Page 48 - SREENARAYANAGURU OPEN UNIVERSITY

in Unit 3. A person who is bilingual has fluency Physical barriers that people have in com-
in two languages. Have you ever heard of the munication are lisping, stammering, stuttering,
term ‘Manglish’? While using social media, deafness, etc. Such barriers affect users of for-
you type malayalam words using English eign language especially since it is not their
alphabets, a kind of transliteration. At least native tongue. This is the reason why we lack
once, you might have used this term to refer to fluency in the language. Since the language is
the language that you use. What does it exactly foreign to the user, he or she has acquired it
mean? This is an example of hybrid language or and hence takes time to master the language
“chutnification”, a language that is a hybrid of
Malayalam and English. There are many such Social barriers might arise from the pres-
hybrid languages in India, combinations of ence or company of more skilled individuals.
English and an Indian language. For example, There arises a social divide among people with
Hinglish (Hindi and English), Tanglish (Tamil regard to their proficiency in using the English
and English), Kanglish (Kannada and English), language. A person educated in the vernacular
Tenglish (Telugu and English), Punglish (Pun- may know English as a second language but
jabi and English) and so on. Indian English is a will be diffident in using English in the com-
variety of English spoken by Indians. There are pany of English medium educated peers. This
a variety of Indian Englishes that you can find creates a barrier for them to communicate in
in different parts of the country. A person from English with comfort.
Tamil Nadu speaks English differently from When we come to the economic barri-
a person from Punjab. The influence of the ers, English is seen as a language of prestige.
local language comes in when Indians speak One’s social position is questioned based on
English. So, when a Hindi speaking person his or her English speaking skills. People from
talks in English, he pronounces words simi- economically challenged backgrounds will be
lar to the way in which he pronounces Hindi, inhibited because of this.
his mother tongue. So, people in India speak
an Indianised version of English. English has All the above mentioned factors inhibit
become a language which can be appropriated people from English language without fear and
according to the linguistic culture of the people makes a person an introvert. Now, how to over-
who speak it. come inhibition? There are many methods to
do this. One is to practice on one’s own. Since
1�4�4 The Inhibited Introvert we all have mobile phones now-a-days, we can
While communicating, what are the prob- easily record our own voice. We can hear it
lems that we face? When we communicate in again and understand our mistakes. We cor-
a public sphere, sometimes we tend to stammer rect them ourselves and improve. Another one
or stutter. Such problems mostly occur because is non-correctional method. This involves
of psychological problems related to lack of encouraging fluency at first, without correcting
confidence as we lack fluency in English lan- mistakes. The mistakes they make are not cor-
guage. Considering the problems that affect an rected immediately as it will lead to inhibition.
individual’s communication practice, we can Instead, their mistakes are noted and corrected
divide it into different categories- physical, later. In this way, inhibition can be avoided and
social and economic. Psychological barriers their language can be improved as well. Peer
manifest as physical. practice is the next way to counter inhibition.
It is all about creating avenues to use English

42 SGOU - FYUGP - SLM - English for Communication