REGIONAL LANGUAGE CENTRES

Ministry of Education, Government of India

Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysuru

Regional Language Centres and Extension Services

Regional Language Centres and Extension Services

Background Information of RLCs

Objectives

  • The main objective of the Regional Language Centres of the C.I.I.L as laid down in the EFC Memo No.F.4-1/69-IL-II dated September 17, 1969 is to help State Governments implement three language formula.

  • Creating resource persons and materials.

  • Offering short-term and Intensive as well as full time courses in various Indian Languages.

  • Training existing graduate teachers of the country.

Locations and other details :

  • Four RLCs were set up in 1970 in fulfillment of the commitment made by the then Union Education in the Floor of Parliament for making trained teachers available to States and UTs for implementing Three Language Formula.

  • First four Centres are ERLC, Laxmisagar, Bhubaneswar, NRLC, Punjabi University Campus, Patiala-2, SRLC, Manasagangotri, Mysore -6 and WRLC, Deccan College Campus, Pune-6.

  • Later two more centres, UTRC, Solan, Saproon, Himachal Pradesh and UTRC, Madan Mohan Malaviya Marg, Lucknow-2, were set up at the request of the State Governments of Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

  • In 1989, NERLC was set up as partial fulfilment of Government of India's commitment for the implementation of Assam Accord.

Infrastructure

  • SRLC, NRLC and ERLC are functioning in beautiful campuses having their own buildings for Office and Hostels. Other Centres are functioning in buildings given by State Governments and Autonomous Bodies and hired ones.

Current Information of RLCs

Physical Facilities

Each Centre has

  • Office rooms, Teaching Halls, Auditoriums and Hostel Buildings.

  • A Library with more than 15000 books and about 20 Research Journals well equipped with reading rooms and reference sections.

  • A modern language laboratory, having 20 to 25 booths and each containing modern Audio and Video equipments.

  • A reprographic section.

  • Modern communication facilities.

Man Power :

  • One Principal supported by Faculty members - 4 for Tamil, 4 Kannada and 2 members each of other languages and necessary Ministerial staff.

  • Some centres have positions like Junior Research Officer and Research Assistants who are pursuing research in various language related fields.

Library

The Library in each centre contains

  • Books in the languages being taught in the Centre concerned.

  • Books on Linguistics.

  • Books on general English and General Knowledge.

  • Dictionaries in the Languages concerned and English.

  • Encyclopedias.

  • Journals in Linguistics.

  • Journals in Indian Languages Concerned.

  • Newspapers

  • Maps and Charts

Training Facility

The centres offer ten-months training courses leading to Diploma in 15 languages as under :

  • SRLC in Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu

  • WRLC in Gujarati, Marathi and Sindhi

  • ERLC in Assamese, Bengali and Oriya

  • NRLC in Kashmiri, Punjabi and Urdu

  • UTRC (Lucknow) in Urdu

  • UTRC (Solan) in Urdu

  • NERLC in Manipuri and Nepali

  • Centres also offer Orientation Courses in Mother tongue teaching to Primary, Middle and Secondary school teachers.

  • Centres also offer need based courses in Indian Languages for selected consumers.

  • Centers also offer contact-cum-correspondence courses leading to Diploma in Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

Research & Material Production

A. Each Centre is engaged in fundamental research in the languages being taught in the Centre concerned. In addition to this, some Centres also conduct research in the Tribal or Border languages of the region.

B. Each Centre produces the necessary materials for teaching the languages concerned as second language. Such materials include :

  1. An Intensive Course in each language

  2. A Phonetic Reader

  3. An Intermediate Reader

  4. An Advanced Course Reader

  5. A Cultural Reader

  6. A Recall Vocabulary

  7. Hindi-Regional Language common vocabulary

  8. A brief history of the Languages concerned

  9. A Script book

  10. A Pictorial Glossary

C. Text Books for School Children For facilitating teaching the Indian languages to school children the Centres also produce

  1. State School Reader- Level I, II and III

  2. Model Question papers for School Children in each language

D. Research

Two Research projects have been compiled by RLCs

  • Intralingual and Developmental Errors of Bengali Learners by Dr.P.N.Dutta Baruah

  • Classroom observation in Boro and Assamese medium schools

Members of RLC faculty also have carried out a lot of Research on Error Analysis. Important ones are

  • - Errors of Urdu Learners

  • - Errors of Tamil Learners

  • - Errors of Gujarati Learners

Publication

  • Intensive Courses, Phonetic Readers, Vocabularies and State School Readers in all languages have been published through C.I.I.L. Intermediate and Advance Readers, Pictorial Glossaries in most of the languages are also published, while same for other languages are at different stages of publication.

Collaboration

  • The centres keep close liaison with State Government Agencies such as SCERT, SLI, Cultural and Sahitya Academies and other language & tribal research organisations as well as with the directorates of secondary educations of the region and the language departments of the universities of the region.

  • The centres offer langauge counselling to the State bodies as above, conducts collaborative programmes such as seminars, workshops, short term training programmes etc. and collaborate with State Agencies in the preparation of dictionaries and translation of classical literary works

Surveys and Dialogues

The various Centres of the Institute conduct :

  • Various Seminars, Conferences and workshops in various language related issues for enriching knowledge base by sharing ideas with scholars drawn from different Institutions.

  • Contact programmes for giving on the spot conselling to ex-trainees and creating awareness among educational authorities of States

  • Inspection of schools where teaching of various Indian languages are going on and offer consultations.

  • Test in Indian Languages for the school children who are learning languages under C.I.I.L scheme

    Field Activity

    • About 300 Refresher Courses have been conducted in various languages.

    • 380 Book Corners are established in the schools in various States.

    • About 120 N.I. Camps have been conducted in various languages, where school children learning the non-mother tongues from our ex-trainees participate and mingle with peer groups of the hosting States.

    • About 4000 trained teachers are teaching the language in the schools either within or outside the school curriculum.

    • About 3000 teachers got cash incentives for teaching the languages in schools under CIIL Scheme.

    Future Programmes

    The Regional Language Centres intend to

    • Increase the annual intake capacity of trainees to 600 for 15 languages

    • Conduct 15 N.I. Camps in 15 Languages every year.

    • Conduct 15 Refresher Courses every year.

    • Organise 7 Contact programmes in seven regions for ex-teacher trainees and education authorities every year.

    • Establish 20 book corners in each of 17 languages every year.

    • Conduct language exams in schools for all the 17 languages

    • Increase Cash Allowance to teachers teaching the language in schools

    • Establish an Information Centre in each Regional Centre

    • Organise regular Extension (schoo0l inspection) Programs to the schools where teaching is going on.

    • Persuade the State Governments and UT to incorporate teaching of Indian Languages under CIIL Scheme.