It is interesting to reflect on how a child goes about when he starts learning his first language - his mother tongue.
He acquires language without any such thing as classroom environment.
He needs no formal teaching nor any expert help.
He does not know the alphabet or its sequence.
He does not care what vowels and consonants are.
He has no idea of what the rules of grammar are all about.
He does not use or 'refer' to any books nor is there any formal evaluation, continuous or periodical.
Little does he ever have to depend on a dictionary or translator.
Still he manages, very successfully, to be able to understand and use the language effectively for his communication with the world around him.
He does so by observation, correlation, imitation, repetition and interaction.
He tends to become familiar with the various facet of the language such as pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and composition (without becoming aware of any of these terms) by sheer exposure to the people (who are native speakers of the language) and situations around him all the time.
By the time he attends the so-called 'school' - the place for learning - he has already had become quite comfortable with the use of the language.
It is after this point that he, in due course, is taught to identify the characters of the alphabet, read, understand and appreciate the beauty of language, take note of the grammatical aspects of the language and then, finally, to 'write'.
Listening is the foundation of all language acquisition here and the skill of writing is almost the highest point.
This is the natural and universal way people learn a language 'easily'.
It is more baffling than amusing to see the methods used in teaching English as a second language or foreign language in most parts of the third world where the demand for English is ever-increasing on account of its potential in today's world to drastically influence one's career prospects.
Playgroup kids' first introduction to English is with the alphabet here, along with a pencil and notebook to make matters worse.
Grammar is given a lot of emphasis right from the early stages of learning.
There is more writing than reading.
There is more reading than speaking and listening.
Bilingual learning rather than listening is the foundation of learning and speaking literally takes a back seat.
The most unfortunate part is that the learners are exposed to a system of sounds and usage that is often faulty, distorted or 'localized' because the teachers themselves have had little exposure to the original flavour of the language.
For instance, the majority of non-native users of English live and die without knowing that 'b' in 'climbing' is mute.
It is certainly unreasonable to expect one to have the same level of grasp on a foreign language as one has on the mother tongue.
What I wish to drive home is that I have met a large number of people who are scared of English and I can say it with conviction that the phobia is unfounded.
To say the least, it is the result of methods of rote learning that have disregarded the natural process of language acquisition.
There is the need for a radical paradigm shift and it is the teachers of English who must open their minds and dare to think out of the box to dispel the myth 'English is difficult'.