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| Sunday, 18 May 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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English medium education to create English teachers...! : An unbridled fantasy by DR. KAMAL DE ABREW There are principled reasons for the use of the mother tongue in English language teaching (ELT) which have been put forward in the face of the predominantly monolingual approaches promoted by the British Council and adopted by the authorities controlling ELT in schools in Sri Lanka. At present, however, the question is not how to get teachers to use the
mother tongue in ELT but how to use it properly, because in vast numbers
of schools in Sri Lanka (not in rural areas only) English is taught
through the mother tongue (L1) medium.
The reason for this is fairly obvious - teachers are not proficient enough in English to conduct the class in English. It is against this background of English being taught in the mother tongue that proposals have been made and action has been taken to teach school subjects in English. The personnel connected with this are Dr.Tara de Mel, Dr. Rajiva Wijesinha, and Ms. Nirmalee Hettiarachchi, and in the following discussion of this development I shall be referring frequently to a monograph entitled "Educational Policy in Sri Lanka - The failure of good intentions and little learning" by Dr. Rajiva Wijesinha, Professor of Languages, Sabaragamuwa University and Co-ordinating Manager, English and Foreign Languages Unit, Ministry of Education. I understand that the program to teach school subjects in English is already in operation in Sinhala-Tamil "Amity Schools", Advanced level science classes in some State schools, and in the subject Environmental Studies at Grade 6 level in some State schools. Wijesinha adduces a number of reasons for going ahead with this program: 1. That there is a great demand for English medium education at secondary level by people who cannot provide it for their children at home or at the pricey "International" schools. That in spite of arguments that education in an alien medium is pedagogically unsound, "education in a medium apart from one's mother tongue is as much a right as education in one's mother tongue". Comment: How many subject teachers in State schools have a level of competence in English that compares with that of teachers in private and International schools? Are the teachers co-opted into the English medium experiment capable of teaching in English in such a way that students will be excited by new ideas, their curiosity aroused, their intelligence challenged? Or will these teachers be simply teaching a book? In fact, for the proponents of this program the problems will be solved simply by providing English translations of the mother tongue textbooks, and their efforts are all bound up with doing these translations, getting World Bank funds for production of the textbooks, pushing printers, getting these piles of books to schools etc. Today, the term "English Medium" is an advertising gimmick used by businessmen in education seeking to make their institutions attractive and so increase the level of 'donations' etc. Children and parents have a Right not to be led into believing that they will be getting an English medium education through the "English Medium" program implemented by Dr. Wijesinha et al. The figures given in Dr. Wijesinha's monograph suggest that thousands of students have already been so misled. 2. "Since secondary reading was essential for proper education but since this had to be in English and few students had adequate English for this purpose, the system was producing people who found it very difficult to cope with subsequent levels of knowledge and skills at university or technical colleges. This was obviously one reason for Sri Lanka to fall behind in the globalized world of modern technology" (p.22) The English Medium experiment will "develop a pool of youngsters proficient in English, some of whom would be likely - unlike the elite who alone enjoy high level proficiency in English and/or English medium education now - to choose teaching as a profession". Comment: Dr. Wijesinha is claiming that the English Medium experiment will result in better learning of the particular subjects taught and further, that it will serve as an English teaching device which will provide English teachers in the future. I have pointed out in respect of "1" above why the teaching of subjects by persons who are not at ease in English will result in those subjects being poorly taught. As regards the claim that the experiment will create teachers of English and teachers in English, one can only say that it is unbridled fantasy. Will the experiment help students to improve their competence in English? Usually, people interested in language teaching equip themselves with knowledge in fields such as the psychology of language acquisition, sociolinguistics, the structure of the language, contrastive linguistics, language universals, the process of reading, language teaching methods, language testing, syllabuses for language teaching ordinary language philosophy etc. etc. I believe I am not unjust in saying that the personnel who have devised the English Medium experiment are profoundly ignorant in these matters. The experiment is essentially based on the idea that languages will be picked up by exposure - an idea that no one need take much credit for holding. But the crucial thing is what kind of exposure. English medium education certainly has been instrumental in giving students extremely high levels of competence in private and International schools. But this is not only because the subjects were taught in the English Medium (by thoroughly competent teachers teaching interactively) but because the whole environment and culture was English. In fact the acculturation was so efficiently