pnrif mIrmT illt cifMI? AL 001 553 ED 023 091 By -Kelley, Gerald B. The Teaching of Hindi-Urdu in the UnitedStates.The State of the Art. Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington,DC.ERIC Clearinghouse forLinguistics. Pub Date Nov 68 Note -24p. EDRS Price MF -5025 HC -SI 30 Language and Area Centers,+Language Instruction,tanguage Descriptors -*Hindi, Instructional Materials, Materials, Programs, Language Role, NationalPrograms, National Surveys,Official Languages, Reference Research Needs, *Urdu, Writing Identifiers -*South Asia The Many Western scholars considerHindi and Urdu as asingle linguistic entity. Muslim author concedes thatin an important sensethisiscorrect." Hindu and inhabitants of the same villagebehave like membersof a single speech community. underscored by However, minor differences inthe phonology, grammar,and lexicon are the differences in the writingsystems, by which prose orpoetry isidentified. Hindi, taught only at the collegelevel in the UnitedStates. which uses Devanagari script, is of this (Exceptions are the Peace Corps programs,no tincluded within the scope Program conducted byBoyd-Bowman from paper, andthe Neglected Languages practices, SUNY. at Buffalo) BecauseHindi has no historyof traditional teaching universities offering coursesin Hindi utilizeoral-aural approaches andemphasize competence in speaking.However, beyond elementarylevel, available materials are very situations applyalso scarce, and notwell suited to studentsof social sciences. These Perso-Arabic script, andfor which there is evenless widely to Urdu, which uses needs of students in available regular instruction.Also discussed in this paper are both of thPze language areas,overseas centers,summerand undergraduate programs, the writingsystems, recommendedteaching materials,research priorities, and the role of these twolanguages in South Asia.(AMM) I CEDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER CLEARINGHOUSE FOR LINGUISTICS WASHINGTON, r". C. 20036 CENTER FOR APPLIED LINGUISTICS,1717MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, N. W., U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH,EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION ! THE1 THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCEDEXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINI PERSON OR ORGANIZATIONORIGINATING IT. EDUCATION STATED DO NOT NECESSARILYREPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE 0' POSITION OR POLICY._ STATES : THE STATE OF THE ART THE TEACHING OFHIND1-URDU IN THE UNITED by GERALD B. KELLEY Nt EDO 2 3091 . c AL 001553 Foreword This state-of-the-art paper has beencommissioned by the ERIC Clearinghouse for Linguistics in collaboration with theForeign Language Program of the Center for Applied Linguistics. A copy of this report has beenplaced in the ERIC System and is available fromthe ERIC Document Reproduction Service. For ordering procedures consult U.S.Office of Education monthly publication "Research in Education" or write tothe Clearinghouse at 1717 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.,Washington, D.C. 20036. Points of view or opinions contained in this document do notnecessarily represent official Office of Education position or policy. Comments concerning thearticle's contents should be addressed toLhe author at Division of ModernLanguages, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York14850. A. Hood Roberts, Director ERIC Clearinghouse for Linguistics November 1968 ERIC Clearinghouse for Linguisticsis a part of the Educational Resources Information Centerof the U.S. Office of Education THE TEACHING OF HINDI-URDU IN THE UNITED STATES The State of the Art It is common for Western, and particularly American, scholars to refer to Hindi and Urdu as a single linguistic entity. In an important sense, this is correct. Given a village with both Hindu and Muslim inhabitants, there are no major barriers to daily communication; the inhabitants behave like members of a single speech community. However, even at this level, minor differences in the sound system, the grammar and the lexicon of the individual send the message to others that either Hindi or Urdu is being spoken. When the census-taker comes around the Hindus will report their language as Hindi (or some local variant name) and the Muslims will report that their language is Urdu. The minor differences referred to above are underscored by the differences in the writing systems and an individual will identify a body of prose or poetryby the writing system used. For these reasons of "self-image" and native speaker judgment, there is some reason for considering the two varieties separately. Furthermore, given literacy in both scripts, an educated individual is likely to appreciate morefully either the literature which draws on Hindu and Sanskrit traditions, figures,and vocabulary or on the tradition which