OUP to launch English-Kannada grammar book next year

BENGALURU: Soon, you could learn the nuances of English grammar through Kannada with Oxford University Press’s (OUP) Adult English Language Teaching (ELT) initiative. For young adult’s setting foot in the professional world, the ELT programme provides an access to learning English through vernacular languages, making the process smooth and comfortable.
The adult ELT programme was launched 3 years ago to train students in higher educational institutions (HEIs) before they ventured into the professional world.The programme has created grammar books in about 10 languages and bilingual dictionaries in nine. The Kannada version of the grammar book is set to be released in 2017 and will focus on cities like Tumakuru, Ballari, Mandya, Hubballi and Dharwad.
Designed to cater to Indian learners, the programme aims to develop bilingual content through their course -- English Grammar Just for You. “The ELT programme targets adults and aspirational learners with courses in English that help increase their employability quotient. Many young adults graduating from higher educational institutions (HEIs) in non-metro cities need to be more sound in English language,” said Sivaramakrishnan V, managing director, OUP India.
“Also, to learn the fundamentals of any language it’s important to have grammar in place. We decided to incorporate a portion in the course which looks at learning English language through Kannada.”
The English-Kannada grammar book will help learners speak and write English confidently. Each of the grammar topics in the book has been penned down in Kannada too, giving it a bilingual focus. The book also looks at the common errors made while using English, the thrust being on the learning process.
The Kannada version of the dictionary which is still in the making will look at using the English-English-Kannada approach to instruct learners. For instance, it’ll contain an example (in English) followed by its English meaning and translated into Kannada to facilitate correct usage of the word.
Creating a book for grammatical learning and enhancement is a task of responsibility, said Siva. “When we create a bilingual grammar book, we need to take into consideration two languages, the Indian vernacular language and English.”
“The level of both the languages needs to be the same and the parallels in grammar rules of both need to be constantly considered, especially grammar rules in English which don’t have any parallels in Indian languages. In such cases, extra explanation with plenty of examples must be provided to ensure comprehension,” he added.