All these years, German language teachers in schools would make handouts for students where they compiled the newest slang and grammar rules and insert it in their workbooks, reminding them that the language is a ‘living’ entity and as such keeps changing. “Students were not able to speak the language even after studying it for four years. It was about time we changed the approach and focused on speaking skills as well,” Dutta says.

CBSE’s acting chairman Vineet Joshi says a communicative approach isn’t a new concept and that the agency had adopted it for Sanskrit, English and Punjabi before doing so for foreign languages. The new methodology focuses on five different skills — speaking, listening, reading and writing and cultural awareness. It was around 1989 that the CBSE went in for a communicative approach for language programmes, but foreign languages weren’t on top of the list.

But after teachers started to feel that a strictly grammar-oriented approach wasn’t working and approached the CBSE, the agency was forced to consider applying a communicative approach to the foreign languages as well.

“The traditional approach was grammar-based. German is the latest language to be upgraded,” he says. “We have started work on Japanese too.”

Professor Kiran Chaudhry of the Centre for French and Francophone Studies at JNU says that when they upgraded the French textbooks in 2003, schools had still been using 25-year-old textbooks.

“People mugged up grammar rules and learned answers by heart. A language is a living body, there has to be emphasis on interaction through role-playing and dialogue,” Chaudhry said. “Even the currency changed from Franc to Euros; the culture changed with the European Union. All that needs to be communicated. It is never too late to do that.”

... contd.