Never drill students with grammar
by Prof. R. N. de Fonseka
I was very delighted to learn that the President has declared 2009 as
the year of English and Information technology. English being an
international Language, this should have been done several years back by
the Governments in Power, for there has been a reverberating cry by
students to master English.
Teachers have been imparting knowledge in the Sinhala and Tamil media
for more than 30 years. Most of the present day teachers have had their
undergraduate studies in the Sinhala and Tamil media and it is pathetic
that the knowledge of English of some of them is poor.
Few days of training
It is disturbing to learn that only about 1/3 of the students pass in
English at the Ordinary Level. Very many years back the government in
power, at that time, recruited quite a number of teachers for teaching
English. All that the applicants had to have was a pass at Ordinary
Level with a credit pass in English. Most of the recruits were unable to
speak English and were also unable to write a sentence without mistakes
in spelling. They were posted to schools after a few days of training.
In the Universities we have had several programs in English for those
studying in the National Languages. The Walatara School of English, the
Chitra Wickramasuriya and the Doric de Souza Schools of English were
just a few of them. No doubt there are several other schools now. All of
them did not achieve the targets spelt out and they were miserable
failures. Undergraduates followed them only for a couple of weeks and
there was a considerable resentment to the programs. I strongly suspect
that an overdose of grammar at the initial stage was the poison for this
high degree of fallout. All that the students were interested was
acquiring the ability to read books in English on their chosen subjects
and to speak in made by Adhil Hassen, Head of the Islamic Research
Organization. Hassen had co-related learning English to a shoe and
learning grammar to shoe-polish. He had pointed out that purchasing a
tin of shoe-polish and not footwear would not serve any purpose. What he
had meant was that learning grammar is secondary although it is
important to learn it.
At the tail end of the last government schools were allowed the
option of teaching in English at A/L. No doubt this was a step in the
right direction but the lack of a planned program to make teachers
proficient to teach in the English medium was a severe drawback. I am
personally aware how deficient the program was because I was invited to
be an observer. Although a few schools in Colombo could provide this
facility most schools outside the City limits were unable to provide
English medium instruction due to the lack of teachers proficient in
English.
I understand that 40 English teachers are to be trained or have been
trained at the University of Hyderabad, India. Such teachers should be
posted to rural areas, so that they could act as Master teachers to
train the teachers in that locality.
Not too late
But what is more likely to happen is that they would be brought back
to Colombo and the teachers in rural areas would have to come to the
already overcrowded city of Colombo for such training. If it is not too
late to impose this condition now, any future batches should be sent
only if they are agreeable to go to rural areas as Master Teachers.
Living in rural Sri Lanka is no doubt has its difficulties.
Teachers in rural areas should be given special incentives in cash or
an assurance that they would be posted to congenial stations on
completion of a particular time period.Unless the program well planned
this type of crash program is bound to crash. After all there is no
magic involved in the teaching of English.
The writer is an Emeritus Professor in Botany, University of Colombo. |