English as a life skill

by A.E. Neil JAYASINGHE

The Presidential Task Force on English has launched a fiery crusade and accelerated program to achieve the ultimate goal of developing students’ English speaking abilities and skills from grade 3-13. This is a great, novel and welcome move forward, taken to fill the big gap that exists between the knowledge of English and communication among our students learning English and towards the realization that any language is meant for much communication than reading and writing. The crash program is now being implemented very successfully at all teacher centres in the island where teachers of English are trained for 10 days on strategies for developing English speaking skills by a group of 40 teacher trainers who have undergone a three-month intensive course at the English and Foreign Language University in Hyderabad in India.

Paradigm shift

The ideological philosophy behind this program called “English as a Life Skill” or “English as a Tool of Utilitarian Value” designed especially and mainly for effective communication is to make a swift shift from “Rule learning” to “Creative Learning of English”. The idea held by linguists that “Language is both rule governed and creative” has been dealt, only with the first part of this tenet so far, i.e. rule learning which includes rules, order, regularities, structures, patterns and theories in the process of teaching English to develop only reading and writing.

The creative aspect of this idea of language which goes beyond rule learning to make use of language specially for communication has not or hardly been dealt with at our schools. In other words, what we have been doing so far was “Teaching about the language” and not “Teaching the Language how to use it” to our students whose principal aim is to learn English to use it as a powerful means of effective communication. The terrible consequence of this rule teaching and learning of English has produced today, a generation of students whose communicative skills are blocked and clogged to such an extent where English has no utility value for them. The other bad effect of this learning and teaching process is that our students are reluctant and hesitant to speak English today.

Problem

The major problem today among our students who have passed English with As, Bs, and Cs both at their O/L and A/L exams is that still they are fighting a bitter battle and grappling with the problem of using English meaningfully mainly for purposes of useful communication in different situations and contexts in their true life, despite their “Knowledge of the System of English”. The major cause of this problem of inability to use the language in different situations in their real life conditions has been attributed to the approach and methodology advocated and adopted to teach and learn English was purely for reading and writing only for academic purposes, during their 10 - year period of formal learning at schools, and listening and speaking has not been dealt with sufficiently, nor has special provision or component been made available specially for speaking opportunities in their syllabus.

Today, English is taught and learned as a second language in Sri Lanka purely for educational and academic purposes like only for reading and writing which are also tested at exams. The purpose of learning English at schools under the present teaching system is partly achieved and fulfilled and the other most important aspect i.e. listening and speaking is not properly served, achieved and fulfilled today. Therefore, little did our students realize the importance of communication when learning English at school, but it is only when they step into the society, and specially in the field of work, they understand the value of communication. It is here they try their best to develop their communication seeking the refuge of private tutors. Hence the immediate need of our students learning English at school too is confined only to pass it at examinations and to qualify themselves for jobs and higher studies.

Solution

With a view to find a permanent and viable solution to the burning problem of communication in English faced by our students, the Special Initiative Unit of the Presidential Secretariat in collaboration with the Ministry of Education has embarked on a very effective, fruitful and result oriented project to disseminate Communicative English Skills across the country, first to the schoolchildren and later to the school leavers and others.

The ideology behind this program is purely to develop English speaking and its fluency and the emphasis here is on “using the language vs usage, correctness vs appropriacy, sentence vs utterance and linguistic skills vs communicative skills and abilities”. Really, the time has come for us (and also has gone) to shift from teaching English as a second language as a formal system to teaching it for use as communicative events. Actually, this ideology held by many eminent linguists like H. G. Widdowson (1978) and D. A. Wilkins (1976) reflects and expresses the view that language learning as a pedagogical principal than a linguistic principle, and emphasizes the need for practice rather than for explanation. In today’s context, where the need for oral communication has grown up extensively, this principle of using the language has become the tenet of language teaching doctrine today.

Efficacy and effectiveness

As a resource person training the teachers of English at the Kelaniya Teacher Centre, I found this course to be very effective and empirically productive in dealing with the strategies for developing spontaneous speaking. Providing ample opportunities for the students to speak English is the pivotal role and the essence of this programme. In other words, the students with the able guidance, direction and support of the teacher, acquire the language informally through very stimulating and interesting activities rather than learning it formally with no activities at all, except the chalk, board and talk all by the teacher which make English teaching and learning a very dull, drab, and dry academic exercise for both the teacher and the student as well.

