A Comparative Study of English Language Skills of 8th Class Students Studying in Government and Private Secondary Schools of Bageshwar District

The English language is the most spoken language around the world but it is also notable that English
as a language in India for more than a century. The three-language formula is applied in our schools
since 1986. English is introduced as the second language in most schools, but the proficiency in the
English language of the students in the government school is still very low. There are four skills of
language learning listening, speaking, reading, and writing (LSRW). These four skills of teaching
English should be taught from the starting of formal education and the primary or elementary stage.
There are various techniques and methods to improve English language skills. The researcher argues
that in the listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills of the students at the primary level who are
studying in government and private schools there is a vast gap in their acquisition. The purpose of this
study is to analyze the ability of class VIII students in English language learning skills in government
and private schools. A sample of 150 students was taken from 9 schools in the Bageshwar district. The
study employed the descriptive research method for the data collection. English Language
Achievement test (ELS) for the 8th class students was prepared by the supervisor Prof. Shanti Nayal
and the investigator to test the four skills of the English language among the class 8th students. The
whole test was of 100 marks, it consists of four parts viz. listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills,
each part contains 25 marks, and the time limit for each part was 20 minutes. The researcher adopted
parametric statistics, mean, standard deviation, and 't' value statistical techniques for the study. The
test was applied to measure the significant difference in the English language skills between govt. and
Private schools concerning demographic variables i.e. gender, area, and type of school. The result of
the study showed that there is a significant difference in English language skills between govt. and
private school students.