Who is to be blamed?

Deteriorating standards of English language:

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

History of English language in Sri Lanka dates back to the colonial era. It is an established fact that British who conquered the island made English the official language of Sri Lanka.

According to Dr. Manique Gunesekara who wrote a seminal work titled 'The Post Colonial Identity of Sri Lankan English', English was the official language of Sri Lanka then Ceylon from 1796 to 1956. Perhaps the watershed in the history of English language in Sri Lanka was the Official Language Act which was enacted in 1956 following the landside victory of S.W.R.D Bandaranaike's SLFP.

For the first time the prime status English enjoyed as the official language was taken over by Sinhalese with provisions for the reasonable use of Tamil, principally in the North and East of the country and in the areas dominated by Tamils.

However the next major change of the status of English occurred following the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord of July 1987. In term of the Accord which was signed in an environment of tension and islandwide turmoil, Sinhalese, English and Tamil were declared as official languages of the country. It is pertinent to note here that Sri Lankan Government failed to honour the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in full and with the passage of time, it became a dead letter.

Ironically the status of English language as an official language has not lasted long and the next change occurred with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which was enacted in November 1987. One of the major changes that the Amendment brought in was change of status of English from an official language to 'the link language'. The Amendment declared that 'Tamil shall also be an official language'.

English as a relict of Colonialism

Although English has been the official language for over 150 years, it has always remained as a prerogative at the hands of the elite and was largely inaccessible to the majority who either use Sinhalese or Tamil in their day-to-day affairs.

Dr. Manique says that it had never been an 'all purpose language' in Sri Lanka, even among the upper middle class elites. The British system of education which was propagated throughout the island by missionaries primarily in the South and American missionaries, who set up schools in North, ensured a steady supply of English educated officials for the British administration in Sri Lanka. Consequently, the general standard of English in the country was very high.

However, the kind of English which was in use during the colonial era falls short of idioms and metaphor to express authentic Sri Lankan experience. Most of the native speakers held the view that experiments with the language would tantamount to tampering of the 'Queen's English'. Native speakers believed that the kind of English they spoke was that of the dialect spoken by the colonial masters.

Perhaps, it was this attitude which effectively prevented Sri Lankans from expressing their intimate feelings in English in the form of fiction for a long time. On the other hand, native speakers were reluctant to insert words from native languages such as Sinhalese and Tamil, into their English vocabulary.

However, the process of assimilation of Sinhala and Tamil words into English has begun with the expansion of the university system and the change of medium of instruction in schools from English to Sinhala and Tamil respectively. Apart from lowering the general standard of English, the change of medium of instruction has also created a host of endemic problems such as segregation of diverse races on ethno-linguistic lines and the birth of regional and racial identities.

English, which had been a unifying factor of diverse races in the long march to independence from the British, was virtually confined to a language in the class room. With relegation of English as a second language or a link language, the standard of English has been steadily declining.

Vernacular or Swabasha education over the years, has produced generations of mono-lingual teachers, public servants who could not serve in certain parts of the country where their medium of instruction, in this case, either Sinhala or Tamil which is not spoken due to language barriers.

One of the by products of this development is narrow world view on the part of mono-lingual constituencies and their implicit acceptance of prejudices and myths with regard to 'other' ethnic groups; Sinhalese about Tamils, Muslims and burghers and Tamils and other ethnic groups about Sinhalese.

Deteriorating standard of English

Deteriorating general standard of English adversely affects all most all the public institutions including universities and English medium newspapers. Favouritism and cast-affiliation take precedence over academic concerns at the apex body of universities has contributed to the deterioration of quality of certification offered by these institutions.

In a particular instance, a so called professor whose favourite past time is compiling books had granted a first class to a student against unanimous opposition by the other senior lecturers.

The student happened to be his friend's child who is in the habit of constantly reviewing beloved professor's compilations. This obedient child regularly writes fullpage appreciations of the professor.

The event-studded story of the professor is similar to that of a modern version of Guttila-Musila Katawa (Guttila-Musila is a famous Jataka story in which unaccomplished student tries to discredit his teacher). This particular student is so grateful to the professor that the student persuaded colleges to write on professor's work.

Lowering the standard of English has also adversely affected English medium newspapers in general and some editorials particular. It is a well known fact by now among journalist fraternity that most of the journalist and even the so called editors who can not express themselves in English.

This is, by and large, reflected on news items and editorials which are full of mistakes in grammar and usage. Unfortunately criteria for promotion seem to be sexual favouritism and cast affiliations rather than competency in the craft.

In order to arrest this negative tendency, it is imperative that major reforms in the spheres of education have to be brought about, together with adequate facilities for students to learn languages other than their mother tongue.

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