The strategies and the methodology adopted here to develop communicative language skills are all in the form of interactive tasks, language games and activities in the class for the students to act freely without stress and strain. The students here need not make a terrible attempt or strain their muscles to learn English, for they are made to feel at ease and at home and also made free and relaxed to use the language under this activity based method, all through interesting, challenging and competitive language games and activities ably supported, directed and monitored by the teacher who gives the required linguistic input to the students only where necessary. A hive of activity and pleasant and happy mood can be observed and seen among students participating in these interesting activities. In short, the pedagogical philosophy and assumption here is that students learn more through “acquiring it informally than learning it formally”. Here the main focus is creating conversation among students in the class with a view to develop communicative language skills in our students. The psychology of learning English here is purely through extensive practice and thereby inferencing the rule later i.e. inductively but not learning it through presenting the rule before practice i.e. deductively which has produced poor results today.

I found that even complex grammatical structures like “Conditional Sentences”. Passive Voice and Future Tense” can be successfully dealt with under this programme with activities like “Palm Reading, Grammarbad and Grammar Auction etc. Dealing with vocabulary which includes adjectives, antonyms, synonyms and opposite words, and dealing with dictation in a different and enjoyable way have been made feasible under lively activities like “Word Ladder ad word Tennis”. Information Gap and Opinion Gap Activities have been purely designed for the purposes of asking and giving information where the students definitely have to speak with their peers in English for this purpose. There are also novel and interesting techniques for grouping the class where the pupils must speak a few words in English before the real activity starts.

Among other interesting activities found in this course are “Amnesia, Distraction, Mirror Activity, Blindfold Activity, Story Telling, Story Energizers, Situation Energizers, Yes No Activity, Penultimate Activity, Guessing Games, Word Tennis, Shark Attack, Room No. 101, Gift Collectors, Passive Voice Election, Lying Games, Hot Air Balloon, Solving the Mystery, Identifying the Missing One, Round/Robin Games, and Building up of the Vocabulary of Adjectives all of which cater to the students’ needs of listening, specially speaking and also writing. In addition to these activities, there is a host of various warming up activities which provide a source of inspiration and motivation to students to learning english. In short, almost all formal learning and teaching of various linguistic items including writing can be easily and freely dealt with very successfully under this programme giving delight and joy to students to learn English enthusiastically thanks to these unique and novel ways of presenting the lessons to the students for speaking. The special characteristic feature of these activities is the linguistic and communicative diversity which offers the students a variety, entertainment, pleasure and a novel experience in their life of learning English.

In each of these activities, there is a motivating factor and a challenging and competitive nature, so that students are voluntarily compelled to participate in these activities on their own volition without the teacher’s forceful intervention. What makes this programme run smoothly and very successfully is the interesting and lovely activities which supply fuel to the wheels of this teaching and learning machinery to keep moving fast and swiftly. In other words, the secret of the success all these activities is that they generate quick and instant speaking even by weaker students, if handled and manipulated properly by the teacher.

During the ten - day period of training, the teachers are made fully equipped with innovative and creative methods, techniques and approaches to help students to develop their speaking abilities and skills and also made aware that they should adjust, adopt and accommodate these activities to suit their students’ different levels and to adopt them.

On one hand, at the end of this course, the teachers will go back to their schools with a new vision and perspective, thoroughly convinced that a good solution is found to their students’ problem of “not speaking” English due to reasons like shyness, lack of knowledge and vocabulary, less exposure and environmental support and on the other hand, students cannot afford to remain silent, reticent and mute all the time in the class as they do very often in their formal learning of English, and instead they are highly motivated and tempted to take part in these activities with a keen and abiding interest which provide them fun and frolics once these exhilarating activities are put into action in the class when teachers are back at their schools.

Contrary to the popular advertisement seen everywhere in the country which runs. “The class that makes you speak English”, my asserted conviction is that I cannot think of another best and real English class like this “English as a life skill program” that really makes our students speak English.

Given the correct impetus and full backing, and properly implemented by teachers with a sense of deep dedication, great commitment, and vehement duty consciousness, this programme fully funded by the Asian Development Bank for developing students’ speaking skills and abilities will undoubtedly be a very successful one as any other program by the government.

The writer who is a staffer attached to the Kelaniya Zonal Education Office, Makola is a resource person training the teachers of English at the Kelaniya Teacher Centre.