done that many Sri Lankans would converse with each other not in their mother tongue but in English - a phenomenon that has never failed to amaze/amuse our counterparts in the Subcontinent. (I believe this is the main reason that in spite of our high levels of competence we have not been able to match R.K.Narayan, Arundathie Roy etc. in creative writing. In fact, the latest award of the Gratiaen Prize for creative writing in English has gone to a translation from Sinhala - as happened a few years ago.). And let it not be forgotten that these schools also included English Language classes in their curriculum. Pure exposure will only work if there are situations which promote discourse. What the teachers in the English medium experiment will be engaged in will simply be one-way traffic; it will improve students' English to about the same degree as watching cricket on TV while listening to the running commentary in English. The claims made for the English medium experiment could also be considered in relation to the position of English in Bhutan, which has had English medium education at primary and secondary levels since 1960. It seems that Bhutan would then have levels of English much higher than Sri Lanka, where the English medium was virtually killed off in the 50's. Statistical evidence is hard to come by, but comparison of mother tongue literacy rates would suggest that there is a major difference in spread in the matter of levels of competence in English. Also, I am informed that Bhutanese authorities recently sought, and selected English teachers for the higher grades here in Sri Lanka (the teachers selected however declined because they were not satisfied with the rates of remuneration). One would have thought that Sri Lanka will have to enlist teachers from Bhutan. 3. In the good old days, the English language functioned as a vehicle of communication between the different communities, and there was no sense of conflict between students in English medium schools. It is suggested that "Amity schools" set up in the English medium experiment, containing a mix of Sinhala and Tamil speaking students, will help the communities to understand each other. Comment: This reminds me of George Bernard Shaw's suggestion in "Pygmalion" that changing the accent can help to eradicate class distinctions -- only, GBS had tongue in cheek. twisted presentation If the efforts of the Ministry are concentrated on expanding the English Medium experiment it appears that research into finding suitable ELT methods for Sri Lanka, and the creation of teaching materials and the training of English teachers will take a back seat. Various comments made by Dr. Wijesinha in his monograph reveal a highly twisted presentation of other concerns than his own. For instance, he states "For years, the Universities offered degrees only in English literature rather than the language qualifications necessary for English teachers in the vast majority of schools." (Footnote 13). Doric de Souza had recognized as far back as the 50 's that many of the students in the Department of English of the University of Ceylon would be going into teaching language. He therefore included a language studies component in the courses for the honours degree. A few of us including Dr. Thiru Kandiah, Dr. Shiromi Fernando and the present writer found this component - essentially elementary linguistics - interesting in itself and also valuable in the kind of job that we decided to take up - organizing the language teaching courses at the Universities. We passed on this interest to some of our own students who decided to research in linguistics and language teaching rather than literature. It was his interest in linguistics that led Doric to revolutionize language teaching - at least in the Universities. Having decided that students in the university must be able to read reference works at a high level, he decided to teach the language of expository prose found in academic texts. first in the world So there was no need to teach for instance Tag questions such as "It's rather hot today, isn 't it?" This was in direct contrast to the prevailing wisdom coming from the British Council to the effect that "Whatever you want your students to use English for, teach them General English." As far as I am aware, Doric's was the first approach focusing on Specific language that had been adopted anywhere in the world. About a dozen years later, experts through the British Council introduced English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and the University of Peradeniya had to say that that was what they had been doing all along, even against expert advice. Dr. Wijesinha also states "English education in the school system, even Technical College syllabuses stressed literature and linguistic theory instead of basic language skills that were required" (Footnote 20). I don't think the syllabuses, which I have seen from time to time have been crazy enough to include "linguistic theory". They have certainly included some elementary formal grammar to be taught cognitively without depending on behaviourist teaching of so-called 'skills'. The grammatical model was generally traditional, characterized by Latin grammar foisted on English, with things like the Present Perfect Tense (which, like the Holy Roman Empire is neither Present, nor Perfect nor a Tense). A little bit of elementary linguistics would have shown up the errors. Stating that the syllabuses include linguistic theory can only come from someone who hasn't the foggiest idea about linguistics. The proposal to introduce English Medium education through teachers who have less than a high level of competence in English will therefore not only fail to improve the level of competence in English of the students but will result in the teaching of the subjects being degraded. |
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