Dr. Joy Anuradha is an Assistant Professor in Language and Communication at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad since 2009. She specializes in Technical Communication and ELT in Technical Education. Her areas of interest are teaching and training , curriculum design, psychology, communication and soft skills, personality development, classroom management and educational administration. She obtained her Ph.D from Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages in 1996. She worked in the Humanities and Management Group from BITS Pilani, Goa and at Aurora Consortium.
What has influenced your decision to take up teaching?
I was born into a teaching family. My parents, almost all my uncles and aunts, and even my grandparents were teachers. Teaching seemed to be the most obvious career choice. However, my father wanted me to be a medical doctor. I didn't take the medical entrance test seriously then and later decided to be at least an academic doctor to please him.
What kind of teaching methods do you use to keep students interested in
your classes?
I try to take some language puzzles or language activities which involve them. I gather language gaffes to entertain them and hopefully to drive home the point. I also give them a chance to practice their communication skills by encouraging them to participate in a discussion on current events. At BITS we have the freedom to choose our own materials, an article on a website or a paper clipping also works well in the class room.
How do your colleagues react to your ideas and initiatives? How do you respond?
I'm basically a functionalist in my approach to teaching language. Some of my colleagues who are more traditional and formalist in their approach could never see eye to eye with my acceptance of certain answers that students give. For me it is always the function of a piece of writing that was relatively more important than its form. Formats keep changing with times yet the art of expressing oneself clearly in a variety of situations is very important to me.
What are the challenges you face from students and how do you overcome them or turn them around?
In my current position, I teach technical communication skills, both oral as well as written to future scientists and engineers. We have large classes with students whose communicative competence is a wide spectrum. Re-engineering their communication skills to suit professional contexts is a major challenge.
Fortunately, BITS Pilani has a Practice School component as part of the curriculum in the second year of the coursework to familiarize the students to the industry. That experience to a certain extent changes the orientation of the students. There are several occasions when some of my students returned after Practice School and told me that they have understood the importance of technical or professional communication.
Do you think our students and teachers are working in a professional style?
That's a very difficult question to answer! You find quite a range of styles, but I guess in academics it is quite acceptable as I was taught by brilliant teachers academically yet each had his or her own idiosyncrasies.
I personally feel that at least the faculty of every institution must have a brief training on professional etiquette. I think that can be passed on to the students from the faculty.
What needs to be done immediately in Indian colleges (if you have beenvisiting some non-BITS colleges you can write about them too)?
I think every college should be given the freedom to choose certain additional courses apart from the prescribed curriculum. Effective communication and Positive language and attitude, professional ethics and etiquette etc. could be offered as single credit courses.
There is a huge demand for soft skills and communication skills these days. Can better delivery & more effective administration of existing curriculum enhance these skills rather than separate training?
Like more interaction in classes, reading and writing assignments in other subjects, opportunities for speaking in other classes - in effect integrating language/soft skills with all subjects.
I think soft skill training needs to begin at the school level for better learning. It's easier for children to pick up these skills at a younger age and they could be reinforced at the higher levels of education
Any memorable moments as a teacher? Moments of frustration?
There have been many cherished moments as a teacher. I think that's one of the biggest rewards of being a teacher. You feel a sense of joy and accomplishment when you meet some of your students after they have settled down in their careers and they tell me that they still remember what I taught in the class…
There have been quite a few occasions when I felt frustrated, especially when students do not take language classes and the assignments seriously and then come for my help when they need to write an SOP or to edit their documents.
How can we get competent post graduates to choose teaching as a career?
Teaching is a noble profession and good pay packages attract people. It's not just competence that makes a good teacher but the passion to share their knowledge and to unlock young minds to new vistas of knowledge is what makes the teaching career an exciting one.
What could be a sustainable model to improve the teaching skills of existing faculty?
I would recommend every institution to make a practice of publishing at least once a year the best teaching practices/methods used in their respective class rooms. There are lots of good and successful teachers around and everyone can benefit if their experiences are shared.
That kind of newsletter or a bulletin exclusively for teachers can also update teachers about the latest trends and methodologies being used across the world.
Encouraging faculty members to participate in seminars, conferences, workshops and refresher courses also can be a stimulant for improving teaching skills.
