender inequality, 5) The factor of residence, homeland and roots, 6) Class-based division and, 7) Caste-based division. Along with these points, the paper simultaneously deals with the impact of diversity in India, further projecting at the sociolinguistic aspects of ELT. Each of these factors plays a crucial role in maintaining the status quo of Indian English in Academia, and more specifically in Indian institutions of technology and management. The paper cites examples of essential topics and techniques covered by English Faculties, where reality factors of India like bilingualism and multiculturalism, patriarchy and sexism, economic stratification and casteism, physical and psychological distinctions among students affect the process of ELT in a Language Laboratory. Here the investigation centres around the First year Engineering students of Narula Institute of Technology, who use the English Language Laboratory as a primary part of the ascribed course. I have considered various polls and calculations as a part of my research work. In all, 655 students participated in the study. The various tables used in the paper serve as convenient infographics supporting my research work. The results exhibit the demarcations that emerge among students in English Language Laboratories, specifically of West Bengal, India.