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Teaching of Urdu: Problems and Prospects

Conference Paper · September 2016

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Teaching of Urdu: Problems and Prospects

Dr.Amanulla M.B.
Assistant Professor,
Dept. of Arabic, Persian and Urdu,
University of Madras, Chennai
Email:[email protected]

Language learning and language teaching has been the subject of debate,
contestation, and controversy since the foundation of the national school system.
Consideration of modern languages and their place in the primary school curriculum
has added to that contestation in more recent times.
Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language of South Asia, one of 23 official languages in
India and the national language of Pakistan. In addition to being spoken in India and
Pakistan, Urdu is also spoken in the South Asian countries of Bangladesh,
Afghanistan, and Nepal, as well as in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, and
Canada. It is the first language of at least 60.5 million speakers, with another 40
million or more who speak it as a second language. The statistics showing the
numbers and ratio of native speakers of Urdu are misleading, says Dr.Durrani in his
book Ilm-i-tadrees-i-Urdu ( ‫ )ملعدترسیاردو‬He says that by the number of people, who
„speak‟ Urdu, Urdu is ranked second amongst the languages of the world after
Chinese. It is the admissible fact that UNESCO has dubbed it as “Hindustani”, which
includes both Urdu and Hindi, but if Urdu and Hindi are put together, Urdu or
Hindustani would be world‟s second largest language by the number of speakers1
Urdu and Hindi both descend from what was the lingua franca for the Mughal
2
court of Delhi, and its environs and adherents. Urdu language was a standardized
amalgam of the regional dialects of the time, and as such was also influenced by the
Kauravi, Hariyanvi, Panjabi, Rajasthani, and Braj languages, among others, in
addition to Arabic, Persian, and Turkish elements brought to the region by the
Mughals. Under the British Raj3 the language, known variously as Urdu4 Hindi,
Hindustāni, and Kʰar ̣īBoli, gained further ground as the standard common language of
the region.
Urdu is written primarily in a script borrowed from Arabic via Persia. Like
those scripts, and unlike the Devanagari script in which Hindi is written, the Urdu
script is an abjad: only consonants are represented in normal orthography. Long
vowels are indicated through special uses of consonantal characters, and may be
represented in different ways in different parts of the word; short vowels may be
indicated by diacritics, but these are generally omitted. Urdu also employs digraphs-
combinations of characters which represent single sounds- in writing vowels and
aspirated consonants.
 2

According to Dr.Durrani Teaching of Urdu for non-native Urdu speakers is a

challenge and he reasons that for those whom Urdu is not a „native language‟ or
„mother tongue‟, its teaching has to be much different from the teaching of mother
tongue. In other words, Urdu should be taught as a second language. Dr.Durrani‟s
book Ilm-i-tadrees-i-Urdu ( ‫)ملعدترسیاردو‬, which spreads over 500 pages and 28 chapters,
comprehensively covering all the aspects of teaching of Urdu, right from pedagogical
problems to curriculum designing, from textbooks to teaching literature and for
teaching Urdu to nonnative speakers to develop writing skills is very much useful to
teach Urdu as a second language to those people whose mother tongue is not Urdu.
More over Saleem Farani and Farman Fatehpuri has also contributed much to the
teaching methodology of Urdu. These two scholars have paved the way to so many
innovative and novel methods to teach Urdu.
Second Language Learner faces many problems in acquisition of language
skills in the concerned language. There are number of mistakes students do in their
writing work. They face grammatical problems as correct use of verb, surface
problems, content problems, sentence structure, process (desire to write), use of
conditional sentences, lack of vocabulary, use of past tense and spelling difficulties,
punctuation marks. Major reasons of these problems may be less skilled teachers,
poorness of education and assessment system, school environment, attitude to writing,
strength of class, less qualified teachers, use of language more particularly mother
tongue in classroom and lesser practice of grammar.
In Tamil Nadu, Urdu is taught as second language almost in all the
Government schools at Primary, Upper Primary, Middle, High and Higher Secondary
level and also in the schools run by the Private Management at Chennai, Vellore and
Krishnagiri Districts. Almost all the universities in Tamil Nadu offer Urdu as second
language at foundation level, the Department of Arabic, Persian and Urdu, University
of Madras is the only department in the state of Tamil Nadu which offers, P.G, M.Phil
and Ph.D courses in Urdu, along with these major courses the department also offers
Certificate and Diploma courses in Urdu. The department also offers elective courses
in Urdu for other department students to learn Urdu at primitive level. These courses
usually comprise two hours a week per semester. The Institute of Distance Education,
University of Madras offers U.G. and P.G Degree courses in Urdu through distance
mode. The Tamil Nadu Open University also offers B.A. Urdu major course to the
non-formal students through open learning.
The National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language started functioning as
an autonomous body which is a National Nodal Agency for Promotion of Urdu in the
country devoted to promotion of Urdu language and mainstreaming of Urdu
education. NCPUL has also been assigned the responsibility of promotion of Urdu
which have played an important role in the development of composite culture of India.
One of the significant objectives of the Council has been the transformation of the
Urdu speaking population into part of the employable technological workforce in the
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emerging information technological scenario and the penetration of computer

