Hindustani Teaching Program
Title of the Courses:
Hindustani: Learners and Teachers Window (Zoom in Hindi)
Hindustani: Learners and Teachers Window (Zoom in Urdu)
Hindustani: Zoom in Hindi and Zoom in Urdu is a program which not only teaches standard Hindi and Urdu languages, but also gives a feel of the lingua franca of the whole Hindi/Urdu speaking region of India. The program is not designed to teach either highly Sanskritized Hindi or highly Arabicized/Persianized Urdu for the simple reason that these varieties are not preferred much in communication and are not even considered good for Hindi or Urdu literature in India. The program relies primarily on the spoken language of the region. We accept Hindustani as the language which Hindi-Urdu speakers predominantly use while speaking and interacting in most of the situations and in almost every corner of Hindi-Urdu speaking region. It uses both Devana:gri: and Perso-arabic scripts for its realization and its literature is also confined
under these two scripts of Hindi-Urdu.
The whole program gives the feel that talking about Hindi and Urdu as two separate languages is to neglect somewhere the converging tendency, pace and the emergence of Hindustani as the single lingua franca of Hindi-Urdu speaking region. The present situation is such that there will be hardly some speakers who can claim that they speak only and only Hindi or only and only Urdu in actual sense. The common spoken language of the region has a vast lexicon of its own and similar though not always identical (Hindi and Urdu flavor) phonological, morphological and syntactic rules. Besides, the large scale interaction and mixing of people, increasing influence of film, television and other media on society and culture have no doubt accelerated the pace of convergence and have now left the oral variety no more Hindi or Urdu only. Most of the speakers actually speak this contemporary converging state of both Hindi and Urdu to which we term here as Hindustani.
Some of the Major Differences between Hindi and Urdu:
1. Hindi is Based on Devana:gri: script while Urdu is based on Perso-arabic script.
2. Hindi is more accommodative to lexical items which are etymologically related to Sanskrit and Prakrit while Urdu is more accommodative to lexical items which are etymologically related to Persian and Arabic.
3. Most of the Hindi affixes are productive with words etymologically related to Sanskrit while Most of the Urdu affixes are productive with words etymologically related to Persian and
Arabic.
4. Hindi has less consonants sounds while Urdu has more consonant sounds.
5. Hindi has the provision for postpositions only while Urdu besides having the main provision for postposition also has some limited provision for prepositions.
6. Words and expressions etymologically related to Sanskrit are more associated with Hindu society, culture, religion and faith while words and expressions etymologically related to Persian and Arabic are more associated with Muslim society, culture, religion and faith.
The Difficulty in Accepting Hindustani as Mother Tongue or First Language:
It is important to mention here an apparent paradox that emerges due to the accumulation of many factors and surface when it comes to naming mother tongue or first language. In Hindi-Urdu region, when someone asks people about their mother tongue or first language, they categorically affirm that their first language is either Hindi or Urdu and not Hindustani. The main reasons behind this apparent paradox are;
1. Hindustani does not have its own script as such and most of the literate speakers know only one either (Devana:gri: or Perso-arabic) script.
2. Most of the people just by coming across some texts categorize them either as Hindi or as Urdu and not as Hindustani. To accept something as Hindustani, thus requires the knowledge and understanding of both the languages, though it is a spoken variety which is in use mostly by all
those who even do not know any of the script. Thus, to them comparing written Hindi and Urdu texts with what they use in speaking and then to term something as Hindustani is nearly impossible and specially when they have already quite old and familiar names (Hindi and Urdu) at hand to call to what they speak. It is also important to mention that in India literate Muslims are in a better position to sense the convergence since most of them, besides having the knowledge of Perso-arabic script, know at least how to read and write in Devana:gri: script.
2. Most of the speakers feel that they carry more lexical items from any of the two languages.
3. The literates also, since they write mostly in one language and their style is developed accordingly and their lexicons carry more literary words of any of the two languages or words which are etymologically related to either Sanskrit or Perso-arabic origin, feel that they are either Hindi speakers/writers or Urdu speakers/writers.
4. There are some highly limited expressions, which occur quite frequently and work as the representatives of the society, culture, religion and faith of speakers. Those limited words which directly symbolize Hindu society, culture, religion and faith are still preferred in Hindi while those words which are common in Muslim society, culture, religion and faith are preferred in Urdu. We will come across such words in the course.
5. Those scholars who have paid attention in the past on Hindustani have mostly classified and named it as Contact Language, Market Language, language of some specific locations or a dialect of Hindi-Urdu speaking region. All these exercises of scholars served further the purpose of limiting Hindustani through some such parameters. The outcome is that Hindustani, though quite common in Hindi-Urdu speaking region of India, lacks both intellectuals' approval and a unanimous definition.
6. On the question of how Linguists see Hindi, Urdu and Hindustani, it is evident that they have reached the stage of writing these two languages as a compound word (Hindi-Urdu) or an alternative (Hindi/Urdu) instead of Hindi and Urdu. Linguistically speaking there are some certain phonological, morphological and phrasal rules which still go either with Hindi only or with Urdu only. We appreciate such differences and recognize them as Hindi and Urdu flavor of Hindustani. We will come across such differences also while following the syllabus.
These are the difficulties in accepting Hindustani as mother tongue or first language by its speakers and are also the factors which make Hindi and Urdu distinct from each other.
Despite these noticing differences between Hindi and Urdu and difficulties in accepting Hindustani as mother tongue or first language by its speakers, we can not ignore the fact that the large shared lexicon of Hindustani is in use even by the literate class and media. On the other hand about half of the Hindi-Urdu speaking population is still illiterate and is not much influenced by the writing systems of Hindi and Urdu. They mostly communicate in a language which is neither Hindi nor Urdu but Hindustani.
Methods and Objectives:
Although there are dozens of methods, but no single method is worth adopting for a whole syllabus to cover. On other counts methods and their adoption depend also on factors like (e.g., course content, learner's choice and ease, availability of resources etc.). On the face of diverse methods available and the existing flexibility in their preference, a rational method called AUTOMATION is followed for the whole Program. It is a method of methods having an array of sub-methods (e.g., Simulation Method, Fun and Frolic Method, Phenomenal Outlet Method, Imitation Method, Transformation and Translation Method etc.). The sub-methods are opted to give a balance focus to all the aspects of communication (e.g., speaking, listening (comprehension), reading and
writing).
Objective:
The target of the Program is STORY: How to teach so that a learner should comfortably be able to make, learn, simulate, express, comprehend stories (of/about/...) in the target language. Almost all the learners’ friendly aspects, helpful in achieving the STORY STATE keep on revolving around them.
Material:
The total material comprises of three types.
Infrared: Infrared material (e.g., curriculum, detail course outline, communications to concerned committees and other documents of official use) is restricted material.
Red: News, views, reflections, leaflets etc. which serve largely the purpose of disseminating information about the program are red material.
Green: Course outline, test sheets, assignment sheets, teaching material which are primarily meant for learners come in this category.
Error Scanner:
Errors of any sort (from source/target or L1, L2, FL texts and contexts) are warmly welcome in the whole process and are timely introduced to the appropriate anti-error in the whole process.
Enrollment, Attendance Policy, Course Procedure, Course Duration and Evaluation Procedure are largely determined and finalized according to the requirements of the setup.
