Exploring Dialogue-based Writing Task for Developing English Communication in India

Abstract

Indian learners at all levels of education, from school to university, encounter serious obstacles in effective communication in classroom and real-life situations. The primary obstacle to their English communication is the lack of competence in constructing effective dialogues. For most of the learners, such an obstacle occurs due to the lack of a supportive environment, the dearth of English-speaking friends and the dominance of their native language. The study presents the potentiality of dialogue-based writing task as a solution to improve English communication of such learners and examines whether dialogue-based writing task, in which characters in a story communicate with each other directly, helps the learners overcome the gap in their personal and professional development. Accordingly, two sample tasks on dialogue-based writing are given in the paper expecting the learners to generate their own dialogues on different themes, thus stirring them to practice and polish their English communication. Moreover, the paper promotes dialogue-based writing task as an effective pedagogy, which supports the curriculum and assists the learners in gaining higher communicative competence in English. By emphasizing this type of active participation, the study also emphasizes the significance of task-based learning (TBL) in the development of communication skills, which brings about overall educational goals of language learning in India.