follows Islam, Arabic, and especially Persian. I will therefore treat Hindi and Urdu separately in the body of this paper. Unlike some other languages ordinarily thought of as not widely taughc, Hindi is taught only at che college level and manystudents, perhaps a majority, begin Hindi only at the graduate level. Major exceptions to this statement are the Neglected LanguageProgram conaucted by Professor Peter Boyd-Bowman from the S.U.N.Y. at New York, andthe Buffalo, serving collegesand universities in (This paper willhenceforth training of PeaceCorps volunteers. interest groupbeyond ignore PC training asrepresenting a special presented by thislate- its scope.) In addition tothe problems attributable to thegoals of starting clientele,there are others and the investmentof time he the student inlearning the language The goals ofstudents range from is willing tomake in learning it. learn to communicate,often in a the anthropologist's,who wants to who wants to beable to read local variety, tothe historian's, lies a variety ofsocial science texts. Between these extremes and economics. inwhich disciplines, such aspolitical science useful for rapport or language competence maybe looked upon as irrelevant. Pennsylvania, which has along Apart from theUniversity of Studies, and theUniversity tradition of scholarshipin South Asian Indian Studies under agrant of Wisconsin, whichbegan a program in university programsin Hindi from the RockefellerFoundation, most by the NationalDefence are directlylinked to theimpetus provided of centers forSouth Asian Studies Education Act. The development which demandedthat a center under the provisionsof this act, student, in order tohold provide languageinstruction, and that a take instruction in alanguage, is a fellowshipunder Title VI, of Hindi in theUnited States responsible for muchof the teaching fashion, much ofthe availableteaching today. In a parallel made possible by material has beenproduced underresearch grants instruction in thelanguage and NDEA. Relatively widespread teaching it aretherefore for relatively adequatematerials for the most part veryrecent. language teachinghas had one This recentdevelopment of Hindi more widelytaught, and positive advantage. Unlike many languages among theless widely taught,Hindi some, such asChinese and Arabic reading orientedteaching has no traditional,grammar-and-translation, offering Hindiutilize oral-aural practices. All universities supervision oftrained approaches with nativespeakers under the taught a varietyof spoken Hindiand it linguists. All students are is cxpected that all will gain some competence inspeaking. This ;;eneral advantage, however, has not succeeded infilling the needs of all students. Most currently ailable textbooks go much farther toward meeting the needs of anthropologists thanthey do those of historians. Elementary course materials are frequently written in some sort of phonemic notation,sometimes partially and sometimes totally. Beyond the elementary level, available materials are very scarce and, in general, not wellsuited to the need of students in the social sciences. Most universities teaching Hindi depend heavily, beyond the elementary level, on materialsdittoed or stencilled locally. This derrth does have some advantage:selection of materials can be tailored to the needsof the students at a given university in a given course, at a given time. There is, nevertheless, a serious lack of mater Ilsbased on newspaper and periodicalarticles, official documents, parliamentarydebates, private correspuridence. A newspaper reader has recently appearedand research is in progress on materials based onofficial documents, but the range and variety of teaching materials is still verylimited. The preceding remarks about Hindiapply equally to Urdu, except that it should be noted that regularinstruction in Urdu is even less widely available. Most South Asia university centers,with exceptions such as McGill and Duke, concentratetheir efforts on India (in a few cases with an interest inCeylon) and Urdu, as such,is offered only "on demand," though it often appears in the courselistings. Since most of thescholars in the disciplines at given university have focused their attentions on India, thedemand does not materialize with sufficient frequency. This situation is improving slightly as interest in Pakistan increases among youngerscholars. Who Needs It? Ever since the establishment of theoriginal NDEA centers, controversy has been rampant amongSouth Asia area specialists about the merits of language competence,particularly in Hindi or Urdu, for their students. (The problem is discussed, for example,by Kelley and John J. Gumperz in separate paperscontributed to Resources for South Asian Area Studies in the UnitedStates, edited by Richard A, Lambert, Part of thedifficulty University of PennsylvaniaPress, 1962.) posed to olderscholars who had arose,