Need for Tailor-made English Coursebooks to Meet the Desired Learning Outcomes with Special Focus on Phonetics and Spoken English

Abstract

World’s second highest number of English speakers (125,344,737) are in India. But there is no comprehensive linguistic description of Indian English. The reasons are: no one pattern of spoken English; diversified pronunciation and spoken English problems in each State. When all these problems converge towards one English, a standard variety of Indian English is possible. The solution is the ‘Arpiciency’ model. Implementing ‘Arpiciency’, through tailor-made English coursebooks can possibly bring solution. Different pronunciation problems are to be dealt to acquire one standard variety of Indian English. This study attempts to address this need by reviewing the English textbooks of Andhra Pradesh. The review reveals the gaps in meeting the objectives. Additionally, ‘National Assessment Centre’ plans to guide ‘school boards to shift assessment patterns towards meeting the 21^st century skills’ through NEP 2020. So, there is a need for tailor-made English coursebooks focusing on ‘Indian’ students’ speaking problems. ‘Arpiciency’ proposes to focus on listening and speaking. The study focuses on Phonetics and Spoken English. It tries to offer solutions to pronunciation and speaking problems of Telugu speaking English learners pertaining to segmental, suprasegmental levels and functional aspects of English to design tailor-made coursebooks using ‘Arpiciency’. Keeping the diversity of Indian languages in view, similar study in other mother tongues eventually result in a standard Indian English.