A blog for common man to learn English

Having trouble in mastering English? Thanks to the efforts of a net-savvy English teacher, all you need now to rectify that is a computer connected to the internet and a willingness to learn!

Vinod Kaliyath, a resident of the picturesque village of Pattarpalam near here, is claiming to have devised a novel way for those unfamiliar with English to learn the language and he has uploaded his methods on his blog http://vkwrldctzn.blogspot.in/. “Usually English teachers start teaching someone the language by introducing concepts like noun,verb and sentence structures, but mastering all that takes a lot of time. My method is aimed at someone who is completely unfamiliar with the language and it uses three ways of interface - speech, interaction and drama,” he said.

The method and the blog took three years for Vinod to develop and he believes it is finally ready to go. “I decided to make a blog instead of a website because I wanted to keep it a free service. Also, creating a blog meant that there was an inbuilt mechanism to interact with the students. They can leave questions regarding any doubts they might have, in the comments section and I will answer them there itself,” he said.

Vinod, an English teacher at the Food Crafts Institute and a former English lecturer at the Kendriya Vidyalaya in Kozhikode, was so determined to make sure that the masses benefited from his efforts that he did not let the limitations to hinder his work. “I have a computer at home but the internet connection here is not very dependable. So I used to type down my material on my computer and then take it to an internet cafe in the town and upload it there,” he said. He debuted the method during the summer when he was taking vacation classes at a private institute in the city and was encouraged by the response he received. And with the new academic year starting on Monday, Vinod believes that not just the students but also English teachers teaching at various schools can learn something from his blog.

“Many teachers, especially those in government schools, still stick to outdated methods of teaching English. Students would benefit immensely if they were to evolve their methods with the times,” he said.