Psychological Tabular Method - a success story
Innovative method of teaching and learning English:
by Indeewara THILAKARATHNE
According to Dr. Ravindranath, the Sri Lankan academic domiciled in
the US who had conducted extensive research on teaching of English, the
Psychological Tabular Method is the quickest and most practical method
of teaching English. The innovative method of teaching English has been
successfully tried and tested in many countries including Japan.
Following empirical research in the application of Psychological
Tabular Method (PTM) for over three decades, the University of
California, where Dr. Ravindranath is a lecturer, has endorsed this
method of teaching as a logical methodology.
For the first time, Dr.Ravindranath has introduced PTM to Sri Lanka
as an elementary teaching method of English.
Since the Government has declared this year as the Year of English
and IT, it is of paramount importance to look into innovative methods of
teaching and learning English in order to meet the growing demand for
English Language teaching in Sri Lanka.
Perhaps, the answer lies in the innovative teaching method of English
which is termed "Psychological Tabular Method" in which fundamental
structure of English is taught in terms of a well-researched set of
tables. Once the student masters the Fundamentals or main table, he may
be able to register them in mind which in turn helps him to acquire a
command of the language.
"What I do here is to put English language into tables. The tables
are quickly registered in the mind in a similar manner you feed the
computer with data.
Since they register in mind, you, first of all, get rid of fear of
the language while enhancing your confidence. Once you master the
tables, you will be able to acquire a command of the language. The
tables or structures have been designed following extensive research on
the behaviours of the mind. According to my findings, one may require
only to master 48 structures in order to become a fluent speaker of
English.
For instance, in English, there are only 20 ways in which verbs can
be conjugated.
However, in Sinhala or Tamil verbs can be conjugated in 36 ways.
Even though I have found this method of teaching a long time ago, I
had no time to introduce this method to Sri Lanka. I have been in the US
for many years. This time I came to Sri Lanka in response to President
Mahinda Rajapaksa's appeal to academics to return to Sri Lanka and to
contribute their expertise to the development process. Since I arrived
in Sri Lanka at a time the country is facing a crisis in teaching
English,
I firmly believe this innovative method of teaching would be of
immense value to the country," said Dr. Ravindranath, a true patriot in
academic's garb.
Dr. Ravindranath has already published several text books introducing
Psychological Tabular Method to Sri Lanka.
He is also willing to teach this innovative method of teaching
English free of charge, either in a regular column in a newspaper or in
a program on television or radio.
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