[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 6 | February 9, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036]

Indian Institute of Technology Patna
School of Humanities & Social Sciences
Patliputra-Kurji Road, Patna-800013

National Conference
on
Sustainability and Development: Implications of ELT for Individual,
Society and Ecology
(3-4 April, 2015)

Organized by: School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Patna

Concept Note

Michael Halliday in his lecture ‘New Ways of Meaning: the Challenge to Applied Linguistics’ at the AILA conference in Saloniki in 1990 focused on the widespread metaphor of economic growth; while describing how English language has become pervaded with terms such as large, grow, tall – all of which are implicitly evaluated as positive and good, despite inevitably negative consequences for the ecology. In today’s world the focus is on sustainability and development of the individual without hampering the environment in which we live. All thoughts of development today are merely fictitious unless it annexes people of the world with the real issues they face every day. While one communicates through one’s mother tongue, it becomes mandatory for everyone to connect through a common medium and a common language in order to understand the challenges and to suggest remedies through various ways. English as a language has all over the world been a uniting force albeit its criticism from time to time. The success of the World Wide Web is because of its accessibility in English. Innovative technology has brought a remarkable change in the minds of people and the geographical boundaries are being reduced. English is at the root of all such changes. As a consequence, the teaching and learning of English today has become sine qua non. In a way,
Communication and development have become synonymous with each other.  (more…)