An Overview of Pragmatics and Cultural Contexts in ELT Classroom & Web-Technology

A Kitchen in the Corner of the House


A short piece of fictional narrative by Ambai is given
below:

‘The basin in the Kitchen is extremely small. And the drainage
is poor. If the servant woman washes the vessels there, the
whole Kitchen gets flooded. And Papaji, if you hang the
clothes outside the window, the mountain is hidden.’
And he looked at Kishan. And that skilled architect agreed
with his wife.
‘What she says is right, Papaji. Why don’t we do it?’
‘And when did you go near the Kitchen?
‘When she cooked up that Mysore-style meal, it was he who
sliced the onions and chillies for her,’ said Jiji.’
(Butalia, Urvashi, “Inner Line” 2006, p.66)


Productive & receptive skills in teaching literary text



An ELT exercise is developed from a fictional narrative to stimulate language
exchange among the natives
— The selection of key words – cooking and kitchen
— The metaphorical importance – basin, window and mountain
— The particular province food
— The primary debatable words
— The labelling of parts of speech in the text
— The drawing of chart & poster as per the landscape in the fiction
— The comparative drawing of Indian and Western Kitchen settings
— The role of woman and man in society depicted through visuals in the
chart
— Showing the recipe of Mysore-style food or different Indian provinces
— Conversing dialogues through role-play     

Non-Conventional Pattern in ELT



— Catching through the        

visuals the answers or
comprehension of the
passage
— Framing project-
based learning through
pictures and peer
group activities.


ELT sensitizing tradition

Learning comprehension skills in ELT (non-
conventional pattern)

1. — To draw the picture of the kitchen and the landscape view that is visible from the kitchen
2. — To write an SMS or an email message to Papaji of the text complaining about the structure of kitchen
3. — To edit the email or SMS
4. — To use the same passage to sensitize the issue by searching the different themes related to the passage - for example:- deprivation of women, role of women in the household, Indian cuisine and Indian Kitchen, 
5. The Author’s agony for marginalization of women etc.

Rubrics for English Language Activities

http://www.infosforyouandme.com/2011/04/sample-rubrics-for-english-activities.html

Rubric for Reading Part of a Story
Pronounce words correctly and clearly – 4 points
Give natural expressions to the emotions in the story – 3 points
Show natural conversation intonation among the other characters – 3 points
Total Points – 10 points