Integrating folktales into English pedagogy: A pathway to value-based education in technical institutes

In a time when the National Education Policy 2020 emphasizes value-based education and learning from our tradition, the English syllabus of B. Tech students in most of the Engineering colleges in India, including IITs and NITs, includes only Communicative English. The literary portion is generally missing in the syllabus, with no trace of folktales. This paper explores the scope of folktales in English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms of Engineering colleges, where if the teacher dexterously uses these tales, will not only make the class interesting and learner-centered, but could also impart values like non-violence, love, compassion, empathy, spirit of service, respect for others, liberty, equality, fraternity, and justice which are essential in addition to the technical knowledge to aid holistic growth of students. After critically analyzing a tale from A.K. Ramanujan’s Folktales from India, and by suggesting application of a few tasks and activities to it during the pre-, while-, and post-teaching stages, the paper concludes with the demonstration of intensity and extent of a short tale in imparting value-based education in the language classroom of B. Tech students in technical institutes.