education to the grass root level.
The NCPUL offers Diploma in Urdu Courses through Hindi and English mediums,
it has also introduced Certificate and Diploma course in functional Arabic and Urdu
on-line programme of self-teach Urdu courses.
An Urdu language teacher would experiences the difficulties to teach Urdu for
the non-native Urdu speakers as searching for teaching materials to be used in the
Urdu classes. We have to rely on some Urdu courses written in English, for dialogues
and texts mostly on M. Abdurrahman Barker‟s Spoken Urdu, The new Teach Yourself
Urdu by D.J. Matthews and M.K. Dalvi, it caters to the needs of tourists rather than to
those students seeking a systematic and profound knowledge of the language. To
compile a beginner‟s course in Urdu in the medium of Tamil language, is one of my
proposed project. To start with this I am making a study for Urdu textbooks written
for foreigners or non-native speakers. Central Institute of Indian Languages at Mysore
has developed some online courses for Urdu learners but there is no sufficient material
available particularly to the people of Tamil Nadu whose mother tongue is Tamil. As
far as Urdu primers for school children or other teaching aids are concerned, even
such basic material is sometimes hard to get., however, been able to collect a good
number of textbooks, including Urdu primers, readers, and Urdu textbooks for
different subjects. A non-native Urdu speaker with no prior knowledge of Urdu facing
much difficulties to learn Urdu.
In accordance with the privileged position of English, education in any medium
other than English is looked upon as second rate, and unfortunately the quality of
education in other languages often is inferior to that offered in English medium
schools. But this has nothing to do with inherent weaknesses in the respective
languages.
In advanced science courses English would perhaps be the better choice, but
this is a disadvantage faced by all institutions in the non-English-speaking world. In
Germany, too, English as the medium of instruction in advanced science courses is
currently being discussed. Scientific publications, international conferences and
seminars, etc., use English anyway. Therefore, this problem is not restricted to Urdu-
wallahs. However, elementary instruction in the sciences would probably yield better
results if conducted in the mother tongue of the pupils.
The formula suggested by S.S. Desnavi (i.e., Urdu as the medium of instruction
up to Class VII with the regional language as a subject from Class III onwards, etc.;
Urdu continued as the first language up to Class XII; medium of instruction for Class
VIII to Class XII, regional language)is a realistic one.
Possible measures for reviving Urdu as a functional language:
 Actually writing is not a phobia but a skill more we practice more we learn. more
writing practice is necessary.
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 Pronunciations and utterances of Urdu is peculiar because of its Persian and Arabic
background so under Indian conditions special care must be taken to utter words
properly.
 We can facilitate student by making environment of our class room friendly and a
Centre of learning.
 The importance of heritage languages as a national resource should be stressed. It
is essential to observe how other countries have established heritage language
programs and take cue from there. Also, it is important for foster strong
relationship with ethnic minority communities and to understand their social and
cultural institutions.
 A good presentation of the different domains of learning and research where
knowledge of Urdu is relevant must go hand in hand with basic notions of socio-
linguistics.
 At secondary level, the grammatical mistakes which students do in writing due to
lingual and cultural differences and these differences might cause of incorrect
sentence structure, grammatical errors, problem in spellings, learn to rules of
language, difficulties to make conditional sentences and many other difficulties.
To overcome these difficulties the learner should be trained from the primary level
under Indian conditions.
 Teaching of Urdu as an optional modern Indian language to children whose mother
tongue is other than Urdu.
 Use of Urdu as the language not only of education, but also of administration,
commerce, etc., by officials and by the population of those who claim to be
speakers of Urdu,
 Opening up job opportunities for persons educated in Urdu.
 Private efforts of Urdu-speaking parents to have Urdu taught to their children even
if they opt for other languages in their children‟s formal education.
 Training institutions need to review the current training and continuous
professional development framework and support of teachers for Urdu
competencies, in order to increase their ability to use Urdu for all subjects. This
can be accomplished by setting the parameters for Urdu Language proficiency,
which can be enforced and strictly monitored by the concerned authorities.
Training institutes should identify the benchmarks across Urdu language domains
that teachers need to attain and use the assessment to guide further programs.
 Majority of the teachers prioritized training in Urdu teaching methodology, lesson
planning and IT-Computer literacy. These areas can be stressed upon during
training and development of new and current teaching workforce across the board.
High schools and elementary schools with computer labs may be further co-opted
as support centres mapped for easy accessibility of teachers on a monthly basis.
 Focus should be on upgrading the knowledge of teachers on core Urdu skills
including listening, speaking, reading and writing.
 A proper assessment of the effectiveness of training programs for Urdu should be
made by an independent organization/committee. Based on the rigorous
 5

