"The Challenges of the Twenty-first Century World in the Language Classrooms" by Prof. Gabriela Nik Ilieva, Clinical Professor of South Asian Studies, New York University

Professor Gabriela Nik Ilieva delivering lecture 

Language of Advertising Media and Market (LAMM) has organised a Guest Lecture by Prof. Gabriela Nik Ilieva, Clinical Professor of South Asian Studies, New York University, was recently awarded George Grearson Award for promoting Hindi language by the President of India. The programme started with the recitation of the verses from the Holy Quran followed by a welcome address by Dr. Mohammad Jahangeer Warsi (Co-ordinator LAMM). After this bouquets were presented to the guests Prof. Gabriela Nik Ilieva, Prof. Melina, Prof. Mohammad Zahid (Dean, Faculty of Arts), Prof. Javaid Akhter (Registrar AMU). Prof. Gabriela Nik Ilieva delivered her lecture on the topic- The Challenges of Twenty-first Century World in the Language Classrooms.

In her lecture, she threw light on the various aspects of challenges in the language classrooms. She pointed out that we are living in a world of globalized economies, a world of global connectivity through extensive combination of real and virtual communication and travel, a world characterized by information overflow by globalized news and entertainment. It is certainly obvious and indeed has already started that education takes into account these new frameworks of realities and introduces alternations in its strategies and syllabi to train students in updated content areas as well as in new 21st century skills.

Prof. Gabriela rightly mentioned that over the last ten years, smartphones have gone from something that students had as a minor distraction, to something that runs their entire social lives and even create their individual Online Identity, both inside and outside of classroom. At this juncture, we can’t simply disallow smartphones inside the classrooms. Managing mobile phone use in the classroom is important for the learning experience of all the students; but there must be certain controlled ways for managing mobile phone use in the classroom situation.

She mentioned that language classrooms are more open in nature. We can discuss almost anything and everything here in comparison to other disciplines, for instance, Economy, where we can’t go much beyond the topic. And, India is fortunate for having a complex culture. The kind of tolerance for variety exists here. Prof. Gabriela also pointed out that in India the major failures of foreign NGO’s are due to that lack of understanding about the culture of the people. We can’t simply understand the culture of a community from their products, from superficial level; culture lies inside, in the languages, in their believe systems. For understanding the students we need to be aware about their cultures.  

She interestingly raised the question, ‘whose challenge is it, for teachers or for students?’ She was with the view that it is the challenge of the teachers because, teachers are not media-literate and they need to cope up with the changing scenario of the time.     

Prof. Gabriela concluded that we need flipped classrooms where teacher will not going to teach inside the classrooms but before entering into the class we want students to involve in understanding the topic from their own initiative. They need to know the real task from the real world. Certainly, the instructions from teachers are needed but over-correction reduced self-confidence of students.

Addressing to a question in the Question-Answer session, Prof. Gabriela said that India is the land of multi-ethnicity and multi-languages where no scripts are required, here what we need is symbol. Symbol is needed because India is the land of diversity. History witnessed, from Harappa to Mohenjodaro everywhere you will find symbols, representing its rich diversity. And, it is our responsibility to use this richness of diversity in language classrooms. When we have lesser cultural variety we talk about differences but when we have greater cultural variety we talk about similarities and that is the way creates an ideal situation for a language classroom. The programme ended with the concluding remarks from Dr. Bairam Khan. 

Group Photo: Prof. Gabriela Nik Ilieva with Prof. Prof. Ali R Fatihi ( Chairman), Prof. S. Imtiaz Hasnain, Dr. Abdul Aziz Khan, Dr. Nazrin B. Laskar, Prof. Shabana Hameed, Dr. M. J. Warsi, Dr. Bairam Khan, Dr. Sadia Hasan, Dr. Sabahuddin Ahmad, Dr. Pallav Vishnu and students of the Department. 

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