There are arguments for and against the teaching of English in India. The India’s present problem may be summed up as having got rid of the English of whom Indian people had little use, they have not been equally successful in driving out English, because as things stand, they can neither really live with it nor, indeed do without it.

The reasons of poor condition of English teaching are numerous varying from place to place and situation to situation. Unmanageable numbers, poor classroom conditions, poor motivation, lack of support from home and society, pressures of unwieldy syllabus in other subjects, too many languages to be studied at the same time, unhealthy attitudes of the authorities in many cases - all these are factors that frequently interfere with the teaching of English.

As a consequence of these factors the standard of English Language Teaching is supposed to be going down day by day. The teachers teaching English to secondary students are not so competent in teaching the language. Oral competence of Indian teachers of English is extremely poor; reading and writing competence is found to be not so good as well.

Teachers are not clear about the aim of teaching English. They separate the timetable into reading, writing, composition, translation and grammar and are satisfied only if the students are kept busy and they do not get any trouble from the higher authorities. That is why students are not competent in English as a consequence of lack of skill-oriented teaching. Even after studying the language for nine years they are not capable of speaking or writing on their own. Consequently an empirical study of the language skills developed in students is found to be essential.

Frequently the teacher’s target is to prepare students for the examination and not to make pupils competent in the use of the language they are learning. In actual fact neither the student nor the teacher is anxious to learn or to teach English. So the student is worried only about his or her success in the examination and the teacher’s only problem is to see that the pass percentage does not go down.   

Pupils are evaluated in all the states in India by means of a single examination conducted towards the end of the year. In this system pupils typically work hard for some days just previous to the examination and get through the examination. It is obvious that such last minute preparation does not help in language studying. Language needs constant practice over an extended period and this can be ensured only if examinations are held at frequent intervals. Furthermore the question papers are set in such a way where all the questions can be answered with the help of bazaar cribs. As a result for such an examination, students require no thinking, no originality, no imagination and no skill, though the vital aspect of language learning is integrated skill.