assessment of content and beneficiaries, new training programs should be designed

to tap the areas in which earlier training programs did not meet the desired
objectives.

Conclusion
I conclude that Urdu language is universal mode of communication; Urdu is
ranked second amongst the languages of the world after Chinese. Second Language
Learner faces many problems in acquisition of language skills in the concerned
language. There are number of mistakes students do in their writing work. They face
grammatical problems as correct use of verb, surface problems, content problems,
sentence structure, process (desire to write), problems use of conditional sentences,
lack of vocabulary, use of past tense and spelling difficulties, punctuation marks.
Major reasons of these problems may be less skilled teachers, poorness of education
system and assessment system, school environment, attitude to writing, strength of
class, less qualified teachers, use of language more particularly mother tongue in
classroom and lesser practice of grammar. Pronunciations and utterances of Urdu is
peculiar because of its Persian and Arabic background so under Indian conditions
special care must be taken to utter words properly likewise Urdu script is derived from
Persian so it is a little bit difficult for Indian learners. The extra efforts needed to make
Indian learners familiar with the script. Training institutions need to review the current
training and continuous professional development framework and support of teachers
for Urdu competencies, in order to increase their ability to use Urdu for all subjects.
This can be accomplished by setting the parameters for Urdu Language proficiency,
which can be enforced and strictly monitored by the concerned authorities.
It is observed that majority of the school types, whether government or private
seem to be failing their responsibilities in terms of Urdu language learning of their
students. Hindi and Urdu are identical on the basis of personal emphasis on culture
etc.; they share some common causes in terms of their decline. Education is a valuable
asset, but should the cost be the loss of culture and heritage? This is particularly
poignant in the case of second and third generation. With English being the primary
language of learning it is no wonder that heritage languages become a distant memory
or a tool used only to converse with occasionally. There is no doubt that the effort to
assimilate through the adoption of local language and customs has proven successful
yet the expense seems far too great. Beautiful, lyrical and rich they may be, Hindi and
Urdu have not yet developed to be a languages of science, business and technology.
There appear to be quite a few misunderstandings and preconceptions regarding the
real status of Urdu. For some students, Urdu is nothing more than Hindi written with
an adapted Persian alphabet. Some others feel that just about any Arabic or Persian
word with its original meaning and pronunciation could be introduced freely into Urdu
 6

syntactic structure and pass as Urdu. Infact, Urdu learning process involves more
efforts to achieve orthodoxy in the subject.

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2. Early sixteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries.
3. Mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries.
4. Short for ‫زباناردوےئمعلی‬/zabān-e-urdū-e-muallā/ language of the Exalted Camp. ‫اردو‬
/urdū/ means camp and in this usage referred to the Imperial Bazaar.
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6. Al-Shamiry, R.A.M., (2002). Yemeni Learners‟ oral communication
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